of San Ignacio and headed further north again. It's not that we are
on our way back, just the the road only goes one way - down and up
again. Yes, that's one way, depending on which way you are going :)
So when we scooted past Cabo San Lucas at the bottom end of Baja, in
essence we were headed back home again. But not really. Yet. This is
"Annie speak", if you are confused now, just wait till I give you some
"Annie words". :)
I have had a good few questions about the ceiling in the lounge that
fell in. This ceiling is in the house in Tennessee and Steven says
that the ceiling tiles, a good few of them, fell down making a big
mess that he oh so kindly vacuumed and cleaned up. There is drywall
above that (thankfully!) so the insulation did not come down as well.
It was old and not surprising that its fallen. Now, why are we not
heading home to fix this mess? Because its down - its got nowhere
else to go, it cant get worse than that and if it does, we probably
would not get there in time anyway. So - no, we are not cutting our
time short here or anywhere else we are thinking of going....... just
tootling along until the time is right and that 'something' clicks and
says "ok, its time". We never really know when thats going to happen
but its normally sometime between now and then.
Anyway, whales still fresh in my mind and after one really deep and
happy sleep, I woke up to a Frank-n-cooked delicious breakfast again.
The sun was just rising through the palm trees as I got up before
fully waking up. Well, the slow wake up did not happen as I put my
foot squarely on a squeaky toy one of the doglets had been playing
with! I nearly had a freaking heart attack but it woke me up in a
caffeine free way...
And so we headed towards the Vizcaino Desert area and Bahia Asuncion.
We passed through yet another military check point and this time we
had two cupboards opened up. Nothing moved and the only questions
were where we came from, where we were going and what were the dog's
names....smiles all around.
The mist closed in really thickly for much of the way and it was like
driving through soup with the cactus making spooky appearances all
along the way. It cleared as we came to the town of Vizcaino and we
turned west off the Mex 1 highway. This road seemed fine, until the
first pothole.......and then the next and then there was more pothole
than road. And then the dunes covered much of the road in places and
the potholes got worse and worse, taking over much of the road and
forcing us to do a zig zag dodgem car style driving while watching for
other traffic ahead and behind. The last thing we needed to do was to
swerve to miss a pothole and collect, instead, a car trying to pass.
It was some interesting driving and at times there was absolutely no
way to miss all the holes, so Frank had to pick which ones to hit.
Many split second decisions made....
There were really cute little orange, white and purple flowers lining
much of the road and its sad that there really is no place to pull off
and take photos. Most of the roads are like this - even the newly
constructed roads don't have many, or any, pull off's. Many of the
sticks to make the fence posts here are cut from cactus and many of
them along this stretch of road were growing again! So there you have
a fence with a frilly piece of cactus growing out of the top of each
pole........ strange in a funny way.
The big tall cactus mostly disappeared from this stretch and a
different sort of chubby tree grows everywhere..... its much more
desert like than the other places we have been through down here and
one definitely gets the feeling of it being rather remote. And then
we turned onto another road that was newly done - what a pleasure.
for a while. Some of the dips, or arroyo's had not been paved over
and on one particularly bad one, there was a horse just standing
patiently on the side of the road. He was not eating or anything,
just watched as we came along. It was almost as if he was waiting for
someone to wreck their vehicle there, and then they could use him as
alternative transport... we laughed. And Horse hung his head a bit
lower as we passed, never moving a step.
The good road ended and we were diverted to a smaller, roughly graded
road that alternated between really bad rubboard and soft silty
sand............. there is nothing quite like feeling the motorhome
losing its grip and the rear end slipping as it struggles to get
through the sand. And then we were here - Bahia Asuncion.......
The long beach stretched out in front of us just before we headed into
town where the road is beautifully paved! We went to find Shari, who
is the lady I had been talking to on the before even heading down this
way. They have a simply awesome place right up on the rocks with a
view that really, well.......... rocks! The whales parade past their
place, blowing and breaching and showing their stuff. The waves crash
against the jagged black rocks as the seals bark from their island
just a short way offshore. And Juan is adding on to their building
with incredible rock walls! It just awesome.
As soon as we were settled into the campground we headed for the beach
and the first thing I saw there were the most beautiful shells! They
are those conical ones that if you scrape all the gunge off the
outside, they shine with a silvery mother of pearl type coloring -
mother of pearl, but muted in a way. Just beautiful. Anyway, we soon
found out that there are hundreds and hundreds of them everywhere
here. Not many other shells at all, none that are whole. The sand is
black here and its very fine and silty and it covers all the broken
shells on the beach that have not escaped the breakers yet.
We have walked for miles and miles along the beach here - its just
lovely to hear those waves rolling in with the gulls screaming at them
and fighting with each other over ocean finds. One of the things they
gathered around was a huge squid that was lying up on the beach.....
we did not get too close as we did not need it for bait and it smelled
quite ripe already. There are a few gold flecks in the sand here, but
not nearly as much as further north but the water is clear and not too
cold either. Definitely not warm enough for me to even think of
swimming. We both gathered healthy tans on the walks and definitely
feel fitter than we did a month ago.
Yesterday there was a ring around the sun for almost half the day. I
know I have read something about this phenomena, but just cannot
remember. It was lovely and the palm tree outside blocked the sun
beautifully so I got a good few really nice photos of it too. There
were chipmunks in the palm tree and Allie was really bugged by
this.........she would stand on the step of the rv with her head
turned in puzzlement. Quite sweet.
The little clubhouse here has a fascinating array of books, many of
which I would love to read, but I knew we would not be here long
enough to get through any of them. Maybe I will remember the names and
hunt them up at home again. There is also a shower in here and Shari
said that it needed a bit of coaxing to find the sweet spot to get it
nice and warm. So last night I decided that I was going to give it a
go......I turned that handle, gently this way and that while holding
my arm under the water.... after a while, I swore it got warmer, so I
decided that it was not too bad. What I did not realize is that my
arm had adjusted to the totally cold water and..... well, I had a very
quick, very cold shower! As I was dressing again and shivering
loudly, my eye caught a switch near the door and the label said
clearly - "shower hot water"... aaaaaaahhhhhhh. So I flipped it, got
undressed again and had one lovely hot shower!
We were invited to join a going away party for a couple that had been
here for a few weeks and were heading back home to Canada...... Shari
organised us a ride with our neighbour and we spent an evening
surrounded by really lovely people. The food was simply delish, the
sunset beautiful - a lovely evening all in all. Except for one
thing..... when I went to use the bathroom, finished up and flushed -
it was then that my eye caught the VIP - very important paper - that
said, really clearly, not to put any paper in the toilet at all!
Nothing happened in my mind, but my hand reached out into the toilet
bowl and frantically grabbed the toilet paper that was now happily
swirling around and around in the toilet bowl, definitely headed to a
place it was not allowed! The eeeeewwww factor kicked in right after
the soggy paper hit the trash can and I found myself insanely
giggling, hoping no one would hear me and wonder why I was frantically
washing my hands over and over again ........ boy was I glad that a
"number two" was not called for!
And we found guava's! They are simply the most delicious fruit on
earth, but we can only find them at an astronomical price in the
USA......... Here they are much smaller and absolutely wonderful. I
think I must have eaten about 20 on our first day here. We went to
the store to get some necessities and it was fascinating to see that
much of the things are still hand packed here. The bologne was packed
in zippy bags, the meat was in a big bowl in the freezer and you could
just take what you needed. There were bags of something that looked
like flower that were also hand packed and labeled, tied with a knot
in the top. On the same shelf were candles, unwrapped soap, a
washboard like my great grandma might have used and other things that
I just knew would not be allowed anywhere near a store in the USA.
There were clothes, new and used, pots and pans, new and used, knick
knacks, toys and everything you could think of - all in a tiny little
store. The eggs were stacked up in big trays and we picked out only
10 and could buy them separately like that. It was really a blast
from the past going in there - I just loved it.
Our first night here we went to a little restaurant just a block or
two from where we are parked. The first place we tried did not seem
to understand that we wanted to eat there, so we left and looked for
somewhere else...... As we walked in the door, we were very relieved
to be greeted with "hello" as well as "hola". There sat an American
couple also visiting the area and they had a fair bit more knowledge
than we did of what our host was asking. The meal was simply lovely
and we chatted with the other couple, swopping stories and places we
had all visited.
Today we went for a 3 hour walk all over town..... it was lovely. The
sidewalks are narrow so we walked pretty much single file down the
road to the other coastline. There was a set of steps and a small
beach to visit. We had run out of paved road by now so it was easier
to walk - especially as we had the doglets with us this time. We
walked, saw the whales spouting off the coast as they headed northward
again, heard the seals barking, the gulls screaming and heard that air
whoosh as the pelicans swooped in to check out the doglets.
It was a good long walk with lovely fresh air, slightly tinged with
the smell of fish and with the sounds of music floating on the air and
a good many fishing boats moving around on the water. The weather was
absolootle gorgeous - perfect weather for an amble. The people we met
along the way were all friendly and again I so wish I had learned some
Spanish before coming here! Some of the houses are beautiful, not
fancy, but painted lovely colors and gardens with flowers and plants -
others are shacks and its sad to see the absolute poverty all around.
There are a good few people coming in here to visit and then buying
property and building some really lovely houses. The view over the
ocean is just stunning and there is a peace here that just sits so well.
The kids play in the street till after dark even, everyone greets
everyone, always with a smile or hand wave..... it's like old times
where the right things counted, only its mixed in with so much
poverty. I had to wonder who have it better.........those who had
everything material, or those who had the culture of yesterday with
the respect and understanding that came with those days.... In many
ways its definitely the latter, but I have to wonder when I see and
hear of the conditions these people live in. I think that so often
its the people that make a place good or better or bad........and this
place is great! They even have a mermaid in town......... for that
you will have to wait for the photos!
Anyway - our stay here ended with a few of us over at the house across
the street, a few beers, a lovely sunset and then the goodbyes. It's
been a lovely time here but we are ready to move on again - itchy
feet. In the morning we will head to the lagoon in Guerrero Negro.
Last time it was too cold to go there and the time and weather is
right for a spot of dry camping - no power water or internet for a day
or two....but we get another whale watching tour. Whooo hooo!
Now I am headed to bed again, the waves pounding on the shore and the
weather starts twinkling like little gems in the sky......
Love and light
Annie
No comments:
Post a Comment