coffee warming our stomachs, heading to Laguna Oja de Liebre,
otherwise known as Scammons Lagoon. We had heard a lot about this
campground being a lovely place to stay and we just had to go and see.
The first part of the road was pure washboard with the microwave oven
bouncing loose in its foundation, the fridge and three other cupboards
bouncing open and spewing their contents all around. I blocked the
doglets under the table so that nothing would fall on them and we
danced our way over soft sand and rub-board for what felt like ages.
And, like everything else, that ended too and we were back onto the
tire eating road for a while. This is a fascinating piece of tarmac
to navigate. The sand dunes blow over the road and I am sure this is
the base camp for all road eating monsters, or at least their training
ground. And soon we were back on Mex 1, heading north.
The houses along the way are just incredible. I don't know that one
can call them houses at all. One was made entirely of doors and many
are just shanties, put together with paper, corrugated iron, doors,
wood and anything else that can be found around here. One thing we
have noticed is that there are no old cars lying around. In the
States, everywhere is littered with rusting, upside down, wheel-less
vehicles in various states of disrepair. Not here. There are
obviously many wrecks along this road, but the only place we have seen
any real evidence is in the mountains where its impossible to pull the
truck back out. I wish the USA would find out how they manage their
old car problem and follow this example.
Today, right outside the Laguna Ojo de Liebre, our odometer registered
that we had done 4000 miles since leaving home...... is that all??
Wow - we were both surprised, it feels like a good many more miles
have gone under these wheels this time.
And then we turned off to the lagoon - another road that could do with
some grading, but hey, by now Frank just cranked Skilpad into low gear
and enjoyed the scenery. About 4 miles down the road there is a tiny
little shack - just big enough it seems, for one man to sit in.....
There we were told just to follow the road for another 20 miles or
so..and we did. Through more salt flats and a very weird scenery -
there are no cactus here and all the scrub is very short and sparse.
The salt makes big crystal circles in the water and gathers in heaps
along the shoreline of each section. Driving down this road, we were
not far at all from the road to Bahia Asuncion and the salt flats
seemed to spread from there to here. The road was more of a sand road
and much of it single lane. It's very interesting to have the whole
rv slipping and sliding from side to side while it feels as if the
wheels are just not managing to get a grip at all....... very
interesting, rather like sand surfing with the rv. Everything becomes
quiet during those times, like we are all holding our breath to see
whats going to happen next - quite nice and peaceful too. :)
And then the lagoon appeared in front of us. Almost immediately we
could see whales spouting everywhere. There were thousands of birds
along the edges of the lagoon and the building at the entrance is an
attractive one with some lovely designs on it and a huge whale
skeleton in front. We paid our $5 camping fee and went to find a
spot.......and then came back for a meal, a look around and to find
out about another whale tour. The fish meal was simply delicious!
Back we went to the area we had found, grabbed the doglets and took
off for a walk. As we got to the lagoon, just a few steps from the
rv, both doglets headed straight into the water - so we got them
swimming even deeper and scrubbed some of the last weeks dust and dirt
off them. They did not mind the swimming, but when it started feeling
like a bath - well, that was something else. And we walked along the
lagoon for a while until the sand became too soft and the beach part
ended in scrubby stuff and thousands of birds. Anywhere you looked in
the water was a whale blowing or breaching.... mostly too far away to
see clearly or worth taking photos of, but they were there!
The camping part is really very nice here - there are palapas that one
can came next to or put up your tent inside and then on the lagoon
side of the road are these easily accessible and very level places
that nicely fit one to three campers if one was traveling in a group.
We had one to ourselves and it gave us a lovely lagoon view. When the
tide went out the birds flocked to the shoreline, picking at whatever
they could find there..... and with the sun setting and turning the
receding water into a silver shimmering slab, the camera clicked away
happily. I caught an awesome sunset too - the sky sported colors from
blood red, orange to that glorious blue that seem only to arrive with
sunsets and sunrises.
Early the next morning - not sure of the day anymore - we were up and
headed to the entrance area where the tours started where we were met
by a bus totally full of school kids also going on a whale
tour.......aaaaaarrrgghhh. For a while there we thought we would have
to wait for a later time, but they got us on a boat with only 8 of us,
which was great. Almost immediately we knew this one would be
different from our last amazing whale trip. The wind was a lot
stronger and the water was not settled at all. There were many, many
whales everywhere around us and really close, but only one came up to
the boat briefly. This was the first time one of the ladies on the
boat had been on a whale tour and I had so hoped that she would get to
touch a whale - and she did! It was glorious hearing her continuous
'wow's as she watched them spouting nearby, especially as we watched a
mama and baby playing around. We saw many whales breaching and
sometimes it seemed as if they just hung there, looking to see what we
were doing. There was a dolphin that hung with us much of the way,
dodging the bow of the boat and dancing through the water..... The
whales have a gentle wafting, floaty sort of way of swimming -- uuuup
and doooowwwn, while the dolphin has a much more playful way about it,
zooting through the water at high speed, always just ahead of the
click of the camera shutter. It was a good trip, but nothing like the
previous one and it emphasized how incredibly fortunate we were last
time. It seems as if when there is wind and the boat is rocking
around, the whales don't want to come too close... But we got to see
them, got to touch one and it was a lovely three hours out on the
lagoon. The camera's are both going to need a good professional clean
up, especially as one of the whales blew literally a foot away from me
and soaked us all.
We had thought of staying another night at the lagoon, but the wind
was howling and the sand blowing and there was no point really sitting
pinned inside the rv for another day - so we headed out, back into the
town of Guerrero Negro and the campground we had been at before. We
knew there was internet, power, water and a really great restaurant.
Another lovely lunch was had, photos downloaded, a gorgeous snooze and
then we walked a way up the road to the store for some supplies - you
know, ice cream, margarita mix and other stuff like milk and bread
too. I just love the stores here - this one had everything in it
too..... the meat was all freshly cut and laid out on paper where one
could pick up what you needed - no pre-packaging at all. Right next
to that were huge bins with rabbit, dog and cat food and other animal
food too. Then around the next corner were the drinks and fresh fruit
that just makes my mouth water - yup, we got more guavas too. The
papaya's looked lovely, but we had an 'agricultural check ahead of us,
where they take most of your fruit, so we passed up on that. So many
interesting things in these stores - from toys to food and everything
inbetween - even the tractor that brought the heavy stuff in just
drove in the back door, into the store and unloaded - interesting.
After loading up on what we needed and could carry we headed back to
the rv via the little back roads and interesting stores and houses and
strange plants. I kept thinking of you, dad, while we walked these
smaller roads away from the main drag where most visitors stay. The
people are wonderfully friendly, the washing hung so colorfully on the
lines, adding an almost surreal dimension to a very dusty and sandy
town. The bouganvilla plants are everywhere in an amazing array of
different colors all happily growing wherever they want. There are so
many little stores that one can just plonk yourself down and enjoy a
meal or a fruit drink and we wondered how they all survive - none
seemed too busy at all.
And so we gently passed the day until dinner time when we went back
for more of their delicious food. Frank had shrimps and I had Carne
Asada which was delish - both accompanied by a really good margarita
which we both think was made double strength! And then we were
serenaded again by three banjo players, singing Coo-coo-roo-coo-koo
Paloma. It was lovely and their banjo's beautiful all decorated with
mother of pearl inlays. I asked for photos with them and they were
only too happy and the one guy wasted no time flinging his arm firmly
around my shoulder and sporting the most gorgeous smile!
These photos sparked the taking of a good many others of some of the
other guests there - all with really interesting stories of their
travels here and further down the line - I emailed them their pictures
as well as some of the whales to Jess from the whale tour. We had a
really good evening and, filled to the gills with great food, good
drinks, lovely stories and much fun, we headed off for a good nights
sleep after a really busy and lovely day.
Sheesh, but this vacation thing can get tiring! But someone has to do
it and we are only too happy to volunteer!
Love and light
Annie
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