BajaBaggs

Baja odds

2009-07-02T14:12:00.003-04:00

Birds of Baja

2009-07-02T12:25:00.011-04:00

Click on the photos to see a larger version....

Suns of Baja

2009-07-01T19:03:00.005-04:00

Beaches of Baja

2009-06-28T23:04:00.017-04:00

Flowers of Baja

2009-06-28T20:38:00.011-04:00

San Lucas

2009-06-25T14:31:00.005-04:00

In Photos as we went.......

2009-03-08T00:05:00.010-05:00

La Jolla near La Bufadora

Ceilito Lindo beach
Bay of LA
Bay of LA
Weird clouds mid peninsula
Malarrimo's at Guerrero Negro
Osprey on nest
Back of flower
Concepcion
Santispac
Santispac
Santispac Gull
Santispac
Santispac beach vendor
Mid Peninsula
Los Barriles
Los Barriles - duct tape hat surfer
Los Barriles flyer
Los Barriles paddler at sunrise
Cerrito Beach surfer
Cerrito Beach
Dung Doglet
Sea of Cortez beaut
San Ignatio "Stop 'n Go"
San Ignacio whale
Asuncion beach
Asuncion blowhole
Asuncion sunrise
Asuncion restaurant
Asuncion Sun Ring
Asuncion beach birds
Ojo de Liebre Sunrise and Pelicans
Ojo Lagoon Loner Pelican
Ojo Whale
Guerrero Negro again
El Peb Sand Art
Long mid peninsula road

It's over :(

x - All roads lead .......

2009-03-06T22:45:00.000-05:00

Home!

Yes, we are home again after one incredible journey........ It's hard
to explain everything we have seen in a way that would do it justice.
Not even the photographs do that. Someone asked me where my favorite
place was, what my favorite thing was on this trip... Well,
everywhere, all of it...

The idea of going to Baja initially did not attract me at all. The
picture in my mind was of abject poverty mixed up with horribly
beautiful bodies, clad in skimpy bikinis, draped on umbrella festooned
beaches while ego inflated body built young men played beach ball
showing off their bronze tanned bodies and perfect white teeth. It
did not attract me at all. But Frank wanted to go - he had been
wanting to go for a long time. He swears he had a different picture
in mind! :) I have to say that the thought even scared me. Coming
from a poverty ridden country, I was not keen at all to go back into
one voluntarily. Gosh, that sounds snobbish, but its true. What is
also true is that unless our fears are faced, they stay there and even
grow and in these last few years, I have started facing mine squarely
besides, I looked at some photos on the internet and drooled. Oh boy
am I ever glad we did this one!

Everything about this trip was wonderful in some way or another.
Leaving the house in the early morning light, still yawning, shivering
from the cold and wondering if I left the coffee pot on again, is
quite a feeling.....The ice roads in Oklahoma, stopping off with
Joleen and Billy for a few days and then down south to the border were
all adventures in themselves. And the direct line south and into
another world....... It was comforting having Mike and Karen crossing
the border with us - they were the couple we met up with the night
before and just having a face we knew while trying to navigate the
border, its paperwork and the language barrier was a great help.

Almost immediately the poverty, living conditions and color everywhere
had me slack jawed with both horror and wonder and the camera
furiously clicking. The roads were another thing that got me all
wired up too much of the time, but they got us all the way there and
back too! The views along the toll road to our first night on the
gold flecked, hot springs beach was simply amazing. The color of the
houses and buildings set against the blue ocean and cloud speckled sky
actually got me silent as we spent our first day in Baja. Then on to
the sand dollar littered beach of Celito Lindo and the most wonderful
meal and our introduction to Margaritas - now a staple food on board
the motor home and at the house too.

The Sea of Cortez....... that name in itself is just beautiful,
bringing up mental pictures of the kind that got my feet itching to
walk in it...... and they did, again and again and each time was as
special, as beautiful and as awesome as the time before.. We were
first there at the Bahia de Los Angeles, then at Bahia Concepcion, our
Paradise at Santispac, Loreto and then at Los Barriles with its long
white beaches and crystal clear waters. Each time I laid eyes on that
water, I literally felt lighter, softer and caught myself humming and
smiling from ear to ear...... I just cannot help it! The sky actually
is a different color - just a tad more blue over the Sea of Cortez -
we could tell where the coast line was even as we were driving through
the desert filled with cactus. The sunrises were absolutely awesome -
the colors deep and rich and they grabbed me and held me long after
the sun was up in the sky. Yes, I saw all the sunrises in Baja!
That's quite an accomplishment for someone that normally does not
manage mornings too well at all........ But after the first one, it
was not hard to wake up to see and feel that wonder.. I particularly
loved when there was a boat in the sun's path on the water, or a
paddler or surfer. There is nothing quite like making the first set
of footprints in the sand and then standing on the waterline as that
sun rises, sending its path right to your feet, making even them
glimmer with its awesome gold. That quiet, the promise of a new day -
totally wonderful and there were times when I found myself a tad
tearful when I thought of the many people in my life while standing
there watching another day start. The sunsets came with almost a sigh
- a gentle one that nicely rounded off the day. I think I have a
lifetime or two of captured sunsets and sunrises on my computer.......
one each a day should get me through many years to come.

The Pacific coast was beautiful - I love the sound of the pounding
waves and the hope of finding some lost treasure or special shell. As
we scooted around Cabo San Lucas and north again, we headed over some
mountains and I just knew the ocean lurked just behind them, and I
found myself stretching up in my seat as far as I could to catch the
earliest glimpse I could. Cerrito Beach was down one awful road, but
had some beautiful waves, keen surfers and dark brown ragged rocks for
the waves to crash up against. Our last night at the Pacific coast
dealt us those glorious patterns in the sand and a good ole
sandblasting too!

The whales..... oh those whales. I think that was the highlight of
the trip - touching those whales and seeing that big gentle eye
looking up at us as it lazily floated right below the tiny little
boat..... That was awesome. They breached right next to us and
wallowed around and spoiled us with their contact. So incredibly
special.

The food was simply delicious everywhere we went. We ate at the local
restaurants near the campgrounds and each and every one was absolutely
wonderful. I think we ate more fish and other sea food in a month
than we have done in years. At times the restaurants were more
refined, with waiters in uniform and shiny black shoes and a trio to
serenade us during the meal.....other places were much more home grown
with kids doing homework at one table while mama cooked our meals in
the kitchen next door. Nowhere did we see a paper straw covering and
at times I quietly wiped my fork off on my t-shirt, but none of it
felt wrong - it all has such a wholesome feeling to it - a 'real'
feeling. Life is different in Mexico and a bit of dust on the table
is no big deal, nor are the flies that happily buzzed around. It was
strange, but none of this bugged us at all and we were never worried
about eating any of the food. The shops here had their meat all open
behind the counters, looking beautiful and natural and not all
prepacked and filled with chemicals to keep them looking good. At
Guerrero Negro we could see the food deliveries coming in the back
door of the hotel in buckets as they were caught and brought in to be
cooked.

The mountains and the desert, and the roads through them, are very
unforgiving and it makes one realize what a treasure common sense is.
There is no room for stupidity here, barely a margin for error. If
you get into trouble, its not going to be mild. Just a flat tire
would be a big issue on these roads, especially if it happened on one
of the many mountain roads. Coming around the mountain was really
interesting because no matter how careful you were, if someone coming
the other way was not - you were cheese - squished cheese! Or if the
'road munchers' had visited, you had to be extra careful. Well, it's
pretty much like that on all these roads. There is definitely a
feeling of self responsibility here. But we also knew that if
anything did go wrong that any number of people would have stopped to
help - its just like that here.

The miles and miles across the peninsula from side to side, were
filled with things to see.... from little "dung doglets' to humongeous
cactus that have been there for many a year and stretched their arms
out as if to take in as much sunshine as possible. The different
types of cactus plants were stunning but they all had a 'dont touch
me' attitude about them.... we did not try, but through the camera I
got a really good look at them.. Huge bolders, barren areas, craggy
mountains - there was not a moment that I was bored at all.

Its a fascinating place all in all....... The people are incredibly
friendly with "Hola" floating everywhere, greeting waves were free and
easily come by and kids still have that natural respect of yesteryear
in the USA and still play outside. At one place we stopped to ask for
directions and I saw a young boy with a handful of guavas - I nearly
levitated right out of my seat! After asking if thats what they were
and him giving me the Mexican name, he quietly and with a beautiful
smile, handed me the biggest one. I could have kissed him right there
and then as I sank my teeth into this awesome fruit. The stores are
filled with things, unwrapped soap, washboards, handpacked flour and
other goodies that had handwritten prices and smiley faces on them.
The fruit smelled like fruit and we could buy just 4 eggs if we
wanted, not having to take all 12 in the box. There were spices and
things that I had no idea what they were and sometimes even the smell
got my eyes watering. There was no point in buying any of this as we
had been told it would all be confiscated at the border. Next time we
know better!

We found everyone that we came into contact with, extremely friendly
and very happy to try to communicate with us, even if it did feel a
lot like an insane and often pointless game of charades. They were
all patient, laughing kindly at our efforts to learn and eager to
teach us. I was so sorry that I did not have a better understanding
of the language...... we missed so much because of that. The
excellent salespeople who visited us at almost every stop along the
way with an incredible assortment of beautiful goodies to sell, were
only too keen to pose of photos and wanted to know where we came from
and where we were going. We bought many lovely treasures from a good
many of them - pots, blankets, serapes, shells and other goodies that
all travelled safely back home with us.

Even the military stops were surprisingly easy and we had no problems
at all - well apart from when I got glowered at for asking about
taking a photo of them! I learn fast...... The guys that looked in
the rv were polite and friendly and also keen to communicate with a
great sense of humor too. Walking down the road and seeing a hummer
coming at us with a machine gun pointed in our general direction did
make for a slight hiccup in our steps the first time but they are just
doing their jobs and in no way, not once at all did we ever feel
threatened at all in any way.

Baja is dusty - its a fine dust that filters into everything but the
type that we quickly learned to live with. Anyone who has followed
out other travels knows that Frank and dust are not buddies at all,
but this time it was different - as a matter of fact, the motor home
got its first wash of the trip right before we stopped back at home!
The wind blew much of the time, sometimes blanketing the towns in dust
and everyone walked with something over their mouths. Grass is non
existant here, except for a small line of it down the main road of
Bahia Asuncion. Dust and sand was everywhere, in everything and its
going to take a really good cleaning to get it all out of the rv but
it all quickly became part of the wonder of Baja.

Somehow the color of the buildings, the clothing and the gorgeous
bouganvilla beat back the dustyness and this is what I will remember
most........the blue of that wonderful clear water, the sky, the color
everywhere, the long ribbon roads through the most beautiful
countryside and the people; the black and white sand beaches flecked
with gold with pelicans wafting by; the deep and rich colors of the
sunrises, the eateries all along the roads, those awesome whales, the
taste of fish tacos and the twinkle in the eyes of almost everyone we
met....... The tan will fade, the knick knacks we bought will become
normal, but the feelings of the sun on my skin on those long beach
walks, the water between my toes and the sound a a thousand hello's
will live through the many photos we took along the way.

It was with mixed feelings that we left Baja......... thrilled to have
had the opportunity to see and experience some of an incredible part
of Mexico, and very happy to be back in the USA where everything felt
a lot easier. This trip has made me even more grateful for everything
we have, for the opportunity as well as the easy life so abundant
here. It has also given me a much deeper understanding of why the
Mexicans keep coming here - I know that I would if I were them. The
poverty and conditions of living over there had me gobsmacked much of
the time. At first I took countless photos of homes that people here
in the States would not even let their dogs live in....and then I had
to stop. I found myself almost unable to keep seeing these conditions
without it affecting me. One lady said that she had seen more poverty
in Canada than here in Baja - she might be right, but I have never
driven so many miles and seen so much poverty stretching endlessly.
In other places I have always been able to drive through the poverty
ridden areas and into the 'better areas', but here - well, it just
does not work that way at all.......it seems utterly endless. And
driving through all the states on the way home and seeing all the
different shades of green, the trees budding, the shade, wide road and
the rich fancy buildings, shops and churches lining the roads, I
thought of the many that lack the choices, opportunity and ability to
have what is so taken for granted on this side of the border.

So, with a computer bulging with photos, happy smiles still firmly
pasted on our faces, golden tans and a very dusty motor home, we
headed back to Tennessee and arrived here after first dancing on the
beach, driving long hours on smooth roads, stopping off in campgrounds
that somehow shut the real world out - a gentle and relatively slow
return to life. The doglets were thrilled to get home and were quite
frantic to get in the front door and check that everything was still
here. Sophie bounded through the grass, barking at the fence, the
trees and each and every blade of grass...... Allie slowly walked
around the house and garden with disbelief and then sighed and went to
sleep.

This was truly a wonderful adventure, every single day of it. We
drove a little over 7000 miles and took 12 839 photos! We saw so many
totally awesome things and places and ate so many fantastic meals and
those margaritas! We met a bunch of beautiful people and deepened our
appreciation for our life and gave us a new understanding of the lives
of others. Now its time to sit and digest it all and, yes, re-live it
as I print the photos to hang up all over the walls of the shop to
keep reminding us as we move back into a more 'normal' daily life. I
will post the last of the photos in the next few days.....

It was really interesting driving today - as we came closer and closer
to Tennessee, I sat up straighter and as we came over that last hill
into Soddy Daisy, I laughed out loud because I was humming again! And
here I thought I only hummed at water......... this is good. I found
myself excited to see the grandkids again, my sister, mom and kids!
Steven and Laura just bought a house and Lisa and family looking for a
new place to live and Joleen should be home for another visit
soon..... the shop is already promising to be busy and the fruit trees
are blooming again and that grass is sooooo green on this side of the
fence. Life really is so incredibly good

Thanks for coming along with us, thanks for your comments and
encouragement - you all made it easy to keep on writing and sharing
all the miles and smiles.. I hope you enjoyed the ride.

So - till next time........
love and light - lots of it!
Annie and Frank and doglets

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

w - Dancing in the sand..

2009-03-05T00:11:00.000-05:00

Monday morning we got an Emu and yesterday, about 5 peacocks to wave
us on our way out of the campgrounds....... now all safely on my
computer and ready to be looked at close up. That Emu really has a
haughty look about it - an "I dare you to come closer" look! I kept
both me and my camera a safe distance away. The peacocks did not like
Allie at all and fled to the rooftop of a shed and into the trees.
They look like a turkey - a big blue turkey and did not spread their
feathers for me either. I looked and looked for a lost feather, but
nothing - I bet they are all picked up before they even hit the ground!

And so we tootled on to the beach at Padre Island. This is a National
Seashore and protected area and not even the cell phones had signal
there - its beautifully quiet and peaceful. Frank suggested that I
text the kids and I did manage to get and sent a few before it totally
locked up. But, by lunchtime we were walking down that beach.......
miles and miles of beach. It was glorious. The sun shone and lit up
the water, the birdlets skittered across the sand with legs that
seemed to whirr in a blur as they poked their beaks into the sand for
whatever it is they eat. A good many let us get fairly close, but for
the most part Sophie did a really good job of keeping the coast clear
for us - literally! She chased those birds and chased them full
tilt through the water, not caring that her lead is only 6 foot long!
Eventually she got the picture and would stop short of the limit and
bark at the birds who by now had also got the picture and landed just
out of reach of her - I swear they were laughing at her. After a
while we took the lead off Allie, let her go free, added this to
Sophies lead and gave her and us more space.... The birds took only
one close call to get the new picture!

We found a crab, a live one, and after looking at it from a few
different angles, Allie became a full blooded Rottweiler! She told
that crab its history and its future and refused to let it head back
into the water - she yipped and nipped and grabbed it and flung it
onto the dry sand........ quite a show she put up. It was funny and
she walked with a little high step after we finally dragged her away
from a very tired, but unhurt crab who gratefully and carefully edged
its way back into the waves.

There were a good many bluebottles otherwise known as man-o-war's,
strewn along the beach, They really are lovely and when the sun
catches them and lights them up, its like discovering another treasure
along the way. The waterline was littered with tiny, beautiful,
multi-colored shells and pieces of seeweed and some bigger shells that
were just too brittle to carry all the way home, but that shone
multicolors at us as the sun caught them. The ocean slapped itself on
the shoreline with perfectly white waves, literally working itself
into a lather.. Bubbles blew across the hard sand, also catching the
sunlight and giving us hundreds of tiny little multicolored lights in
each cluster.

Much higher on the beach was the good stuff - the floats, the rope,
many coconuts, huge long pieces of bamboo that I even carried for a
while before thinking "why?" and laying it down again. Frank strung
the floats we found all together and dragged them behind him as he
scoured the dunes for more treasures. He did find a stove, but it had
definitely seen better days. Much of the debris behind the dunes were
from the recent hurricanes and the smaller stuff from the oil rigs we
could see just offshore. We found a good many hard hats - one even
had the name Moxy on it..

After a few hours of walking, we needed to get the doglets back home.
In our haste to get on the beach again, we had forgotten to bring any
water and they were panting pretty hard - Allie even conned us into
carrying her for a way! So we headed back to the rv which was
beautifully cool with all its windows open and a lovely breeze
flitting through. Doglets collapsed, Frank cooked lunch and off we
went again - this time on the bicycles. The wind had picked up and it
became a job to ride the beach so we headed back to relax instead. I
had the camera with me and got a good many lovely photos of the birds
around here. The pelicans would glide silently above us in a loooong
straight line, sometimes veering in a bit closer to check us out and
other times moving away. It was kind of eery to see their shadows
first, sliding along the dunes as they headed north. There were many,
many such north-bound lines of birds.

Frank picked up quite a sunburn on his back and we decided to head out
from there early this morning...... After watching yet another
beautiful sunrise, this time from the comfort of the bed, I plotted a
route northwards, as much of it along the coast as possible. This
road took us on a very short ferry ride before leading us onto
Galveston island. I love going on the ferries but this time it was
weird. We were right in front and looking out of the windscreen, we
could only see water - and then Frank turned around for something! My
instinct was to grab the steering wheel - it was really weird and way
too short. But - I knew there was a ferry at the end of Galveston
Island, so on we went. And then we saw a sign that said that the road
was damaged, drive at your own risk. After looking at the vehicles
coming out of there, we decided that it would be totally ok. And it
was. Until we got to the part where they detoured us off the road -
and on to the beach!!

We danced in that sand - in the motor home! I swear that the rear
end of the rv came around and kissed the front lights. We sashayed
along what was nothing but thick, soft sand with a distant point of
exit back onto the road. The bikes fell over and Franks jacket joined
the treasures of the beach and we were literally swinging around like
on a racetrack as my potential call to the wrecker service played
through my head. At one point there were four of us in different
vehicles all doing this insane dance, eyeing each other and wondering
whether insurance would actually pay for the repairs at all! Out of
the corner of my eye I saw a spot that looked like solid ground and
Frank wrestled the rv, revving dramatically onto it where we got
turned around. After not enough time to think much and with many more
graceful swishes, swings, flying sand and revving motor, me with my
white knuckled hands clutched the seat and camera, sweat pouring out
of my toes and Frank muttering to himself, we got back onto the road
we had so trustingly left just a few minutes before. And decided to
brave going through Houston after all. SIGH.

It was a retracing of about 40 miles but we really did not mind too
much. After tootling along on smaller roads and through small towns
for most of the day, it was not too bad to be on 'grown up' roads for
a while again. There are still a good many houses standing with severe
hurricane damage. Most of them look as if they have just got tired
and started leaning - so sad to see such big and otherwise healthy
looking houses so totally un-liveable. We took the toll road
bypassing the worst of Houston, found ourselves in a solid traffic jam
due to roadworks but got through there with relative ease. Thats
another nice thing about this rv - when we get into a traffic jam, I
get something to drink and some snacks and it makes it so much easier
than just sitting there....

At many places along the way today, we passed by different sorts of
bodies of water, sometimes a bay and sometimes we drove right
alongside the ocean with its never ending pounding waves, dunes and
white sand..... and each time the water came into sight, I caught
myself humming. It's difficult not to be entranced by the sunlight
glistening on the water, showing off the fishing and crab boats in
silhouette, gently bobbing away. The one time I did not hum at the
water was when we went over this insanely high bridge on the toll
road... I have never been higher than that apart from in an
airplane! Well, almost... It was rediculous - there was no side of
the road at all and the barrier was a really stupid little wall thingy
that would just help flip you over the edge if you hit it.... and only
an inch or three from our front wheel. I was really glad that the
traffic jam started after that bridge.

Today's ride was really full of different things - long horn cattle,
pink octopus on a roof, cactus growing out of other roofs, beautiful,
incredible trees that looked dead and skeletal but were just waiting
for warmer weather till they showed their colors again, huge ancient
oak trees and interesting little buildings, just to mention a few
things. The roads were lined with delicate pink poppies and some
other crisp little orange flowers, we drove through incredibly gentle
places and then past what looked like a mess of a refinery until we
found our way to Beaumont, Texas where a nice looking rv park
presented itself to us...... along with a stunning colored sunset.

Even the doglets are tired today - it was a good day all in all - even
dancing in the sand.

love and light
Annie

. http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

v - To the coast again.....

2009-03-03T00:04:00.000-05:00

Early on the first morning back in the USA, I took the doglets for a
walk in the campground we were in..... and after just a short while
passed three others also enjoying the morning air.. A healthy and
hearty "Hola!" and a wave jumped to my lips, but I held back and
instead floated them a more sedate and proper 'morning'. Well - what
happened next totally surprised the heck right out of me.... I was
totally ignored! I mean absolutely totally and thoroughly
ignored....... It was strange, but I did not take this personally,
but again had to bite back some words. How can people be so
incredibly insecure in themselves that they cannot even spare a
'morning!' in return?? Stunning. After our time in Baja where we
were almost constantly waving and greeting and smiling at everyone,
this really slapped my thinking cap right back on and I had to wonder
which is the more civilized country.

Anyway, I photographed the fake yellow flowers someone had stuck on
the cactus there - it looked really cute, and then we headed further
east. We tootled along the highway that was littered with other rv's
going in all directions and many of them parked as permanents in a
vast variety of campgrounds all along the way. It is quite astounding
to see this many rv's on the road. There are little colorful flowers
everywhere along the road, which is lovely and wide and the trucks
pass one safely at least three feet away from our mirrors - bliss!
The brush is small and dusty and there are a good many cactus plants
everywhere - and the road stretches like a never-ending ribbon over
the hills way in the distance in front.

We scooted through Arizona, through the Yuma Desert, over mountains by
the names of Gila, Growler and Sand Tank Mountains, north of places
that go by names of Why, Ajo, Gu Vo and Sells. We passed through
Tuscon, bypassed the Saguara National Park, over the Dragoon
Mountains, through the Coronado National Forest (did not see a tree
anywhere) and into New Mexico. Who names these places out here? Some
have the weirdest of names and I would just love to know how they came
by them, others sound simply romantic. The scenery here is definitely
not jaw dropping at all - mostly a few cactus of differing sorts,
mountains or hills that are brown up close but seem to be that distant
blue when far away. We drove along a loooong, straight section that
warned of blowing dust and zero visibility - but none of that
happened, thank goodness. The dust devils danced everywhere, but were
friendlies , not like the lady at the gas station who thought we were
taking way too much time to get and pay for the gas! It was funny
watching her - she stormed out of their vehicle behind us, glared at
me with pointed eyebrows as I sat patiently in the rv and stalked to
the store where Frank was paying. When she was about three steps from
the door with her personal little black cloud swirling furiously just
above her head, Frank waltzed out, receipt in hand. Boy did she ship
herself around so quickly that she almost lost that cloud...... ah
well, so it goes.

We stayed at a KOA Campground just East of Tuscon on Saturday night.
Campgrounds here are not like those we stayed in in Baja - these are
all well tended and customized to suit the camper in any way possible
- not luxury, just neat and .......... well, we are so incredibly
spoiled here, almost sadly so. It was lovely being in the basic
campgrounds in Mexico where the only power plug was waaaaay away and
the power cords stretched from every camper in the hope of getting at
least enough juice to recharge batteries. Some of the campgrounds had
wires lying open and we simply did not hook up then and early nights
were had. Not here - its all 'proper' and quiet and clean - almost
sterile. Like its missing something.....

We found a food store and stocked up on some much needed items and
many that were not needed at all, but we were hungry by then and
everything looked so good! We also looked for an rv wash place, but
the only one we found was not tall enough to get the rv into it. Ah
well. The wind blew and Frank fought the steering wheel for many miles
through vineyards, flat roads with no scenery at all and I fought the
battle against my closing eyelids. I have never slept for a single
mile in all our trips - but this road, well, its definitely something
else! We stop at a good few of the rest stops along the way, not only
for us but to let the doglets out to stretch their legs too, but its
cold and at one of the stops I could almost hear Sophie saying "you
want me to pee in this wind?? Not a chance!" as she ran full speed
back to the rv - and held it in for another 100 miles! Both doglets
also picked up a gazillion stickies - those tiny little thorns that
immediately imbed themselves deep into their fur and between their
paws.... it took a good 45 minutes to get them out!

Those jet streams created by the airplanes flying by, gently wafted
into each other creating what looked like proper clouds in the pale
blue sky..... quite pretty, but got me thinking about how much this
would change the weather etc - it was a long boring road. And then we
went through El Paso........ what a place that is! We could see the
huge Mexican flag flying high just on the other side of the border
fence, that separated the farmlands on either side. That place is
cram packed full of everything and everybody and going through there
is like being on a roller coaster - there is no way you can slow down
or stop, change direction or get off and you just know you are going
to die! Aaarrgghh....

Yesterday we went through a Border Patrol Checkpoint where they did
not even get us to stop at all, just smiled and waved us on and then
today the whole interstate was fed into one lane for yet another
check....... dogs walked around and again we were just waved through
like all the other cars and trucks - not one was stopped or looked
into - but I guess this makes our borders more secure or something?
And this brings me to another point....... after seeing how the people
live in Baja, if I lived at or really close to the border - there
would be a constant supply of water and snacks in an easily accessible
place! I am not saying its right to come across the border illegally,
just that I now have a much deeper understanding of why they do.

The one road sign made me chuckle for a good many miles....... it
announced two different towns just ahead...... "Truth or Consequence",
was the first and the next line read "Elephant Butte". Well, thats
like a question........ Dear, do I have an Elephant Butt(e)? The
answer is either the truth or huge consequences..:)

Last night, Sunday night, we stopped off early again, around 2.30pm at
a campground in Texas somewhere. We passed over mountains with lovely
names, but they are not mountains as in big and high, rather hills
that the rv does not even change gear to get up.... Some of the names
along this first stretch of Texas are Sierra Vieja Mts, Devil Ridge
and Wyle mountains - I have to admit to even looking forward to a bit
of a climb again and a screaming downhill, but no - just open roads,
smooth as a baby's butt(e) and wide as my mouth at times....... Boring
as heck but I have learned to be very careful about what I ask
for.... :)

Blondie is plugged up and working again - well, apart from early
mornings....... then she changes her mind about 10 times in 15 seconds
before settling on a direction that is normally incorrect. It's as if
she then grabs a quick slug of coffee and bingo - all is well again
and she will tell us that we are now on the interstate that we have
been driving down for a good few minutes already. Ah well, we forgive
her this as she has been excellent through the major cities - even
San Antonio at rush hour this evening - talk about a really insane
place with roads that look like a maze, cars that have people in them
all with neck problems as they totally ignored my frantic efforts to
get their attention by leaning half out of the window and waving at
them so that we can get into their lane! I swear everyone here has
an 'ignore code' that kicks in when they hit this part of town. There
was not even time to sweat, but my toes did curl.....

This stretch of the trip today was so incredibly boring that not only
was I fighting my eyelids again, but I had to make up things to pass
the miles away. My camera was mostly clutched in the vain hope of
something, anything, to take a photograph of, but it lay there, not
finding much at all.. So out came the crackers......... how many
miles can I make one last.....the first one took only 3 miles at 61
mph, the second 5 miles and by the 4th I decided that I should make a
change - there are only so many ways one can suck a cracker into
different shapes before it dissolves before too many miles have passed
by, so out came the clementines. One clementine can last a pretty
darn good many miles but the best was my bread roll with marmite that
took me 24.7 miles to eat! I should not stay on Texas roads too long
at all, or I should find a different game. These past few days we
have noticed a good many of the same vehicles either passing or being
passed by us again and again- so much so that at the rest stops we
greet each other and passing at the start of the day brings forth
happy waves and big smiles like old friends...... See? I told you it
was boring!

And so this evening, in the middle of San Antonio, aka Hell, we
changed interstates and headed almost directly south on Interstate 37
towards Corpus Christi and the beach on the Gulf of Mexico. Not being
a morning person at all, I surprised myself by getting excited about
the prospect of being able to see a sunrise over the ocean again!
Just what did Baja do to me?? There is a National Seashore, protected
area, right off the coastline here and its glorious. We were here for
just two days in 2003 in the sweltering heat and have always wanted to
come back again in more decent weather. There are miles and miles of
untouched white beach, littered with shells and floats and wood and
all sorts of stuff. One can walk all the way to the Mexican border
too - its a long way, but possible. And the weather is going to play
along beautifully this time with temps up in the low 80's during the
day and 60's at night. We are only about 100 miles away from the
coast tonight, so by lunchtime tomorrow we will have our toes in the
sand again and I know I will be humming as I do when I see and smell
that ocean!

Till then
love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

pics

2009-03-01T01:10:00.001-05:00

Little Dung DogBahia Asuncion Sunrise

u - Up and out........

2009-03-01T00:57:00.001-05:00

Subject: u - Up and out........

Last night we wafted off to sleep with the motor home rocking quite seriously in the wind and the sound of the sides being blasted by the sands blowing off the dunes on the beach. This morning we woke up to grit even in our teeth and the bed felt more like sleeping on the beach..... the temperature was great last night and we had left the roof vent open. Ah well. Frank says "we have got to get the beach out of the bed!" He really has to be careful just how he says that or it comes out totally wrong! :) I took a quick walk down to the waterside right as the sun was rising and saw some really incredible sand art...... The winds had swirled the white and black sand together making a beach full of the most fascinating patterns - all with tiny, almost unseen, gold flecks. Out came the camera......... I found a few sand dollars on the wet sand and a bit of seaweed here and there, but nothing much else at all. And the wind started up again..

So after taking a brisk walk with the doglets around the campground, we headed out of there. It would have been good to stay there for a day or two more but definitely not with the wind also hanging around. Frank has been great about adjusting to the incredible amount of sand and dust around, but this was just too much, even for me. The sand down here sticks to everything and after I walked this morning, even wiping my feet on the outside rug did not get it off at all..... we have a small hand broom at the door and have to brush quite vigorously to unstick the sand. It's weird, the dust and sand is even on stuff in the refrigerator! Too much, too much.

On the way down south a few weeks ago now, we noticed one particular fence that had a blue background and something in front of it - well, today we saw it again and I took some zoomed in photos...... its cardboard boxes hanging in front of the blue plastic! And then there was another cardboard box fence.... quite amazing that they hold up so well - I guess the weather just does not bite here as it does at home. There are a good many things we notice while driving around..... the walls of the schools have lovely paintings on them, bright colors and whales, flowers and people........ there are many people gathering in little groups to eat or chat or walk together, rather unlike home where everyone is too busy to stop and chat too much.... there are little eateries everywhere, many are not permanent at all - a car pulls up, the trunk opens, out pops a table and the makings of a tortilla or burrito, spices and a drink - bingo, a gathering happens.... many fences are not fences as we know them, they are made from boxes, billboards, doors, corrugated iron - anything that will stand up... the   businesses are all multicolored with no regard to the next door color which makes for a glorious patchwork of color all through the towns.. the streets are swept by hand..... the weeds on the sidewalks all along Mex 1 are cut by hand, many miles of it....the guys riding in the back of the Federale truck with their guns are not trying to look fierce in their balaclavas, they are just trying to stay warm in the early morning air..... many rocks along the way are painted with religous art or animals and other odd things........washing machines are outside items, it hardly ever rains here...

Some of the topes (speed bumps) are painted on, but they look real enough and we are not prepared to guess which ones are real or not, so we slow down to a crawl over them all...... we do get honked at by the locals at the painted on ones and many times the people on the side of the road stand there grinning at us as we realize that we have been duped once again.

There are a good many pickup trucks heading south fully laden with household furniture and goodies - there must be a great many people moving south! We thought we might stay along the coast again, near our first stop in Baja that had the hot springs on the beach, but the wind still played around too much which makes it really unpleasant on the beaches, so we headed on through the insanely busy town of Ensenada without getting lost this time, took the turnoff to the Mex 3 and enjoyed some new roads again. We had been advised by a good many people not to go out of Tijuana as the wait was over 4 hours much of the time, so we headed east to the Tecate exit. We plugged Blondie in and she showed us nothing, but the arrow did this lonely little dance in the center of the screen as we wound our way through the Mexican mountains.... a real ditzy blond she is!

The first part of the Mex 3 is under re-construction and took us a while to get through there at 10 miles per hour, but the road was not bad at all and the views were just gorgeous through the vineyards. The rains that chased us south earlier than we planned at the beginning have painted everything a beautiful green! It looks so lush and inviting, especially going through these gentle hills, all the different shades of green popped in and out of view as we tootled around the corners at a very comfortable speed.

One town is pretty much the same as another from the view of the passenger seat in the rv, but it still amazes me just how many people are out and about, how much is happening all over the place and how even through the dust and grit, its all so incredibly interesting!    The little places we went through today on the Mex 3, seemed to have more little churches than any of the other places, or maybe they were just easier to see? Most of them are fairly plain little buildings, painted beautifully with lovely bells hanging from the towers. It seems that most of these small towns are fairly isolated, with a good distance between them, but none of them were as ramshackle as many we have seen further south. Maybe its because they are closer to the border..... I did notice more bars over the windows of the houses up this way - but even they look more quaint than efficient.

So after a couple of hours of really easy driving through beautiful countryside that had no cactus in it at all, we arrived in Tecate which is right on the USA border. This all happened much faster than I had bargained for, but while thinking about it, I realized that I was ready to head north of the border again. Well, it's not like we had a choice at this point - there really was no where to go apart from either forward or backward - no campground and no viable alternate road to keep us in Baja longer......   So we started looking for the signs to the border crossing. They really do not make it obvious at all and even though we did not get lost or take a wrong turn, it was close at times! Just a small sign in a not too obvious place pointed the way out. Blondie woke up and told us that we were now on "Thing Road" and headed kinda sorta in the right direction - she changed her mind every two minutes or so.... we ignored her, switched her sound off and just smiled.....

And over a hill we came to find a loooong line of cars at a standstill and some guys walking up and down selling food and drinks to everyone waiting to head north. We got a couple of burritos each and watched as people went about their business. This road we were on runs parallel with the border fence which was just about two feet from my window, and which had some lovely paintings on it all along the way. On the Mexican side, the businesses were open and bustling, colorful and all painted with advertisements. There was a place to exchange your money - the rate is really good right now for the tourist to Mexico - places where one could call the USA and many other just plain normal businesses. On the USA side, we could see big fancy houses, greenery and no people at all - just the border guard vehicles driving along the road. There were no problems, no issues, no incidents at all. We did not have long to wait, about 30 minutes, before we were ushered forward and handed over our passports, driver's license and me my green card. We were duly waved into the secondary inspection site where a very nice lady who was about to leave for the day, put us totally at ease and came inside to do her inspection. We lost our last lone orange, the spam (thank God!), three eggs and the cactus wood we had found. All in all a great deal.

They did not ask about the doglets, they did not ask about all my shells or Bea's sand, they did not ask about the guavas, they did not ask about the tequila............and I did not tell.

So after winding our way through a beautiful and gentle narrow road where I proved to myself that I am truly over my NRS (narrow road syndrome), through the Imperial Dunes Recreational Area of California where hundreds of rv's with their four-wheeler toys were parked and having fun, we find ourselves somewhere along the highway at a campground alongside the Colorado River that has the most glorious hot showers with unlimited water! Oh how awesome it is to get the grit out from under our fingernails and from inside our ears..... The things we take for granted..... Now for a bath for the rv tomorrow morning.

And so we are back in the USA again in beautiful sunny weather and not quite ready to head home yet where Katie tells me its really going to be cold..... It was another lovely day, especially as I got to speak to my three 'kids' again, catching up on their many exciting happenings and doings. And "Mo-Crow" stood on a huge boulder just north of the border and welcomed us back home again and then flapped off east bound - guess he does not do Mexico, boy did he miss lots!

love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

t - Boulder fields and sandy beaches

2009-03-01T00:56:00.002-05:00

What a day! We left Guerrero Negro early this morning, passing the hummers camped next to us that evidently had issues as there were at least three human behinds sticking up in the air as the mechanics tried to fix stuff gone wrong. Boy those guys had loads of camping stuff on the roofs! We soon came to the border between Baja Sur and Baja Norte -this being the agricultural check where we had to give up most of our fruit. So we stopped and waited, and waited. And then - well, we waited some more. They guy in the office did not even look up or wave us on or anything so we slowly pulled away, half expecting a bunch of camoflauged people to rush out and make us come back. But no - our fruit was safe - even the guavas! Wow - that was an early morning bonus :)

The scenery here was much different from before, all small and scrubby stuff - made me think that ostriches would do well here. There were a good few Osprey nests with these gorgeous birds sitting in them and I got some pictures of those as we slowly ambled up the road. There really is no place to pull of and stop to get these photos while standing still, so I take about 10 at a time, hoping to catch at least one that is useable. And then the Joshua trees and the sisal trees and the cactus arrived again.... The Sisal trees are all beautifully lit up at the top with bright yellow and the cactus... well - this is how I saw them......

The cactus fields here are like a community of people.... some big, some small, some short and some tall. Some thin, some thick, some standing proud and straight and others leaning precariously. Some being held up by others, some tired and bent over touching the ground while another stood straight as an arrow right next to it. Some cactus had their arms spread wide while others held theirs closely by their sides, some were just newly budding while others where ancient and old and have been around many moons. All of these were mixed together - different sizes, different types, different shades of green - yet all working together making one beautiful scenery and oh so similar to a human community. This is the Sonoran Desert Vegetation Region and its littered with strange Boojam trees. There are many different types of cactus here and many of them are starting to flower and have a haze of red about them - the barrel cactus is especially pretty. Those very big, fat and tall cactus have a fleshy outside and we see that there is a core piece of wood that often stands straight up even after the rest of the plant has died and fallen away. Many places are decorated with this cactus wood - its gorgeous with holes all around it.

The boulder fields are just amazing.... there are huge bolders littered everywhere with every type of cactus growing in amongst them. There is no real way to describe this, except that it seems to be from a different world. The green of the cactus stands out clearly from the color of the boulders....... These are humongeous boulders, not just rocks. Its a very strange area to drive through, totally fascinating and very very unforgiving. There is a campground right behind these boulder fields and we had planned on staying there, but once we saw it, decided to move right on down the road. There were no cactus really close and also no other campers there - it just felt like a lonely place to stay.

Since we were through here on the way south, everything has 'greened up'. There is this awesomely beautiful haze of green, gently shimmering between everything. The road wound its way around the remote feeling hills here in a really lovely way. I think I am almost cured of NRS (narrow road syndrome) by now.... almost..... I found the drive today really great - even though Frank said that the trucks today 'had his attention' as they seemed to hug the middle line more than further south. A good many times we passed road signs that had been planted literally a foot apart from each other, one right behind the first. Sometimes the signs said the same thing, but not always. Its as if someone were given a road sign and told to go and put it up - with no plan or particular place pointed out. There are many signs warning of cows on the road and today one had a coyote painted on top of the cow picture as if it was being pounced on and another had a ufo painted above the cow..... interesting what people do. I will put those photos up on the site soon too.

This stretch of road is one that has no gas stations for around 200 miles and all along the way are hand-painted signs "Gasolina" are found resting against patched together buildings or pickup trucks that have small containers of gas to sell. There is no price written on there, but if you need gas here - no price is too high! This stretch also seems to have more than its fair share of little eateries along the way - all with tables and chairs and tablecloths and eager cooks. The road is now lined with green grass looking stuff along with purple, orange and yellow flowers - really pretty. And we noticed a strange stripe in the sky too - it stayed there for a good while and was rather strange..... just a light grey stripe from way up high towards the ground - got photos of that too.

And there, along side the road, stood what looked like a tree stump, standing straight up, surrounded by a wall built from small boulders and a sign that we could not read. Looking at the photos it does not look like a petrified tree but I would love to look it up and see what that was all about. There is so much going on here, but they don't supply the places to stop a rig like this so that we can go and see, so often we pass by a place, wondering what we could have discovered there. There are many, many miles between places that we can stop along the roadside and we have all had to cross our legs for a good long distance before being able to stop and either see something alongside the road or use the bathroom. Well, for me its easy - I can get up and go while Frank is driving - but then who would watch the road? Just kidding. It's am uncomfortable feeling sitting on 'the loo' while bouncing around such narrow roads, so I tend to wait till we have stopped.

We wafted over yet another hill today, only to be met with a bunch of Federales! We both caught our breath as there were about 7 car loads of them parked on either side of the road - but they just looked at us as we cruised on by, not making any effort to get our attention or make us stop. Normally if there is an inspection point, one is warned well ahead of time, so it was rather unexpected to see them all there. We also passed three other vehicles manned with machine guns today - none threatening at all, just there.... And then we had to stop at some roadworks....... the hill was rather steep and when Frank pulled on up the hill when they waved us on, one of the drawers filled with stuff above our heads came out and I caught it with my head. One really does see stars when that happens! I am just glad it did not do that while we were screaming around a corner with a truck approaching! Anyway - all the contents spread themselves all over the place, sending Sophie yipping back under the table. That drawer is now back in place - duct taped so firmly that I am not sure it will open without a blowtorch!

And so we headed back towards the Pacific coast, putting in gas again at El Rosario before heading up along the coastline. It's good to see the ocean again and tonight we are parked right next to the beach with the surf pounding away at the El Pebellon Campground. The wind was blowing so hard when we arrived that only I braved the walk to the beach as the sheets of sand swirled around everything. We watched the sand blowing outside the windows in huge clumps and had to keep everything closed to keep most of it out. Still, there is a sheen of sand everywhere and every time we put something down and when I move the mouse of the computer, its got that crunchy, gravelly sound. Frank has been great on this trip, not being too bugged by the incredible amount of sand and dust around, but he has said that one of the first things we will find when back in the USA is a carwash!

So with the sound of the surf, now only a gentle wind left, pitch black outside apart from a sliver of the moon and the twinkly stars I am heading for bed. I loaded a good many photos last night and will do more when we get another internet connection that can handle photos again.

love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

s - Coast to Lagoon

2009-02-28T19:03:00.000-05:00

After a date with the sunrise in Bahia Asuncion, we left there with
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

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

r - On to Bahia Asuncion

2009-02-24T01:50:00.000-05:00

And so, early in the morning after walking the doglets, we headed out
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

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

q - Whales Galore!

2009-02-24T00:05:00.000-05:00

The road from the campground in San Ignacio to the lagoon -Laguna San
Ignacia, inside the Bahai de Ballenas, was 65 km of one hellava
rollercoaster ride........ We started off by being greeted by Carlos
who could speak as much English as we can speak Spanish. Out came the
milk crate to help us up into the van and off we went......Within the
first 2 miles I was convinced that at least one wheel was going to
come off and maybe even the roof! That thing rattled and shook and
hiccuped and danced over boulders the size of cars! Well, almost.
Carlos swooshed that van down roads that don't deserve that name. At
times we screamed over blind hills and were going sideways like a crab
around the corners as the sand grabbed the back wheels and we slid on
around... It was incredible. The grader had obviously not been there
for a good while and in places where the road got too bad, another
road was created on the side of it! A simple and great solution when
there is so much space one can use too. One place had three roads to
choose from - he seemed to know the 'best' one to take. Funnily
enough I was totally unfreaked about this all and happily sitting in
front thinking that if he wrecks - its his vehicle! It was truly a
ride to remember - both ways! The way out of town to start this
roller coaster road is through a small lane, lined with beautiful palm
trees and campgrounds on either side, which made us drool...... then
through the small town that is lined on either side with little
tienda's selling everything one could think of, past the town square
and an incredibly beautiful Mission.....more on that later..... and
onto the road.

And so we arrived at the lagoon where there are a good few 'houses'.
These are more like shacks pasted together with anything at all - all
squiff and multicolored, paper and plastic, tin and wood..... The
brightly multicolored washing hung on the lines at almost every
place. A good few permanent places were small rv's now up on blocks
with all sorts of things gathered outside. This is the town that is
here for the people who pull out the oysters and other fishy things in
shells. There is, however, a restaurant, but we did not eat there.
We were greeted with huge smiles and lifejackets, shown to our boat
and pushed off the rocks with jaunty yells of 'see you tomorrow!'

And another totally incredible experience started. It took about 10
minutes of very fast motoring to get out of the shallow greenish
waters and into the whale area and once we got there, there was not a
moment that we did not see a whale around! We were totally surrounded
by these huge creatures, blowing and gently gliding through the water
all around us - thats quite a feeling to be so surrounded by something
so big that it could seriously ruin one's day in half a heartbeat. It
did not take long for the first whale to come up to the boat. They
actually come to the boats to rub up against them, getting the
barnacles off and also, it seems, just to be petted. The little boat
we were in was about a third of the length of these incredible
creatures and they were so amazingly gentle around the boat, even
though they did rub themselves and move the boat a little, the guide
knew just how to keep us in the right spot.

The whales would come directly towards us, then sink down, gliding
almost spookily below to come up on the other side right up against
the boat. We touched them, scratched them and I even managed to hook
a barnacle off one of them. Its difficult to get a good photo while
trying to take it all in, and awesome to see how they rolled around
right below and next to the boat. A good few times, water and spray
shot out of their very strange and elongated blowholes, just inches
from the boat - we got a few photos that even have rainbows in them.
For a good long while we had two whales, one male and one female,
playing around us, moving from the bow to the stern of our little
boat, as if to give everyone a chance to touch and scratch them. At
times they would move away from us and flick tails at each other
creating enormous splashes that got us all ducking and shielding our
cameras. They would roll up on their sides, looking at us all in the
boat and then one huge fluke would gentle rest against the boat - and
the camera's clicked in double step, especially when they blew right
next to us as well.

I don't think there is a way to describe the feeling of touching a
whale. Yes, its wet, cool and ....... not quite slimy - well, like a
fish............ but thats not all it is.... There I had my hand on
its mouth, on its fluke, stomach and back, scratching slightly and
seeing its eye, just watching.. It's a very weird and totally
wonderful feeling. It was definitely a situation where the whales had
come to see us, allowed us to get close and then when they were done -
well, they left. They were definitely in charge. I loved watching
their tales swish from side to side just under the water and kept
sending them a message "come on baby - show us some tail!" but they
never did a full "tail exposure", not close to the boat anyway.

Further away, but not too far, there were a few whales breaching,
throwing themselves into the air and making this ginormous splash as
they crash landed back into the water. All around us were whales
spouting and arching their huge bodies out of the water, just enough
to get the cameras clicking again. Anytime someone of the boat
pointed out a whale, four others were pointing out eight others -
truly amazing..... While looking for the whales initially and
navigating around them, we could hardly hear the engine of the boat,
so when the guide revved it up a bit, pointed its nose back to the
shoreline and picked up speed we were all almost disbelieving that 3
hours had passed by and very disappointed!

Its as if we had been honored by these creatures, they came to us
willingly and allowed us to see and pet them..... I have to admit to
being totally in awe of them and very grateful and thankful that they
visited.... On the way back to the shore, we had to slow down a good
many times to let some whales go past the bow and we did stop a few
times to watch other breaching whales - but it was definitely over and
I was grinning from ear to ear all the way to dry land.

There was not a single moment when I was concerned, worried or
scared........ I would just have been terribly sad if the boat had
tipped and I had lost all those photos!

And so we got back to dry land and the ride back to the rv. It was
difficult having virtually no way to communicate with Carlos and the
drive was and hour and a half each way through some fascinating
scenery.....so much hand language was used, sounds and ......... well,
it was rather like a game of charades when neither side knew if the
other person got the answer. We managed to understand some questions
and answers and I will never visit another country without first
knowing at least the very basics of their language. It's just wrong
and I know we missed out on SO much not being able to talk to Carlos.
There were some little villages along the way and its quite scary to
see where some people live...... no water, no electricity, a road that
is a vehicle eater, endless dust and nothing for miles and miles
around. We could see three volcano's and the lava that had spewed
from them in years past, there were dry arroyos all over, strange and
huge cactus and places where there were puddles of salt, all
crystalized around the edges with the most incredible blue and green
coloring in the middle. So many questions burbled to my tongue, but
most would have been impossible for Carlos to understand what I was
asking, so I did not.

And then we popped back into the town with our brains still jiggling
around in our skulls and our rear ends able to spend more time on the
seat than in the air. I had managed to ask Carlos to stop at the
church/mission, in the town. I really needed to see one of these and
well, Bea had put in so many requests on even the angle of the photos
of a church for her and here was an opportunity not to be missed! See
what I do for you, Bea! :) So we stopped at the very impressive
Jesuit Mision de San Ignacio de Kadakaaman, a well preserved and
totally beautiful church made in 1786 of lava rock. All the doors
were wide open and the inside was simply stunning! even up on the
roof......... Outside in the yard grew orange and lime trees and
there were the smallest of steps up on the side of the building that
led to a huge wooden hand carved door...... Ah, it was a a beautiful
place to be, beautiful and awesome in a way different from the whales
- just as deep but in a different way. Just amazing. I have posted a
few photos of it under the whale watching heading - its impossible to
verbally describe this place.

And so we landed back at the rv, doglets happy to see us, Carlos happy
with his days earnings and us thrilled at an incredible day. I shoved
in the camera cards to download the photos and discovered that between
us, the whales, the drive and the Mission - we had taken 1555
photographs! aaaaaaarrrrrgggghh. How does one begin to find the good
ones out of that bunch? Frank had my 10 megapix camera and I could
not help but grin when I heard him clicking away all day long.. he
got some really good photos!

We measured our lengths on the bed for an hour or two while the photos
loaded and then headed back to the hotel for supper. We had noticed
two pots on the counter the night before and tonight they told us they
would sell them for $20 each... Sold! So now we have two lovely pots
stowed away on board as well. We had an early night, especially as
the internet connection did not reach the rv very well and it had been
one seriously beautiful day.

Oh - I have loaded a good few albums of photos yesterday and today -
whales included...... And I loaded that whacky photo I was talking
about the other day... It's on the front page when you first go to
photobucket. If anyone can guess what this is - let me know :)

And on to Bahia Asuncion we went............
love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

p - Over the mountains we go.......

2009-02-20T17:35:00.000-05:00

Ok - so I am not the relaxed, happy go lucky, at ease with everything
person I thought I was........ all of you that know me can stop
laughing now! But seriously, geez, this worrying thing really gets
old. Last night I spent dreaming, or rather nightmaring, about going
over the cliff today - yup, yelling all the way down........ Remember
when we left our Paradise, Katies Bay? The views were awesome and
they were all of Franks side. He commented then that I was not going
to like the drive back on that side of the road and this sparked a
restless night last night.... So it was with some trepidation that we
started out this morning right after I heard this peck peck peck at
the back of the rv, went back to see what was happening and there was
an absolutely wonderful woodpecker happily having a go at the dead
cactus wood we have tied to the ladder on the rv! It was beautiful,
but did not stick around after seeing me coming.

Anyway - we headed on up the road, through Loreto and Muluge (say it -
Muh La Hey) and into San Ignacio. I only had two little moments where
I fully understood what a menopausal hot flush is and the rest of the
time I was just in absolute awe of the scenery. Soon after we started
out, we came up on a military checkpoint. There were quite a few guys
with guns all around there today and the last thing I wanted to do as
we pulled in there was to get up out of my seat - even to fence the
dogs under the table. I did not want any of those guys thinking I was
hiding stuff or anything......and so we sat watching the car in front
of us being gone through with a fine toothcomb..... they even knocked
on the roof to see if it was a double roof. And then it was our
turn. There is a language barrier, but they can see that we are all
relaxed and once they come in and see the doglets, well, the smiles
break out. I have never felt so stupid, inadequate and mad at myself
for not being able to understand them! It was so relaxed this time
that after they told us we can go, I asked if I could take a
photograph of them..... I made a point of showing that the camera was
pointed away from them as I asked but still, the words that flowed
from the one that seemed to be the main guy made my camera drop like
a stone in my lap. Of course I could not understand it, but I was
left in no doubt that it went something like.........'make my day - I
just dare ya!!" The others all frantically waved their hands yipping
no no no! Well, I am so incredibly grateful that I asked before
snapping a pic and as we pulled out they waved, all friendly again.
(phew). There's one question I wont be asking again...

Today we saw more rv's on the road than any other day so day all put
together. Obviously the caravan tour season has started and all the
pretty little nooks and good campgrounds are overflowing now. Boy
would we be hate to be driving behind a string of 20 other rv's! The
other thing we have noticed is that there are very few dead cars along
the road. It seems as if they are quickly picked up and pulled into
scrap yards or such. The only place we see any of the wreckage that
obviously occurs on this road is on the mountain roads where pulling
them out would be impossible. Todays mountain crossing showed us four
tractor trailers crashed way down the side of the mountain. Makes one
shudder.

The cactus seemed to be a lighter shade of green this morning and the
shrubs and trees growing at their feet a darker color which made for
some really lovely contrasts what with the sunshine on the mountains.
They are incredibly jagged, cold and very impressive, to say the
least. The cactus grows up to a certain point on them and then
nothing grows any more. And then we arrived at those incredible
views that I have been so looking forward to...... the green cactus
stood tall and bright in the sunlight and in stark contrast to the
stunning blue of the waters of the Sea of Cortez... The wind blew and
the road narrowed, the trucks rumbled past us and I took photos!

That water! Its just totally unbelievable...... the yachts anchored
in the bays, the white sand, the wind whipping the whitecaps to a
frenzy and the birds dancing and floating in the wind with no cares at
all.... I know it's weird, but the sky is actually a different color
above this ocean..... the water changes from a deep rich blue to a
light and airy green with all the shades inbetween. On almost every
little beach were a good many rv's and palapas and many looked like
permanent structures. The fishing boats bobbed happily in the waves,
almost all with a bird of sorts perched possessively on the bow. It
catches my breath to see how beautiful it is here and its so tempting
to pop down to one, or all of the beaches and stay another week or
six. One place was just a sand spit between two islands with the most
awesome light blue water on each side and all around the island. We
started to head down that little road and then noticed that there were
only two or three people out and they were all thickly bundled up
against the wind - and so on we went. There is no point in stopping
if we are going to sit pinned inside because of the wind.

We passed by "Katies Bay" on the Bay of Concepcion as well, and it
looked even more beautiful than before - coming around that mountain
road, way above the bay and seeing it in all its glory was totally
breathtaking. There were new yachts anchored in the bay, the four
little fishing boats still floating at the end of the beach, but the
whole beach was totally lined with campers of all shapes and sizes! We
have been so lucky to miss the crowds so far. When we were there a
tourist bus pulled up and out streamed about twenty folks, all in
shoes and socks and with little clicky cameras that they could not see
through because of the sun. They all got off the bus and milled
around in a tight group as if something was going to jump out at
them. One or two ventured the twenty steps to the waterline. I
remember thinking "get off my beach!" and then laughing..... and
again, we were so lucky to have that place almost to ourselves.....

Passing through the same little places again is not boring or even the
same - seeing it from a different angle is like seeing a whole new
town again. And even on the second time through, it stuns me totally
how much is crammed into so little space. So much is happening, so
many things to see and so much character expressed in such an intense
way. With the wind blowing like it did all day today, the towns were
dulled by the blowing dust everywhere. People walked at times with
their hands over their mouths and their clothes whipping around them
and only the gulls seemed to think it was fun! Muluge has a canal
that is lined with date palm trees and beautiful green everything and
its very lovely to drive through there. Santa Rosalia is right on the
coast and although there is no beach to walk on, the little boats
litter the main road through town and the stores all seemed to be
huddled up together against the wind as the wavelets crashed up on the
stony shoreline. Again, the color and character shines so brightly
through the dust and trash all over. The poverty is stunning and its
difficult to see a 'house' that has been patched with tin and plastic
and wood pieces and anything else and people still living in it with
brightly colored clothes hanging on the line to dry, and not
feel........ well, stunned. And also so incredibly thankful for where
we are and what we have.

After Santa Rosalia, the road led us inland again, over "Mountainous
Horribilus" first where I took another 200 photos and at times had a
hard time not puking at the lack of anything on my side of the road.
These mountains are even more barren than the others we woke up with
this morning. These are more sandy colored and ......... thats not
their real name, by the way - just what I felt about them. They are
powerful and stark and not even unforgiving, just absolutely unfeeling
an unrelenting - there is a definite beauty in that too. There are
active volcanoes that make up this mountain section and again, my map
does not tell me the name of the mountain range, but the lava lay in
huge area's with the trees and cactus and other plants getting a good
grip on them now.

We came over these mountains with a big huge wide truck behind us,
breathing fire up our tailpipe. The road was really narrow and Frank
did not want to risk letting him try to pass, so we screamed down this
narrow little road, with the wind tugging at the wheels and singing
through the roof vents, staying ahead of big bubba behind us.
Finally we found a pull off that would not break the axel and took a
break. We wandered a little way away from the road, looking at the
cactus and taking photos of some little flowers. The cactus here are
not blooming yet, but there are purple and orange and white little
blooms everywhere along the road. Very pretty. And I took one photo
that is going to make you all laugh........ I will put it up as soon
as I get a connection and let you know when its up. I could not
resist... Sorry, but I am going to leave you guessing as to what it
is and why I took it. :)

The rest of the drive into San Ignacio was on fairly level roads and
we slowed down a good way and tootled into town. After downloading
the over 600 photos of the day (well, I did not squeak and squeal all
the way!) we went for some lunch at the hotel next door. I had some
awesome grilled fish and Frank had something with beef. I don't think
that this was what either of us ordered, but we had a definite
language barrier with the lady that took our order - even pointing did
not seem to work - but the food was deelish and the Tecate beer went
down well!

Slowly we are learning some Spanish words and I think I will learn
more once we are home......I really feel so inadequate not being able
to communicate with anyone here! They are all so happy and helpful
and full of laughs with a twinkle in their eyes - even those guards
today said something that was obviously funny and I was left totally
in the dark! It's a very stupid feeling.....

And tomorrow - well, we are going on another whale trip! This time
its down to Magdalena Bay on the Pacific coast. They say its
absolutely wonderful there and the whales are everywhere. It seems as
if we will be the only ones leaving from here - its an hour and a
half drive to the bay. The camera's are charged and ready and so are
we. Another couple who were eating dinner when I was asking about the
whale tour just shook their heads and said it was absolutely
incredible. Sounds like another good day ahead.

So with Frank already gently snoring in the back, two doglets splayed
out on the floor and also doing the heavy breathing thing, I am off to
bed. Its beautiful and quiet here with the occasional car going by.
The wind has settled and the stars are twinkling.

Nighty night
Love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

o - Balenas! Balenas!

2009-02-19T18:47:00.000-05:00

And there we sat on brightly colored chairs, under brightly colored
enormous beach umbrellas gently flapping in the breeze, all planted in
the sand, margarita in hand and watched the whales swim by just on the
other side of the breakers of the Pacific ocean! Just a minute
before, I had seen these huge creatures really close to shore and then
the cry went out - Balenas! Balenas!! The waiters all yelled gently
and pointed with huge grins on their faces and an excited jump in
their step, everyone stood up and a few even paddled out to get
closer. And we watched as the whales wafted on by, blowing and
creating a really good show. Of course I did not have my camera there
with me! Ah well.

We arrive here at Cerritos Beach and Surf club around midday and
parked in the general parking area as the rv park had been closed for
a few years. We knew that it was closed but I had been in touch with
Darin from Cerritos and he said it was fine to park outside for a day
or so..... Within minutes of stopping we were out on the beach and
seeing what there was to see. To the right was a rocky point where
the waves crashed very dramatically and the waves were the highest and
the surfers the thickest. Right above these rocks is a cliff, not too
high, that has a huge, I mean Huge, house built on it. I believe its
commonly known as 'The Castle'. What a view that place must have!
Apparently its a Canadian guy that built it and there are other roads
around the hills all around this castle, with cement mixers going up
and down and a good few trucks parked up there with people looking as
if they are all discussing serious things. And below under the
umbrellas, the mood was much lighter......... happily so.

To the left, the beach stretched out endlessly with beautiful waves
slapping on the wide beach and very few people. Above the beach there
is also some serious development going on with condos being built all
up and down the coastline. There are almost no shells here either and
it reminded me of a song a friend named David used to sing.... "where
have all the flowers gone?" Where have all the shells gone? We found
some small really lovely ones, but nothing like the shells we expected
along the shore here..... But - we had gold flakes again and they
danced and glistened in the clear water, pulling back into veins as
the waves pulled out before coming crashing back again. These flecks
stick to everything like glue and I love it! Our feet and legs
glistened as we walked and the shells lit up in the sunlight.

And then we had a delicious sandwich and that margarita under the
bright umbrella on the beach.... The young guys who were waiters made
me think of the term 'cabana boys' - young, sun bleached hair,
incredible tan, surfer boys. They all had this air of excitement
about them, smiling, laughing and with a spring in their step. It
must be a simply glorious place to work when so young! I expected
there to be mostly young people here, but was quite surprised to see
that it was close to 50% "not young" (like us) people. Lovely! The
beach right around the clubhouse was filled with people of all sorts,
kids and dogs too. Volleyball was being enthusiastically played - how
come there is always a very slender, very attractive girl involved in
this game?? Others were laid out tanning, one lady was getting a
massage right there on the beach! What I really loved was that there
was no screaming from the kids, no unruly behavior at all - everyone
was having fun, enjoying life and sunshine as well as a good many
drinks being passed around.

After lunch, we rested for about an hour and then headed out on a long
walk with the doglets too. Allie discovered the little crabs and
frantically dug up every little hole she could find - sand flying
everywhere sniffing loudly, with her butt way up in the air. We think
she sent the crabs flying too as everytime she quickly lost interest
and went dashing to the next hole. Sophie just kept trying to tame
the waves. We walked a good way until realizing that the beach was
hard and probably good for riding the bicycles, so back we went, left
the dogs, got the bikes, dragged them across what felt like 6 miles of
very soft sand, hopped on and.......... well - after about a quarter
of a mile we were exhausted! This was like riding uphill in
quicksand.......so we pushed them for a good while longer, scouring
the beach for shells and anything of interest. Shells we did not
find, but we came across a couple tanning in the buff..... I have the
cutest of pictures of them walking quickly away over the dunes! Yes -
I did! :)

A good few whales passed us by, showing themselves by the huge puffs
of sea spray. This time I did have my camera with me, but they were
much much further offshore and I didn't think I would get anything
worthwhile - but I tried. Oh boy, am I impressed with this camera!
Whoo hooo - I can see those whales even though I could not with the
naked eye. only my eye was naked! We also went to explore the rocks
for a while -there are lovely little pools up there teeming with sea
urchins, small fish and other thingys that one really does not want to
step on. I have always loved these little tidal pools, but did not
spend too much time exploring them as the tide was coming in and the
waves were crashing up close and I had my camera with me....... So
while Frank bathed his feet in the sun warmed water of a pool, I found
a big tall rock and watched the surfers dance the waves. Surfing can
look so incredibly elegant and then one split second later, all that
goes for a loop and a very inelegant posture happens! I got a good
few photos of both. The last walk of the day was for sunset, and
again, it was just beautiful.

We had a gentle and early evening, neither of us hungry and both very
tired. Frank was in bed about 7pm and by 8pm, so was I. We had no
power or water, but I could tap into the internet from the club, so
managed to get a few emails off before happily getting horizontal and
giving my feet a break.

This morning we woke up early to the sound of enormous crashing waves
and the sun rising through the windows. We headed out on another long
days drive. The road in and out of Cerritos is interesting in an rv.
Our speed did not even register on the speedometer and we could almost
see the cactus growing as we crept by. It's like driving on a
rubboard, but obviously cars don't have the same problem at all. Just
north of Todos Santos, which is just north of where Cerritos is and
still on the Pacific side of Baja, everything was green and lush, for
a little while. We took another wrong turn going through one little
town up here and ended up once again on the interesting roads through
the lessor traveled section of town. Its really very quaint and
lovely, even though it also shows up the utter poverty that is so
prevalent all over the peninsula.

The little outdoor eateries that are everywhere are obviously a happy
meeting place for many people. The bouganvillas are all over the
place, showing off their awesome colors and the cactus are blooming
here! Beautiful little yellow flowers...... Hopefully we will get
some really good photos of them up at the Catavina boulder fields a
bit north of here... Bakkies/ pickups/trucks dot the roadways with
oranges and peanuts and sugarcane and there are many little tourista
shops too.

There is a brand new road - 4 lanes! from a bit north of Todos Santos
all the way to La Paz. It was very weird and felt very 'un Mexican'
to have such a beautiful road but absolutely wonderful. It's really
obvious that this whole place is going to explode with tourism in the
near future. We passed many work crews that consisted of about three
guys with huge knives or rakes, cutting down the dead grass on the
roadsides.... what an endless, mindless, demoralizing job! And dusty
too..... And I missed a brilliant photograph of a white plastic chair
well embedded high in a cactus..... There has just got to be a story
there!

And before we knew it, we were back in La Paz again, on the Sea of
Cortez side of the peninsula. All the gas stations, Pemex, are
numbered and one of the books I have, have basic directions to get
through some of the towns and list the number of the Pemex to look out
for to turn at, so I navigated us smoothly through town - it was much
easier this time. On the way down we came through here on Saturday,
Valentines Day when everything was nuts. After La Paz, the road heads
back inland and we drove many miles up the middle of Baja. We passed
through Cuidad Constitucion, where we stayed a night last week and
then took a right at Ciudad Insurgentes, being led back again to the
inner coast.

We had two pretty close calls with huge trucks today........ the first
two of any real closeness. The first was when a truck that was
overtaking us, simply did not get all the way out of our lane. I saw
him coming up on us really fast with his whole side still in our lane
and we thought that this was it! Frank took us all the way to the
side of the road and beyond and he missed our mirror by an inch! Boy
did we cuss him out...... and then shortly after that we were
approaching a 'curva peligroso' (dangerous curve) when a truck coming
from the other direction nearly turned himself over by going way too
fast. We were very glad to see his wheels touch the road again and he
pulled himself to his side of the road.

Traffic has been surprisingly heavy all day today - I don't remember
it this heavy on the way down. There are many trucks and cars but
very few RV's. We cruised right on over the mountain range called the
Sierra la Giganta. And they were. It had already been a long day and
I asked Frank to really creep over the mountains for me, especially
when I was on the outside parts. He said that he would as long as no
big trucks pushed him too hard. My answer? "Make the trucker happy
or make me happy - who do you want to sleep with tonight?" We cruised
slooowly and smoooothly and gently over those mountains - it was
awesome!

The scenery here is really other worldly...... cactus reaches for the
sky all over the place but many other types cover the ground in many
different forms and shapes. The occasional bouganvilla brightens up
the landscape with its show-off color and the hills and mountains rise
high in a ragged, jagged way. There is nothing gentle about this
area. It's remote, dry, unforgiving and awesome in many ways. And
every now and again there pops up a little building, a little house
turned into a llantera, a restaurant, and most times there is a car
and at least someone sitting in one of those white plastic chairs
under a palm leave roof, chatting away to someone... It's so barren
out here and I wonder if most of the people here have ever even seen a
lawn. There are a tremendous number of shrines along the way, all
paying homage to someone who died on the road. Some of them are
simply a couple of tires with a bunch of flowers on a stick in the
middle, and others are very elaborate, beautiful and filled with
flowers, candles, pictures and statuettes. We stopped at a big one
today and I took a few photos, but it feels kind of personal,
especially when I noticed that some of the candles were burning...

As we gently tootled over the mountains (smile), even the sky changed
color to a different blue, and we just knew that the Sea of Cortez lay
below them. Oh its beautiful, with its islands dotting the blue, the
yachts anchored in the bays, the rv's parked along the beaches and the
cactus between us and all that. And so we landed for the night in a
park at a little place called Puerto Escondido (Pwer-toe ess-kohn-dee-
doe), population 100. We found a place that has full hookups and the
most absolutely awesome water pressure and unlimited hot water. What
showers we had! Funny how our 'requirements' for a campground change
over time.... before it was at a beach or beautiful place - tonight it
was for a shower! My hair had started doing things that got Frank
snickering at every glance and not even my perfume did a good enough
disguise job anymore! Most of the showers along the way had almost no
water pressure which made hairwashing almost impossible and the shower
stall in the rv is packed full of things, so we had just ........
well, lets just say that a washcloth bath does not do it all and we
were in bad need of a good shower. Tripui Rv park has the bestest
shower we have had in Baja!

And after trying to catch the bright yellow birds flitting all around
here, I am now going to call it a night... Its been a long day, with
another ahead of us. We are hoping to get to San Ignacio tomorrow and
maybe even get a whale tour from there. But first, the road is going
to take us up the coast line for a goodly way, past all those awesome
views that were on Franks side last time..

Love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

n - To the Point and beyond...

2009-02-19T01:04:00.000-05:00

Earlier this morning I found myself waking up while sitting on the
cold sand near the waters edge. Frank had told me that the sun was
rising, I got dressed, grabbed the camera and headed down here
again.........and then woke up. I had even forgotten to put my
glasses on and after a quick check was happy that I was fully
dressed! And I captured yet another perfect sunrise.........Many of
the photos have that magical circle right around the sun and also that
moulten "I am still forming into a ball" effect of the sun trying to
break free from the horizon while it threw the most beautiful colors
of orange, pink, silver, gold and yellow into the sky and on the
ripples of the water all the way to my feet. There is a little boat
anchored right offshore which made for a wonderful prop and the paddle-
man arrived again and added to the scene. The rays were jumping this
morning, creating golden flecks as their splashing ruffled the almost
perfectly still waters... Just glorious!

And so we packed up and left Los Barriles........ It was time for us
to move on again and we had planned a long drive today - all the way
around the point of Baja, passing through Cabo San Lucas and up to a
campground on the Pacific coast. On the way we went over the Tropic
of Cancer and there is a monument. Unfortunately I did not think that
we were that close already and we were whizzing by the monument before
realizing it! No turn around places at all created a bit of a
disappointment, but I did nab two photos as we screamed by at
40mph.......... The monument is simply a big round rock/globe painted
white that sits behind a fence that looks like its all done up with
different color tinsel, like one uses on a Christmas tree. It's right
on the ground and there was no way we could have got close to it for a
pic anyway, so ........

The views today were almost bland after the blue waters, or is it that
we are just getting used to cactus and mountains and desert? The
cactus now have the buds almost all ready to flower - should be just a
day or two and they will be in bloom. There are untold numbers of
pickup trucks (bakkies) parked at the side of the road selling
delicious looking oranges and naartjies. We have some and will have
to part with whatever we have in excess when we head into Baja North
again, so there is little point in buying any - great pity! The road
leads inland and we left the Sea of Cortez behind almost
immediately.... The traffic also increased dramatically and in the
towns surrounding Cabo San Lucas, we were treated to the most
incredible driving I have ever experienced. Red lights and stop
streets literally don't count for anything, and when we stopped we
were herded on by multiple horns honking - there are no lines or dots
or anything marking lanes and many times someone would just edge in
next to another car, creating a three lane road where only two lanes
belonged, at a push! And if someone had stopped at a store along the
road and needed back in the traffic flow - no problemo! Just
reverse! Yes, into the traffic! It was quite amazing and an
education in driving too - there were no wrecks, very little horn
honking and no fingers out of the windows either.... Everyone just
adjusted to whatever anyone was doing around them, no matter what it
was. Accepted chaos? It got us laughing almost all the way through
these towns.

Cabo San Lucas is a typical tourist place. Big money, big hotels,
lots of development and a huge cruise ship sitting in the bay right in
the middle of it all. They have done an incredibly beautiful job with
all the bouganvilla plants everywhere, creating splashes and designs
of color all through the town..... its lovely. And the walls they
build - there is some really lovely work done with those. One thing
that surprised us there is that there is still so much development
going on. I mean that its not been done before now. It's obviously a
place that not too long ago was kinda smallish but has now been fully
discovered. This is sad in a way as many of the hotels and buildings
going up are going to totally block the ocean view. Progress? One
thing I do love about it here is that the beaches are totally public -
all of them. No one is allowed to block access to any beach. I wish
America was like that too....

While driving through Cabo, one notices that there is a strong traffic
police presence and we also came across two truck loads of militia all
in black uniform, holding on to their really big guns while sitting in
the back of the trucks as they sped through town. There were about 5
in each truck, all facing a different way and I have to say that they
were quite impressive. We did not want to tangle with them at all,
but I did sneak a photo or three......

And then we missed a turn to get out of Cabo San Lucas and ended up on
tiny back roads that were lined with the most interesting little
stores and houses and people and color and electric wires going
everywhere and cobbled roads and brightly colored clothing and broken
houses still being lived in and stores with no roofs and little
eateries everywhere and hills that the rv screamed to get up
and............. it was awesome! This was really a place that we
could have stopped and walked around in, but no parking anywhere!
Well, there was, but that would be doing what so many others were
doing and that is double parking just anywhere they needed to
stop.... The roads were even named with signposts at the corners of
each one, but the dust was so thick that there was no way to read them
at all. Brooms are a very well used item here and many were whisking
the sidewalks all up and down the roads... a never-ending job, it
seems. I wonder how all the color and vibrancy still stands out so
clearly in all the dust? That little drive was one of the highlights
of my day :)

And then we popped out onto the right road again and soon were greeted
by the Pacific ocean. The 'real' ocean always makes me breathe
deeper, brings a sort of quiet to my soul and makes me want to just
sit and listen to that never-ending pounding of the waves. So many
things change in life, but not the waves, they just keep on coming.
And it looks as if everything along this coast is for sale..... there
are huge gates held up by very decorative wall posts and then nothing
- this, we have learned, is the precursor to some or other major
development. In many places there is simply a wall built. A pretty
wall, but nothing else. And the for sale signs dot the landscape. We
can just imagine what this is all going to look like in another 10
years or so.

The road up this section is not really close to the ocean so I spent
my time squinting across Frank's nose to try and see those waves and
on one stretch we even saw whales blowing....and then the hills hid
them again. What we could see looked absolutely heavenly! The blue
waters, edged by huge white breakers, rocky coastlines in places, wide
white beaches and we had to look through enormous cactus to see it all
- really incredible scenery.

And.............. no wait - this email is getting waaay too long. I
have to laugh when some of you write and say that you have been
reading my 'books'.....:) So I will carry on in the next one.....

love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

m - liquid glass and sunrises..

2009-02-17T00:58:00.000-05:00

Oh boy - this is one seriously beautiful place. At night time the
stars twinkle in the sky that is unbroken by any light pollution -
they seem to have different colors and its almost like seeing gems up
in the sky. Its so incredibly quiet here and the very slight dune
even muffles the sound of the waves while its dark. There are still a
good few campers in the park, but one would hardly know it. The sun
rises in the morning with the most incredibly beautiful orange
coloring and a silence that is nowhere else but at the seaside
sunrise. This morning I woke up in time for yet another date with the
sun......and it was just as beautiful as can be. There was a guy in a
little paddle boat and he obligingly rowed right into that path of
light the sun lays down leading to the shoreline. There was a
beautiful orange halo over the sun as it came up this morning and
turned the sand and water into gold. There are very few things as
special as standing along the seashore, being the first set of
footprints in the sand....... very special.

What a way to start the day. And with freezing feet I headed back to
the rv to be met by scrambled egg and toast and a huge pot of steaming
hot coffee. Thankfully Frank found the toaster and he no longer
toasts it by holding it over an open flame - tastes muchos
betteros.... And so yet another awesome day started. We sat around
for a little while debating whether to move on today or just hang out
and relax for another day. The day won and we are still here. A good
long walk up the other side of the beach sounded like a great idea and
off we tootled with doglets in tow. Sophie immediately started
barking endlessly at the waves so we used The Dog Whisperer tactics on
her and she calmed down and behaved like a semi normal doglet after
that.

When we walk down to the beach and go left, its a short way on sand
and then the beach becomes a rocky place...... all the way along to
this side we can hear the rocks being tumbled in the wavelets as they
get pushed ashore and then dragged back again. There are no sharp
stones here - all nicely rounded by the water and wave motion. The
sound is lovely and gentle too and reminds me of something that I just
cannot put my finger on. We had walked along this way the other day
so went the "white sand and blue water way" to the right this
time....... oh boy, what a treat this was. After two days of really
good winds for the windsurfers, today was a day for us - just a gentle
breeze and perfect temperatures and endless open beach. The coast is
like a wavy line, creating little bays that we wound our way
around....... each "bay" not very big at all, about a rugby field, I
would say, but the water is the most incredible blue and like liquid
glass near the shoreline.... It's amazing to watch the waves coming in
and almost being able to see right through them.

Pelicans cruising just inches off the water wafted past us and we
watched at the rays flew or jumped or did whatever they did. We are
not sure if they were being chased by something but there were many
and they just kept on flying right on out of the water.. One pelican
veered off his path towards us and Sophie really thought she could
catch it! And we walked and walked, never seeing a point where the
beach would end. There are some lovely buildings along this stretch
but they don't encroach at all on the feeling of the beach. The piers
are on big wheels - never did figure that one out and the colors of
the buildings are more muted here. There were a good few really tall
palm trees around which really were lovely in the sunset too.

We quickly felt that our tan was being improved and after just over an
hour and a half were quite happy to turn around and head back again.
There are literally no shells along this stretch of beach - a few
rocks here and there, but mostly just the awesome clear blue water and
miles of endless white sand. I did find a bright blue little fish
though and Frank carried her home for me in his pocket. We were
really hot by the time we got back to the rv and after debating it for
a very short while, reached for a Modelo beer - it was only 11.30am!!
It was glorious as it slid effortlessly down our throats. Our feet
started throbbing from walking on the rougher sand that is a bit away
from the shoreline and we decided to go and lay down for a few minutes
to give them some rest. 3 hours later I woke to the smell of Frank
cooking strawberry pancakes! And so we gently passed the next two
hours nibbling on these as our feet were propped up on the couch and
the day gently slid by.... Allie hid the toast we were going to feed
the birds and Sophie ate her food with her back legs in the air!
Dunno - sometimes I just don't know..

And then it was time for the sun to say goodbye again and off I
tootled with the camera in hand while Frank vacuumed the rv. Well!
Someone has to do the hard work and I did not want his feet to suffer
any more hardships by another stroll on the beach, so I
volunteered :) And again, what a beautiful end to another awesome
day. Frank joined me after a little while and we watched the sun
throw its colors over the horizon, turning everything pink and a
lovely light blue. The pelicans coasted on by, some gulls gently
called to others as they flew on inland somewhere, the ray's still
flew and a family of dolphin gently swished their way across the lens
of the camera. We sat on the edge of a slight rise and just soaked up
the softness of the evening. Doglets gently dug holes or just lay,
enjoying the cool sand, next to us and it was as if time slowed down.
I even saw what I think was a seal or sea lion or something - it was
quite a way out but was following the one little boat that was playing
out there.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, we are headed out of here and on to a little place
called Los Cerritos Beach Club, just south of Todos Santos which is on
the Pacific coast. We will drive through Cabo San Lucas which is at
the very bottom point of Baja and if we see something we like, we
might stop over there but we hear that its very built up and busy,
teeming with tourists and touristy stores, but who knows. There is
also a Walmart along the way and I really do want to stop and get some
superglue - I have to glue this cut in my foot together so that sand
stops embedding itself in there. No band aid stays on worth a flip
and I am definitely not going to be wearing socks and shoes on the
beach. So - maybe tomorrow we will be where there are shells and
proper waves and so on. This morning I was sort of sad for a while
when thinking that we will be leaving this incredibly beautiful
coastline for the last time, but then I remembered that we will be
spending at least another two nights on the Sea of Cortez on our way
back up north and I have all those awesome views on my side on the way
north - wonderful. There are still so many beautiful places to see
here and we are in no rush to get home at all. Especially since
Steven tells us that the ceiling of the lounge in the house fell in!
At least we know that we wont be bored at home when we get there......

One more sunrise at Los Barriles and we will be heading out early in
the morning after charging up everything, filling tanks and dumping
others.... I have loaded up a good many photos again tonight.
Obviously I am 'click-happy' with the camera, but I have been good and
am only uploading a small portion of the photos I have taken. Hope
you enjoy.

Love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

l - Los Barriles - Sunshine and windsurfers

2009-02-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

After a lovely evening and a good nights rest, we picked some limes
and oranges growing in the campground before heading out again.
Lime's are very necessary to the Margarita's that Frank makes and the
oranges, well, they just looked delicious. I chatted with the owner,
Patty, for a while as Frank unhooked and got the rv ready to roll
again and then with a final wave, we were on our way further south.
The mist was eerily swooshing around everything, making the cactus
look like ghosts standing all along the road beckoning us to go their
way. There was a strange rainbow thing that had no colors but was a
distinct bow in the mist and it stretched out just like a real proper
rainbow..... it followed us for a good few miles and, yup, I got a
good few photos of it too. All along the road are fences, held up by
any sort of old crooked sticks with about 4 strands of wire stretched
between them. These fences sometimes go on for miles and miles and
other times just cover a short stretch, ending abruptly and leaving
everything behind them now open. Not that there was anything but
cactus anyway. Well, between these wire strands were the most
beautiful spiderwebs! They were huge and beautifully build and there
was absolutely no place to pull over and get any pictures....... The
weak sunshine that was able to get through the mist, lit up these webs
like lights all along the way..... There were also many birds perched
up on the very top of the tall cactus plants, some with their wings
spread wide to dry or warm themselves and others that were just teeny
tiny little things surveying their land.

I did not much enjoy the drive of the day at all. I found myself
tense and uncomfortable, even at the slow speed Frank was doing
especially for me. The roads seemed narrower, the trucks bigger and
the curves even curvier. The words "Curva Peligrosa" were there every
time I blinked - we gather that means dangerous curve, or something
equivalent judging by the curves that follow these signs. The road
eating monsters loved this part of the roads too and many times the
sides of the road just dissappeared into a black hole and a good many
times we were met with a huge tractor trailer coming around one of
those peligrosa corners - always the blind corners of course, where
you don't see the truck until it snorting right up your headlight and
my palms become instantly soggy while my heart finds its way back up
from my big toe. Frank just calmly steers around the corner with a
smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Sometimes I really do want
to kill him!

There are literally no places to pull off along the road for many many
miles and I really don't think about what would happen if we
needed...... nope - not going there. Not even here. But because of
the lack of pull off places that we could get the rv into, the doglets
had a very long stretch to wait for a p-break. Sophie came out a few
times with a deeply pleading look in her eyes and I swear her back
legs were crossed.... but they held it all in beautifully until we
finally got them out. The roads today were littered with Topes -
Serious Speed Bumps. If that is not bad enough, each tope is
announced by what feels like a mile of pre-topes...... these are
either row after row of cats eyes all across the road or simply much
smaller speed bumps - about 20 of them....... all to make sure you
slow down enough for the main one. Sophie decided that she did not
like these at all and came out of her bed each time to bark loudly and
continuously at them as everything shook and rattled and made the most
incredible sounds in the rv. Allie just sits and does her wimp thing
in her cave bed I made her, never showing her face till we stop.

It seems that when the cactus grows upwards, it sends a little round
new section out of the top - this then grows and fits in with the
section below and the process is repeated, so there are many very big
cactus plants - all fat and wide and seemingly as big as they can
grow, with almost perfect little round pieces right on the top. It
looks quite weird. We went through another military checkpoint where
one of them came in to look around, asked a few questions that we
could not understand, we gave a few answers that I am sure did not
match the questions and they waved us on our way again while shaking
their heads and saying even more that we could not understand.

And then we came into La Paz (Law-Pahs). This town has a population
of around 170 000 and I swear they were all out there to greet us!
Geez.......... this was something else after driving for miles seeing
nothing and no one. First you drive past a really impressive and huge
whale tale statue with an enormous arch over it....and then the town
happens.... There are little eateries all along the roads. These are
no more than a palm tree leaf covered shack with plastic chairs and
tables in the shade. I bet one could get anything there at all and
the smells were quite delicious. Seeing as it was Valentines Day too,
the balloons danced in the wind everywhere and at every corner at
least three people here holding roses for sale. The road through the
town was wide but, I am sure, not meant for the three lanes of traffic
that was crowded into it, and thats not counting the cars parked on
the side either! Its so full, so busy, so alive and sooooooooo - well
just incredible to drive through these towns... It's freaking
frightening too when, even in the middle of town, a four way stop is
totally ignored and one does not know whether its wiser to stop or
just keep on going through it like everyone else!

Finally we popped out of the other side, on the correct bypass road
and breathed deeply again. The little houses, or apartments, were
build all along the roads on the outer parts of town and it was really
interesting to see how they were designed. Even though they were all
built together, each place had a full height wall between them and the
neighbors giving some privacy.. Also, each house had a water storage
tank on top and many of them had their bright clothes hanging on the
lines outside to dry, which just added more color to everything.

We had decided not to head to the beaches right outside La Paz, as it
was weekend and probably busy, so we headed down to Los Barriles and a
campground that Antonio from the Misiones RV Park had recommended.
Antonio had cooked us the awesome meal the night before and she highly
recommended Playa Norte RV Haven right on the beach. And here we
are. We are not camped on the beach right now, but just one row back
from it, which nicely shelters us from the wind, which is supposed to
stop blowing tomorrow.

Yesterday and today was spent mostly walking the beach and scrounging
between the rocks, taking photos of the windsurfers and just
relaxing. We have had afternoon naps both days which is wonderful and
we have both started some serious work on our tans too! The sunshine
is simply glorious.........One lady windsurfer had a itsy bitsy teeny
weeny bright yellow bikini - over her wetsuit! It looked so funny.
Another guy had a cap on while he was surfing to keep the sun off the
back of his neck - when I looked at the photos it was an ordinary cap
like so many people wear backwards - but his was all covered in duct
tape! I got some lovely photos of them jumping the waves and some
literally flying a good 10 - 20 feet into the air doing twirls and
full acrobatic circles up there! There are not many shells here at
all and the ones we found were really small but totally beautiful -
mostly while coral and beautiful purple twirly whirly ones. There are
also gold flecks in the sand here, but not nearly as much as at la
Jolla Beach Camp outside Ensenada.

Sophie has decided that the waves need an education and she spends her
time on the beach running full tilt for the length of her lead and
then barking madly at them, even biting them if they get too close to
her. She is not shy about chasing after a retreating wave and when one
just sort of fades away into the sand, she looks at us in puzzlement -
where did it go? Allie just looks at all this with a superior look in
her eye, behaving very well and trotting daintily at Franks heels.
She really can be a prissy little thing at times!

There are the most beautiful colored bouganvilla plants everywhere,
some deeply entwined with some of the thorny trees around making them
look as if they are all blooming and pretty. We hear a million birds
in these trees, but have only seen a few, all incredibly bright yellow
and fast as lightening. The campground is not really full at all and
its lovely at night to hear the breakers meeting the sand, no dogs
barking and a lovely quiet. The stars are bright and beautiful and the
wind seems to rest at night too. I take the doglets out for a quick
walk late at night around 11pm and its pitch black outside and so
incredibly peaceful.

We took the bicycles out today to go to the little local mini-mart for
some supplies today - its not easy riding in sand at all but makes for
some interesting skidding and created a good few laughs too as we each
nearly met the sand face first. We needed to take the bicycles so
that we could easily get our supplies back home....eggs, beer etc.....
One of the things we were looking for was flour, but not knowing what
its called or how its packaged I decided to do a bunch of sign
language with what we thought was flour and a loaf of bread. Oh boy -
another Mexican that absolutely knows that I am certifiably insane!
Eventually we agreed that the package of what I had was good to make
tortillas with. yeah! Tortillas need flour right? So we bought it,
brought it home and wanted to make some pan bread. It was lard!
Well, it felt like flour in a tightly sealed bag. Sigh. No pan bread
and the lard hit the trash can in record time. We ate nuts for supper
instead.

So another day is over and yet another one looms promisingly ahead. I
will put some more photos up tomorrow again.

love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

Francisco and his store...

2009-02-14T22:23:00.001-05:00

k - Cobblestones and sunshine

2009-02-14T01:25:00.000-05:00

And so we left our little Paradise Cove and headed south again,
munching on the awesome banana bread we had bought from one of the
vendors that kept bringing us stuff. If one chose to live there
permanently everything would have been brought to us and we would
simply never have to leave that beach at all! The only thing was that
there was not too much beach to walk..... but it really was
beautiful. We left all the blinds open so that we could see out as we
lay in bed - the stars were incredible! Joleen, Steven and Lisa, I
thought of you all - all the dreams and wishes to enjoy still. There
was no other light around and the sky was crisp and a deep black - for
a while. And then a light crept up on to the underside of the few
whispy clouds that had arrived. The light got brighter and lit those
clouds to a beautiful silver! Of course I could not just let that go
by, so I got dressed, grabbed the camera and yup, stood outside taking
photos of the moon rising over the Sea of Cortez..... Sounds awesome,
hey? It was :) A few short hours later an indescribable sunrise
appeared, turning the sky into blood red streaks and even turning the
water a deep and beautiful color. The birds seemed to squawk in a
muted way and the quiet was just lovely. The water lapped gently onto
the sand as all along the beachfront the campers woke up, stepped
outside and stretched. I could almost hear their soft ooh's and aah's
as they sat and watched that new day start in such a beautiful way.
We knew it was Thursday because we had headed to the restaurant to
grab a bite to eat the night before, only to be told that they are
closed on Wednesdays! At least we found out the day :)

We went for a short walk and then it was time to head further
south...... We still have a fair way to go to reach the bottom of the
peninsula and although we don't really have any time limit, we would
like to find a beach with lots of walking space and hang around there
for a few days at least and get tanned and lazy.... ok, more tanned
and more lazy :) So off we headed, me twisting my head and camera
around to get a view of this magic place one last time..... and to see
all the other little magic coves along the way - ours was the
best.... The drive to Loreto, also on the east coast of Baja, took us
closely along the shores of the Bahia Concepcion - what views we were
handed for mile after glorious mile! The water was an incredible blue
with gulls and pelicans lazily wafting just inches above the tiny
waves. Islands dotted the bay, some close by enough to see their
shorelines and others sort of misty and hazy in the distance. The
view being mostly on Franks side, I had to learn patience and knowing
that we would have to drive back up this road with this view on my
side in the next few weeks, made it easier.

There is very little traffic here - we see perhaps one every 10
minutes or so and thats either one passing us on coming from the other
direction. We went through another military checkpoint and this time
it got me thinking of all the times I had read about how awful and
scary these stops were. We were told that they will ransack the rv,
destroy stuff while holding us at gunpoint, that it was one of the
main reasons not to come to Mexico..... Oh wow - how wrong that all
is. These guys are courteous, full of curiosity, businesslike and
very friendly.

Right after this last checkpoint one of the drawers that are in the
section above the drivers cab, fell out - spewing its contents all
over the place and making little Sophie yelp in surprise! Thank
goodness it was not camera stuff or breakables in there and that it
did not land on our heads either. Now they all have a very solid
strip of silver duct tape holding them closed. All of them!

And then the road took us inland for the rest of the way until it
dropped us back down into the town of Loreto. I am not bored at all
with the views of the mountains and the cactus and the small
settlements - they are all lovely, but I have run out of ways for now,
to describe the shuddering poverty, the awesome mix of colors of even
the poorest of towns and the grandeur of the mountains. I find myself
taking more photos of cacti as the road gets worse - helps me not see
where the 'road monsters' have chomped away at the side of the ribbon
leaving absolutely no space for error at all. Frank is not only
driving fantastically, but he is handling my occasional squawks better
than I do!

Anyway - so here we found ourselves at the doorway to Loreto - a real
town with all sorts of stores, extra roads, a gazillion people and
cars going everywhere! There are no lines in the roads marking the
lanes and I doubt they would mean anything at all anyway. After
finding a gas station and filling up again we headed towards the
Loreto Shores RV Campground which was on the other side of this town
of very narrow roads, cars going every direction and the most
absolutely fascinating looking little shops everywhere! We wove
ourselves through the traffic, sucking in our thighs at times and
wondering what the heck we were doing here at other times. The road
took us through a very dusty dry arroyo (dry river/gulch) and up the
other side to more interesting things to see. There was a school
where at least half the kids seemed to be in uniform and they were
actually playing outside! The building was painted all bright and
beautiful with ocean scenery and the typical screaming kids were
everywhere. Lovely to see.

We parked, set up, and took the doglets for a walk along the beach.
Except this was no paradise beach at all! The sand is brown and harsh
with stones and very few shells, the water flops onto the sand in a
very listless and uninterested way and there were patches of slimy
green seaweed that did not smell good. There were a good many half
fish undulating in the water too which did not make me want to wade
and........... well it just proved that we were totally spoiled by
Katie's Bay! The view was also nothing like we had expected. So we
headed back home to ponder our options and there we found a load of
extra energy, washed the bicycles and headed into town! Down the
dusty road we went, being met by multiple "Hola"s along the way and
much laughter at the way we answered....., down across the arroyo
collecting about a ton of dust and into town. Oh boy, what an
interesting place this is! We quickly found the open air market
stretch that was very hard to miss, and slowly pedaled our way from
shop to shop.

The roads here are cobbles and brick - just amazing. Lamp posts are
sometimes a good third of the way into the road and palm trees
literally growing through the buildings, there are stop streets
everywhere but we have learned that these are just suggestions and
definitely optional. The stores have their beautiful blankets,
pottery dresses and so many other things out on the sidewalks. The
art work is stunning and there are two different types of things to
see - the local and hand made items or the 'industry stuff'. We rode
past an absolutely incredible building - a Mission that was built in
1697 and I just knew that we would have to come back with my camera
again later or the next day. So after looking around, and not wanting
to buy too much, we headed home, me with both my feet kicking me all
the way for not taking my camera along!

So early this morning we got ready to head to town again, with the
camera this time. It was a lovely sunshiny day and the wind had died
down totally and we were once again greeted all along the way as we
ambled past houses with huge orange trees in their yards. There is so
much dust around that one can hardly see that they are oranges! Down
through the even dustier arroyo and back into town......... I got a
good many photos of the buildings and shops and we did some lovely
shopping too! Some of the buildings have half all broken down, but
the other half standing, and the shop is open and functional. Its
amazing to see how everything is used in this town, even though there
are huge holes in the roof, it works - so use it. One shop we
visited held us there for a goodly while. The owner, Francisco,
showed us many of his handmade blankets and explained how they
transfer the design to the loom..... its all done by hand and some of
the bigger blankets take him up to 6 days to make! He showed us the
difference in the feel of the hand made items and the commercial items
made in mainland Mexico. He also sold us a bottle of good grade
tequila and two lovely big margarita glasses all beautifully hand
painted. He really has a fascinating shop filled with beautiful
goodies - I could have spent hours there just looking, but it was time
to head back again and to head out too.

We went to the bank to get more Peso's and wound our way back home
through some very interesting traffic. No one really seems to pay
much attention to stop signs or where in the road they drive, but
everyone gets their turn and traffic flows pretty darn well. There is
an almost constant honking of horns as people greet each other above
the multiple different songs being played through speakers out on the
sidewalk. Goodies from the stores decorate the sidewalks and
Francisco assured us that it was totally safe around here. And again,
this place has such a good feel to it. The fruit and veggie stands
are a design in themselves, filled with everything imaginable and then
some. We ended up walking much of the way in town as riding on
cobbles, looking at the stores and taking photos all at the same time
proved to be a bit of a problem..

Anyway - we headed home with our treasures and big smiles on our
faces. There is a house right at the entrance to the campground and I
am sure the people there sat waiting for us again - loud hello's, much
laughter and happy waves again. And then we packed up and headed
south. And again we were handed simply awesome views, impossible
mountain roads, enormous cactus plants of all varieties and little
settlements all covered in dust. I aimed us towards a campground in
Ciudad Constitucion which is in the middle of the peninsula again.
The Mex 1 highway zigs and zags across a good few times. I had hoped
to go on a whale watching trip from here, but they have no busses
running from here and the road is not the greatest to get to the place
where the tour starts...... ah well, another time and place.

We are now at Misiones RV Park and were a little tired and grouchy
when we pulled in, but the evening greatly improved. We had a nap
after taking the doglets for a much needed walk and were then ready
for some supper. So off we tootled to the restaurant right here in
the campground where we ordered a margarita and some food - both were
fantastic. As we finished, another couple came up and recognized us
from the San Quintin stop over. They joined us and we had a lovely
evening of much talking and laughter. The supper was delish and it
was lovely sitting outdoors under the palapa - this is a huge round
roof on stilts - the roof made from palm tree fronds and the sides
from something woven too. Very interesting.... you will have to see
the pictures to see what I mean. Finally it got cool enough to head
home again under another beautifully clear sky studded with stars all
bright and twinkling. We also found a lime tree and there is an
orange tree in the site right next to ours and the lady here said we
are very welcome to pick some of both!

Tomorrow morning we are heading south again and will probably spend
the night right on the beach outside La Paz - again on the Sea of
Cortez side of Baja. What a wonderful way to spend Valentines Day!
So - happy Valentines Day to you all........ I hope its a day filled
with love and warmth and a good few hugs to boot.

love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

Paradise found.............

2009-02-13T01:27:00.003-05:00

j - We found Paradise!!

2009-02-12T15:30:00.000-05:00

Oh wow - where do I start? We are sun tanned, full of shrimp and
freshly baked banana bread, out feet are aching from walking for hours
along the sand and shells and the doglets are exhausted. We left the
other campground this morning after watching yet another sunrise over
the Sea of Cortez. This one was not so colorful or dramatic, but hey
- it's another day full of promise and adventure..... Even the trash
bins in this place had flowers painted on them. And then I sat
drinking an early morning cup of coffee and heard some music playing.
It sounded like a full orchestra, so I grabbed the camera again and
headed out in that direction... and there were three fishermen
getting their nets ready, jiving to the music that was blaring from a
portable radio on the sand! The birds screeched in circles above them
and the feeling was so good and whole and fresh.

And then off we tootled, further south some more. We had had a
restless night as Allie, for some reason, would not settle down and go
to sleep! It's amazing how 3.9 pounds can disrupt hours of what
should be peaceful sleep! Anyway, with coffee firmly in hand,
everything packed and snugged away we slowly trundled out of there at
around 8am again. We did not have a long way to go today to the stop
over we wanted to check out so it was an easy, slow drive through
Muluge (Moo-La-Hay) the the Bahia Concepcion and Coyote Bay. I know
that it quite probable that many would think the scenery boring and
much of the same, but its so............old! The cactus are huge, the
rocks and the nothing-ness in between have been there forever and will
be for a long time still to come. Its a weird feeling driving through
almost deserted countryside. Again there are impossible little
settlements dotted all over and we stopped at a store at one of these
in search of some necessities. Frank bought the necessary stuff while
I checked out the shell art and their other goodies. There was not
much, but I managed to find a thing or two - and on we went.

Mulege apparently has incredibly narrow streets and I had read that it
was definitely not a good idea for us to even consider going through
there with this rig - and we are not big at all! So we scooted around
the outsides of the town wondering at the age of the buildings and how
some seemed to still be there even thought they looked well past their
prime. It actually was a pretty little town, what we could see of
it....

And then over the hill we came and around a corner and my breath was
swept away! Picture a perfect place to stay for a while. Multiple
shades of blue water glistening in the sunshine with a few good sized
sailboats anchored in the bay, islands all around, white sand, palapas
made from palm fronds on the beach, rocky corners to explore, a few
campers here and there, birds coasting gently in the sunshiny sky and
and and..............all for $4 a night! Yup - four dollars! And
here we are. This is a really beautiful place, its quiet, even though
the trucks use their air brakes going by its peaceful and totally
beautiful.

The motorhome had barely stopped rolling and my camera and I were
already capturing the scenery, smell and aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh. Frank
reversed us into a spot that puts the back of the rv right on the
beach and the view out of the back window from the lounge is of the
blue ocean with a yacht happily bobbing around out there..... And we
went for a loooooong walk, stopping along the way to chat to a few
others who all sat soaking up the sun or walking the waterline.
Around the corner the shrubbery grew over the rocks that were there
and leaned over into the water. We walked in the water to get around
and before I could do anything, there was Sophie paddling away loudly
right next to me! She had space to walk next to Allie, but seemed to
want to swim. It was cute. We found a good many really lovely
shells, found a huge walled in place that looks private, but I sneaked
in and took a photo of the huge whale skeleton in the front yard! It
was really huge..... and then around another corner we went and the
wind hit us pretty hard but we had to keep going as the water in this
little bay was a totally incredibly green! Not dirty green or yukky
green, but precious-stone-that-I-cant-think-of-the-name-of-right-now
green. It's as if my jaw muscles just stopped working as we watched
the pelicans playing in this water with more islands dotted all over
in the bay and the white caps dancing merrily on the water. The wind
whipped up some wavelets and the two campers there had people all
dressed in jackets and all. So back we went to our own paradise,
back around the corner where the wind was less determined.

Oh its really indescribable - words literally fail me in trying to
tell you what this place looks like, but we agreed that it needs a
different name than what it has. Right now its called Camp
Santispac...... we have renamed it Katies Camp! Sis - this is
absolutely you...... The water is almost totally see through clear
for a good way out, little fish swim lazily by while making sure we
are not pelicans after them, the shells wash gently to shore unbroken
as there are no waves as such at all. The birds wheel and dance in
the sky, riding the eddies up there. White fluffy clouds wandered
across the sky in lonely little tufts. People are friendly and happy,
with old men in bright purple swimming trunks and very tanned ladies
showing a tad more skin than I would right now. It's really a gently
lovely place, and each time my camera jumped up, I noticed that the
coloring of the water had changed slightly or the general lighting had
deepened or softened. Yes, yes, I have a gazillion photos of Katies
Camp :)

We fed the gulls some bread stuff that we bought the other day in
Guerrero Negro and did not like. Well, they loved it! I got them to
eat right out of my hand and took pics while they did it too and got
some really good close ups of gulls eyes..... Why, you ask. Cause I
could..... :) The gull crowd started with about 15 of them and in a
very short space of time we had close to 50 of them all screaming and
pecking to get some bread! The pelicans arrived too, but they sat at
the waters edge watching the hooligan gulls fighting and screaming.
Then after all the bread was done, the gulls raced off to the water
and we could almost see the bay empty out as they all gulped
away...... The pelicans then started their own meal, chasing those
little fish in a most ungainly way. I could almost not believe what I
was seeing as they literally dove into the water with their beaks wide
open. Not straight down as one sees in the movies, but sideways.
Well, when they hit the water it makes a huge splash and literally
flings the bird around 360 degrees! I have a good few photos of them
with legs and wings where legs and wings of pelicans are not normally
seen!

And the minivans and cars arrived as we sat on the edge of the beach
sipping on a beer and drinking in the view........... "HOLA!" we hear
each time, and peer around the back end of the rv to find yet another
wide smile with sparkly eyes attached..... We were left in no doubt
that we actually did want and need every item they were selling and
their job was just to let us know this..... So, with about 6
different groups approaching us over a good few hours we managed to
buy only a 3 pound bag (about $10) of the most delicious shrimp, some
freshly baked banana bread, awesome strawberries, a 'silver' ring,
some goodies for the grandchillins, a simply beautiful blanket,
ponchos, a brightly colored hammock and and and.......... all sorts of
goodies. And then I told the last guy to tell his buddies that we
will not buy anything else at all! No one else arrived...... phew!
One of these guys was really friendly and I asked if I could get a
photo of him and me....... Yes! he said and promptly turned around,
grabbed another brightly colored blanket that he draped over my
shoulder, plonked a huge hat on my head, flung his arm around my
shoulder and sported a smile that any toothpaste company would die
for!! What a lovely moment. Frank got the pics.

I really feel so free here, its lovely beyond description and totally
awesome to see these places and meet these people.. Now its 8pm and
pitch dark outside - I can hear the water lapping up against the sand
and the wind has died down. Its totally peaceful and time to go to
sleep. There is no electricity, water or dump station here and I
don't want to use too much of the battery either. A good reason for
an early night.

love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

i - Even further south...

2009-02-10T22:08:00.000-05:00

This morning when we woke up, the wind was howling, the clouds
scudding across the sky in ever darkening clusters, so I quickly
signed online and saw that the weather further south was doing better
and that it would be about another week before the area around
Guerrero Negro warmed up. So we changed our plans, passing up the
lagoon and whales for now, passing by Bahia Asuncion - but only for
now. We tootled down the Mex 1 again - well, thats the only road
around here that gets one south and north and everywhere else, passed
by another place we are going to stop at on the way back, San Ignacio
where we will do yet another whale trip. It looks lovely there with
forests of palm trees right at the rv park.

I decided again today, about 50 different times, that I was not going
to worry about the narrow-ness of the road, but had to share this way
of looking at it. On one of the Baja-boards I read someone referred
to passing these humongeous trucks on a tiny road as "threading the
needle", especially when the other driver does not stay on his side of
the road. Hopefully we will keep getting it right each and every
time! It really does get to be a tight squeeze at times..........
nuff said. Again.

For a good long way while crossing over to the east side of the Baja
Peninsula today, there was really nothing to see. No cactus, no hills
nearby, no.........well, nothing but the ribbon of a road winding its
way across the landscape. And then suddenly all the cactus appear
again - many of them looking like people with their hands thrust high
up into the air in protest or surrender of something or other. The
ground has a growth over many places that is red/purple and gives the
whole area an almost surreal glow - we must find a place to pull over
and see what this is. We also got into the hills that look like
volcanoes - I know one or two of them definitely are and the obvious
signs of a long-ago eruption lay everywhere in the form of rocks that
were piled up everywhere with no growth on them yet. It's totally
fascinating how the countryside changes literally minute by minute at
times.

There are tiny little shrines built up all along the way on the sides
of the road and we presume these are for people who have died in car
accidents along the way. Boy are there way too many! Anyway, some of
them are very elaborate - with doors, bars, windows and some even look
like tiny replica's of little towns. Very interesting and they are
very beautiful too.

The trash barrels are painted a lovely green and dotted all along the
highway.......... each and every one of them are empty with the ground
for miles around littered with an incredible amount of trash. But the
idea is there. Hopefully it catches on sometime soon. And then in
the middle of nowhere, on a blind corner we came up on a trio of
roadside workers who were cutting the.....well, there is no grass as
such so I can only say they were cutting the straw like weeds that
were growing close to the road. They were cutting them with 'pangas'
- which are huge knives, swinging away earnestly. I had to wonder
about this. On no level at all did it make sense for them to be way
out there, and then doing this all by hand with huge knives?? They
had official badges on their clothes and on the vehicle too and were
really earnestly involved in what they were doing......

We went through yet another military checkpoint this morning and find
the guys very interested in where we come from and wanting to see the
inside of the rv. They do not scratch around, do not pry and do not
have an attitude at all. They are very friendly and the one who came
in today was looking at the photos I have up on my board in the back
room of the rv and chuckling...... there are pics of many of you and
my kids, mom, sister and grandkids.....and some other odd ones. They
totally melted when I dangled Allie out of the window and got this
humongeous smile that just stayed and they kept repeating 'cute!
cute!'. Yes they have guns, and yes when we first pull up they look
very intimidating, but we have not had any problem at all at any of
the checkpoints..

And so we drove on along this road that was now lined with little
purple and yellow and white flowers for a good long way before coming
up on the next little settlement that looks like another long
forgotten town, but that a good few people still live in. I tell you
that seeing these places makes me so incredibly grateful that I was
not born in one of those half finished houses in this country.......
And then I got thinking......... yup - again. If one is stuck out
here, no opportunity to move away and there is only a limited scope of
things to do and no chance of bettering yourself or leaving - well, in
a way thats almost freedom, right? No worries, no striving, no trying
to get more of anything, bigger house, better car, bigger tv or
anything - just do with what there is and make sure you all eat
regularly. It's got to be something else living out here and I know
that I am not really willing to try it at all, but in a weird way its
got to be almost a pressure free way of living, no? Just a thought.

I was also thinking about all the towns we have driven
through........all dusty, half built or half repaired, or patched with
everything looking so run down. Where I grew up, one learned to stay
out of these areas - they were not normally 'safe places'. But down
here there is no option - there are no other areas, which makes one
look deeper and see the color and character and depth of this
country. We are in a campground right now that we had to drive down a
very narrow one lane sandy road, lined with bushes to get to. That
lane spat us out into a campground that is totally sand with the
different campsites marked off with an assortment of rocks. There is
no power, water, sewer, internet or tv here and at sunset everything
went totally quiet. Its lovely, but I have to say that before this
trip we would have thought twice before staying in a place that looked
like this. I know that sounds snobbish and horrible, but its
difficult to describe the level of how everything just looks so run
down and this is not what we are generally used to - spoiled as we are
coming from north of the border. There are a good many old (read o-l-
d-!!) rv's lining the beach area and their little boats are sitting
all squiff on their sides in the sand as the tide is way out........
but it looks all run down and sandy and dusty and and and....... But
it feels good! It feels free, it feels safe. This, by the way, is
one of the best campgrounds in this area. The people here are
friendly, mostly long term residents from all over the world, but the
gentleman who came to collect the fees for the night is Mexican with
the most incredibly interesting face - smiley eyes, big furrows of
expression all over his face and a hand language like I have never
seen before but spoke volumes. We got what we needed to squared away
and off he went -- and hopped into his Ford Explorer and roared off
to his multi-color patched house just a few hundred yards away,
kicking up enormous clouds of dust along the way..... it was hilarious!

We are in San Lucas, which is a tiny little town just south of Santa
Rosalia which is the first town you come to on the Sea of Cortez as
you come across the peninsula again. The view when coming over those
barren mountains and dropping down to the coast again was simply
lovely. The blue of the water with the islands in the distance is
just awesome. The town of Santa Rosalia was a total mix of so many
different things. It would take months to take in everything going on
just in the main road we drove through. It seems as if houses are
build up on the hillside almost one on top of each other in places,
the roads are narrow and there are so many little stores, old
buildings - some look like burned down warehouses. The coastline is
not pretty at all and trash is not a problem to anyone here - they
just throw it out of a window and it blends in with all the other
lying around! I took as many photos as I could while trying to look
with both eyes too. Sometimes just looking through the lens makes me
miss the big picture so I try to make a habit of doing both. One
thing that struck me was how, all through the town, little boats were
pulled up everywhere - not just along the water, but on the side of
the road, in front of businesses - everywhere......

This campground is more of a fishing camp than anything
else........many little boats tied up to stakes above the high water
mark. The beach is not a beach as we would have imagined at all and
is just a very narrow stretch between the houses and the shells that
lay littering the ground, too thick for any sensible person to walk
on. Except me.... I had to walk in the water and on the way cut a
fair sized gash in the bottom of my foot. Maybe I should have gone
and cleaned it out right away and not kept walking through fishy, bird-
poopy waters for a good while longer, but .......now its all cleaned
and happily throbbing away fixing itself. The boats are all resting
on their sides in the mud, the palm trees fluttering in the wind and a
few people were sitting under their open-all-around houses with palm
tree leaf roofs (rather like huge umbrellas), sipping what looked like
interesting stuff. Everyone here is very happy, mellowed out and
beautifully tanned! There is the ever present fish smell and the
waterline is littered with the skeletons of a good variety of fish.
One persons yard is filled with the most interesting things, form
turtle shells, floats, whale bones..........well, I will put up the
photos soon too......

I found a good many needle shells - sharp pointy ones that are really
pretty and only later discovered that some still had living creatures
inside them! So now they are relegated to outside where we hope they
dry out quickly and stop smelling quite so badly! I took a good many
photos of the blue water, the birds and the islands around here.....
and then we came back to cut the doglets hair from their feet. They
track an incredible amount of stuff inside with the fur so long over
their feet. Not any more. And I cut Sophies hair around her face and
she now looks like a different doglet! So cute...... And then Frank
made us a drink with tequila, orange juice, salt and ice. We had no
ice in neat cubes but he had frozen a bottle of water in anticipation
of just such an occasion. He spent about 5 minutes getting the
plastic off the solidly iced water and then proceeded to stab the ice
into smaller pieces with a steak knife. It worked beautifully and
there we sat looking over the Sea of Cortez, watching the different
birds wheeling overhead, with a glorious drink in our hands and a
stupid grin on our faces....... What more could one dream
of.................?

And so the night ends early again..... coffee warming on the gas
stove, Frank gently snoring in the back, doglets asleep, no sounds
from outside and a promise that it will get quite cool here again
tonight. Tomorrow we are only driving a short way south to the Bahia
Concepcion which is just a tad south of Mulege and also still on the
Sea of Cortez. They say its beautiful there too and hopefully there
is more beach to walk, less wind and lovely sunshine all over.
Another lovely day spent with many smiles and much appreciation.

love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

h - Whale watching.....

2009-02-09T23:33:00.000-05:00

So at some unheard of hour this morning, we woke up - I am sure it was
still dark, but the Margaritas of yesterday sat heavily on both our
stomachs and we were restless most of the night so it was not too
difficult to wake up to the smell of warming coffee. We also were not
100% sure of the time here - hearing that we had gone back to Mountain
time again. Frank was right on that one - we got to the meeting point
for the whale tour this morning at the right time. And off we headed
for the Laguna Oja de Liebre. This is the lagoon at Guerrero Negro
where the Gray whales mate and give birth to their young and this is
the time of year that the birthing happens. The lagoon has so much
history, much of it very sad, especially for the whales. The ship,
Black Warrior, came here many years ago to hunt and kill all the
whales. Apparently at one time the lagoon was called, or nicknamed,
the "eye of the jackrabbit" because it was so red with whale blood
that it looked like the eye of a jackrabbit. The Black Warrior sank
in the lagoon and this is how the name of this place stuck.........
Black Warrior = Guerrero Negro. The wheel and anchor of the ship
hangs on the walls of the restaurant in this campground, surrounded
with an incredible array of glass floats, other floats of different
colors, old wooden floats, life rings, lanterns and just about
anything one can think of.

Anyway, this area is also home to the biggest salt mine in the world
and 60% of the salt is sold elsewhere outside of Mexico. It is a huge
operation with salt flats and huge barges filled with salt, triple
trucks trundling down the salt roads taking it from one place to
another before being shipped out...... And so we drove through this
area to get to the start of the whale watching tour. To be honest, I
was not sure where the salt started and the sand dunes began, they all
blended into one amazing white scene........with a lone coyote
trotting across it.

I was struck by the small boats we were going out in, but as soon as
we got going, we could feel that they were very capable, big enough
and the motor strong enough to deal with whatever was out there.......
and off we screamed, 8 of us per boat, after putting on lifejackets
and bright yellow rain jackets to protect us from the spray. We
screamed across the bay at a rapid rate of knots for a good while
until seeing our first whale spout... And then another and another
and another! They were all over the lagoon..... what a feeling.
Almost immediately a calf came up to play around the boat and although
I did not get to touch it, I came within inches! The barnacles
growing on it are weird and fascinating too and that boat that just
started feeling like an ok size? Well, it got instantly smaller
again! What creatures these whales are - hanging in the water, diving
just deep enough to miss scraping the bottom of the boat and wafting
away in a direction least expected or re-appearing at another place
next to the boat. The baby played around us for a while and then
tootled off with mama who was hanging back a bit. And on we went to
look for more. We briefly saw a very small calf coming up on it's
mothers back and one of the guys on the boat said that it was probably
a newborn being brought to the surface for the first time - but it was
so brief that i did not even get a photo of it.

We felt that our tour guide should have kept us in the sheltered part
of the lagoon, but he kept heading out towards the open water where
the swell got a fair size and the wind picked up quite a bit. We
still saw whales everywhere, but none approached the boat in the
choppy water and the guide was just happily going on his way. Ah
well. We saw many of these enormous 'submarines' gently cruising by
our little boat, spouting off and flipping their tails at us just when
the camera was pointed in another direction. After we got back the
other boats were all showing off their photos of the whales breaching
and spouting and playing with them for most of the time...... Ah well
- next trip we will see more. On one of the other boats, three people
got their camera's totally soaked and utterly ruined when a whale
slapped its tail and totally drenched the whole boat..... maybe I am
not so sad about the boat we ended up on. Although my new camera has
a full warranty, even against a soaking in the sea, I would have been
very unhappy to have had to park it for the rest of the trip.

But we did see some sea lions, a good many birds and some nesting
Osprey. The ride was glorious, rolling around in the middle of the
bay with spouting whales all around, standing with knees bent against
the next slap of a swell, then screaming back to base camp at high
speed with the engines revving and racing one of the other boats in.
It was a really great morning all in all.

And then we topped it off by going for lunch again. This time Frank
got the shrimp platter and I ordered the sirloin steak with all the
Mexican trimmings and things....... We ate so much and were totally
and very happily stuffed afterwards. We tried one of their beers,
Tecate beer, and it was very pleasant, but with memories of 3
margaritas yesterday and a restless night, we each stopped at one
beer only.

We got to speak to the manager of this campground and motel - he and
his wife own it all and I must say its a sweet place. I must remember
to get photos tomorrow before we leave. They have all sorts of pots
and pottery and glass bottles and interesting things hanging all
around, both inside and outside and he told us how so many people came
to contribute things when they built it up. There is so much
character and warmth in this place and one sees new things each time
you look around.

We also went for a short walk up and down the main street. It's
very...... I think the word is 'incomplete'. Nothing seems to be
finished as we know finished to be. Like the showers - the door was
there, but the lock was on the wrong side on the one door and the
other door - well, it was there but did not close properly without
really yanking at it hard and then having to lean a heavy shoulder
into it to get out again. One of the guys on the boat was saying that
life is different here in that way - if something is done about 75 -
80%, then its ok - it's done and everyone is happy and goes on to
another project. We can see this. The buildings look run down, but
they are totally functional - so what if part of a window is missing
or the roof is hanging on one side? The door does not close? ah
well............. and so it goes. All is done in lovely colors,
dotted with palm trees, some short, some tall and some just barely
hanging in there. There is no grass here at all - its all dust or
road or dust in the road or road made of dust or sand or salt. But it
all works........ It's done :)

Doglets were very happy to see us and we took them on a few short
walks before the wind came up and Sophie refused to walk anymore. She
tucks her tail in, plants her feet and thats that. The only way to
get her anywhere after that is to make drag tracks in the sand or
carry her.

Tomorrow morning we are heading just a little way down south to the
campground right on Scammons Lagoon - also known as Laguna Oja de
Liebre, where we did the whale tour today. Apparently here one can
hear the whales at night and there are also tours from there - and the
campground is awesome, say some guys who were there. We might just do
another tour here too seeing as this is the most popular breeding
ground for them. And then I think we will head far south to warmer
weather. Its raining again now and the wind is howling, rocking the
rv and frustrating the heck out of us. We were going to head to Bahia
Asuncion after tomorrow, but it still seems as if its going to be cool
up here for a while. We both need sunshine and warmth.

I put up some more photos again this evening knowing that we will be
without internet for a good few days from now on.

love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

Whale of a time!

2009-02-09T22:45:00.002-05:00

g - Sea of Cortez......

2009-02-08T23:31:00.001-05:00

This just gets better and better....... in Mexico, hooked on gold
beaches, open roads and margaritas! We left Ceilito Lindo at around
8am - this seems to be a common time for us to have everything ready
and to head out. This leg of the road was long and the roads narrow
and the end point awesome, or so we heard, so off we went. The roads
are incredibly narrow with the motor home literally filling our lane
and the truckers not too worried if they stay on their side or not.
The road also ends, with no discussion, at the white line on the
outside of the road - my side. And here I hope to leave the 'road
discussion'. Its given me very sweaty palms and I swear I have lost 5
pounds through my hands..... I do not make a good passenger at all and
I often have my fist stuck in my mouth so as not to squeak too loudly
or too often. I have since discovered that if I simply look away or
close my eyes that I don't worry as much. Do you know how hard that
is?? There are cats eyes or bumps on the center lane and on the
outside white line so we have this endless thunk thunk thunk happening
as we trundle along at about 40 miles per hour average - its a
glorious sound compared to when I dont here it! LOL. Ok - the road is
narrow, lousy, small, too small and I am never going to be happy about
it. As I said - I will try to make this the last of that part of the
trip....

The scenery is just stunning - we drove down past the most incredible
untouched and totally empty beaches to and through El Rosario where
we took a turn to the east along Mex 1 across the peninsula. The
mountains are not serious at all, rather just rolling beautiful green
hills with farms dotted inbetween all over the place. We went through
a military checkpoint again......they don't worry too much, this time
the guy came inside and did a quick check through. He asked our names,
where we are going, whether we had grandchildren - well I think that
was his question.. and went on his way. He had a lovely smiley face
and was very friendly. There are a good few guys in uniform, all
importantly caressing huge guns, but none looking much interested in
us at all.

We say two coyote that ran across the road in front of us and many
many different varieties of cactus. They are humongeous! There are
so many different types and they are all mixed in together. I would
hate to be a pioneer here! One part of the journey across was through
what they call the Boulder Fields........ Its quite amazing. Huge
boulders with cactus of all sorts growing absolutely everywhere. We
had almost solid rain all the way across and the cactus and boulders
rose into a misty scene in front of us - never ending, yet absolutely
awesome. There were many that had names, messages and adverts spray
painted on them, but somehow it was not offensive at all... Just added
to the color of everything else around here.

It's strange how one minute the cactus are towering over one and the
next minute there is just flat lands, or mountains with this ribbon of
a road winding its way through it. And then we popped out of the
other side and the Sea of Cortez was in front of us, with its islands
lit up with the sun peering through the clouds! It was one awesome
sight! Of course the camera came to life and clicked away with little
encouragement. I have to admit to sitting up and sighing in relief
after a good 6 hour drive with few breaks. The Mex 1 has no pull off
places and the little towns are so crowed and busy that one hardly
wants to get their hopes up by pulling off anywhere just to take a
break! The road the leads off from the Mex 1 hwy to Bahia de Los
Angeles - ok - pronounce it with me......... BAH-HEE-AH DAY LOES AHN-
HAIL-ACE. No, no - try again.........yeah -thats it! :) Ok, as I was
saying, the road from the Mex 1 to .......say it again........ is a
newer road with a good few places to pull over, which we did. We made
coffee, took the doglets for a walk and got rained on - twas good.

And then we pulled into Daggetts Campground where the pelicans were
hanging around, eager for a fish handout from the guys cleaning their
catch of the day. They are beautiful - no no - not the fishermen!
The pelicans stood in line, literally and the gulls wheeled overhead
screeching loudly and everything and anything. One dared not look
up...... The tidal pools called me loudly and I wandered across there
immediately. Oh how I love those pools with all their treasures.
There were pink things, green stuff, orange growths, sea urchins,
stars that seemed to have a gazillion legs and things that spouted
water at me as I picked my way across the sharp rocks. It was simply
glorious. My feet in the Sea of Cortez - just the thought brought
mist to my eyes! I could not drag myself away from there until I cut
my finger open trying to get a muscle out of the sand.... he was well
imbedded and still is. Not a bad cut, but it needed to be cleaned so
I ambled back to the rv, dripping blood along the way. Ah well.

We were both so tired that we went to sleep when the sun set.. We
were invited by the crowd next door to join in their meal and party,
but we just did not have the energy and it was good to lie down in a
warm cocoon and listen to everything going on without having to be
nice and polite. It poured with rain all night long - each drop
sounding like a pebble dropping on the roof and the wind howled over
the mountain. They call it the 'gravity winds' screaming down into
the bay and boy did it wake us up plenty times. The rv shook and
rattled and shuddered all night long, but we did not float away. But
this morning, after looking at the clouds and the approaching band of
rain, we decided to head out to Guerro Negro, on the Pacific coast
again.

I like that it literally takes us 10 minutes to pack up and get going
- and we did. But not before I captured an incredible sunrise over
the bay......... yes, my dearest children - your mama was awake at
sunrise!! Oh it was something to see....... absolootle beautifull and
unforgettable and greatly photographed now. Last night when we went
for our beach walk and shell picking, there was a part of the sky that
held what seemed like a part of a rainbow. Lottie - I sent you a pic
of one of them I took in Alaska before....... This was the same and it
was beautiful, reflecting in the tidal pools and adding some magic to
the scenery. This morning when we left, there was another but in a
different place in the sky - really lovely.

And so we headed out again, back along the new road, Mex 12, and out
to Mex 1 again. The rain came down in buckets which effectively
parked the camera. They call rain here a "Baja Carwash". It did
knock much of the dust and dirt off, but filled the Vado's - those are
dips in the road that collect the rain water and make one wonder if we
can get through them. We did, none being too deep and the water had
not collected much by early morning yet.

So we trundled about 150 miles down the road to Guerro Negro.....
sometimes through thick cactus fields, sometimes with surprisingly
little to see, sometimes with the ocean in the distance and sometimes
with it close enough to hear, but no pull off place to stop. We
arrived here, stopped for gas, took a wrong turn and found ourselves
in a military establishment going down the wrong way on a one way
road. Sigh. A guy stopped us and said something that we could not
understand, then he shrugged and drove on, we turned around and found
the campground. No problemo..........

The food here is totally deelish! We decided to try a total fish
dinner - scallops, shrimp, fish and ............ I dont remember what
now, but it was good! The margarita's went down well too and the
total bill was around $27 US Dollars...... astounding. We then took
a walk in the town, Frank finding some tequila, me some chocolate
biscuits and we headed home again to take doglets out for a while. We
also booked a whale tour for tomorrow morning! I am so excited.
Camera batteries all charging and ready to go! We will be out there
with them for about 3 hours. Then back here to this campground for
tomorrow night and off to the Scammons Lagoon the next............
lots to tell about that one and one can apparently hear the whales all
night long from the campground which is literally right on the beach.

Right now my eyes are drooping, I have loaded some photos tonight and
will get the rest tomorrow, along with some good whale pics, I hope.
When you go to the link to the photos at the bottom of each email I
send, look on the left side of the page - there are all different
folders there with the photos in them.

This was yet another wonderful day - and I got to speak to all three
my 'kids' which just added to it all.....

love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

f - Margaritas and salty dogs...

2009-02-08T14:43:00.001-05:00

I really don't even know how to start describing everything we have
seen so far. You know those pictures one gets where you have to look
for all different things and at first you don't see them but if you
look in a different way, there are so many other things going on in
the picture that you dont see at first? Well, this is what its like
here. It's not like you just drive past some houses or through a town
and thats that - there are so many different things happening around
what first catches my attention. Driving down the Mex 1 highway is
really an incredible experience..... the telephone poles have
straightened out now and march for miles in an almost militant way
down the road in start contrast to everything else that seem to create
their own angles. The paved road leads the way on south, but life
really happens on the side of this road - the brightly colored and
busily signposted businesses are set back a good way from the road,
allowing for another dusty double lane for real life here in the
towns. The cars scream down these sandy sidewalks, stopping in front
of the different stores as needed without impeding the main road
traffic at all. We saw many people out with brooms and rakes,
smoothing, sweeping and raking the sandy spots in front of their
stores. There is almost no trash around these areas which is quite
incredible. Its just so awesomely filled with character, color and so
much happening!

There are fruit stands everywhere, little arches you walk under into a
vege stand, others ride three wheel cycles with huge baskets on the
front selling their wares, and others have the hugs stacks of empty
cans, paper and other stuff on the back of theirs, obviously on the
way to a recycle place..... these also all trundle down the dusty
sides of the road. It seems to be one long line of little stores in
each town - as long as a block without a gap between places. They are
all totally differently painted, decorated and signed and go on for
miles and miles, only broken up by yet another dusty road leading away
from the main road and holding its own fascinating buildings and
peoples. During the day today, I tried to find a way to describe this
all, but nothing really came to mind, so you will just have to wait
for the photos.... It really is something that we are both enjoying
and we have not at any point felt unsafe at all. The people are
friendly, keen to talk, eager to try to understand our flailing sign
language and wave enthusiastically, even the Militia.

The road out from the last campground, La Jolla at La Bufodora, to
here was interesting, to say the least. The speed bumps (topes)
became more and more interesting with smaller ones leading up to the
main bump. They place them closer and closer to each other and there
is no doubt at all that slowing down to around 5mph is a really great
idea. Then a good sigh of relief arrives as we oomph over the main
Tope and onto smoother road again. The road is very narrow with no
shoulder at all in most places. Where there is shoulder wide enough,
there are multiple little palapas, like little coconut leave covered
stands, where almost everything is sold....... mostly fruit, but we
have seen birds, wine that I think would possibly not be very wise to
try and brightly colored clothes and many many very touristy things.

Soon after we got back onto the Mex 1 South (the campground was on a
side road) we came to the first military checkpoint. We had heard so
many scary things about these and were really not sure at all what to
expect although we really were not worried at all. We had to drive
off the road onto the sandy side where a guard stopped us and asked
where we were going - told him that we were headed all the way south,
he clapped his hands and waved us on. And that was it. Well, there
were a good few of them around there, with serious guns and lots of
ammo, but they did not even look inside or ask us for any papers. We
had also heard that its pretty scary when the big trucks come
screaming up the road, but we found that they stayed very much on
their side of the road - it was the cars that screamed around us and
crowded us badly at times.

And then it was time to go up and over the mountains.... I wish I
could see what they were called, but my map does not show me. We did
not see much of the coastline at all during the drive down, but the
mountains were beautiful. They are not huge like the Rockies at all,
just incredibly green with houses and cactus farms dotted all over.
Yup - they farm cactus here and there are huge areas where you can see
what looks like one big, flat cactus branch (not sure how else to
describe it, but its almost round) is planted and grow into full
plants from there on. I bet they eat it here and we have decided to
definitely give it a try sometime soon.

There are little towns dotted all along the road and they all seem to
be a shudderingly poor as the previous one..... the houses are patched
with anything that works, some don't have doors or windows but there
is the ever present satelite dish perched on top, held down by
blocks. No grass, but the hills all around are colored with all
different shades of green. Cactus grow wild everywhere and this would
not be a good place for a midnight, moonlight stroll at all!

The towns have power lines running in all directions and many times
they just seem to be draped higgeldy piggeldy without any official
direction. Even the poorest looking shack is painted in some color
and most towns have a great selection of Cafe's with very old, very
dusty chairs parked outside, just waiting for someone to fill them.
It's so incredibly fascinating and in many ways sad but so culturally
and visually rich.

At La Jolla campground we got chatting to another couple who were
heading north after a few weeks down here and they told us to watch
for the numbers on the Pemex gas (petrol) stations. Pemex is the only
gas station here and they are all numbered, which makes following
directions much easier. Come to think of it, I have not seen a road
name here yet - only Mex 1. I am going to look for that when we
leave here tomorrow. Anyway, we soon found the road leading to the
campground we wanted to go to.... again, on the advice of these north-
heading people and also after checking in the amazing Baja Camping
guide by Mike and Terry Church. Boy has this book got tons of info
and directions. I use both this book and the Moon Baja Camping guide
and would not know where to go without them! Asking directions with a
language barrier is not working too well - next time we are here I
will be able to understand more - I have promised myself this!

So we turned of the Mex 1, headed down this narrow little road that
was like a tunnel with the huge trees meeting each other overhead and
found the campground almost at the end of it. There are about 7 spots
here and when I went in to pay for out site I asked whether there is
power on the sites. The answer was "maybe", with a shrug and a
twinkle in her eye. Our site had none, but the people two over to
both the left and right of us had power, but only from 2.30pm to
around 10pm when the restaurant had their generators going..... So
last night we did without and it was lovely. We went for supper at
their restaurant which was lovely. Mike and Karen, the couple we met
in the USA campground were also here so we joined up and had dinner
together which was really good. We were serenaded by three guys
playing the guitar, accordion and a huge base guitar? I know what it
was, just cant think of its proper name now..but it was one of those
instruments that rested on the floor, had 5 thick strings and reached
over the kids head that was playing it.

And I had my very first Margarita! Oh my......I can see that we are
going to have to find a recipe and some glasses before we head back
into the USA! We started with ordering a typical Mexican meal with
burritos and other things I cannot spell, and some coffee to warm
up. Well, let me tell you about the showers here and why we needed
to warm up. The shower stall was huge with the shower 'head' way up
high. When turned on, it was a spout of water almost as thick as my
little finger and it did not get past warm. There was a half door
into the block building, but no door on the shower stall which was,
thankfully, placed around the corner. The window had been broken many
many moons ago and someone had tried to put some cardboard in front of
it.... not very successfully. But we really needed a shower! Frank
went to his side and was very quiet, so I knew that he was dealing
with about the same as what I had. The building was also not fully
closed in, the walls and roof did not meet and I could see the birds
flying by as I washed at super-speed. It was cold in there. So thats
why we started with coffee.

Karen, our friend who joined us, ordered a tequila margarita and it
looked so ......... well, exotic in the huge (I mean Huge!) glass with
salt all around it. Now I know that all my kids have had these before
and they are probably laughing at me now, and with this in mind I just
had to order one! Oh boy. Frank tasted mine, his eyes lit up too,
and soon he ordered another and two straws were quickly stuck in that
one, both of us happily supping away with big smiles. Dinner was
delishous, drinks were awesome, the company was great and we had two
very excited doglets to greet us when we got home. An awesome end to
a wonderful day. The meal and two margaritas cost a total of $26 for
both Frank and I together.... the campground cost is $5 per night.

Now to back up a bit - I know, this is getting loooong.... but.... Of
course we had to take a beach walk as well when we arrived yesterday,
and so down the road we trudged, doglets happily trotting next to us.
It was about a quarter of a mile down a packed down dirt road, across
a barren and very open and exposed area of what looked like flattened
dunes, then over the proper sand dunes and the sand dollar studded
beach stretched endlessly and emptily to both the left and right. The
waves crashed on the shore and an absolutely awesome quiet arrived.
Not a silence, but a soul filling quiet - one that almost makes tears
come to one's eyes and breathing easier and deeper and it was funny
how so many people flashed through my mind while just standing and
looking over the Pacific Ocean. Awesome. So we walked, at first
picking up the sand dollars but quickly realizing that there was
little point as the rv could not haul all I picked up! The sand was
also flecked with gold here, not as thickly as before, but the shells
lay unbroken in the sand all studded with gold glitter. The water was
not too cold and even the doglets played in it some. At one time a
biggish wave came in and literally floated them both back to
shore.....now we have 'salty dogs' too. They did not seem to mind
too much, but Sophie decided to bark at every wave from then on. We
let them run loose for a while, Allie listens, but Sophie was another
story and quickly got leashed again.

Our friends left here this morning, heading to Bahia Los Angeles where
we will be headed tomorrow (Saturday). This town sits on the Sea of
Cortez and is apparently absolutely beautiful. We are aiming for a
campground right on the beach where there is beautiful blue water,
lots of sunshine, whale tours and ........well, it looks simply
stunning. We will be driving on the TransPeninsula Highway which
will take us from the West coast to the East cost of Baja. So we
waved them goodbye until we meet up again, possibly in Guerro Negro in
a few days time, and headed out on a beach bicycle ride. We decided
to take the doglets with us again even though it was pretty overcast.
They got cold and spent most of the time riding in their baskets on
our handlebars. We had been told that there were many whale sightings
at a point on the beach about 7 miles up. We can do that! So off we
headed, water, snacks and camera.

We saw the whales but they were pretty far out and we could just see
them playing in the distance. I did not have my big camera with me,
so any pictures I got, well - I will have to tell people what they are
looking at - its not obvious at all. But we saw them cavorting behind
the breakers, there seemed to be a good few of them. And we saw a sea
lion with its head sticking out of the water, just watching us. Every
time I took a step closer, it sank down and re-surfaced a bit further
away. We were definitely being watched though - it was kinda
cute.... I wonder if it went home and told the kids of the wildlife
it saw today??

And then we noticed the clouds building - fast - and realized that we
were a long way from home and probably going to get wet, so we hopped
back on the bikes and pedaled like heck. We are obviously not fit at
all and quickly became saddle sore too. We saw vulture like birds on
the carcass of a sea lion and another on a huge squid up in the dunes,
we rode over countless sand dollars and watched as the whales blew,
all the time watching the clouds getting darker and darker and very
grateful for the wind that was helping us home. Doglets were now
covered up with a blanket each, huddled shivering in their baskets -
totally friggin spoiled! Sophie did not mind running alongside, but
kept trying to catch my front wheel while barking loudly - very
irritating, so she got to ride instead.

We rode and walked, endlessly it seemed. There was absolutely no one
else along the beach at all, and then suddenly there was a car -
parked with its nose pointed towards the waves and a little way ahead
of us. As we came closer we saw three, then five people milling
around it. Hmmmm. I have to admit to being a tad nervous at this
point, but not badly. We admitted that maybe we needed
to ...........what? Not beach walk? Anyway, we decided to be riding
rather than walking, as we passed them by, just in case.. but all was
ok. We were met with enthusiastic waves and shouts of "Hola!", which
means hello, and none of them made any move towards us at all.... By
the time we passed the third vehicle along the way, we were totally
comfortable again. Obviously they were all coming out for low tide
and crabbing and as the tide got lower, the beach became a racetrack
of cars screaming along to get to their favorite place to find crab.
The military also patrolled the beach in a hummer loaded with guys in
uniform in the back and scarves tied around their mouths. Again we
were met with happy 'hola's" and wide smiles. I could almost hear
their "stupid tourist" remarks. Ah well. They passed us again when we
finally got back on the right path to the campground after getting a
little lost in the sand dunes. We definitely plan to stay on the
right side of them. At all times.

After the long and lovely walk/ride today, and loaded with sand
dollars for the grandchillens and not getting too wet, we made a
sandwich and headed for the soft bed and an afternoon snooze with a
good start to a lovely tan and seriously aching legs and butts. We
had moved our campsite earlier and have power for tonight which is
good as its still a tad chilly and the accessory battery on the rv was
low and needed charging as well, as do the camera batteries. I can
hear the waves pounding the shore from here and am now going to wrap
it up and head for bed. There is so much more to talk about, but each
day would be a full book if I tried to tell it all.....

So far this country is a whole lot more awesome than I ever thought
possible. We are seriously loving it. Tomorrow we are on the way to
the Sea of Cortez - even the sound of it just sounds totally
unbelievable.... We still have not been able to wipe the smiles off
our faces..

love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

e - Beaches of gold...

2009-02-08T14:43:00.000-05:00

Yes its true. Walking down the beach is almost a magical experience.
The sun glistens on tiny particles of fools gold that is everywhere in
the water and sand and it just looks simply awesome. When I pick up a
shell, its covered with glittering gold and my feet and legs were
shimmering even long after we got back to the rv. Its just totally
amazing here.

Last night we stayed at the campground about 3 miles north of the
Mexican border and met up with a couple also heading to Baja for the
first time. After chatting for a while and exchanging info, we
decided to drive together for the first part, at least. We had heard
that its best to make an early morning border crossing, so we were up
and all rearing to head out around 7.30am. I am aware that this is
not 'early morning' for some, but for me...........well, it was :)
So off we headed with the sun directly in our eyes and we missed a
signboard and turned before we should have and got dumped in downtown
something-or-other-not-too-good. Not too difficult to get out of
there.........and on we went to the San Ysidro border crossing point,
pulling into the 'something to declare' lane so that we could park and
get our Tourist Cards, or FMT's as they are called. I grabbed my
file, said three silent prayers and headed towards some guards to ask
where to go. Well, there is nothing quite like being totally
ignored. I don't know if they are like the guards at the British
Castle that are not allowed to answer one or if they just muttered
about how stupid this gringo was....... I think it was the latter.
Anyway, I finally found where I should be and the sign on the door
said Open.... Frank stayed with the doglets and the rv as I knew
about all the paperwork for us, doglets, rv etc. The other couple
stood with me and the line grew and grew as the door with the open
sign stayed firmly locked. I went to one of the open windows to ask
and they said I should go around the back to the Big Immigration
Office. Ok. So through two busloads of Mexicans I walked, to the
back where I had to pass through a checkpoint back into the USA! Only
after I was checked, would she listen to me, so back through I had to
go again when we discovered that the Big Immigration Office was the
same as the little closed one in the front of the building, just on
the opposite side - also closed. At least I got some exercise. Then
someone said that they only open at 8am. See? What good would it
have done if we had really got going early?

After being told to wait another 5 minutes after opening, we were let
in, given some papers, pointed towards the open door again with a
slight dismissive wave. I went to the rv to fill in the papers - very
simple, really. It took us just a few minutes. Back to the
Immigration office, only to be ignored by him too and finally another
regular traveller said to go to the bank, pay the fees then head back
to this office.... which I did, only to be told that I did not have
all the papers I needed in order to pay!! AAarrrggh. Finally I got
it all sorted out and we were cleared to go. They did not ask about
the dogs, they did not even see them! They did not look inside the rv
or even at our passports. Frank did not even go into the offices at
all! It seemed all totally pointless apart from helping me realize
that it was necessary to slow down and simply accept that here things
are done their way. Not mine and not logically.

The guy who did our papers, or rather, glanced at them, did not look
as if he had much of a sense of humor and for me this is almost a
challenge - especially with border guards...... so around the 4th time
I went into his office, I sagged my shoulders, tilted my head and with
a sigh said..."its me - again!" He Smiled!! And I got my passport
stamped too which was not necessary but I wanted a Mexican stamp and I
knew I had him with his newly found smile. Now I have to get an exit
stamp when we leave or a huge fine will arrive....

So we and our new friends crossed over the border with a surly wave
from a guy who was backed by three others holding really big guns....
We got into the correct lane and actually made the turn to the Border
Road fairly easily. Boy do these people drive fast here though! We
took a wrong turn after this though and ended up in some or other
downtown area right at a gas station - we needed gas anyway, found a
turnaround and got back on the right road - the toll road to
Ensenada. I nearly freaked when hearing how much it took to fill the
gas tank! 700 pesos... Now I totally understand about the exchange
rate, but when you are standing in a foreign country, not speaking the
language and no one understanding you but you see that your bill is
700 bucks for a tank of gas - well, it made for a moment until I
realized they were talking peso's! Phew. Oh -and Blondie. Yes,
well she went blank today. A total Mexican Blank. She would not show
us even one road here, so she got herself unplugged and stored away
for another day. (Kay - you are now stuck to the front window with
the best view in town!)

And what a drive we were handed! We love this place....... the color,
the views the character, the different designs, the mix of abject
poverty and super rich is all just almost indescribable. The first
thing we noticed was the houses and businesses are painted in all
different colors. In the USA it seems that everyone wants to either
blend in with desert sand or be identical to their neighbours. Here
its beautiful and bright and looks airy and interesting! The
businesses are scrunched up together in almost seemless lines of
things to see and offer and interesting little alleys and alcoves all
over the place. It looks like many people live about the businesses
and some even have furniture up on their roofs - not to sit on, but it
looks like a storage place or something. There are little stands
selling everything from sombreros to fish tacos all over the
place........ it's just fascinating! The electric wires seem to be
everywhere and I don't think there is a telephone pole that knows how
to stand straight up. I kept wanting to put my camera into black and
white mode to really get the feel for these places, but I knew that
beach and ocean were about to arrive too... Mom, I kept on thinking
of Jansje and her District Six photos - its almost just like that here
in places.

We arrived at the coast a lot sooner than I anticipated and we just
lost our breath again. The coastline here is simply beautiful -
cliffs and beaches and rock pools and green-blue water and fishing
boats and white cresting waves and wide open horizon.......just
awesome. Much of the coastline near the USA border is being developed
for tourists and there are many humongeous hotels going up and many
miles of fancy villas and gated communities all over the place. And
right next to many of these will be a single little house, if one can
call it that, huddled determindly against "progress". It's sad to see
this all being taken over and I found myself applauding the people who
just wont give up their places with these views.

Then down the road we would find a stretch of wide open land right on
the coast with just one or two houses, rv's or shacks on them. What a
view these people have, even if its so obvious that they have so
little else. There was one little home that looked as if it had been
there a long time, with a very old rv parked outside and not ever
going anywhere again, horses, cows and chickens and it looked so
permanent, so ..........well, right, perched up there on this hill
overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Just lovely. Along the road stand a
Huge statue of Christ - I dont know how tall it is but it definitely
dominates the landscape and then a few miles further on is another
huge statue of a bare breasted woman who, by the way, looks rather
unhappy with life. Now there's a mystery to solve.......

We had wanted to get south of Ensenada to a place called La Bufadora
today. This is a good bit south of the border towns and nicely along
the coast. On the way we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some
fruit and veggies and then we headed to the campground - La Jolla
Campground. It's off the main road and is on one seriously narrow
road with Topes dotted all along it. Topes are speed bumps...... no
no - Serious Speed Bumps! But we got to the campground safely and
found ourselves alone here with any site to pick from. Well, there
really are no sites marked out, so we picked a spot so that we could
hook up the the electric outlets around the restrooms and have a view
of the ocean at the same time. After going on our first walk, we were
happy to see our friends pull in here too and later another camper
arrived. Good. We even had electricity, thank goodness for a
loooooong extension cord.

And then we went for a walk and discovered the gold flecked beach!
When I first went down with the dogs while Frank was still sorting out
electric cords, I saw steam coming from the sand and felt that it was
all warm! This area has natural hot springs coming up through the
sand, right at the waters edge! There are many huge holes dug around
where you can literally lay in the hot tub as the waves break over
one. The sea water is not warm - just the water coming up from under
the sand. Really fascinating! It's a bit like living in an
alternate dimension.......... there we were, walking down a beautiful
Baja beach flecked with gold, our feet beautifully warm on the bottom
and cooled by the waves on the top, seagulls and pelicans swirling
around, lovely shells dotted everywhere, only three other people far
away on the beach and the sunshine baking our shoulders and
legs......... I could not think of a place I would rather be.

And I rediscovered another thing I really like about the
ocean.......when you walk on the beach there is an almost constant
whooshing of the waves, they keep coming all the time. Almost. Well,
every now and again there is a lull in the waves and everything goes
quiet - beautifully, peacefully, gently.........quiet. And then it
starts up again. It's those quiet seconds that are so awesome. The
world seems to be holding it's breath, waiting and almost smiling.
Well, we did.

It's a bit cool here still so we are heading south tomorrow to San
Quintin, (pronounced Sahn Keen Teen) There is a campground there that
is also right on the beach, has an amazing restaurant right there and
has some interesting history and even volcanoes!

Today was simply amazing.. we are all totally exhausted after a good
few long walks on the beach - doglets loved it too. I have so many
photos to sort through but my eyes keep wanting to shut, so I am going
to let them and head off for a really early night. The drive today
was one of the best I have ever been on, its too beautiful to
describe. The beach is totally amazing and I can hear the waves
crashing as I sit here typing. Tomorrow morning we will go for a walk
to see what the tide has brought in and then head south around 10am or
so.

I promise to put photos up as soon as I have a good connection and
will send updates whenever I can. We just love it here.... it feels
so real and unprocessed and raw in so many ways - it feels like real
life and here comes a profound thought that arrived in my brain as we
were driving through some really poor areas - "Character builds from
troubles". This place has so much character and warmth. It's
wonderful.

We feel so incredibly fortunate.....
love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

d - California

2009-02-03T20:18:00.001-05:00

OOOoooohhhh Sunshine!

We are in a campground now with sunshine beaming through the branches
of the many trees shading the multitude of RV's dotted all around.
There is actually green grass here as well, which is absolutely
appreciated by both doglets.

We left the last snowy campground in Flagstaff, Arizona last Saturday
morning really early, both keen to outrun the white stuff. The view
with the snow sprinkled around, is always a bit more special than
without the highlights between the trees and scrub. The mountains
were outlined with it at times and it was lovely to see all these
views screaming by as we tootled along over the Hulalapai Mountains,
through Kingman and into California..... Just over the state line of
California we had to stop and hand over our fruit and veges....
California does not allow one to take any produce in from other
states. The night before I used as many of the fruit as possible to
make a huge fruit salad and they did not ask for that at all. We
enjoyed that while sitting in the sunshine under a tree, this
afternoon :)

Also right at the California border, we drove over the Colorado River
and went back yet another hour - now 3 hours behind home.......
Sophie decided that today was the day that she would become a bad
traveller too, so she shook, ran around like a terrified rat and
yipped - being a total pain. She jumped up on my lap and tried to
burrow into my armpit. Big sigh. I have to admit that at that point
I was quite prepared to find boarding for both doglets! Eventually
Sophie went and stood right at the back of the rv, refusing to move
from there, so after about half an hour I took her bed back there, put
her in it and told her to lie down and stay. She did and all was
quiet again. The "travel infection" went the wrong way! Today on the
way to Chula Vista, they both huddled under the table and seemed to be
ok. Will have to watch for the hatching of any plans they might be
plotting!

The road through the desert to Twentynine Palms is dry, barren and
dotted with houses that mostly look abandoned. Most of them have huge
fences around them and look so incredibly run down. I wonder if thats
a natural happening because of the surrounding desert or if its
indicative of poverty. It seems as if the houses are patched with
anything available, which gives them interesting patchwork appearances
and the cars lie all around, creating colorful puddles almost
everywhere you look.

Anyway - we arrived in Twentynine Palms around 3pm. Joleen and Billy
met us at the Marine Corps Base main gate and it was just so good to
see them again! We parked the rv behind their house and had just a
short walk around to their front door. Their dog, Lolla, and our two
got on really well which was a great relief. Basically we had a
lovely, gentle, lazy and great few days just kicking back and learning
to relax. Billy's parents drove nearly 3 hours from Oceanside to
bring us one awesomely delishous meal on Sunday - really lovely people
and how amazing that they spent that much time coming to meet us and
all that cooking! We took the doglets for their international
clearance vet certificates (again) as Billy went back to work - Joleen
had taken a few days off which was great as she got to drive us around
and spend a good many hours sitting quietly and just catching up and
yakking away.

It's always sad saying goodbye to my kids and this time was no
different at all. Joleen stood there waving goodbye and it was so
difficult not to stop, jump out and hug her one more time...... We
did not have chance to say bye to Billy - he leaves way too early for
work, but we will see them again soon.

So - off we tootled, out of Twentynine Palms, past all the beautifully
painted buildings. They have painted the most beautiful pictures on
the walls of the buildings and the camera just jumped up at each one.
Sadly, many of the photos have telephone poles in front of them, but
boy - someone really did some fantastic painting. The road out of
there took us through Moreno Valley, Oceanside and directly south on
the interstate. Not many photos were taken at all. The doglets were
huddled under the table and my jeans soaked up the water pouring from
my hands. Boy was I glad to find the campground right where it was
supposed to be! Today arrived way too soon, though. We woke up
early, already mentally ready to deal with some heavy traffic on the
way to the campground I wanted to stop at which is just 3 miles inside
the US border. I wonder how much fluid/weight it is possible to lose
through ones hands and feet sweating? My feet sat in puddles of sweat
- and it might not be ladylike to admit to sweating - but I sweated
buckets through my hands and feet while scadding down the Interstate 5
at what felt like 300 miles per hour at times, through the center of
San Diego.

Doglets are thrilled with the patch of green grass, shade and puddle
of sunshine they found here and we are really enjoying being in shorts
and t-shirt again.

Tomorrow morning around 8am we will head across the border into
Mexico. We will be crossing at Tijuana and heading south of Ensenada
for the first night. Apparently its a good thing to get well south of
the border towns and the drive is stunning, by all accounts. My
cameras are all prepped, charged, loaded and well rested and ready for
a really busy day. Yup, my nerves are a bit rattled and I am a tad
nervous, but many people do this trip and we anticipate no problems at
all.

We just met another couple also heading to Baja for the first time and
we will probably head out together tomorrow. I don't think we will
stick together all the way down, but it will be nice to bump into them
along the way. We have just taken a walk around the park - it's so
lovely. Trees of odd kinds, bouganvilla hedges with beautiful red
blooms and many other flowering shrubs and the warmth! So good.

I don't anticipate having regular contact for the next few weeks, so
if you don't hear from us, don't worry. I will email when I can and
load pics when I have a good internet connection. Off to send this
email now from the clubhouse and have a good long soaking hot shower.
Then for an early night, as I wont have internet in the rv......

Next time, from Mexico :)

Love and light
Annie

http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

c - Smooth Roads to Arizona

2009-01-30T23:01:00.000-05:00

'Lets just get further west - it will be warmer' - suuure thing. Not
quite...... We are one again in a campground covered in snow....
After driving down the exit road from the campground on Thursday
morning.......... funny how that hill got steeper as the night hours
stretched on......... we were very happy to see that the interstate
was totally cleared off. Bunches of snow on the sides but we could
see the road again! I never thought I would be so happy to see an
interstate and be able to go screaming down it alongside the truckers!

Doglets were restless and we were both a bit tired, so it was really
good that Thursday was smooth riding, open roads, dry and lots of
sunshine. We had lots of good coffee and the best news of the day (of
the year so far) was that Steven's blood tests came back just great -
again! I sat and watched the time go by, swearing that I would not
call. But call I did, the news was good and my day improved
dramatically after that. :) Great stuff, Steven.

We spent the night in Santa Rosa, New Mexico - the campground had its
own restaurant so we spoiled ourselves and got some baby back ribs and
all the 'fixings' to go with it. We shared a plate, which left us
with a lovely leftover lunch today... I also had internet connection
there and was able to upload some of the photos of the day.

This morning we woke up cold and found the sewage hose frozen and
frozen to the ground too...... A little bit of warm water, another
pot of coffee brewed and we hit the highway again around 8am.
Beautiful sunshine beaming at us all day long....... The snow pretty
much cleared up for much of the way, until this evening. This is a
road that we have driven about 4 times already and many times I did
not snap a photograph simply because I know I have it somewhere on a
disk at home already. But there is still so much to see and much of
it makes me think about life and living and stuff. We drove past so
many old, broken down, abandoned houses and wonder why no one bothers
to fix them up. Right nearby would be a grubby old trailer, obviously
lived in and we would wonder why that would be a better option than
the block house that stood empty. There are an astounding number of
dead cars littering almost every place you can see. It's sometimes
difficult to get a photo without getting a good many rusted, wheel-
less cars in the pic.

The Indian Reservations particularly, are all run down, dusty looking,
surrounded by old cars and un-cared for yards. Such a pity that so
many communities live like this. And then the road leads one through
Alberquerque where everything is so new, and beautifully kept and
painted in colors that brighten without being glaring. Most of the
housing communities around Alberquerque are all in toned down colors
and it was lovely to see, about an hour past this, a row of houses
brilliantly painted in a different primary color each... Strange how
I still find myself with sweaty palms going through the middle of
major towns.

The interstate winds it's way almost parallel to the Historic Route 66
and there is a never ending supply of billboards trying to get you to
head to the old road and spend some much needed dollars... Coming
into any little town, the billboards quickly grow, towering over one
while advertising everything imaginable and one more Casino. Many,
many places advertising Mexican imports and Indian made goodies.
Occasionally there is a little pull off on the side of the interstate,
and a few stands where the locals sell their wares. It was at one of
these that we stopped to eat lunch. They advertise that its a 'scenic
overlook' - but the scenery is a bunch of houses on a hill! Ah well,
lunch was good :)

Even though the road was really good and smooth and I know that many
would find it boring, its quite amazing how the scenery changes
totally just going over a hill or around a bend in the road. One
minute we are driving with short scrubby bushes and nothing to see but
empty houses and then as we go around the corner, there are awesome
orange/red hills, actual trees and a mountain in the distance with
snow sprinkled on top! One year on the way to Alaska, we met a couple
at one of our multiple tire stops........the woman said that she slept
all the way there and back! I was horrified and often think of just
how much is missed - even on a 'boring' road. I hate even going to
the bathroom while we are driving for fear of missing something weird
or interesting!

Oh yes, that's one of the things that I really like about this rv. I
can get up to get some more coffee, stretch my legs, pet the dogs,
make a sandwich, go to the bathroom and peer out of the side windows
all while trundling on down the road! I can hardly imagine being
'stuck' in a seat not able to get up and move around a bit.

Anyway - so over the San Mateo Mountain range we tootled, past mud and
stone houses built right up next to the rocky outcrops almost
perfectly camouflaged and right back into snow-land! They must have
had one heck of a storm out here too - the snow lay thick between the
trees and covering all the open fields. We crossed over the
Continental Divide at 7545 feet just east of Gallup New Mexico. The
colors here are lovely - purple, orange, red, burned rust and heavily
dotted with pure white snow too - really pretty.

Into Arizona, past the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert - we have
been there twice so were quite content to bypass them this
time....then past the Meteor Crater as well and through terrain that
really had me thinking. It is literally barren ground, sandy and only
very small shrubs dotted around the place. This whole area used to be
a thick forest with huge trees and now its literally a dust pit! I
looked into the distance as we drove, trying to imagine what it looked
like all those years ago as thick, lush, green forest and all the life
that goes along with that....... quite sad, really.

And then we headed towards the San Fransisco Mountain Range that had a
goodly dollop of snow all over it! The trees grew up quickly,
stretching high up into the blue sky and they must be quite old too as
a good many of them had a fair girth....... Seeing proper trees like
this after a long run of literally just shrubs, is like greeting an
old friend again..... so good.

We had to laugh as we were trundling through Kingman,
Arizona.......... Blondie (the GPS) said "keep left and head towards
Los Van Habalas". So I grabbed the map and tried to find this place.
I loooooked and looked and then she said it again. Both Frank and I
swear thats what she said, but started laughing and decided to wait
for the signboard to see what she meant.........it's Los Angeles! Oh
boy. It's almost worth turning around and driving the same route
again just to hear her say it again.....almost.

And so another long but lovely day ended with us finding a KOA
campground just west of Kingman and about 300 miles from Joleen at
Twentynine Palms California. Yes, its all white outside, pretty white
with very muddy roads and a definite beyond-chill in the air. We are
trying to tell ourselves to enjoy it as we wont get this cold again in
a while, but its not easy to do in this tin can! :)

We will probably get to Joleen early in the afternoon tomorrow. It's
really been a lovely ride so far - even the excitement of the Ice
Road.......all part of the fun. Stop laughing, Kate!!

Doglets are doing fine traveling too. Allie does not seem so freaked
out this time and it was really cute to have them all bundled together
in their 'cave' for a good while today. Sophie definitely has a
'look' that says that she needs to go out *now* and we have learned
that we need to listen to that look.

We will spend the weekend with Joleen and Billy, head to the vet to
get the dogs a clean bill of health certificate again on Monday and
then head directly south into solid sunshine on Tuesday morning! The
dogs certificates of health are only valid for 72 hours, so we had
them done at home with their vet and will get them re-certified in
California.

Thats me for tonight. Frank is already in dreamland, trying to stay
warm there...... We had a good Frank-made dinner with the last of
Ken's awesome bread and the last of the eggs and a fruit salad made
with as much fruit as we could use........ the State of California
will confiscate the rest when we get there tomorrow - ah well.

love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

Ice Roads.........

2009-01-28T22:04:00.004-05:00

This was the road that we spend hours and hours and hours on today! Solid ice and trucks.

b - Ice Run into Oklahoma..

2009-01-28T21:49:00.000-05:00

The bed is different from the one at home, the sheets and blankets
slide off, its about a foot shorter than a normal bed and about 10
bricks harder........ So neither of us slept well, but I was woken up
with an evil little voice asking me if I wanted pics of the snow
before it all melted.... I have to admit that I had hoped that we had
left the white stuff behind us, but noooooo. So I went and took a few
pictures, more out of duty to my camera than anything else...

By now Allie had realized that we were on the move again, so she
started hyperventilating........sigh. Sophie was all over the place
wanting to know what was happening. The slide out froze in the out
position and we had to have both of us pulling on it to help the motor
to pull it in again. We could hear the ice scrunching on the top of
it and later during the day, felt the melt water dribble down the
walls......another sigh. It was cold today! We had icicles hanging
from the part of the RV that hangs over the front - and I watched as
these grew during the next good many hours...... yes grew.

There were huge flocks of geese filling the skies - all headed north
and away from this cold........yes, North!

And so we headed off back to the interstate smugly thinking that we
would get 'way past' Oklahoma City by days end and out of the cold
white stuff..... suuuuure thing! The trees and shrubs on the side of
the road got prettier and prettier with the dusting of snow and the
camera jumped and performed and caught some lovely ice photos and
frozen trees and then we saw a little slush in the road........and
then, well, and then the day got pretty much ruined. From one minute
to the next the road disappeared and an ice road appeared. We drove
for about 5 hours on solid ice about 2 inches thick, most of it
breaking up and terribly uneven so that our maximum speed was around 7
miles per hour - for hours and hours and hours. The noise was
indescribable and the microwave bounced loose from his screws, not
falling out, but having to be reseated.

I don't quite know how to describe those hours of 'driving'. Some
people thought it was just great fun and screamed past us at high
speed (15mph) throwing slush, sand and salt all over the windshield.
The road was reduced to one lane at the best of times and much of the
time it was just a free for all, wherever-you-can-drive-and-make-the-
least-noise-and-bumps piece of ribbon through an endless white scenery
with trucks backed up front and behind us, over the hills and into
other counties. We were nearly smashed into by one idiot with a
trailer and three cars on that - it was really close and Frank got rid
of some frustration by leaning heavily on the horn.....not a funny
moment at all.

The ice on the trees broke many branches and created an awesome and
ethereal scenery to keep me and the camera occupied and eyes away from
the road. After about 2 hours of this, the beauty became secondary to
just trying to stay on the road and hoping something on the rv would
not break. The exit ramps were simply not accessible at all, so we
could not stop, could not get off and just had to keep going... I
know hell is supposed to be hot, but this was the cold version..... If
anyone ever asks me when my 'hot sweats' started - the answer to that
is "about 100 miles east of Oklahoma City!".

Allie stayed in her 'cave' all snug and warm and Sofie came and acted
like a little blanket on my lap - she really is becoming a soppy
little doglet :)

Many of the trees had started budding already and they had a pink
tinge underneath the ice that had thoroughly coated them - quite
pretty. We saw more wrecks today than we had seen in all of our other
trips combined. At least 5 trucks ended up on their sides, many many
cars skidded off the road, one poor family was moving their stuff in a
little UHaul trailer and it turned over and spread all its contents
over the interstate.... One accident had three 53foot tractor
trailers involved - one a double-doozie! We were really very lucky -
there were many close calls with us and trucks and others just pushing
it too fast, but Frank pushed and pulled and dragged Skilpad through
it all. Fortunately the noise disguised most of my squeaks and not-so-
silent plea's for an end to the horror so he did not have to deal with
that too often.

We are now in a KOA Campground about 20 miles east of Oklahoma City -
yup - still this side...... but happy to be stopped and not stopped on
the interstate in the dark and ice. The campground is totally white
with snow and getting out of here tomorrow morning is going to be
interesting, to say the least. Funny how quickly trees grow into
obstacles rather than just trees.........and there are many of them
here!

On a happier note, Mo Crow hooked up with us again today! Mo Crow is
a big black crow that seems to follow us on all our trips, whether its
to the Carolina Coast or Alaska - he and his family keep dropping down
on the side of the highway to see how we are doing. Nuts, yes. But
its amazing to see just how often these crows are everywhere one goes.

I am trying to get photos up onto the photobucket website, but the
connection here is in slow-mo..... The link is below each email -
hopefully I will have some pics soon.

Love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09

a - On the Road Again!

2009-01-28T18:43:00.000-05:00

It felt totally natural driving down the road this morning in the
RV. There was no major excitement, no whooo hooo or yippeee's - just
a bleary eyed natural-ness about it all. Any time before it gets
light should be illegal - I just don't function worth squat before the
light arrives.... Frank wakes up when he has slept enough with a kind
of "hello world!" attitude no matter what the time, while I try to
burrow deeper under the covers..... and so it was this morning. I
woke to the sounds of coffee percolating, last minute things being
packed up and carried out to the RV that was right outside the front
door. There is only so long one can lie there and listen to this
without feeling like a total b*tch. So up I got and put on the mood
- boy did it feel right.

After waving goodbye to Steven who was on his way to work, we pulled
out just before 8am, grinning meanly in the direction of the computer
shop that is all tightly shut until we get back. It felt so good!
Katie - kind of like that hypnosis tape---"it felt so good to feel so
good! LOL. Slowly I woke up, sipping coffee and getting used to the
sounds of everything in the RV again. Allie had burrowed under her
bed again, so I flipped it over making her a cave to hang out in while
she hated us as we drove. Sophie looked at us in horror and barked
loudly at everything for the first minute or two - then she calmed
down and was fine for the rest of the day. She yips at us when she
needs to go out and then holds it in until we find a pull over place -
wonderful! We think they are in cahoots - Allie just wanting this
wheelie house to stop at all cost and Sophie knowing just how to get
us to stop!

We first planned to head north on the I24, through Nashville, Memphis
into Arkansas on the I40, but looking at the weather we changed our
plan to take the 72W which is a smaller road and further south. Oh
boy am I glad we did that. After joining up with the I40 in Memphis,
we saw so much ice being flung from the trucks and cars coming from
the northern roads! I would not have enjoyed that at all.

Blondie the GPS did well today. A few times I changed my mind on
roads to take after giving her directions, and she calmly re-adjusted
herself without any yelling whatsoever, to the new route. And she did
a perfect job through Memphis. After that it went downhill, and I
turned her sound off. Evidently she does not like the I40 and
constantly wants us to 'turn around and turn around again...." I
swear she gets more insistent each time. Maybe she is pms-ing? again?
Kay (in the form of a shell) is perched on Blondie's shoulder and
hopefully will talk to her rather sternly tonight!

Driving on the lower road and through small little towns is
interesting in many ways... I love seeing what different people do
with their yards, how they decorate or dress up their houses according
to their likes and dislikes and characters. Some houses are obviously
loved and cared for, much time being taken in the pruning and
trimming, planting and enhancing of the gardens and others - well, you
can see that they are just places to live in. It's interesting to see
the ideas people come up with for their mailboxes - from 1960's
child's pram to a John Deer tractor - all brightly perched on a pole,
telling so much about those that live there. I like seeing all these
differing personalities being shown.

The little towns are all pretty much the same too - well, they have
the same kind of stores along the main through road.... McD's, Vet,
thrift store, Wally World, etc etc..... most often with the biggest
church slap in the middle of town. Some of the old buildings are just
beautiful, calling for a camera to catch them before they fall or are
taken down. That old red brick has so much character and the stairs
winding their way up on the outside of the buildings.........so many
stories.

So here we sit - in an Arkansas campground somewhere, about 50 miles
West of Memphis - in this homely tin can with the rain and sleet
pounding the world outside. It's a beautiful sound to go to sleep
with and Frank is already there :) Sophie is curled up at my feet and
Allie is next to the heater in the room. It's dark outside and it's
rather like sitting in my own little world right now. I can faintly
hear the traffic on the interstate and there are muted lights all over
the campground No internet connection tonight which is probably good
as I am also tired and being able to get online would just keep me up.

We are hoping for some sunshine tomorrow - it rained all day today and
made it very difficult for my camera to function at all. I must say
that even at the mention of possible snow tonight and tomorrow
morning, by camera is lurking in a dark corner, not at all keen to go
and play in the white stuff.

Off to sleep with me now too. We gained an hour along the way but we
really don't know the correct time. Our cell phones tell one time,
the clock another and Blondie - well she is hours out from anything
else... But its dark, cold and it was a really great day. Neither of
us wear a watch either.....

We are really very, very fortunate and blessed to be able to do yet
another trip like this, and we carry that thought with us every mile
of the way.

love and light
Annie

http://bajabaggs.blogspot.com

Packing..

2009-01-25T19:13:00.003-05:00

Today Frank brought Skilpad around to the front of the house to make packing easier. Allie took one look and ran for the furtherest bedroom in the house, Sophie just stood barking at it....

We packed and sorted all day long - and still have a long way to go. I don't want to put my camera or computer stuff in there until we leave, but we have most of the food in now and our clothes will go in tomorrow morning and then all the little odds and ends that seem endless.

Tuesdays morning is the time we have picked to leave....early morning and will probably get to Memphis or thereabouts by the evening.

It's real - its going to happen! Sunshine, warmth, beaches.......did I say sunshine?

Why??

2009-01-18T21:37:00.004-05:00

This is why! Snow........ These are photos of some of the snowflakes that graced us with their presence the other day. Since then, its been cold enough for it to snow - but no more, well, none that were formed into pretty flakes.

Yesterday we had quite a lot of white stuff falling and I quickly grabbed my camera in hope of capturing some more of these incredible designs......... but nooooo. The snow was made up of little straight crystals all bundles together - no rhyme or form or prettiness at all. What a disappointment, even though it was really pretty.

It's cold here, and then I read about the amazing, warm and wonderful days down in Baja and I want to keep packing and sorting and getting ready to roll!

Today we bought the bike rack for the bicycles. We were hoping to get a scooter or two to take along, but all they are all so big and bulky and we just don't want to rush into getting something we wont want or use later. Maybe for the next trip down - maybe then we will be more organized.

We have had the doglets injected, nails trimmed, faces trimmed and primed for the trip. We have extra deworming mootie and flea and tick stuff too... Their official 'healthy letters' from the vet will come in next week after a final check on them both and then we should all be all set and really ready to get rolling!

The dining room is filled with bags and boxes and plastic containers all ready to get loaded into the RV. Normally we would have put quite a bit of it in there already, but it just too blasted cold to go out more than absolutely necessary! So a few days before we head out, Frank will bring the RV around to the front, hook up the heat and then we can load and stay half warm at the same time.

I would love to have Steven's test results before we leave, but am determined to not be freaky even if I have to wait for them. It would be lovely to leave with that peaceful feeling though.

Anyway - the computer is cleaned up, we even have a spare one. The cameras batteries are all charged up and ready, the lenses all cleaned and the extra hard drives ready to get loaded with the thousands of photos I just know I will be taking. Today I tested the High Definition movie mode in the new camera and it is fantastic!

Tomorrow morning I must put the signs up on the shop, warning people that we are leaving....

Ten days........... only ten days more.....

Annie

Translations...

2009-01-12T22:16:00.010-05:00

Just a little background and translations too :)

We get to see all these wonders around this continent from the comfy base of our 29 foot Class C Motor Home (RV). We have two pullouts which make for a great amount of extra space and almost taking us out of the 'camping' heading. There really is no roughing it in Skilpad at all. She is our home away from home. Well, apart from the really cruddy little shower that is now a storage place :)

Skilpad is the name of our RV - it means "Tortoise" in Afrikaans, a language of South Africa where I come from. The Tortoise gets there eventually - slow and sure, chomping at the juicy grasses along the way, looking left and right and plodding right along. Skilpad.

The bakkie is not coming along for the ride this time. "Bakkie" is another Afrikaans word, meaning 'pickup'. She has been only on most of our other adventures, but this time we are going it alone. Well, apart from the bicycles.

Our travel companions are Allie and Sophie, otherwise jointly known as 'doglets'. They are mini yorkies and not yappers at all. Allie, who is two and a half years old, hates traveling in the RV. I mean she REALLY hates it.

I have now learned to turn her bed upside down and turn it into a cave where she hides for every mile we drive. When we stop, she is just fine again, every time - until Frank moves towards the drivers seat .... then she starts with her shaking and runs and hides in her cave. It drives me nuts.

Sophie, only 11 months old, really does not give a hoot where she is as long as there is food to eat and a squeaky mouse to chew on. She occasionally takes pieces of food to Allie to try to entice her out of her cave, but so far with no success. It's pitiful to see. Sophie has learned to entertain herself very well, which in turn keeps us well stocked up with laughs.

Blondie is our GPS system. I am not sure how much I should talk about her and maybe I will change her into a him for this trip. No, no - it's just a voice change - nothing dramatic! Last time she misled us badly some times, tried to derail us totally at other times and had us laughing when she repeatedly and without reason, would demand that we 'turn around, and turn around again' at the oddest of places that had absolutely no possible turnaround points, or any reason to do so. Think a lecture would help her before we leave?

We really do live in a little town called Soddy Daisy, and our house really is painted (by choice) a bright canary yellow. We don't travel with any time schedule or reservations anywhere at all - pretty much tootling down the road for as many hours as we are comfortable with.

This Baja adventure is going to be a new way of travel to us. Before - we pretty much screamed up the Alcan Hwy, or across Canada sometimes driving 12 hours a day - our record is 14 hours and thats because there was so much light at that time of year and it was just lovely around each corner. Once we reach Baja, we will slow down dramatically....we are going to learn how to just hang out slowly, stay in one place for more than a few days maybe and ............of course, fill up on photos. Plenty walks, bicycle rides, whale watches and other things....

I welcome any questions or comments on the blog. Till later

Annie

Planning for Baja

2009-01-11T19:52:00.003-05:00

Oh wow - I have not been this excited about an adventure since our first road trip to Alaska in 2003....... This trip will be all new roads, apart from the run from here to Tijuana at the Mexican border, but then we get to see my youngest sproglet, Joleen, who is a gorgeous blue eyed, freckle faced United States Marine based in Twentynine Palms, CA. This will make those known roads, and the interstate, more bearable.

The information I have found and been given from people on the "Baja boards" has been wonderful and so incredibly helpful - I think I have half a ton of printed stuff that I just know I will probably forget about as soon as the camera jumps up at the first sight of the ocean and the adventure unfolds.

Our dining room is filled with bags of stuff to be packed in the RV and the doglets (mini yorkies) know something is happening. Allie does not like travel, Sophie does not care at all and is rather a joker. Blondie, the GPS, is slowly waking up...... maybe we should dye her hair before setting out on this trip? She gave us some serious headaches on the last trip to see the Aurora Borellis - trying her damdest to get us to drive off the top of the Icefield Parkway in Canada! Maybe she has had an attitude adjustment while hanging around in that dark drawer for a while? I hope so.....

Tomorrow I will put the sign up on the marquee telling everyone that we are closing the shop in the last week of January until we get back. When are we going to be back? Probably around the first week in March, but to be sure, lets just say - the minute the wheels stop turning in front of this little yellow house again :) I know - it drives people nuts when we do this, but they love looking at the photos I print out and staple to the shop walls after each trip while we fix there virus ridden or sick computers. It's quite a job picking out which ones go up as I only have place for about 200 pics - without using the ceiling! The problem is that I take thousands of photos on each trip. I looked at it the other day and on the trips of 13000 miles, I took around 13000 pics. The last trip to Alaska was 'only' 11000 miles and yes............ 11000 photos! Sorting is hell, but wonderful too....... so many memories, so many smiles.

Ok - so not much will be posted until the day we leave and hopefully we will have semi-regular internet so that I can update from along the way.

I am so incredibly excited!