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

j - We found Paradise!!

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...

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.....

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!

g - Sea of Cortez......

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...

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...

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

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

'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