Baja 2016 - The Ultimate Road Trip
One Dog, Two people and Four Wheels
A wild 6-month ride wheeling through Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, Heidi, Tom and Sam here we go…
Driving south along Baja highway-1, destinations unknown. While looking at a map yesterday I noticed Bahia de los Angeles. I wasn’t sure if we could make it there today or not. Talking with Heidi about this she says “I didn’t think we were going to Bahia de los Angeles” I say “I thought we were!” It seemed strange we didn’t have all that planned before we hit the road today. This is the way I like it, just roll with it but with Heidi onboard we usually plan more.
The desert constantly changes in the Baja.
At the last minute we decided to turn off the main road and head to Bahia de los Angeles, a small off the beaten path fishing village on the Sea of
Cortez. We stayed here 9 years ago and loved the location, but it’s a really small town and we are concerned about an ATM, we know there probably are no
banks there. The road to Bahia de los Angeles is a little Baja but not bad.
Bahia de los Angeles:
We ride around until we find the place we stayed at last time. We remember the place was crude but on the beach, and that would be great for Sam. 9 years ago when we stayed here we needed to fill a bucket with sea water to flush the toilet. Today after looking at the rooms with Baja race stickers plastered all over the windows and the asking price of $65US we decided to look around. We are still low on pesos so we need pesos.
While riding around we spot this sign just outside of town “Camp Daggett’s” looks worth checking out.
I bargain for a one week stay. That was easy, twenty bucks per day, we do the week. Camping would have cost much less, but for a sweet room at that price
it’s an easy decision. Plus, Sam likes it here, he already has several dog friends. The dog on the right has a skull and cross bones on his pink sweater.
Dog heaven…
Our bay is protected by a big island that looks like a volcano, Smith Island.
The beach hiking here is fantastic.
Heidi teaches Sam some Yoga moves.
Good shell collecting here.
At low tide locals walk out to collect clams.
Our neighbor Dan five doors down from us is from California, he and his wife rent a place year-round and have been coming here for 14 years. And they
bring a boat. He asked me if I’m a fisherman and do I want to go fishing with him. Yeah!
We ride past a school of Dolphin’s churning up small fish.
The Dolphin’s make the birds go nuts. This is on the way to a reef 17 miles’ out.
Dan gets a bite first, nice bass.
The biggest fish I ever caught, a Yellow Tail something. Thought my arms were going to fall off getting it in. I hear the fish caught yesterday were over twice as big. Wow!
We explore some islands on the way back.
We motored into an idyllic small protected bay with a shipwrecked sailboat on the beach. The water is light turquoise in color. There we jumped into two feet of water and begin to collect clams on the bottom. The clams are glommed onto rocks. The trick is to knock the clam off the rock using another rock, like you are trying to make a spark. This move is done over a bucket floating in the water next to you. Next we putt into a smaller bay where we jump in and start digging into the sand with our hands collecting clams. Almost every hand scoop 8 inches’ down pulls up two or three clams. It was hard to not pull up any. Fun, we collected a good pile. The clams need to be soaked in fresh water overnight to rid them of sand before eating.
There are no photos of these bays, my camera battery gave it up after this shot in route. I got a new rule ‘never go without a fully charged battery)
Dan is a fillet master and super fun guy. He cuts the fish up right on the beach. Campers start gathering around, some are long term people here and
others just showed up in an RV today or yesterday. Dan makes the magic sauce he puts on the sweetest small strips of fish. It’s for eating the fish raw.
He offers everyone a try, really fantastic.
Ready to cook the day’s catch beach side.
The best fish tacos ever. We give the rest of the fillets to some locals. They were very happy for the fish.
Stay tuned for more fun in Baja Mexico…
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