Mex 05'- 2:

The Party:

OK, the last update I mentioned Heidi and I were heading to a goat roast party in Loreto with Deanna, Roy, Tammy and Larry. Well, the party was a real sleeper,

and Deanna, Roy, Tammy and Larry were kind of dull, and nothing real exciting was going on. NOT!

Everyone at the party welcomes us with open arms and treats us like family. We stay until the wee hours and all walk home together and party at the motel after, Ouch!

Our plans are to meet the next day up the coast at Puerto Escondido, we have an invitation to stay the night on Tammy & Larry’s sailboat, how nice! Half way down a scenic pullover, we see both boats sailing toward Puerto Escondido. Perfect conditions, I imagine how great it must be to be out there on a boat.

Heidi and I do not like the idea of staying the night on the boat with all our belongings unguarded on shore, so we plan to pitch the tent on the beach and just have another day of fun with the gang. When we arrived at Puerto Escondido, we find it to be nothing but a big sailing community with no motels, no beach or anywhere to pitch a tent. I’m sure the sailors like that.

Tammy & Larry really want us to stay on board their sailboat for the night but I’m the captain of my own ship and have to make the call, sail on (drive on) to the next port of call where we will feel good about the jeep security. Thanks again Tammy & Larry!

Luggie Man:

Shooting for La Paz we are looking for a budget motel. The guidebook says La Paz has the cheapest hotels in all of Baja. The way we see it the cheaper we stay in one place the more we can afford to live it up in another. But the number one priority for lodging is always overnight Jeep security. It doesn’t matter how cheap or expensive the hotel is, if we don’t have a good feeling about the Jeep, we don’t stay. The first place we check out is Hotel Tijuana, a bit seedy but has great parking security with an enclosed courtyard and we are close to the seaside boulevard or malecon. Felix, the owner of the hotel is extremely pleasant and is willing to do anything to make us comfortable and happy. He was always calling me “my good friend Tomb”. We plan to spend just one night but Felix says it would be cheaper to stay longer, $38 per night for one night, $22 a night for two. No brainier, we take two.

You get what you pay for! Heidi checks the sheets and says they are dirty and have hairs all over them, not from a head either. I brake out the sleeping bags. After the super bowl play-off activities in the courtyard finished the guy staying above us (he is a permanent resident of the motel) is hacking up luggies for close to two hours. The next night at happy hour time he starts clanking bottles together and singing loud 60’s rock and roll that he is blasting. The clanking and singing is not as bad as the luggies. Glad I slept for most of that.

La Paz:

We find La Paz has everything we like. The malecon is the nicest we have seen with clean beaches, sailboats and ships in the harbor, hotels, restaurants, bars and cafe's along the street.

Heidi and I like to explore new cities on foot and enjoy the aerobic exercise and to us it’s the only way to get a good feel for a new place. http://cavebiker.smugmug.com/Adventure-Travel/Mexico-Jeep-Adventure-Report/P0000210/44031483_aMPks-M.jpg

We spend over six hours walking around, super workout and what a ball.

Keeping with the theme of an inspirational website I will keep trying to mention things that Heidi and I like to do while traveling. A goal of ours is to return from an adventure in much better shape then when we started. We constantly have our eyes on the lookout for a gym and a way to get the heart pumping. We stumble on Athons fitness center, a nice little gym and just a short walk from the motel. I don’t think we could feel more welcome at a new gym then we did at Loreto’s University but Luis and everyone at Athons are trying their best. We workout both days and feel great!

Our plan is do the counter clockwise loop around the Baja Cape Region spending a night or two in Cabo, then go back and do a week in La Paz. At La Paz the plan is to take a ferry to mainland Mexico and cruise down the Pacific coast.

Todos Santos:

We leave La Paz late and are now looking for somewhere to spend the night before Cabo. Todos Santos sounds like a good place, a small village where traditional Mexican families, artists, surfers and refugees from the Hollywood film industry live and hang out. The ride from La Paz is arid cactus desert. We tool into Todos Santos and find ourselves in a lush tropical forest. Palm trees, fruit trees and a big rushing clear stream going through town. We Will Have To check this out! We find a motel first try that has good parking for the jeep. It is a little expensive for us but cheap for most, $46 a night and it is fabulous, sea view, a separate bedroom, living room, kitchen and it has a good pool! The family who run and own it are friendly and warm people, always asking us if we need anything, Santa Rosa hotel apartments.

The grounds around the hotel are like a fantasy from some kind of ancient Roman desert “tropical’ oasis type movie. I keep thinking girls are going to start gathering around offering grapes and stuff.

The unexpected:

After a little research we discover Todos Santos is world famous for surfing and the best in the Baja with several surf beaches north and south of town. Our room is less then two kilometers from the ocean. Coming through town on our way in I notice a sign for a gym. OK, what is wrong with this picture? Nothing, this is what we look for. We didn’t expect to find a long term destination here in the Baja, but here we are, it can’t be helped. Sitting along side the pool the first night having cocktails and likin it. The owner Alberto takes over at about 5:00 PM. Sensing Heidi is really likes the whole scene and will not mind spending some time here, I go off on a mission. Talking like Arnold “I .. Know .. The .. Procedure” Excusing myself for a moment to chat with Alberto. Heidi gets the news, “We have a little problem. We’re stuck here for a month!” Life is Good...

Next day we head into town looking for supplies for a long term stay. Mexican food is my favorite but I put on weight loving all the food on our drive down. Behind on my goal it will be great doing our own cooking and getting back in shape.

Heidi found an orange-press in La Paz, we’re always seeing stands selling bags of oranges. The first turn we take in town, bingo, oranges.

Our next mission is to find the gym and sign up, $23 for a month,

Sweet! That’s Wime working out on the left. He‘s a college student here on break from Guadalajara University studying international business, perfect, he likes to practice English while we practice Spanish. The gym has everything we need. We are given the combination to the lock so we can go any time and it’s only a five block walk from our motel. Please, nobody wake me up from this dream!

The next moment almost, I find myself in the back of a topless jeep with two babes in control and we’re on our way to the world class surf beach. This is Ruth on the left, she came down for the first time three weeks ago on vacation and has extended her stay because she decided to buy a home here, and live full time. …..O…..My….!

The beach:

The beach extends over 20 miles running north and south of town, and NO hotels, development is banned on this beach here.

The wind is up today and wind spoils the waves. Only one person is out but he does get some awesome rides. We see two whales a half mile out. A couple days ago, it was like watching a Wide World of Sports TV show with dozens of top surfers doing huge waves.

We waited for the sunset before heading back.

Next morning before sunrise, sitting at the kitchen table, I’m hearing sounds like a storm rumbling in the background, then realize the sounds are huge waves crashing on the beachs nearby. Now that I’m going to be a wave surfer dude I have to learn the lingo, “The surf is up!” Surfers hit the beach early morning before the wind comes up. Wind is Bad, swells are Good. My espresso is downed, time to hit the beach.

Scene at the surf beach:

Scene looking out @: I’m using this ‘@’ font to symbolize the thumb and the pinkie sticking out and wagging the ‘Hang Loose’ sign. This is the scene here @. It’s hard to see but these are 15 and sometimes 20 foot waves. Three or four people are set up on shore with cameras with huge lenses sitting on tripods.

OK, OK, OK, I must have been really tired I still haven’t woken up from this dream. I decide to just go with it and see how long it lasts. I couldn’t believe the deal we got for staying a month so I go have another talk with Alberto. I ask if he could do anything for us if we commit for two months.

Home for the next two months! It didn’t show up but I’m looking out at the Pacific Ocean while typing. With a long wire antenna strung for my short-wave radio our short-wave gets the BBC, Cuba or whatever. This dream is in color.

Today I head to the south surf beach 6 miles away. This beach is the nicest, it has surf shops renting boards and campo’s selling beer. Windsurfing shops are usually the best place to buy used equipment in the Caribbean so I ask around at the surf shops about used boards. I came away with some good options and meet some local surfer guys at the beach. What a scene here, straight out of a 70’s surfer movie. My new buddy Pedro, is a surf champion and tells me he is on the cover of a recent surfer magazine. Fun people and I am really liking it here.

Mexican people:

The next morning I head to the south surf beach again. On my way back, I head down a dirt path toward a beach that is closest to our motel, Heidi and I walked here yesterday. This is an ultimate Baja sand banked and bumpy road with options forking off all over going to the same place, the beach. Here is where local fisherman head out and do their thing. It’s Sunday so nobody is out. I can see a couple dune buggies up on the lip of the beach. The jeep is parked on hard sand back about 200 yards, near a palapa shelter.

A local family walks up from the beach road and start setting-up around the palapa. To get out of their way, I stick it into 4-wheel drive, growl and blast off. I pull up to the lip of the beach where the scene is perfect, waves crashing on the beach and rocks below. A few fishermen are casting off from the rocks to my left. Some of them are using bare line in their hands to fish. At one point, three guys are all grabbing onto one bare line and pulling. This is so cool.

Looking behind me, a young girl from the family is talking to some people in a dune buggy, I was trying not to pay attention but heard a loud “No” from the dune buggie. A couple minutes later, I see in my rear view this girl carrying a huge bundle of wood from a pile of driftwood on the beach. I think she was asking if the people in the buggy would help. OK, ready to head back. My tires dug in the sand a lot deeper then those dune buggies floating by, I have to hammer it and keep momentum.. If you’re a 4-wheeler, you know the feeling I’m talking about, a type of tightness in your chest and throat knowing you have to do everything to keep your wheels moving forward and not stall out.

I swing right past the wood pile putting the hammer down feeling good just to get out of there. I tool past the family and smell a fire and see out of the corner of my eye the family preparing a fire under a grill. They are having a Sunday cookout and need firewood. I am heading out on the sand road with “Baja” on my brain. I fire on the brakes, turn the wheel hard and kick it down! I whip up the sand hill and turn down and out. I load up a big pile of driftwood, throw it on top and fly out. I pull up near the family and use my most polite Spanish, “Good morning sir, would like the firewood”

The older man comes up and thanks me right away in a super gracious manner, after a dozen or so Spanish words I can not understand he puts in a couple English words, like ‘Thank…..You….” then rattle on looking real sincere. He had no top front teeth but always bore a huge smile, he reminded me of a real Popeye, having strong hands like a fisherman. I try to scram out of there ASAP, wanting to make it look like it is no big deal, then the older women and older man start coming up to me talking and doing a thumb in the mouth motion. I didn’t know what was going on, I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I said as politely as I could that I understand very little and it was nothing and I had to go. They thanked me some more, I boogied, we all waved good bye. Whenever I figure out what someone is saying to me it’s usually much later after I think about it a bit. Thinking on the way back I imagined them asking me for corn, saying they’re fisherman and all they eat are fish. I’m like bawling by the time I get home telling Heidi to get ready we have to go back with some of our corn tortillas. Heidi finally settles me down and we talk about what I think they were saying. Daa! They were asking me to eat fish and corn with them, really wanting me to join them. I knew they weren’t asking me for anything, I guess I went into hyper overanalyze mode, no, not me, ha, ha. Sunday is a big family day in Mexico and wearing your Sunday best is the norm. What a nice family.

The surf board:

We’ve met a lot of people and got the scoop on where to maybe find a used surfboard. Today we head out early to Cabo San Lucas. The plan is to get some stuff, have some fun and check it out. Heidi spots a big surf shop along the road between Cabo and San Jose del Cabo.

We hit the first big-Mart type store and stock up on essentials for long term tropical living, blender, protein powder, swin-fins, wetsuit, rum, lime press. We head back to the Costa Azul surf shop and pull out with a surfboard on top, a cool Gerry Lopez design. I will look up and find out who that is. Ha, ha (I …. Need .. To … Know).

Much more to come.

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