Baja Bound First few Days Potrero South

Shortly after Skyping with Shannon and family back in Calgary we headed to Potrero CA, a popular meeting point and county park for travelers heading into the Baja. We hadn’t been successful in finding someone who was close to our schedule, CJ and Kathy were a week earlier with their plans and had decided to join a caravan for safety, so we were prepared to go in alone. To our good fortune Greg Mustard came over while walking his dog. He and Debbi are from Penticton, BC and were heading in, and have been there many times over 25 yrs. He asked if we wanted to join them and we arranged a time to head out and a radio channel to converse with using the GPRS radios we both carried. 

1st evening

Debbi and Greg

7:15 am the next morning we headed out and crossed at Tecate MX. With visitor cards arranged we filled with gas @ 10.61 pesos /litre and we were on our way.

In Ensenada we stopped to withdraw some cash and pay the visitor card fee at the bank. Later that same day we stopped at El Pabellon RV park, a Pacific coast campsite where we basically boon-docked since there aren’t any real services to be had.

 We unfortunately saw a major drug smuggling importation go down and the military charge down the beach to try and stop the exchange. We don’t think they were successful.

The next morning we headed south again, this time Debbi and Greg wanted to stop at Catavina a favorite high desert hiking area for them. The winds were high in there, the temperatures quite cold and the winds really affected their comfort in driving their Class A Trek motorhome so we passed on staying with them and headed to Baja De Los Angeles a bay some 80 kms away and arranged to meet the next morning at the intersection by 9:00am. We made a wise choice and enjoyed a nice much warmer evening in the Bay overlooking the 

Isla Ángel de la Guarda island just off shore.

San Ignacio Mission

The next morning we connected back up at the junction and began heading south this time a short day to San Ignacio, a northern Mission of the Jesuits back in 1728. Unfortunately the violence, drug problems, and US economy have all affected the tourism in this area and we were basically the only people there, plus Fred and Teresa, another BC couple who joined our caravan.

The RV Park recommended was El Padrino but it was basically a disaster and we stayed at a pretty spot on the oasis lagoon. The owner pumped water from the lagoon into a big barrel and turned on a hot water heater so we could have showers but we passed as the water was green.

Military checkpoint

Gustav Eiffel's church in Santa Rosalia

Playa Stantispac

The next morning we headed off south again with our sights set on Playa Santispac once a very popular spot for snowbirds on the Sea of Cortés.  After filling with propane Sandra and I spent some time in Santa Rosalia visiting the church that Gustav Eiffel donated to the town after the 1896 World’s fair in Paris. The French had quite a bit of involvement there at one time.

Later, after some fantastic fish tacos at a stand there we met back up with Greg and Debbi and arrived at Stantispac in time for the Saturday evening party at Lupa’s on the beach. What great fun! We’ll be heading out on Tuesday to Loreto and continuing south.