Dick Martiny’s Journal of the Baja Caravan

These are the final pages in Dick Martiny’s Journal about their “just completed” Baja Caravan. Two other members of our unit were on that caravan, Montagues and Whites. They had a great adventure.

Baja Adventure
Page 17

Sunday, March 1

The caravan was split into two groups for our whale watching experience. The first group departed in vans at 8 am promptly. The dog and cat owners among us have been split between the two groups to allow coverage for animal needs while their owners spend an overnight at the whale viewing campground. At 10 am, ten of the 22 remaining here, gathered on the porch of the camp restaurant for an impromptu Sunday School discussion based on Psalm 90 (WDs favorite). Everyone chimed in to share their thoughts about today’s application of this 2000 old text. The group included Whites, Richardsons, Montagues, Bowen, Knight, and us. A variety of backgrounds but a common belief emerged.

After this, we shared a dog walking session down the road to the “new campground”. Like many things in Mexico, it has been under construction for many years. It will be a nice improvement when finished. Currently, it is jammed every year with Baja 1000 participants as this is an official stop.

We went with four couples to a nice hotel restaurant in town for lunch. After lunch we toured the mission and the associated plaza. About 5 pm, all the members of the 2nd whale watch group gathered for a potluck supper. It went well, included a large variety and quantity of foods and desserts. After supper, we packed clothes, toiletries and supplies for our departure tomorrow.

Monday, March 2

At 8:30 am, the 22 members of group 22 packed into two vans for the 1 ½ hour ride to the San Ignacia lagoon. This lagoon is the winter breeding/birthing area for thousands of grey whales. It is the only place known where the whales come to the boats to be petted and to show off. The same vans will retrieve and return Group 1.

Upon arrival at the beach, we stowed our gear in the office and headed for the boats. Three boats took us out on beautiful smooth waters. The mama whales brought their babies to the boats to be petted. It was great. The weather was perfect – no sea sickness. These mammals are remarkable. They lounge like manatees, they dive like dolphins and they show off like sea otters. They are big – 50 feet long and 20 tons of barnacle covered hide which feels like a Jelly filled rubber tire. When they came to our boat, we petted them, some kissed them and they often showered us from the exhaust of their blowholes – only a few feet away. They rolled on their side to be rubbed and patted and winked their big eyes. They lift their bodies out of the water straight up and do belly flops to show off. It is certainly one of the finest shows on earth. The visitors from Holland, Italy and Germany at the camp agreed with this assessment as they travel numerous times to this area to have the experience.

Supper was provided by the campsite. Tacos, beans, rice and salad filled our smiling faces. We moved our gear into our huts. The members of the group napped, walked the beach, played cards and read until supper time. The temperatures were ideal. Supper was creamed scallops over rice with beans and a fresh salad. Everyone enjoyed and relaxed until bedtime.

Tuesday, March 3

We were up at 7 am to prepare for our second day. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with vegetables and beans. The wind is higher and four persons chose not to go out on the water. Yesterday had been a very full day and sea sickness would not have improved the memory.

The adult whales were more active. The males had come in from the ocean and the females were frolicking. It was tons of excited motion with acrobatics that would make an Olympian proud. The belly flops could be seen and heard from a mile away. A large female rubbed the bottom of one boat to scratch her barnacles as John White rubbed her back from his position in the boat. She turned around to express her appreciation – lifting her large head to view the participants before exhausting her spent air and diving out of sight.

At 10:30, the vans arrived to take us back home and deliver the next group of tourists. After getting back to camp, we had a drivers meeting and prepared for our departure to the next campsite. Our next 6 days will be without sewer, water or power supplies at two beach front locations.

Baja Adventure
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Thursday, March 5

At 10 am, the biologist of the local turtle project toured us through their facilities and explained the 7 types of sea turtles in this area. It is the world’s largest breeding area and the adults come here from Alaska and Japan and all the waters in between. This project has provided evidence of these travels since it began in the 70s. Over hunting and fish netting mistakes has placed most sea turtles on the endangered species listings. People in this area still harvest some for food but the laws are being violated when they do. Three turtles were in the hospital tanks after being delivered by fisherman who had caught them by mistake. Their injuries are being treated so they can be released to the wild again.

Before lunch, 14 members of our group mounted a local van to be transported to Mission San Borja – a two hour drive over rough gravel roads, through a colorful blooming desert, into the mountains. The cactus, elephant trees, cirios trees, and desert wild flowers were enjoying recovery from several days of rain the previous week.

Our guide at the mission was the 18 year old member of the family owning 3500 acres of land and the remains of the mission abandoned in the 1800s. He is a self taught seventh generation Indian and has headed up the beautiful restoration work done over the past 8 years. His family lives on the site and his father has taught all the skills he has needed. Their farm has 7 springs (two are hot and have become the bathtubs for the family), olive trees, grape arbors, full vegetable garden, a herd of 12 cattle (for milk and meat), a herd of 9 goats (for cheese and meat) and it is maintained with no traditional farm equipment. They are self sufficient and proud of their work on the farm and in the restoration. The 19 year old brother was replacing the engine in their diesel 4 wheel drive pickup truck. This 18 year old has set up a TV dish, internet service for himself and knew more about our cameras than we did. He helped several people shut off their flash units when they could not do it themselves. He lives in one room of the mission on a cot, with a suitcase, beginning each day a daybreak and returning to bed when the sun set. He and his brother have cut the heavy stones needed from the local mountains, shaped them and replaced the failed blocks of the mission walls. The stones gutters they have made are works of art and the arched entry stones are engineering masterpieces. Yes, we were impressed. The mission is his labor of love. It was started by Jesuits, operated later by Dominicans and then closed after operation by the Franciscan order. He had a museum with the vestments from each order along with gold, silver, and copper mined by the local Indians to support the mission work. The cemetery behind the mission was the mass grave of over 1500 persons that perished from disease in one event. Other sites were his great grandparents and family members.

It was an eye-opening day. After returning to the trailers, we had a quick supper and drove to the community center to hear last night’s speaker share the history of the Turtle Project, receive our monetary donations for the high school and the library, and receive an opportunity to purchase handmade jewelry by local artisans. His 35-40 years of work with the Turtles Project and as an entrepreneur in this community were remarkable. Yes, bed felt good after a full day.

Friday, March 6

Everyone was up early and into seven local fishing boats by 7:00am to tour the islands in this harbor. We observed osprey nests with babies, a window rock formation, a “white” island (bird waste covered),
sea lions, cormorants, and blue boobies. The water was rougher than desirable. We went to an alternate beach location to gather several buckets of clams for our clambake this evening. It felt good to get home and warm up.

After a short shopping trip with the Montagues, we assisted in steaming the clams. The meal was fun and good tasting. After the meal, we celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of Felix and Joann. The celebration included a Mexican wedding cake (2’x2’) baked locally. The decorations were first class. The group retired to a beach campfire before going to bed.

Saturday, March 7

We prepared for tomorrows departure by submitting our journal draft for the Rice and Beans location, dumping/flushing both waste water tanks, refilling our fresh water storage, and cleaning the cooking equipment used for last night’s clam dinner. We toured the local museum – very good. The group celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary again with a piñata party. Angelini’s planned and conducted a clam polenta dinner. Vicki declared polenta to be coarse ground Italian cheese grits. It was very good with fresh clams and clam broth.

Sunday, March 8

Before 7:30 am, we were hooked up and ready to depart. During our wait for the others, we refilled the batteries of the trailer and the truck (it required almost a ½ gallon of distilled water and none of them of them looked low at first glance). By 10:30 am we arrived at Santa Inez and prepared to receive the balance of the caravan about noon. We have only a single water faucet here and no other services. Everyone had arrived safely and was parked by 1 pm. There is some free time before we meet at a local restaurant for dinner at 5:00 pm. This caravan has 17 days of dry camping in the 46 day schedule. That was not a problem to properly prepared units.

This morning’s 40 F daybreak contrasted the 114F afternoon we experienced at San Ignacio.

The nice dinner was at Desert Inn. The layout was identical to the location of our lunch meal at San Ignacio. The chain has several additional locations on the Baja. The Montagues came over to play joker. This was Winston’s birthday. We had had a full day and slept well.

Baja Adventure
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Monday, March 9

This was a great day. The DeWolfes and Matches rejoined the caravan after six days of absence to repair the transmission of Matches Suburban. This brought us all together again for the final days.

A local gringo rancher named Ralph offered to lead our group up to the cave paintings located a few miles north of the campsite. Dick stayed back at the camp to transport the team auditing the caravan books after they finished their task. The paintings were in a small cave a few hundred yards up a rocky hillside. It was a significant climb but not too difficult on a beautiful day. The paintings were on the roof and walls of the 150 ft2 cave entered through one person size holes on either of two sides. They looked too new to be 100 years old but the guide said they had been dated by some experts. They are very well protected from the weather. Some previous visitors had made small graffiti additions to show their ignorance to all who followed them.

After lunch, we played Joker with Dorothy and Kent Charles. They games were close and fun. At 4 pm, we had our final GAM. The Angelini’s and Montagues joined us for six person joker in the evening.

Tuesday, March 10

We departed the Catavinia campground at 5:45 am for 225 miles of winding mountain roads back to Estero Beach. We stopped for breakfast at the leader’s favorite restaurant. The place was filled with Baja off-road mountain bikers preparing for their ride. This location is another stop for the Baja 1000 mile vehicle race. We arrived at Estero Beach at 1:30 pm and set up a parking plan with Winston Montague and David Knight. The first arrivals told us Jack Bowen had failed the transmission in his motor home 150 miles back and was riding in with the Gariepys. Jack had coasted the motor home into a small, dirt country road, took out what he needed to live for a couple of days and locked it up under the watchful eyes of our Lord. We reserved a wonderful room for Jack at the hotel on site. He was very appreciative. His plan is to ride the tow truck back tomorrow and retrieve the motor home for replacement of the Chevy transmission at this location.

John White and WD Richardson were uncharacteristically late also. They limped in 2 hours later with the spare tire on John’s trailer and a significant hole in the lowest panel ahead of the failed wheel on the passenger side (opened by the tread departing the tire). John’s CB failed to reach WD but WD had noted he was missing after about 10 miles. Both were grateful the damage was limited to a tire failure not a more significant accident.

Everyone enjoyed full WES services, the cash bar, and shrimp and chicken dinner in a clean restaurant. Again, we slept well.

Wednesday, March 11

Three local men washed the trailer and truck for $45. They did a good job and it looked much better without the Mexican dust/dirt. We returned the equipment we had been carrying for the Paulks. Judy did laundry and vacuumed the inside of the trailer. We joined the Montagues for a trip to Costco to purchase steaks and snacks for the final banquet cookout. We exchanged more dollars for pesos to buy fuel and pay tolls on the road back to the border. Fuel remained at $2.09/ gallon for diesel and we anticipated paying more in the US. We stopped at two gift shops. Carol purchased several items. We all admired the artistic metal work done by the shopkeeper (excellent birds, turtles, cactus as wall hangings and full size animals). John and Judy had a visit by the insurance adjuster. We had dinner in our trailer and went up to the clubhouse for an ice cream social and the movie (Wild Hogs). The humor in the movie was off color and a little slapstick and the storyline was simple (rebels without either cause or plans but eventually doing something respectable).

Thursday, March 12

We started our day flushing black and grey water tanks, refilling fresh water, and retrieving email. Our new neighbors are interesting folks who had covered much of the same ground we had. After a good nap, we joined the cook crew preparing for our final banquet and departure celebration. Jack Bowen had recovered his motor home, the transmission had been removed and he anticipated being ready to roll again in two days. A final group picture was taken for the journal. Tom Angelini had prepared a slide presentation of the entire trip with music. Linda Agree MC’d a humorous series of recollections and recognitions while dressed as a bag lady. Bruce recognized the first timers and all participants with complements, certificates and caravan plaques. It was a relaxing enjoyable evening.

Bruce advised everyone to stay off the toll road through Tijuana to Tecate and take the mountain road. He expected the total trip would be less than two hours and the border crossing would be quick. He noted the population centers were not as friendly and predictable as the country roads. Tom and Roth had talked to locals who indicated the mountain road had construction areas, was narrow, and full of potholes. We decided to take the toll road and expected it would take about an hour longer but would have a smooth ride on multiple lane pavements for less than$20 in tolls. Bruce planned to depart at 8 am for the mountain road. We planned to depart at the same time via the toll roads. Both groups planned to have breakfast at the restaurant before departing.

Baja Adventure
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Unlucky Friday, March 13

We pulled our trailer to the lot by the office before heading to the restaurant for breakfast at 7 am. The meal was very good, the final farewells were gracious, and the wait for Whites and Richardsons began by 8 am. Bruce Paulk and his group headed out at 8 am. The planning had failed to communicate our desire to get off before traffic built up in the cities. The Montagues, the Showers, Whites, and Richardsons got rolling by 8:40 am, passed through Ensenada in going-to-work traffic, cruised the ocean north on the toll road and after 90 minutes concluded we had missed our turnoff for the toll road west to Tecate. At the final toll booth into Tijuana, we were instructed to take the right hand turn onto Hwy 2 to reconnect with our road. We were not told that Hwy 2 runs through midtown Tijuana during rush traffic and with many miles of construction and detours. The 12 miles of urban sprawl was impressive and clarified the fact that Tijuana is the largest city on the west coast of North America. Road signs were missing, people rudely squeezed through narrow roads, one way streets and assorted obstacles to get to their appointed destinations. Our two motor homes and three truck trailer rigs were out of place in this traffic jungle. After another 90 minutes, we emerged onto our road to Tecate. We arrived in Tecate at 12:15 pm (more than two hours later than those who had taken the mountain road), and had paid over $30 in tolls for our trip. Sometimes caravan leaders look very smart and should be listened to even after the caravan has disbanded.

After a very short wait, we passed through the US border without incident and regrouped at the first rest stop available. After another mile, all five of us pulled off for hamburgers and ice cream at a roadside restaurant (run by a fine Mexican couple). WD and the Showers separated to take their own paths. Dick failed to refill in the local K station because an elderly man was in no hurry to leave. The three remaining vehicles started a search for a campground because the Whites had failed to refill their fresh water tank. The chosen campground was 9 miles north of I-8 at the end of a mile of dirt road. The campground rates for Passport customers had doubled to $20 but include a complementary pizza dinner celebrating the end of the Fly in Days in Yuma (10 miles further east). We had covered 273 miles. Before bedtime, we returned a phone call to the Angelini’s. Their group had missed the same turnoff as we did but traveled through Tijuana two hours earlier with much less traffic. Bruce had beaten them to the border also (even though they had started two hour before him). We all learned something about ourselves today.

Saturday, March 14

Our alarm woke us at 5:45 am. We prepared a small breakfast and drove into the sunrise by 6:15 am. Yuma was a breeze – no traffic and four lanes of good highway. The trip across the desert to Deming, NM was uneventful. We included two breaks and a nap enroute. We purchased our first US diesel at $1.81/ gallon. After 473 miles, we pulled into the Wal Mart parking lot and were joined by the Skiebouts and Gariepys from our caravan. Both had taken Bruce’s recommended path north. Judy prepared pork chops and pasta salad to go with our wine for supper.

Sunday, March 15

We departed at 6 am for the two day drive across Texas.

We refueled in El Paso and took a nap break after joining I-20. Judy did several hours of driving. After 516 miles, we arrived in Sweetwater and parked again at Wal Mart. We shopped and Dick repaired the mirror on our large gas tank gauge. It had broken a few times on the Baja roads and needed an epoxy fix. The truck turned 170,000 miles. Steve called to confirm our location. We placed calls to Mike, Sharon and the Hanson’s. We had only six RVs to share this lot with as we tucked into bed.

Monday, March 16

We slept well and departed at 9 am. We saw a partially disassembled plane being trailered to Kentucky from the sale in Yuma. The driver said plane prices really dropped this year. He had been ticketed for too long a load and was required to cut off the tail section before continuing his journey home. The Oscar Meyer Weiner truck passed. We played our new Mexican CDs as we drove. At the Flying J in Shreveport, LA we again intersected the Skiebouts. After refueling and dumping our black tank, we drove to Ruston LA for the night. Our purchases include a fold away step stool for the trailer. Today totaled 486 miles but Judy shared the driving load.

Tuesday, March 17

We departed by 7:30 am. The roads through urban sections of I-20 are in need of repairs. We talked with Johnsons, Hollingshead’s, Thompsons and Hanson’s by phone as we traveled. We helped a group of young men change a tire in Alabama. They lacked a tire wrench and their jack was not good. We kept driving and arrived home at 8:30 pm after 543 miles. We were tired but glad to be home. A shot of scotch with cold beer, a glass of wine, a bowl of soup, and a log hot bath all preceded a good night’s sleep. The Hanson’s had left fresh strawberries and a welcome home note on our kitchen counter. The place looks great and we are ready to relax.