It's Hammer Time

The Drive to Mexico


After a lot of detailed research (ie one lecture, the purchasing of a book we didn’t read, and some googling) we were ready to head down south. We had a vague plan, and an idea of where we were headed. We knew that we wanted to go to the beach, where we could relax, fish, and learn to surf. And that we’d go south…

That is actually easily accomplished in Baja, as there is really only one major highway, and it goes from the border to Los Cabos.  We’d planned to take that highway, and stop when we got tired, or when the beach looked good. But after some more research (IE Google) we found a tour that looked helpful.  It was a quick trip from the border, down to Los Barriles, in only five days. Other tours we’d looked into took a lot longer, and we weren't really interesting in making so many stops. The “Hammer Down” tour from Baja Winters looked perfect for us, and luckily had a spot available. 

A few days before we were set to leave from San Diego, the lovely John and Becky from Baja Winters met us for lunch, and then took us to the Mexican border in Otay Mesa to get our travel visas. We parked on the US side, and walked over to Mexico. We were able to sort out our paperwork very quickly. Once we were allowed to cross the border we had to go into a bank to pay for the visa, and then go back into the office to show them the receipt, and that was basically it. Then we had to walk across the lanes of traffic to the US side, where we had to wait for a couple hours. Luckily we crossed back in to the US with no trouble. All that was left for our trip was to do our last minute shopping and try to repack our messy trailer. 

The Itinerary
Nov 18: San Diego to El Pabellon
Nov 19: El Pabellon to Guerrero Negro
Nov 20: Guerrero Negro to Bahia de Concepcion
Nov 21: Bahia de Concepcion to Ciudad Consititcion
Nov 22: Ciudad Consititcion to Los Barriles

Day 1 - San Diego to El Pabellon

Crossing the border went really well! They actually didn’t check our paperwork at all. They did look inside our trailer briefly though. We narrowly avoided getting stuck, as they wanted us to go into a lane with a very tight corner, but luckily Dean realized in time that it would be impossible. The border guards helped us back out of that situation, took a quick look inside the trailer, and then waved us through. 
As I write this five days later, the first day seems pretty uneventful. 

Day 2 - El Pabellon to Guerrero Negro

Small detour to the beach!

Day 3 Guerrero Negro to Bahia de Concepcion

Day 4 - Bahia de Concepcion to Ciudad Consititcion

It has taken me a month to finish writing this entry, so I don't remember very much about Ciudad Consititcion or the drive. Besides long, and lots of cactus. Cacti I guess. 

We stayed at an RV park that was little more than a dirt parking lot, no real amenities or anything. Nothing special about it sticks out in my head. Except a poor little dog wandering around. She had a seriously injured hind leg, and was hoping around on three legs, and injured paw, and was seriously skinny. She also had a beautiful little face, the perfect definition of "puppy dog eyes". I gave her a few hot dogs, the only dog appropriate food I had.

You frequently see stray dogs around Mexico, which is always sad, but something that you almost get used to. But seeing this one in the park I was furious. I just couldn't believe that these people would have a dog like that on their property, and not take care of it properly. 

The next day I found out the park owners were actually heros. They had rescued the little dog from a neighbour who was abusing it terribly. I'm really glad that she's with someone who is looking out for her now. But a part of me really wanted to take her home.




Day 5 - Ciudad Consititcion to Los Barriles

The most memorable part of the drive for me on our last day of our caravan is driving through Mulege. So pretty! The ocean was a beautiful blue, which just made us even more eager to get to our destination and spend some time in the ocean.

We arrived in Los Barriles mid afternoon, and checked into an RV park called Playa Norte. And when I say checked in, really we just parked our trailer in a spot, and waited around for someone to show up. No one ever really did, although a few of the regulars told us we'd probably be good in that spot for a bit. 

For the record, it took 5 days for someone to actually speak to us and give us a price. And unfortunately we didn't like that price, and decided to move on to a different park in the same area. More to come on all of that.