Click on a photo to enlarge it.
We drove further South on the main highway, a winding road that followed the sea at the start and then left it and
moved inland, until returning to the seaside at a village called Loreto. The town is very quaint and we strolled
along the streets through a tree-lined pedestrian area with the trees forming an arch overhead. We stopped at a
restaurant for quesadillas and then went in search of an RV park for the night. We found a very clean one that
belonged to a hotel and then baked cakes and Kirsten tried her hand at baking bread for the first time. It turned
out really well.
The next day, after getting our air shocks up to the right pressure, we drove 90 miles inland to our next destination,
Ciudad Constitucion. On the way, we stopped off on the side of the road to make ourselves a cuppa and have a piece of
cake. Just as we had sat down to eat, a car with its engine steaming came and parked in front of us. The man asked us
if we had any oil. With all that smoke, it looked like the engine had no oil in it at all! We were right. It was
obvious that the guy didn't know how to look after his car, didn't know how to check the oil - which came out as
sludge on the end of the dip stick! We gave him a 2 pint bottle we had with us which brought his level up to the bare
minimum and Helen tried to explain this to him, meaning that he could drive but he would need to get some more oil as
soon as he could. He must have misunderstood, as he then started stopping any car or lorry that drove along the road
and eventually, got picked up and driven off by some people.
The RV park we were headed for was run by Austrians and the write up gave excellent reviews of the restaurant there.
When we got there, it turned out that the Austrian couple had sold it 18 months ago, had not been paid any money for
it, and when they returned, the place was very run down and needed a lot of repairs. They were trying to get it fixed
up so that they could sell it again. They had not re-opened the restaurant and weren't intending to either. So we
walked along the dusty, noisy, busy highway in search of a few groceries and then made our own quesadillas in the oven.
Kirsten also tried to bake bread again - not as successful as yesterday. She was getting a few recipes from the Austrian
lady and forgot to check the bread. She suddenly dashed over to the oven, knocking a glass of lemonade all over her recipes,
and got the burnt bread out of the oven! It wasn't too bad - we cut off the burnt bits! (Kirsten says it got burnt because
it had risen too much!)
I don't think the Austrians were too impressed that we were using their electricity to bake bread! And when Kirsten asked
for some toilet paper for the toilet, she was refused - they said that everyone just nicked it! We felt like asking them
what we were paying $15 dollars for!!
The road down to La Paz, 131 miles south, was quite bad in places. We'd heard that there had recently been heavy raining
and it looked like the floods had damaged the road. We found the visitor centre in La Paz eventually and then went in search
of a camera shop. The shops were all too small to have anything decent in stock. So it looks like Kirsten will have to make
do with the video camera for a lot longer and wait till we get back to San Diego to try and find a replacement.
After filling up with petrol, food and water we went to quite an expensive RV park ($18) but which was very clean, and full!
We spent the evening writing on the computer and trying to make the man who came round to collect the fee for the night
understand, that we only had a 500 Peso note (about $50) and wanted to see the change first, before giving him the note!!
Maybe we´ve been through too many third world countries, particularly Indonesia where it is the exception to find someone
who doesn't try to rip you off! The Mexican people are very helpful and always pleasant, but we had to be careful as we
didn't know where this man would be if we needed to "remind" him about our change. There certainly wasn't a manned office
at this RV park. You just pulled in, picked a spot and paid when the collector came.
The next day, Thurday 22nd January, we went into La Paz and got 2 for 1 pizzas which we ate in Winnie, and then we drove
out 16 miles to Tecolote Beach. The first free place to camp. There were quite a few other RVs there, some stay for 6 months!
There´s nothing there. The restaurant doesn´t seem to have any customers or serve food and the toilets only worked once!
But there is miles of sandy beach and its very quiet and peaceful, with lots of birds and wildlife. We stayed for two nights,
but it was too windy and the sea was too choppy for us to get into our canoe. So we contented ourselves with a 3 hour walk
along the beach. Kirsten found what looks like a very old arrowhead encrusted in a mauve coloured coral! We also saw a
pelican with a whole fish stuck sideways in its gullet! A very odd sight! Then Kirsten wanted to take a drink from the flask
we'd brought along with us. She pressed the "open" button at the top and just as Helen was saying "No!", she literally poured
the juice into the top of her fleece jacket and down her shirt! The "open" button meant the pouring hole at the side of the
top of the flask was open and Kirsten had tried to drink from the top!
Tecolote Beach.
On Saturday 24th January we drove back into La Paz and then took the wrong road out. The roads were really bad as it had
rained overnight. The crossroads had massive dips and holes in them! After 12 miles we realised we were on the wrong road
and had to go all the way back into La Paz and back over the bad roads! We finally got the right road and headed for Todos
Santos, a small village on the East, heading down to the southernmost tip of Baja. The RV park there was full, so we drove
further down the coast and turned right onto a sand road to find San Pedrito RV park. As we turned off, an archway said
"No RVs" so we took the sand road to the right. After putting Winnie through more potholes we were told by some agricultural
workers that we should have driven through the arch!
So we drove all the way back and went down an even worse road to San Pedrito. We found that the RV park had been badly
damaged in the 2 hurricanes in August and September last year, and had no hot water and no hook ups. We needed a shower
after 2 nights of dry camping and desperately needed to write our website diary which was still stuck on Dec 29th !!
The owner was very grumpy, not surprising after 2 hurricanes! But he did tell us that there was a possibility further
along the beach at Cyrils place. The only problem was, the road was a private one and we would have to drive back out to
the main highway, then south for about 1 mile, then back down another sandy road to the coast. Poor old Winnie! We didn't
want to put him through all that only to find there was no space for us there either. So we left Winnie with the grumpy
man and walked across. After asking a few people, we managed to find Cyril who said he was full, but we could park up in
the forecourt and get water and electricity hook ups. We also found out that the private road didn't lead to Cyrils anyway
and we would have to go the long way round!
So we ran back to the grumpy man before he closed his gate, and put Winnie through more treacherous roads - Kirsten got
really panicky and thought we were going to topple over! But we finally managed it and Helen reversed into a very tight
spot with a great view onto the sea. Casa Cyrene (see www.todossantos.cc/cyrene.html) looked like the perfect spot to stay for a few days and catch up on our website
diary. Which is exactly what we did! Although we did take 2.5 hours out the next day to go for a walk along the beach.
Helen even went bare foot - now that's a first!!
