Click on a photo to enlarge it.
On the way out of Cataviña, we tried to get some petrol at the petrol station, but were told that there wasn't any -
in other words, the petrol is only for locals. But we managed to get through the "gas gap" and get to El Rosario
using 2 gallons less petrol than on the way south! We averaged 19 miles per gallon when normally we only get 16mpg!
We could save a lot of money on petrol if we carried on driving the same way, but the problem is, we only average 30
miles per hour so we wouldn´t get anywhere quick!
We also checked to see if we could get our exhaust repaired whilst we were there. After a tricky reverse through a
narrow yard and a sharp turn to reverse Winnie onto the ramps, we were given a quote of $9 for a replacement end
piece. The mechanic couldn´t speak any English but we managed to make ourselves understood - well, we only had to
point at the exhaust and he could see what the problem was!! But he was also impressed with Kirstens makeshift
repair! It then took him 20 minutes to make a new end piece from what looked like thick steel pipe, bend it to the
shape of the original and weld it on. Our new addition will probably outlive Winnie!
We drove further North to El Pabellon beach again and were woken up by heavy rain at 4am. It was a really bad storm
and Winnie was getting buffeted in the wind. It got even worse at 9am and we considered staying for another night.
But the storm blew over and at 10-45 am we set off through all the mud and carried on north. We stayed at an RV park
at a deaf and dumb school, where the money we pay goes to the school. Whilst we were chatting to an American lady
travelling alone, a stray cat jumped into her RV and pee´d up one of her seats!! She won´t be leaving her doors open
again!
The next day, Wednesday 3rd March, we drove to the border and were really surprised to get through in only 5 minutes,
without any problems. At the agricultural check point we declared 2 spring onions as we didn´t know whether they were
on the prohibited list! After looking through our empty fridge, we were allowed to keep them!! Then we walked to the
office to get our 3 month visas, and ended up telling the officials there what they had to do! They normally only
have to deal with Mexicans, and got a bit flustered because we were different! When we pointed out that we still had
the green card from our last visa still in our passports, which should have been handed in when we left America, the
nice man just took it out and got rid of it! All that worrying for nothing! We also had to pay $6 each for the visas
as we were crossing into the US by land and then had to remind them to stamp our passports, otherwise we wouldn´t be
able to prove when we entered the country and this could cause us problems trying to get into Canada in May. The
whole border took just over 20 minutes! Easy!
The real shock came when we suddenly saw the petrol prices - $2-40 per gallon (£1-30)!! I know it's a lot cheaper
than in England and the rest of Europe but it represents an increase of 30% since we left America 2 months ago! Plus,
we had deliberately got over the border with an empty tank because the petrol in Mexico was $2-03 per gallon which
had been a lot more expensive than in the US ... but now was a lot cheaper! So now we´ll have to conserve petrol as much
as possible as the prices will put a real dent in our budget!
After an hour in the library in San Diego researching cameras for Kirsten and the cheapest petrol prices we managed
to fill up for less than the average price only to spend lots of money stocking up and re-filling our fridge! After
a great Greek meal, we went to a Walmart and asked for permission to stay overnight on their car park. We were
actually given a signed form to put inside our windscreen! But at least we bought something from the shop - a new
loo brush!!
During the next evening on the Walmart car park, a policewoman banged on our door to move us off. Apparently, some
people had abused the priviledge and stayed at Walmart carparks for months and even emptied their waste tanks onto
the car park! That's why the police come along and move people off! Fortunately we had our "official" permission and
Helen managed to get permission for another night. But, as we were the only ones who had actually asked for
permission, we were the only ones allowed to stay that night and all the others were moved off!
The next three days were taken up with trying to solve the camera problem - repair was out of the question as it
would cost over half the price of a brand new version (Minolta A2) that had 8 mega pixels instead of the 5 that
Kirsten had already had, plus a lot of other extras, and would take up to 6 weeks. The prices on the internet were
a lot cheaper for the new one but they would only accept a credit card with a billing address in the US! So that
problem would have to be sorted out in the next week and we stayed for 2 nights back at Mission Gorge campground
where we took 3 hours washing all the mud off Winnie, and cleaning the bikes. Kirsten also got a new hair cut despite
the hair clippers running out of power after the first cut! We found out later that we could actually use our
rechargeable batteries in it! It´s taken us 5 months to realise that!! Oh well, we get there in the end!
