Lee and Elaine's RV Adventures: Heading South for the Winter

October 16, 2014

We’re going south for the winter! The motorhome is packed so we’re heading to our winter stomping grounds in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our first stop will be at Castaic Lake RV Park in Castaic, California, where we will re-unite with our Canadian friends. Gord and Gwen, who we will travel to Baja with. The RV park isn’t even near the lake and it wasn’t one I’d want to spend any time at but it was an okay stop for the night. There aren’t a lot of RV park choices in that part of California. The next day we head south to Potrero County Park in Tecate, California, where we will spend the night before crossing the border into Baja California, Mexico. While Gord and Gwen headed into Tecate to get their tourist visas stamped and get some pesos, we headed straight to the campground, planning to get the motorhome set up and then drive the Jeep into Tecate to take care of our visas. Imagine our surprise when we drove into the campground and asked for a site for the night and were told there were no sites available. Now, I could understand if there were RV’s parked all over the place but there was not even one RV in the whole park and they have about 100 sites! We’ll never know what was happening because it was off to Tecate in the motorhome to find Gord and Gwen and then cross the border and spend our first night in Mexico. We agreed to meet Gord and Gwen at either Rancho Sordo Mudo (an RV park that helps support the School for the Deaf) or Estero Beach RV Park in Ensenada. The fact that Estero Beach had a hot tub and pool, not to mention a beautiful view, won out!

On Saturday, October 18, we stopped in Catavina at Rancho Santa Ynez for the night, about 300 miles south of the California/Mexico border. One more day of driving and we will be at the beach! Total miles from our house to the beach - 1216! One advantage to driving on the weekend is that there is much less truck traffic on Mex 1. Although the highway has improved since we’ve been coming to Baja, there are many, many miles of narrow road. Basically, the road is only about 19’ wide, motorhomes and trucks are 8-1/2’ wide plus mirrors that stick out so it can be a little harrowing, especially on the parts of road that have no shoulder. It does keep you on your toes!!!

Before leaving home, I was a bit apprehensive about going to Baja this early because the high temperatures had been in the mid-90’s which doesn’t sound bad but coupled with humidity around 85%, that’s almost unbearable, at least to me. We have been here for two weeks and it has been hot and humid, some days are more tolerable than others, the mosquitos and no-see-ums are having a heyday with my arms and legs covered in bites, and I’ve suffered through a week and a half of heat rash which has prevented me from spending more time in the water. But, despite all that, I love it here!

Two years ago when we arrived on Halloween, the beach was almost full (room for 20 +/- rigs). This year, arriving on October 19, only our friends, Riky and Lawrence, were here. Here it is, three days after Halloween and there are still only three rigs on the beach. Even the vendors have been telling us there are very few tourists. We did have a couple of dozen Trick or Treaters on Halloween doing their chant, “Tricky, tricky, Halloween”. So cute!!! There was a Halloween party at Armando’s Restaurant on Playa Santispac to end our day.

A stay at Playa Los Cocos isn’t complete without a hike up the Goodheart Trail. It’s a well defined trail up a hill that takes us about 2 1/2 hours round trip. It’s a good trail for our exercise routine. We have been limiting our exercise because of the heat, but in a couple of weeks we won’t have an excuse!

Life on the Baja is so simple. I guess that’s what we love about being here. It’s refreshing to see the Mexicans take charge of their lives, not waiting for a handout. After Hurricane Odile wreaked havoc earlier this year, they didn’t wait for the government to come clean things up, they did it themselves. Unfortunately, this was the sixth hurricane in ten years, hopefully, the cycle will end soon and Mulege will be hurricane-free for many years. When the weeds along the highway need to be cut, they do it by hand, some using machetes and a couple using gas-powered weed eaters! I’m assuming these workers are paid by the government. When a car got stuck in the sand on the road at Playa Los Cocos and the guys lent a hand to get it unstuck, we were all invited to attend a Baptism with a lunch to follow that was going to take place on the beach. They made us feel like the guests of honor! And, another day, when some other Mexican overnighters got stuck, Lee lent them Gord’s shovel. The next day they asked to borrow some salt, then brought us ceviche they had just made, which is what they needed the salt for. Such wonderful people!!!

Our lives on the beach continue as if the beach were full. The ladies play cards at Bertha’s on Wednesday afternoon and while we may not play cards on the beach on Mondays as in the past, the six of us have a game day once a week. Currently we only see the vendors if there are transients staying. It’s amazing how the Mexican’s radar works, whenever one “strange” vehicle shows up, several vendors and/or the landlord shows up within a short time! It just makes us laugh. It doesn’t really take much to amuse us. For instance, two young German couples and a single Canadian, also young, showed up one day. It was interesting because the Germans did not know each other until about five days prior to arriving at Los Cocos although they had each been traveling for several months throughout Canada and the U.S. and were on their way to Guatemala. And they met the Canadian a couple of days later. One of the couples was using a Baja guidebook that said staying at Los Cocos might be free or there might be a charge, it just depended whether someone showed up to collect rent. Wouldn’t you know? Within the hour, someone was here collecting rent! And, at least one of the vendors showed up the next morning.

The following pictures were taken in various places along Mex 1in Baja California and Baja California Sur on our drive down to the beach.