The Population at Santipac Triples: Caravans

One of the interesting phenomena we’ve observed is there are groups of people who travel up and down the Baja peninsula in caravans, large groups of usually enormous RVs. They gather at a meeting point somewhere in the southern part of the U.S., cross the border together, and stay together all along the way, sharing space in campgrounds. They are often a mixed group of folks from the U.S. and Canada. They’re generally accompanied by a “lead car” and a “follower car” responsible for guiding them, or helping out if they have some sort of mechanical break-down. The caravan style of travel seems to appeal to folks who are uncomfortable with the idea of traveling into places they think might not be “safe”. Most of the rigs are in the 32 to 42-foot range: huge! To date, we’ve only seen a couple of these along the highway, although we’re told they’re fairly common. This afternoon an “affinity group” caravan of Airstream RVs pulled into Sanitpac and fortunately parked at the far south end of the beach, quite a way down from our spot. We took a walk down the beach and counted: there are 25 of them traveling together! We met several warm and out-going folks among them, and they shared date bread with cream cheese, invited folks who are not in the caravan to join their evening cocktail hour, and seemed a generally very congenial group. Nonetheless, we can’t imagine traveling in a caravan as we feel too un-committed to an itinerary and prefer our independence rather than travel in this fashion. Not to mention that Bob tends toward socially curmudgeonly behavior! J