Friday, January 8, 2010

Todos Santos




We drove into the town of Todos Santos around 11:00 after a leisurely morning with Cathryn studying her Spanish and Bob reading the manual to his new camera while sitting outside in the sun drinking coffee. On the way into town we stopped at an RV park in El Pescadero we’d checked out last year as well. Unlike last year, the park was nearly deserted. Todos Santos was unchanged from last year: well preserved buildings full of quality art galleries and many restaurants. Unlike like last year, however, the town had an empty feel to it. While we were told last winter that tourism was down, it’s beginning to feel that it is even more so this year. It must be quite challenging to the Mexican people, as tourism is the second largest component of their economy. The funny thing is that the prices seem a little higher than last year, so the economic theory of supply and demand doesn’t seem to be working the way one would expect.

We had a great lunch in town, did a little window shopping, stopped at the wonderful market we found last winter to buy some vegetables and fruit, then headed back to our campsite. Just as we were leaving town we ran into Jim and Phebe, Dick and Jo who had decided to make a day trip over from Los Barriles! We chatted a few minutes and then went our separate ways. Altogether a nice outing. Shortly before bedtime we sat outside observing the very brilliant stars – something we don’t see at home as the lights from SeaTac airport across Puget Sound make it impossible to see many stars anytime of year.

2 comments:

K Ross said...

Just found your blog and it's interesting. We're in Los Barriles at the present, but really want to do some camping on the Pacific side of the Baja. How did you find the campground's condition? Would you ever consider boondocking on the beach north of Todos Santos? Thanks.
Cheers,
Kevin & Gay
p.s. nice to see the photos included in your blog.

Cathryn said...

Hi Kevin and Gay,
Glad you found our blog. I don't have an email address for you so will respond briefly, but feel free to write to us at olallabay@gmail.com if you'd like. Meanwhile, we have not camped on the beach north of Todos Santos but would happily do it as long as there are other campers there. We never camp alone. The "campground" where we were south of Playa Los Cerritos is not really a campground -- it's ejido land which the ejido members allow campers to stay on free of charge. There are no amenities, not even garbage pickup. But it was lovely and we stayed there 4 nights along with about 15 - 20 other RVs. As you go south of Pescadero, just past Los Cerritos you can see the RVs there from Mex 1. We have more info if you'd like to give us an email address. Enjoy Los Barriles! We are here in LB through February.
Cathryn (and Bob)