What’s new in 2011?

The photos are of our new travel companions, Greg and Debbie, and Doug and Jill.

Things feel much the same in Baja. The changes we’ve observed are minor so far:  we noted two officials at one of the military checkpoints were women, the first time we’ve ever seen any who were not men; and most of the RV campers, as usual, are Canadians. The trend toward less  garbage on the side of the highways seems to continue, and billboards and highway signs denouncing littering seem to be somewhat larger in number. 

The homes, hotels and other buildings that appeared to be partially constructed in the past year or two seem to have made no further progress. A few of the highways and roadways have been improved, however – the stretch of highway from Tecate where we cross the border, through the wine region to Ensenada, which has been being reconstructed over the last two years,  is now almost completely paved. It looks like it could be finished shortly, and the only unpaved sections are very short. And as usual, as soon as we crossed the border, we noted the high proportion of Mexicans who smile and wave as we pass, maintaining their usual friendly demeanor toward us.

One significant development is that many of the Pemex gas stations now accept credit cards – we’re told most do, in fact – never the case on previous trips. We’re grateful our daughter Mackenzie (our travel guru) told us that Bank of America no longer charges fees on international credit card charges, so we’ve used our credit card at times where we would not have in the past.  As ATMs are not ubiquitous, and since gas is one of our major expenditures, this is helpful. And the unchangeable weather remains sunny and warm, with clear blue skies – much of the reason we’re here.

One last observation: sometimes things we think are familiar, like Larry, the owner of “Raquel and Larry’s”, (the restaurant seen in the photo above), which we thought of as someone we knew because we have been here before, becomes something new.  On this visit Larry seems a great deal more multi-dimensional than on previous visits.  He seems more like someone we really know, as opposed to a character. It will be interesting to decide if we are making a transition between Baja tourists and Baja regulars (AKA Baja nomads).