Check in message from the Desert Bar Parker AZ

LAitude:34.20174
Longitude:-114.14909
GPS location Date/Time:03/19/2011 14:05:18 PDT
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Another Day on the River

This morning we loaded the kayak on the back of the truck and drove up the river north (upstream) 5 miles so we could see new territory.  We parked the truck and launched.

From there we paddled upstream for an hour, then turned around and drifted back to the Roadrunner Café, where we had eaten lunch on Tuesday, and did it again. Jill and Doug met us mid-river between our launching spot and the restaurant and joined in the lunch.

Another day on the river. What can we say!?

Spring Break

This morning Bob, Cathryn and Jill, accompanied by Lua, the black German Shepherd, took a 5-mile hike in the hills above the Colorado River.  Doug had to stay in camp and work on an RV repair. 

We meandered through the hills enjoying the views higher up, back to the Colorado River, and across into Arizona.

A couple of donkeys entertained us with their curiosity about us, while Jill worked to keep Lua in check so she wouldn’t chase them.

After lunch Bob and Cathryn drove our truck north, then  across the Parker Dam to the Arizona side of the river. This dam was built between 1934 – 1938, and the lake level on the north is about 75 feet higher than on the south.

Only cars and small trucks can drive across it; no RVs or large commercial trucks are allowed.

We continued up the shore of Lake Havasu to Havasu City where the London Bridge has been moved and reconstructed, and a small, fake English village lines the shore of the lake.

For the first time in months, we felt really old.  In Baja, we were slightly on the young side of “average”. 

Here at Havasu City where Spring Break was underway, we were OLD!  The average age, except for the dozen guys sitting on the sidelines enjoying the view, was 21 . . . . maybe!  All the girls were in tiny bikinis (even those who shouldn’t have been) with dangly jewels hanging from their belly buttons. A couple of them wore pasties instead of bathing suit tops. The guys were in cut-offs or swim suits, but many would have looked better wearing shirts.

There was lots of loud music, heavy drinking, an occasional whiff of hemp,and skin that had seen too much sun, in to short of time, and they all acted like they were having fun.  We walked among the crowd for half an hour and headed back to the truck.

Mile after mile of densely packed RV parks and housing developments made up of row after row of single-wide mobiles homes had us working to keep our jaws from dropping.  And all of this exists six months each year, then is empty the rest of the time.  A different world!

We returned to our quiet, spacious, shady campsite on the river and felt fortunate to have found such a pretty place. Cocktail hour with Doug and Jill, followed by dinner together on our picnic table on the shore completed an interesting, sunny, warm (88 degrees) day.

Not the Sea of Cortez

We’ve been back in the U.S. for three nights.  We’re camped on the Left Bank of the Colorado River, that is, on the California side. 350 feet away is Arizona, on the other bank.  Yesterday it hit 90 degrees, and with no wind (a relief after spending two months on the very windy Baja peninsula), but we’re under the shade of large Tamarisk trees, so have not been too hot even though we have no hook-ups, so can’t run the air conditioner. Jill and Doug, our Canadian travel buddies, are camped 100 feet away.

The Colorado River, at least here, is clear and cold, with a current running about 3 knots between dams built about every 10 miles. Yesterday morning the 4 of us took off in our kayaks, paddling or pedaling upstream, against the strong current. One after another, we passed places where hundreds of RVs were parked along the shoreline, in a mind-boggling density after what we’d gotten used to in Baja. Jet skis roared by, cigarette boats too, water skiers, and pontoon boats. It’s a busy place, and we kept close to the shoreline to stay out of the way of any crazy drunks that might be driving too fast and not paying attention.

Ninety minutes later, and with sweat pouring off our foreheads from the exertion of paddling, we pulled ashore at the Roadrunner, a  restaurant with a dock, outdoor seating and fabulous hamburgers so big we split one. Seated in the sun, Cathryn and Jill got too hot, so stripped off their shirts and shorts and jumped, very briefly, into the cold waters of the river, then were swept south so rapidly they had to work hard to make it back to the dock.

Though our northbound journey took 90 minutes to cover 3 or 4 miles, the southbound journey running with the current took only 40 minutes with almost no paddling except to steer our course.  This is sure a different kind of kayaking than on the Sea of Cortez, and we enjoyed it.

Space Travel

Bob grew up reading lots of science fiction and dreamed of traveling between worlds, through space. Yesterday he seemingly got his chance.

We woke up 4o miles south of the Mexico/U.S. border crossing at Tecate into California. We drove there the day before from Catavina, still on the Baja peninsula, passing through dusty villages full of small tiendas and taco stands,  seeing people living simple, relaxed lives.

Two hours latter we passed through the border after a rather superficial inspection of our rig which consisted of ignoring the truck and its’ contents, inlcuding the large storage box in the truck bed, and opening only the refrigerator and freezer to see if we were smuggling in any Mexican lunch meat or avocadoes. Sure makes us feel safe!

An hour later we knew we were in a different world after driving 70 mph on a freeway, running into the first rude native we had seen in months, and having shopped at Costco in El Centro, CA. 

After a one night stay at the Parker, AZ County Park, we moved across the Colorado River to the Crossroads Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campground where we found a site right on the river for a total cost of $2.50 a night (with Bob’s Golden Access card we get half price). (Thanks for the recommendation Hobie!) We’ll stay here for several nights before moving on to some currently unknown next destination.

It does seem like space travel, and the world we’re in now seems both comfortingly familiar, as well as somewhat uncomfortably foreign.  I suspect we’ll make the transition to normalcy in a few days.

Check-in message from Crossroads BLM CG Parker Strip CA

Latitude:34.21035
Longitude:-114.21555
GPS location Date/Time:03/14/2011 13:42:40 PDT
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Check-in message from La Paz Co. Park Parker Strip AZ

Latitude:34.22339
Longitude:-114.19511
GPS location Date/Time:03/14/2011 07:20:09 PDT
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Bob and Cathryn

Check-in/OK message from Bob and Cathryn SPOT Messenger

Latitude:32.11173
Longitude:-116.54698
GPS location Date/Time:03/13/2011 06:55:11 PDT
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Movin’ North

Thursday morning we left the beach at Playa Requeson and moved north to Ray’s Hacienda de Habana in Mulege, a place we also stayed on the way south in January. We spent the day washing the rig, then at 5pm were joined by Doug and Jill who’d driven all the way up from Los Barriles.

We got together for cocktail hour and caught up on events of the last 10 days, then went to Ray’s restaurant for another of his incredible meals. They’ve got to be the “Best of Baja”.

Friday morning the four of us got an early start, driving north 315 miles to Catavina, a big travel day for us.  We had cervezas, split up for dinner, then reconvened for a bonfire where we swapped more stories.

Saturday morning we took a hike into the hills and rocks for which Catavina is famous. 

The cactus were beautiful in the morning light.

We even spotted a hummingbird sitting on its’ nest, a unique experience for us.

Lua, Doug and Jill's black German Shepherd, has been a wonderful and well-behaved companion on our trip this year; Cathryn is threating to steal her.  Bob is happy to have her along, but not keen to add a new member to our family.

Where is Ralph?

We’ve written before about there being “only one road”, referring to the fact that to travel the 1000-mile-long Baja Peninsula, everyone spends a lot of time on Mex 1, the only highway to run the full distance north to south. As a result, almost everyone who travels the Baja has some shared experiences.  One of these is staying at Rancho Santa Inez in Catavina where we camped last night.

When we traveled the peninsula in 2009 and stayed here, we posted about Ralph, an unusual gringo living up the canyon from Rancho Santa Inez in an off-grid house (see that post HERE.  Ralph was known by essentially everyone we met in Baja who ever stayed at Rancho Santa Inez for his habit of driving through the campground multiple times daily to chat and share his knowledge of the Catavina area.

On this stop, no Ralph! What does that mean? Could this iconic part of Baja have moved on, become ill, died? We may never know.  But we sort of miss him in a weird way.

Check-in/OK message from Bob and Cathryn SPOT Messenger

Latitude:29.72985
Longitude:-114.69952
GPS location Date/Time:03/12/2011 06:23:11 PST
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Really??? “Enough”, says Bob

Cathryn never thought the day would come when Bob would say “Enough”.  But it happened today as we sat on the beach at Playa Requeson drinking coffee in our pajamas and watching the sun rise.   As always, we discussed “What shall we do today?”  Though we’d already planned to leave Requeson and head north, in the spirit of plans cast in jello, not concrete, Cathryn inquired whether Bob was sure he was ready to depart.  He replied “After two months on various beaches, I think even I have had enough.”  WHAT??? Cathryn thought. She had no idea there was any such thing as “enough time on a beach” for Bob to be satiated and ready to move to non-beach locales.  Goes to show that even after almost 27 years together, there can still be surprises.

Our Favorite Beach (?)

We keep saying that. But if physical beauty is your only criteria, Requeson, on the Bahia Concepcion, is our favorite beach:  a small white sand spit, which at low tide is connected to a small island edged by mangroves.

Today, like last year about this same time, we’ve lucked out and gotten a site at the end of the spit with good separation from other campers.  When we came through here in January, the place was full and so we passed it by.

When we arrived there was a moderate breeze, but it calmed  by 5pm.  We had a glass of wine on the beach, then cooked burgers outside and ate them gazing at the Sea of Cortez. All our Canadian travel buddies are elsewhere.

As the sun set, Bob built a fire and we spent a couple hours talking and just staring at the fire, then the embers. Could it get any better than this?

Check-in/OK message from Bob and Cathryn SPOT Messenger

Latitude:26.63837
Longitude:-111.83159
GPS location Date/Time:03/06/2011 11:57:27 PST

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Hike in the Hills

We set off with Greg and Debbi for a hike up Hart Trail this morning.  We parked near Puerto Escondido a mile from our campsite, walked to Rattlesnake Beach a short distance away, then began the steep ascent up a rocky trail to the top of the hill.

The views of the Sea to the south . . .

and of Puerto Escondido, the port marina to the north, were gorgeous and gave us a different perspective of the terrain. (We covered the development history of this typical Mexican “good idea” in the post HERE)

Descending the other side of the hill, Debbi took us on a tour through the palapa-style village of 75 or so gringo homes in the development attached to Tripui Hotel that we had heard about but had never seen. It’s the neatest and tidiest palapa village we’ve ever seen, and owners have full use of the hotel facilities including the swimming pool, internet, restaurant and close-by access to the marina and a place to keep a boat.  If only it were on the beach, maybe we’d be tempted. Mostly we’ve become completely clear that ownership of property, any property, in Mexico is fraught with issues, and in any case we are nomads who would rather wander from place to place than settle in one spot.

For our last night at Juncalito, we went with Greg, Debbie, Heather and Ken to “Portobello”, the lovely restaurant located at Puerto Escondido within the Port facility. Pedro and Cristina, owners of the restaurant, have become well-known acquaintances to us, as we go there for internet access many afternoons when we camp on Playa Juncalito. Pedro helps Cathryn with her Spanish and teases Bob about looking like Pancho Villa and being “muy flojo” about trying to use his bit of Spanish.

And so, our time at Juncalito has come to an end for another year or more. We said our goodbyes to Carl (the sailor) and Chris, Al and Linda, and headed north to Bahia Concepcion.

What Winter Should Be Like

Lot’s of blog post titles came to mind as we contemplated this photo. In the end, it’s just a photo depicting how we start each day in Baja. And Bob, especially, says “this is what it should be like”, even in Winter.