Dreads & Banana Pancakes

The sun was creeping over the sole peak on the island of Isla Chivato which was due east about a half mile directly across the beach. El Dorado was parked perpendicularly a mere twenty five feet from the water’s edge. Elke and Cris parked the 74 Westy in front of El Dorado and we formed an “L” shaped camp site. Both our entrances to the vehicles opened to the ring of rocks that caged the large camp fires we had during the previous nights. On this morning I decided to make all of us my famous banana pancakes. Karen loves these delights and our young German travel mates never heard of such a dish yet in their polite European manner devoured as many as I sat in front of them. With our tummies full, all four of us were zipping around our vehicles, breaking down camp and prepping for the trip to our next destination – Ciudad Constitucion.

After eighteen long hours and a river of pain, Karen’s dreads were done! She’s a beautiful buffalo soljah girl. At first glance, you would think she has had these dreads for years due to the length. I am very proud of the crop of dreads I made for her. She wears them well!

The drive was scenic along the rocky coastline to the town of Loreto where Mex 1 headed west again cutting and climbing through the mountains of Sierra de la Giganta and on through to the farming town of Ciudad Constitucion. Here we stopped for a quick visit to a roadside fruit stand set at what appeared to be the entrance of the town. Little did we realize how tiring this four hour drive can be, we were all drained. I swear some of the truck drivers appeared to be young teenagers on crotch rockets blowing down the highway passing vehicles at 75 mph. What’s really scary is that Mexico’s highways here on the Baja have no shoulders. Some spots drop two to six feet. It can be very nerve wracking.

As we drove through the orange groves and fields of corn, we discovered the backbone of the farming life here on the Baja. These people work quite hard for a few pesos a day. We finally see our landmark destination that turns us off Mex 1 for a half mile to a cheesy little RV park called La Pila Balneario RV park. It was nothing really but a palm tree encased field with dozens of red ant hills dotting the park, time to break out the Ajax and sprinkle around the tires. Ants hate Ajax! The pool was half full of ice cold water and the Jacuzzi had a sign that read “under reparacion,” there goes the swimming and the hot tubbing for the night. The camp did have electric hookups and potable water but the highlight was the whole camp was WIFI rigged. That night calls were made to a few utilizing our majic jack hookup. What a cool device, free calls anywhere all year long! Dinner consisted of teriyaki beef and broccoli over rice. Karen, who’s not a big fan of bell peppers, actually ate the red bell peppers sautéed in with the broccoli. She then, let out a loud my-compliments-to-the-chef burp. As night settled in Cris and Elke came over to check their emails and down a couple of warm Cervesas with the chef. Karen had her favorite drink which consisted of coconut rum and pineapple juice. The night was peaceful until sometime during the night several gunshots in the distance set the security tone for the evening.

El Coyote one of our fav beaches on the Baja

Damn! Our very first vehicle problem had snuck up on us, at least here in Mexico. We apparently ran the batteries low during the night. This minor mishap slowed our departure from the barren Laguna Ojo de Liebre and the 28th parallel. As Willy and Anna were passing by he shouted in his broken English “need a jump?” Within minutes the Dolphin was running. Sadly though Willy and Anna decided last night that they were going on separately and so we all wished each other safe travels. We exchanged our home addresses and individual email addresses before giving hugs to one another when Elke and Chris drove up to the group. Words were then spoken in German and the hugs followed thereafter.

The fifteen mile drive to the main road did not seem as horrific as the drive in and soon our two vehicle caravan was scooting down the highway. We drove through the Sonoran desert again crossing from the Pacific side to the eastern side of the Baja and the Sea of Cortez. But for the first time we had to cross through mountains known as the Sierra de la Giganta. These mountains run along the whole eastern shore of the Baja. Exciting! We blew through the quaint desert town of San Ignacio which marked the entrance through the mountains and within an hour saw the first glimpse of the Sea of Cortez.

We drove along the seaside for a few more miles before entering the French colonial town of Santa Rosalia where we stopped and resupplied our food shelves then found the local internet café. Before departing, we found the oldest French bakery in the Baja. Yum! Eee!! This is a must find for anyone passing through. We also found the church made by Mr. Eiffel, the man who made the famed Eiffel tower. The unique thing about this church is that it is all metal. Each piece was hand crafted in France and shipped over to Santa Rosalia.

We drove for another hour or so passing the palm tree oasis of Mulege before entering Bahia Coyote. This is a bay within a bay. Bahia Concepcion is quite large and the paradise cove of Bahia Coyote is near the entrance to the much larger bay. At the southern end of Bahia Coyote marks the beach of the same name - Playa El Coyote and we pulled in for our next adventure. Playa El Coyote has to be the coolest of all the beaches in Bahia Coyote with a drive in that can rival many drives along high passes in Colorado.

We cruised the short beach until we found a beautiful mangrove patch with what seemed like a permanent vacationer parked under it. The twenty five foot Winnebago had a signed painted on the rear which read “Raven Research Laboratory.” We had to park next to it!

Gary was the sole owner/operator of the research facility. He has been coming to this very beach for eighteen years. The birds know this guy for he had in the mangrove trees bird feeders for the various birds, a bird bath with fresh water and fruits on broken branches. Hell, he even had the pelicans hanging around the stretch of beach off his camp site. This guy even had a beach museum next to the lab in a makeshift palapa stock full of shells, dead fish and corals and did I mention dead fishes? I know he told me what he was researching but I forgot. Anyway, this guy seemed really cool. We decided to stay for several days. This beach really had it going on. Every morning local vendors would come and sell their goods. One sold fresh fish, shrimp and scallops. Another sold fresh picked vegetables and fruits. One sold fresh baked breads and pies. There would also be a few trinket sales men selling such things as hammocks, necklaces and of course Mexican silver whatevers. We found ourselves hiding in our campers when these guys came around by the third day!

Life is slow and easy here. Gracie even made friends with many of the local pooches. One in particular was a puppy named Gypsy. At first glance, one would think this dog is one of the thousand homeless canines. How wrong we were. This dog had a home with some world renowned kayaker. Gypsy was the local trash inspector. Gracie and Gypsy played all day long which was cool with us seeing how bad she can be with the ol’ Jedi mind tricks and throwing the ball or Frisbee. Besides it helped tire her out at nights. This place is beautiful. It will be hard to leave this place. Tomorrow will be the big day for Karen. I will start the long process of dreadlocking her hair!

Grey whale watching!

“Yes I am pirate, a few hundred years too late!
The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder,
I’m an under forty victim of fate arriving too late!”

~~ Jimmy Buffet


The afternoon sun was nearing 2:15 when the two younger German couple came strolling up. The boat captain was still pleasantly smiling even though the trip was scheduled to leave at two. Willy and Anna muttered phrases in German and the four began what sounded like an international chicken squabble but off we were. There were eight of us not counting the boat captain loading up into a twenty foot wooden v hull. Soon the vessel was skipping across the two mile wide lagoon and the mist off the front of the boat was a cool oasis from the afternoon heat. Within minutes from our departure, bottle nosed dolphins were escorting our boat. Then as the captain lowered the gears on the 75 horse Yamaha, the atmosphere was filled with the sound of what could best be described as someone blowing air through a short garden hose. We had arrived! Majestic Grey whale mothers and babies were breaking water like submarines submerging from the deep. The sight was breathtaking. Not one or two but dozens and dozens in every direction and in varying distances from the boat as well. Before we knew it the captain pulled the boat within twenty feet of a sleeping mother and baby. It took the baby which averaged fifteen feet or so no time at all in realizing there were visitors near them. It swam as if from a sea world show flipping a single fin at us and rolling along. The ruckus woke the mammoth forty foot mother and off the two went. We cruised slowly through the giant pack watching the occasional brown pelicans diving for food through the maze of whale humps for what seemed an eternity. The sounds of digital cameras filled the air when the captain found another sleeping pair. I realized he was utilizing a more stealthy approach as he idled the engine. The boat drifted in a near perfect perpendicular glide to within a few feet of the dormant mother. I stuck my waterproof camera a foot and a half below the surface and snapped an excellent shot of the mother’s eye when all of a sudden the camera clicks woke the pair. Within seconds the second sea world show started this time the mom was also involved with the play time. The two whales danced around the boat for a good half hour before the captain asked if we had had enough. Yet even before the captain finished his sentenced Karen was reaching for the fin of the mother grey whale as they were about to swim off. The whole scene looked like a child in a petting zoo reaching for a goat who wants to stay out of reach. The afternoon sun was cooking now as the winds slowly picked up. The ride back seemed more wet as the boat cut through two foot waves. That night the six of us upon finishing our dinners met at Willy and Anna’s camper to compare pictures and videos. We laughed into the wee hours of the night then departed to our camps.

A caravan is created

Our caravan companions: tan customized Toyota Landcruiser is Anna & Willie's; the orange vintage VW Westfalia is Elke & Christian's (pictured below)

We left Ensanada with four traveling companions. The night before our last night there a number of travelers arrived at La Jolla Beach camp: a seasoned traveling couple from northern Germany, a young couple from southern Germany, and two young goof balls from Alaska. Then an American Chris arrived on a BMW motorcycle, fresh out of Iraq. He and Nate and Jake the Alaskan boys (from Wasilla of all places!!) made their way off roading together down the Baja. We ran into them later down the road at a nice restaurant/RV place in Ciudad Constitucion. They went their separate ways. Happy Trails guys!

Anna & Willie are a German couple dancing around their 60 year mark. They custom designed their Toyota Landcruiser, they're set up with solar panels and 4 wheel drive of course; it's already tasted the terrain of the African landscape. We got to witness a slideshow of their TWO YEAR TREK across AFRICA. We can't begin to tell you how thrilled we were to meet people who've actually done what we have yet only dreamed of doing. These are true wanderers indeed. It's been great getting to know them. Learning what can make people laugh on the other side of the ocean has been a fun endeavor. Annie & Willie headed off on their own near Mulege, after we all stopped at Scammon's Lagoon for a whale watching excursion (more of that in another posting).

Chris & Elke are a fun-loving, sweet couple in their early twenties. Elke is a carpenter officiando who has a love of the country. She has three sheep and a horse back home; we're totally envious of course, as well as Gracie who would do Dharma and Karma a HUGE favor if she had sheep instead of them to chase around all day. Chris is a saavy entreprenuir dealing in vintage vespas and Westfalias. They both have master's degrees, he in economics and she in fine woodworking. What's funny is Elke and Christian have been together twice as long as Tony and I yet we are twice their age. Regardless, we are enjoying their company very much. We've made a peanut butter fan out of Chris and Elke-- the lone vegetarian-- has been seduced to the dark side a couple of times with Tony's ridiculously delicious grilled creole shrimp, cooked right over th camp fire! Yum Yum. We've heard at least as much German as Spanish on our journey through Mexico! We are still traveling with them and are currently at the very southern tip of the Baja, yes, the ultra touristy Cabos San Lucas.