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!
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