Week Five, last week in Baja Sur

Week 5

Baja California Sur, Mexico

April 20^th – 26th

Our final week on the Baja has been great. We’ve been hanging around Loreto colleting our last few gallons of oil, camping, a little fishing, making/selling caramels/fudge and visiting with our new friends.We made our reservations to cross over to the mainland via the Santa Rosalia ferry on Sunday the 26^th at 8pm, with help from our friend Ramon in Mulege. Thanks Ramon!

(Kindra loving the beautiful rocks and cave carved out by the coastal tides)

Day 29, Mon: Nopolo, B.C.S, Mexico

On Sunday when we returned from the mountains of San Javier, Kindra and I went to the Tiangues market where we again bought enough produce for the week, some delicious date/plantain bread from the cutest old man and stickers for our caramel wrappers (Sponge Bob, Superman, and Betty Boop!!) We’ve actually been having a bit of luck with the caramels and made around $50.00 woo hoo!!! Walking through town and talking to people seems to work alright but the real money was at the local resort beach where we preyed on the vacationing Americanos. The first day we went out to the beach we sold out!! The beach goers told us to come back the next day with another batch and they would buy them up from us. Wallace has been a great little ice breaker and is a wonderful little conversation piece and lead into our caramel sales, “Oh he’s so cute….what’s his name….how old is he?” Then comes us, “Wanna buy some delicious caramels!?” We had a wonderful evening at Patricia’s place with Neil and a few of her friends there too. Pati made Chili Rellenos and John and I made fresh chips and salsa verde. We sat around a small makeshift fire and listened to Indian music on her patio.

(pic: john washing dishes)

Day 30, Tues: Rattlesnake Beach, B.C.S, Mexico

The second day on the resort beach we met a sweet lady named Linda who actually invited us over and into her home for some afternoon coffee. She and her husband John have been living in Loreto since February in an attempt to immerse their children in a Spanish speaking culture and get away from the mainstream of Seattle. John is an amateur/semi pro coffee roaster and I had the opportunity to see him roast around 7 pounds of green Kenyan beans. We hung out at there place for a few hours chatted and traded some caramels for some delicious fresh roasted whole been coffee…thanks for your hospitality guys! We filled up on propane, water and diesel, bought a few groceries and I filtered the last of the close to 30 gallons of oil we had collected. I should mention how we went about getting oil, it seems asking an establishment if they would put their used oil in a provided container at the end of the day is the best way to go about it. There are no such things as ‘grease dumpsters’ down here and they just throw their old oil out or use it till its black. Neil hooked us up with some great restaurants that gave us their old oil happily. I went back on more than 4 occasions to one specific establishment called “Las Palapas” where the guys greeted me every other day or so with another full 5 gallon container and they were happy to fill an empty one. I would recommend eating here since we know they change their oil very often, unlike many other restaurants we have seen so far. We are not sure how the food tastes because up to this point in the trip we haven’t eaten out once. Every time we discuss going out to eat we always look at how much money we would save if we didn’t… gets us every time. I have been pre filtering the oil through old t-shirt/ tank top material that I'm finding in the trash or discarded at camp sites, drapped over the top of a large concave, metal strainer that fits perfectly into the top of a 5 gallon bucket. This gets out all of the really big chucks and a good bit of the small ones to. I then pump it from the 5 gallon bucket w/ my hand pump (that’s now mounted outside the truck above the ‘veg tank’ to the underside of the camper that goes out over the cab of the truck) into the centrifuge bucket. I then run small batches of oil 15 to 20 gallons through the centrifuge as this takes less time to heat and process. Patty was nice enough to let me use her power and the system is working great.

(pic: Linda and John)

Day 31, Wed: Nopolo, B.C.S., Mexico

It’s April 22^nd today!!! Happy Earth Day to everyone and Happy Anniversary to my mom and Dan (14 years!) Today was so hot and on my way out of one of the mini marcados I saw a man with a little white cart with a bell on it… you know what that means! Cold refreshing popsicles! I got strawberry and coconut to share with John and oh they were so refreshing! I just wish they hadn’t of splattered all over the truck and our cloths when I ripped the plastic with my teeth… red popsicle stains, oil stains, etc… my clothes have no chance of surviving this trip!

Day 32-34, Thurs-Sat: Mulege, B.C.S., Mexico

We left for Mulege on Thursday morning and arrived in town early in the afternoon, greeted by our friend Ramon. It was his son’s 9^th birthday party and he invited us back to his house to have some cake later. While we waited, we took the opportunity to do some laundry. While waiting for the close to dry we ran into our friends Grace and Faith. After the birthday party we went over to Faith and Eric’s new apartment in Mulege overlooking the mouth of the Bay of Concepcion and the eastern coast of the Baja. We had a nice home cooked meal with Grace, Rance, Eric and Faith, and then headed across the river to spend the next 2 nights camping on the beach. I’m happy to say I have been able to find some meetings on the Baja. Two or three in Loreto and one in Mulege (all of which I have been selling caramels at hehehe) so that’s been a blessing. I rode my bike into town one afternoon to hit a meeting and do a little grocery shopping. As I said earlier I have done a little fishing, Rance gifted me a rod/real/tackle starter kit in San Javier, and so I've been waking up early and doing some shore casting. No luck yet but it’s nice and relaxing and gets me out of bed early. Kindra started doing a yoga series that Neil was kind enough to print out for us as well as Leslie’s (John’s mom) ‘core series’. I’ve been slacking on exercise and am slowly growing a little Mexican pot belly.

(pic: "I've got my whole world in my hands")

Day 35, Sun: Somewhere in the sea on a ferry!!!

After camping for a couple nights in Mulege, we headed up to Santa Rosalia to check on our reservations. We spent the day walking around the little town, talking to locals and mentally preparing for the trip to the Mainland. Boarding the ferry was quite and experience, it was a much smaller vessel than we had expected and only carried 2 motorcycles 3 cars and the Colonel. The 8 hour ferry trip was uneventful. Kindra, Wallace and I all slept for most of it below deck in airplane style seating galley, while they played that silly RV movie with Robin Williams in it (dubbed in Spanish). They told us initially Wallace would have to stay in the truck, but we snuck him in with us and no one contested. The best part was it costs half the price we thought it would be! The lady only charged us for a regular sized vehicle and we got a discount cause we traveled on a Sunday.

(pic: John in the ferry after a restless night of sleep)

The Baja was a beautiful place and could easily be explored for months but we felt as though we had seen what we were meant to see and had a wonderful time all together there. It was a great introduction to Mexico as a whole and we are looking forward to Mainland and our future travels….back in 1 week, love JnK

(pic:Bahia Concepcion)

Week Four in Baja Sur

Week 4- Baja Sur, Mexico

April 13^th-19th

(pic1: driving back from the thermal springs)(pic2: small but wonderful)(pic3: we didn't want to risk this drive with the truck!)

Day 22 & 23, Agua Verde:

We spent the next few nights in town and headed south on Monday to a thermal ocean hot spring called Aqua Verde. What a magic spot this was it was a bit of a trek to get to, but well worth the rough road. Since the hot spring was only reachable during low tide so we had to wait until the next morning to soak. We woke up with the sun in the morn’ and all piled into Neil’s 4WD Mitsubishi van to drive over the volcanic coastline to the peninsula where the geothermal pool was. It was completely unassuming, we would never had known it was there had we not been told by the locals where to find it. At high tide the peninsula was completely covered with water, but at low tide you are able to walk out about 200 to 300 feet. Right in the middle of the rocks and ocean is a hot 15x15ft pool of water around 2 ½ feet deep. We soaked for a few hours and then headed back to camp for a pancake breakfast. Kindra and I stayed one more night and endured a hellish windstorm. I should mention that anywhere along the coast of the Baja the wind really whips.

(pic1: I should have payed more attention to that falling rock sign!)

(pic2: Kindra, Neil, Pati, and John)

(pic3: Pati and Kindra relaxing in the thermal pool)

Day 24 & 25, Loreto (Nopolo)

Back in Loreto I collected around 20 gallons of oil and ran the centrifuge for the first time with the power at Patricia’s house. It ran great and we are in the process of waiting for 4 more of our collecting vessels to be full. We should have a full tank here in a few days. (side note from Kindra: We also had a run in with some trees when we were in town… some police officer detoured us through a walking street that had a bunch of low hanging trees. Once at the end where it was blocked off and after all of the locals staring at us like “stupid gringos” we had to reverse back through the canopy of trees. Our bikes’ baskets took souvenirs of branches every inch of the way! I of course tried to hunch down out of sight during the whole thing!) We thought of another way to make money: candy! We decided on caramels… we got a recipe online and they turned out great! We are still trying to figure out how much we will sell them for. Wish us luck!

(pic1: secret water hole)

(pic2: it looked dead, but I knew it was a trick!)

Day 26 & 27, San Javier

We ran into some friends (we made in Bahia de Los Angeles) in Loreto. We all camped together in the mountains west of Loreto near the mission San Javier. Their names are Rance and Grace, and are doing a similar journey as us in there 78’ WV van with their 3 dogs!!! Grace’s dad lives in Columbia so that’s where they’re headed. We all had dinner together last night and made plans to meet at the Sunday market tomorrow. On Saturday John and I decided on exploring a bit because we keep seeing some of the locals going past us and then following a path along the river bed. We knew it had to be something worth seeing! The moment we reached the water we knew… it was so clear, but yet so green. It was a hot day so the water felt refreshing. Wallace was getting anxious because we were in the water and he wasn’t so after a little motivation he decided to take the big leap and swim! He jumped right in and swam to us. What an accomplishment! We never thought he would be so brave. We also so a small snake when we where walking along a really old irrigation canal. Its head was bobbing in the water and it appeared to be dead… moments later it slithered under a rock, nope not dead!

(pic: Grace, Rance, Kindra and John in San Javier)

Day 28, Rattlesnake Beach:

Toady is one month in Mexico! Kindra and I have decided to take the ferry out of Santa Rosalia next week. The prices there are cheaper than in La Paz. We’ve never had plans to go all the way to the tip anyway and have heard La Paz and Cabo can be a bit crazy and unpleasant. Kindra has been consistently making new original, beautiful pieces of jewelry w/ found shells and treasures, along w/ some of the things she brought along with her. With the help of our friend Chris Kaup from Evergreen, CO I have been making little wallets out of old Tera Packs (soy and rice milk containers, as well as juice) they are everywhere!!! (Thanks for the cryptic directions Chris!) Our latest endeavor/supplemental fundage project has been making caramels… that’s right, home made buttery caramels to sell on the beach or street to natives and tourists alike looking for their sugar fix “Bonito Walito’s Grande Carmelo’s!! They’re delicsh. We actually made 13 bucks yesterday! We’ll let you know how the ferry goes and give a holler when we are on the mainland.

love y’all

JnK

Week Three in Baja Sur

Week 3- Baja Sur, Mexico

April 6^th- 12th

Back again for our weekly update. Since our last post we have been pretty much stationed here in Loreto. Last week was Semana Santa here in Mexico and the beaches were packed. We were lucky to have a nice quiet spot for most of the week until Friday Saturday and Sunday when most people were celebrating Easter.

Day 15-19, Rattlesnake Beach:

Our Mission on Monday was to get propane! We discovered that the tank lasts us about 10 days and it was time. We ended up just using our camping equipment to cook dinner last night. We thought it would be good to stay in one place for the holiday week and Loreto has been a very convenient area for us with places near by for drinking water, propane and groceries. After our short stay at Coyote beach we headed a few miles down the road to an area called Rattlesnake beach. We spent the holiday week there, enjoying the beautiful views of the islands off the coast, taking walks, collecting shells, and making fires. Our friend here in Loreto, Neil has been super helpful to us. We were able to do a mutual trade with him, in exchange for him finding some local establishments willing to fill our oil jugs, we went on a time share presentation for him. Kindra also made him and his girlfriend, Patricia, some sweet custom jewelry.

Day 20-21, Nopolo:

They have also been kind enough to offer up their property for us to park the camper and house for cooking, electric and water while we gather oil for the truck. We spent the night before Easter at their place and made Sopa de Fideo for a potluck brunch for Easter day. On Easter morning Neil and Patricia took us to a great open air market/flea market with lots of second hand items as well as fresh vegetales, queso, y carne. The produce was the freshest and nicest we had seen so far and we bought enough to last us a week, for only 120 pesos!!!(That’s less than $10). The potluck was nice, all Gringos like us, just down the road from our camp spot, in a harbor called Playa Escondido. We made it just in the nick of time to fill our plates with about 5 different kinds of deserts and luckily our Sopa (but it didn’t last long!!).

ciao, love us

Week Two in Baja

Week 2

Hi everyone!! We are in week 2 here on the Baja, things are still going wonderfully, our last post was in Bahia de los Angeles. Since then we’ve been trucking along south over the dividing line of Baja Sur.

Day 10, Ojo de Liebre:
Our next camping spot after Daggetts was Ojo de Liebre a beautiful inlet/ bay where blue whale tours go out of and can be seen. We stopped ½ way in a small desert town to get some help w/ our Mexican cell phone and do some light grocery shopping. The approach to the bay was via some unmapped government roads through a series of “salt flats”. The salt water collects in pools along side the road and evaporates leaving huge masses of crystallized salt that looks like snow from a distance!! Unfortunately due to our fixed budget the $40
a person to take the dingy out and touch the whales was out of range for us. None the less we had the entire bay to ourselves and it was a cheap camping spot.

Day 11 & 12, Mulege:
We woke up early to try and catch a glimpse of the whales w/ our binocs but to no avail. We headed out the next morning with our destination to be Santa Rosalia. When we arrived in Santa Rosalia it was a lot more industrial and busy than we had hoped and decided only to stop for some fresh coconut and check out ferry prices to the mainland. The town of Mulege
was our next stop and we had a tip from our friend Julie to check out a restaurant called Ray’s that was a few miles off the beaten path (where we might be able to find some used fryer oil). Upon pulling up to the restaurant we ran into Ray himself. It was getting late and we were hoping to find camping accommodations for the night. It could not have been a more perfect scenario, Ray’s was totally set up for RVers and campers alike, w/ over 20 camp spots and hookups for water and electric!!!. A small country farm setting w/ a huge grassy field, shaded by a few palapas at the end of the field… we were in heaven! This was the first non beach camping we had done and what a treat!! No sand to deal w/ and Wallace could run free and socialize off leash w/ a bunch of other animals: dogs, pigs, and goats. Ray’s farm was complete w/ chickens, pigs and a small orchard of organic lemon, orange and palmetto trees that we were welcome to. We decided to stay for two nights. I should also mention that right around Santa Rosalia is where we finally ran out of the 80 gallons of veggie oil we were given in Tucson…thanks again Don!

Day 13, Coyote Beach:
So our search for more veg oil begins. After leaving Rays we headed into Mulege for the day to do some shopping, internet and laundry. We headed out toward Nols and Coyote beach on Bahia de Concepcion. We arrived at the

beach later in the day and were awestruck by the views of crystal clear water, inlets and coves around every corner. Unfortunately with the holiday week quickly approaching we were advised by a nice fellow to find a more secluded beach as most beaches near town get pretty crazy for the week.

Day 14, Juncalita Beach:
We headed out in the morning and again found a nice beach just outside of Loreto. There we got some info from Neil (a Canadian fellow who lives down here) w/ regards to where to possibly get oil. Another couple told us where to get free drinking water and the sweetest beach spot we’ve been to yet and are at now. It’s called Rattlesnake Beach due to all the twists and turns to get n here. After spending the day in Loreto, stocking up for the holiday week, we headed to our current camp spot and what a beauty. It has amazing views of islands just off shore, a calm bay and no one around but the seagulls.

Paz y Amor,
Kindra and John