More photos from San Felipe >>
The purpose of this journey of ours is to explore new places and make new friends with people from all over. Our recent trip to the baja served both of these purposes perfectly.
Sharon wanted to visit an old friend of hers, Liza in San Diego. But as luck would have it Liza was not going to be in town as it was her and her friends annual camping trip down to San Felipe, Mexico in the Baja. And it just worked out right that we could join them.
Not wanting to venture into Mexico with the motor home we opted to drive the jeep and camp in a tent like all the others in the group. Ironically though we are full time campers that have no camping equipment and had to go buy stuff at Walmart, this would also be Sharon and I’s first real “roughing it” camping trip.
We all met up in the border town of Calexico and crossed into Mexico at Mexicali. This was Sharon’s first adventure in the country of Mexico so she was not sure what to expect and felt a little apprehensive about it all. It is so wild how Americanized the town of Mexicali was. It had all the major chain stores and restaurants of the U.S. such as Home Depot and Applebee’s. The drive down was littered with solo shoes all over but since we were caravaning in a foreign country not knowing where we were heading we decided it would not be good to get split up. The drive through the baja was very remote, felt like we were really on an adventure. I loved it.
The first time we stopped was at a little beer and ice store, it is tradition for them to get a photo of everyone in front of a big Corona six pack sign. We all drank a beer and then pushed forward. After around a 3 hour drive through a lunar-like landscape we arrived at the small beach town of San Felipe. Everyone was hungry so we stopped for a fish taco. This is where we formally introduced ourselves to the group. Names were said but went in one ear and another. I figured I would learn them better once we got to the campground. The fish tacos were good, we had a great patio table overlooking the water with a cool breeze coming through, complete with pushy streets merchants coming to our table trying to sell us over-priced crap probably made in China.
I saw an awesome Mexican cowboy boot when we entered town before so I convinced Sharon to go get the photo and we would find the campground on our own. We got momentarily lost, but found the caravan turning in as we backtracked. Perfect timing. The campground fee which was $20 last year had gone up to $35 blowing our budget for the trip. We decided to just do two nights to save money, plus we were not sure we would last three nights in a tent on a mexican beach. The group offered to all chip in so we could stay, and it was a really nice gesture but we fine with not staying the third night because we had a lot to do when we got back.
After getting set up at our beach side camp we got into relaxation mode and were excited to sleep under the stars that night as we were exhausted. What no one planned on was that a few sites down a Mexican fiesta was about to begin, complete with a generator powered karaoke sound system. Okay so picture this. Sharon and I laying in the tent with the sound of a mexican accented old man singing Born to be Wild as loud as possible. We felt like we were in hell. We wanted to sleep so bad, once we got accustomed to the sounds of La Bamba and New York, New York they started riding the dune buggy up and down the campground. It was a rumbling, rattling sound that hurt my head as it zipped just feet from our tent. It was not good. Once they stopped around 3 or 4 a.m. we passed out, only to be woken up by a Mexican Miltary helicopter thumping by twenty feet above us around 6, the dogs were now ready to get up. So day 2 of the trip started.
I must say this, it did get progressively better from this point. It was a gorgeous day out, clear skies and cool sea breeze. We played with the dogs in the water all day. Took the kayak for a paddle. Found a shore exposed by the extreme low tide. I caught a perch which we grilled that night and ate it along with great carne esada on tortillas. We had margaritas, good conversation and laughter around a big fire, all was good.
Our new friend Dana came across some ear plugs for us so we would be able to sleep through the Karaoke. But we almost did not really need them as they played the music softer and stopped around midnight. Best of all, no damn roaring dune buggy! We slept like rocks. The helicopter did come again but with the earplugs it was barely a low rumble.
That morning we had eggs with soy-ritso burritos as we packed up the gear and hung out until it was time to head out. We got to say goodbye to all of the great people we met. We felt privileged to be able to share in their outing. They made us feel like we were a real part of the group. The kids were probably the best looking and well behaved group of kids were have ever spent time with. We were very impressed. Sharon was so happy to see her friend Liza and her husband Scott, with their adorable little girl Ava.
The worst part of the trip was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic waiting to get over the border back home. There were vendors selling all kinds of crap walking through the cars non-stop. There were people pushing wheelchairs with disabled, a legless guy who was filthy and crawling down the middle of the street pushing cardboard under his hands to keep them from contacting the extremely hot asphalt. It was all a very hard scene to witness. And we were a captive audience stuck in time to see all the sadness parade by us for almost two hours.
Even through the mexican karaoke, screaming ATVs, searing hot sand, and two hour poverty gauntlet to get back to the USA it was an awesome weekend the we will always remember. We hope we can do it again with everyone. And thanks so much for the blanket, it is a treasured gift that will get a lot of use and help us remember the great times and friends we made in San Felipe.