Santispac Beach to La Paz

Prince Reindeer and the little car on the Beach at Santispac

February 1-2

Santispac Beach-Bahia Concepcion 

Buck and Heather took their laundry into the nearest town (Mulege) to the lavanderia.  These laundries will wash, dry, fold, and package your laundry in under three hours for cheap, cheap, cheap.  They paid $230 pesos for a whole lot of laundry. 

We drove Heather into town later on that day to pick up the clothes and for a look-see and some shopping.  We show her a tortillaria (tortilla factory), a bakery, and pick up a bag of oranges ($75 pesos for a 30 pound bag).  A quick conversion is 10 pesos to the dollar……that’s not exact but gives you a rough idea.

We had bought some lobster and shrimp so grilled them (a little garlic, a little butter, and a lot of heat from the grill…….YUUUMMMM!!) for dinner.

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We had a beach party on our last night in this paradise where Becky and John (our intrepid wagonmasters) provided the chicken, booze, and party atmosphere (lights, lit palm trees, music, etc. the handy-dandy Onan 5KW generator in our ‘basement’ supplied the power on this otherwise dry beach.)  Buck, Wayne, and I strung some LED lights around the area and hooked them up.  Buck and I also had a little fun with a piñata that we had bought in Guerrero Negro  we filled it with candy and hung it from the roof of one of the lean-tos.  Great time and a lot of laughs.

Friday February 3

We are travelling from Paradise onto Constitucion and Ed is feeling a little more relaxed on the road.  We are actually keeping up with the group sort of!

Constitucion is a hole in the wall……..a wide space in the road……..kind of a dead town.  I am sure that there are very nice people there but nothing is happening there.  The RV park also is not the nicest either.  Dirty, dusty, with faulty wiring, and interesting water hookups….in short, very Mexican!

When Ed went to connect the sewer line he discovered that the coffee can over the sewer pipe held ++ lovely red  cockroaches that scurried away when we lifted the can.  Unfortunately Heather, who was standing right there and almost lost her lunch!!  Thankfully we are only staying one night and not stopping here on the way back through!

Picked up a couple large bottles of purified water at the local grocery store (after having to pay for two new bottles) and Buck picked up some fuel.

February 4-5

Parked in the dunes on Tecolote Beach just north of La Paz

We are on our way to La Paz and Tecolote Beach.  La Paz is the capital of Baja California Sur and is growing incredibly quickly.  We stayed here a few years back and cannot believe the changes we see.

Tecolote Beach is north of La Paz and just north of  Pichelingue which is the dock for ferries to the mainland.

We are seeing a huge construction boom throughout Baja California. The recession crippling the rest of North America and the world does not seem to be affecting Mexico!  The only thing seeming to slow Mexico down is the vast amount of negative publicity in the press about the violence being caused by the drug cartels.  But even that has not seemed to slow growth in the Cape region of Baja! 

Through La Paz and onto Tecolote Beach.  Another glorious beach with dunes aplenty.  We picked out our spot on the beach and set up camp.  The view is breath taking and the dogs love being able to run on the sand.  We do have to be careful though as we have seen a couple of dead puffer fish (toxic!)  on the beach and our Mojo loves to roll in dead fish carcasses. 

Heather and Ross are sent out to explore the restaurants along the beach only to find just one place remains open….but they have a great bar and we sit down for a drink.  The menu is also looking good so we are off to find the other guys to drag them to dinner……..which was great.

 While exploring La Paz we came across this curious little bitty hotel with the most unusual lobby absolutely crammed with stuff...antiques and oddities and more than a bit of junque!

We explored La Paz with Buck and Heather showing them some of the sights we knew.  The pottery place was closed as it was Sunday so we Heather could not get the plates she wants. 

We stopped into the information centre where the extraordinarily helpful young man told us about a new restaurant, Sarandeado,  that sounded really interesting.

The back entrance to Sarandeado...look inviting??

After finally finding the place (first found the back entrance next to a car wreckers and the place looked dreadful, but the front entrance – when we found it – was great).  Service was exceptional although it was entirely in Spanish (not a word of English was spoken) and even that was so rapid it was difficult to understand.  We all had either grilled fish or shrimp Sarandeado style which is in a wonderful sauce and it was heaven.  We finished the meal with pastel del tres leches (cake made with three kinds of milk)………….YUUUMMMM!!

The real entrance to Sarandeado

Finished the day by shopping at a new supermarket chain – MEGA – that looks like Costco or Wal-Mart but is totally Mexican.  The place was well lit, well stocked, well-staffed, clean, and quite nice to shop in.  Even had a few other stores in and around the building and the entrance was up a moving ramp.  Impressive.

The moving ramp inside Mega and it was MEGA note the coffee shop in the background...logo look familiar??

Back to the beach at Tecolote and resting for the night.   To get to Tecolote you must drive past the ferry terminal and  the trucks waiting to board this coupled with the HUGE topes can be tricky!  Tecolote is backed by a small range of mountains that has one outcropping of rock that kinda looks like an owl……….hence the name Tecolote (owl).

The ferry leaving from Pichelingue for either Topolobampo or Mazatlan in the sunset