Friday, January 27, 2012

Baja 1/27/2012






We took a road trip south looking for an abandoned lighthouse on the Sea of Cortez. Much of the coast off-road is in sandy washes called arroyos and dirt roads wandering around in the hills of the coastline. This is not the rock climbing off-road that we do in AZ, though of course, that includes lots of sand too! Often we could see the lighthouse in the distance; however, finding the right road to it was a challenge. After a couple of 'side trips', we found a road that led to the beach and we backtracked to the lighthouse on the beach... all sand and some pretty deep. The photo second from bottom is of Mike roaring up the last hill, in pretty deep sand, to the lighthouse. With such a pristine beach, it is hard to see the run-down palapas, some up side down, on the beach. We did see two shimper/fish boats anchored offshore. The day was beautiful and we do love the sunshine here. Another day, another adventuer! The painting is an immature Cardinal, from a photo taken at Santispac. Happy trails....

Friday, January 20, 2012

Baja 1/20/2012

On Wednesday, 1/18 we had dinner with Danny and Linda Peterson, along with Mike and Elaine Koehn at Tio Pablo's in Los Barriles. It's alwasy fun to get together with our Baja friends. We met Danny and Linda on our first trip down to Los Barriles. Today we Koehns took an 'off-road' trip south. Outside of Miraflores we headed off road and saw a lot of traffic.... cows and goats. When we made it back to Mexico 1, we turned north and went looking for the hot springs outside of Santiago. This little jaunt took a couple of hours! I've included the blue church in Agua Caliente (hot water) and the white church in Santiago. The pool at the hot springs wasn't all that hot, according to Roger, but you can see from the photo of him and the Jeeps, he had a very good time. I was ready for a nap by the time we got back to Onda Rocks. Weather has not cooperated for our kayaking, but we keep hoping. Meanwhile, Happy Trails...








Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Baja 1/18/2012







We took a road trip up the San Bartolo arroyo today. We saw turkey vultures having a late lunch, a herd of goats and their dog manager, and enjoyed a beautiful Baja day. We have gone up to San Bartolo before, but this year, the bamboo has really taken over where the water springs up. We were able in past years to walk to the big pool at the end of the trail; this year we gave up trying to get through the bamboo. I drove our lil Jeep back, first time driving it. I now know how to put it in 4-wheel drive but don't know a thing about the 'lockers'... and probably wont for a long while.... I've included photos of Mike and Elaine - these off-road trips were one of the big things the brothers wanted to do this winter. Last page I put up a photo of our Mexican dish with some vegetables... this time I am including a painting of a collection of the Mexican pottery and veggies. Too much fun! We hope you are having fun too! Happy trails....

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Baja 1/12/2012






We are settling in pretty fine at Onda Rocks house. I put up a couple of shots of the local goat herd. They seem to roam our road pretty much on their own. They call a yard just south of our road home, meaning a fenced yard, but it has an open gate and they roam at will. Pretty amazing to see them hold up a couple of cars as they mosey across the road. I also have a photo (seems I can't figure out to to 'straighten it up) of Roger reading in our front patio. The inset is done in tile and of the Madonna. Tomorrow the big Lord of the Winds festival will be held on the beach and in town. The photo of one group of kiters shows only one small group. The kites are all over the beach into town, and folks are out there on the water practising. There are sail boarder out on the water too. There are big colored triangle floats laying out the courses. ' I also included a photo of our veggies and Mexican dishes. This looks good enough for either dinner or a painting! Part of our Mexican adventure is water and electricity cut offs, at random times and for unknow lenghts of time.... however, we wouldn't be any where else!... Happy trails...

Monday, January 9, 2012

Baja 2012 Jan 9







We arrived at Onda Rocks, our casa in Los Barriles 1/7/2012. We stopped at the Hotel Serenidad just south of Mulege' on the 5th. I've included a few photos of the hotel. We took a break from long driving days and just kicked back here. We drove on to Ciudad de Constitution on the 6th, staying at Palapa 206 in their 'motel' rooms, which were sufficient to our needs. We decided to skip sightseeing in favor of going straight on in to Los Barriles, arriving on the 7th. We had a great lunch at a roadside stand in San Antonio, and then on Los Barriles. We were early and the gates to the property were locked. However, we finally got in and started the unpacking process! We are just a driveway off the beach, and like our new home very much. It is very much Mexican, sort of funky in style, but fits us perfectly! Mike was our chef for our first at-home dinner... great shrimp stir fry w/ rice. That man can cook! Mike has set up his 'office' in one of the single bedrooms and I have the second one as a studio, a place to store my painting supplies and our extra empty containers. We played Mexican train last night after dinner. How great is that!! We hope you enjoy our adventures and have... Happy Trails....

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Baja 2012 Jan. 2,








We crossed the border at Tecate' about 10.30 am. You can see from our photos, that our trusty kayaks are loaded (and so are all the rigs !). A quick breakfast at the casino coffee shop braced us for the journey. After an uneventful but long drive we stayed at the Hotel Jardines, in San Quintin. You can see what a beautiful place this is; not particularly large, but the grounds were beautiful and the rooms very nice. We took Hiway Mex 3 out of Tecate',then onto Mex 1 to San Quintin. We got excellent recommendations and directions from folks on the Baja Pony Express internet newsletter. On the 3rd we were on to Guerro Negro. We stayed at the Malarimmo (?) Hotel and RV park. We were in our rvs last year when we stayed there. We had a great dinner there and crashed early. Yesterday, the 4th, we were in San Ignacio, staying in the hotel part of the hotel/rv complex. Again, last year we were there in the RV section, in our rigs. Weather was so perfect we had a great dinner on the hotel patio. We took the afternoon to drive out to the San Ignacio Lagoon, hoping to see whales. This side trip did give the guys a chance to give the 'lil' Jeeps an adventuresome ride for some 4 hours (total, out and back). No whales, but a beautiful view of the lagoon on the Pacific side of Baja. Today we just south of Mulege', at the Hotel Serenidad... and again beautiful weather. Roger and I both graduated to shorts.... Mike and Elaine started that trend yesterday. The roads are much improved and of course everything looks bigger (wider highway, taller trucks etc) but that is because we are in reg size autos, not higher up in RVs! Passing those big trucks is not so hard this time...lol Hope you have something wonderful planned for 2012...Happy Trails....

Baja 2012 packing up




The last week of December we were very busy, unloading the RV and getting it into storage, as well as getting the Jeeps into travel-mode. Course the little Jeep needed a few things, got it's first 'bra, new tow package, a tune up package, etc etc. Big Jeep came in for it's share of attention too. I had to put up one picture of the clean deck, as we thought there for awhile, that we would never see the new carpet again! The shadow photo is one I took out the window of the Wrangler... it is of the kayaks atop the Jeep, in great sunshine heading down the road to the Quechan Casino, where we met Roger's brother Mike and his wife Elaine. The 4 of us were traveling down to Los Barriles. We are sharing a house there and the adventure along the way. We crossed the border on January 2, 2012. What a way to start the New Year! I plan to post more photos of our trip, so if you would like to join us... check in on the Koehn Road Trip, 2012. meanwhile, Happy Trails.....