San Jose del Cabo

San Jose del Cabo evokes many special memories for us …epic surf trips “rip to the tip“, desconocido wave breaks, beaches privadas, burros curiosos and Cabo Ironman…140.6 miles of heart, grit …and sweat… through the incredible peninsula.

Flooded with fond recollections, we decided to treat ourselves to one night in a hotel, right in the colonial area of downtown.

While the ‘party-place’ Cabo commotion has a time and place; we’ve really fallen for the ‘girl next door’, San Jose del Cabo… less crowded, warm and charming cobblestone streets, delicious restaurants… beautiful, comfy and cozy!

Settled in for the evening, J discovered a rad new restaurant, La Lupita Taco y Mezcal, delivering the most mind-blowing gourmet tacos and a much craved margarita!

My fav was the fresh sea bass with miso infused crema….

Riley, The Captain

Don’t drop the soap in the prison shower…

Haha! Okay, okay, I’m exaggerating… BUT balancing on the slippery cement blocks, NAKED, with a slight breeze and cold water… it was a quick rinse.

Shivering at Punta Conejo, after a few days on the road, we were thankful a little bird told us about the hidden shower…

This beach is filled with secrets.. you would blow right past the turn off, if you didn’t know what you were looking for…

Each morning we awoke to a cotton candy filled sky that would satisfy even the sweetest tooth…

The ocean beckoned to us with an empty line up and fun waves.

And, perhaps, the most memorable of all was the campsite host, Riley…. An older, mischievous man… He was a wild cat that had defied and surpassed his 9 lives.

Now, living on the point, he helps manage the area and occasionally visits the campers. A little rugged at times, his heart was in a good place; we learned some of his adventures but the others were kept locked up… perhaps for the próximo vez.

If he wasn’t memorable enough on his own, he had the most lovable dog, Stinky… a Boston Terrier with cerebral palsy…. Yep… Little stick would hobble on up and wiggle around as you gave her some TLC.

Riley had a watch tattoo around his wrist. I didn’t quite catch the hour… but, as the night got later, and the bursts of La Bamba got louder… we guessed it was Tequila time…

“Yo no soy marinero… yo no soy marinero, soy capitán… soy capitán, soy CAPITÁN.. Ba Ba BAMBA!!!!”

And that’s how we’ll remember Riley, the welcoming Captain of Punta Conejo!

We missed him the morning we took off, so we left a few goodies on his doorstep.

Cataviña

Leaving for Mexico…Round 2! Tuvimos ganas to get down South pretty quickly.

Taking off early in the morning (this time), we were on a mission to the border… I mean to VG’s donuts…and then the border 😉

Veins surging with cinnamon twists; we powered through secondary in a few sips of coffee and were gone.

Destination 1: Cataviña. This curious part of the desert is about 7+ hours from Oceanside. Still quite a drive, it was a good goal for the first day. Coffee, coffee, coffee. There was the thermos of hot coffee, then the cooler iced coffees. Zzzzzzzzzz…

Cafeína cross the livestock friendly two lane highways. Cows, horses, goats, coyotes. (Do not drive at night).

Pulling in right at sundown added to the eerie but fascinating landscape. Similar to Mars but with plants fighting through the crusty surface; like alien hands reaching out their skinny, pointy fingers towards the sky…

We were welcomed at Rancho Santa Inès. There are a few campgrounds/RV parks in the area, but this one was the BEST. Just a short drive off the highway, offering spacious sites near a cool riverbed, and palm tree oasis.

After our sunset walkabout, we agreed it was a ‘cup of noodles’ kind of night before lights out.

Greedy Seagulls

Do you ever feel like a greedy seagull while on vacation?

Just indulging in all things outside the ‘normal routine’…

Perusing the skies like a flying garbage disposal…

Take the back seat kale, move over quinoa… Muah-ha-ha… This BURGER is MINE…

Yessss…

ALLLLL the sushi is MINE…

All the wine….. MINE….

(Disclaimer: This is not an ad for Residence Inn Marriott, however, we were quite impressed with the large complimentary breakfast buffet 😉 ha!)

Hmmmmm…Ahhhhh…. No schedules …. No work, no email…No chores… THE WORLD IS MINE!!! …

Rewinding slightly…after enjoying a few lazy days at Las Rocas, outside Rosarito, we made a game plan and limped Pancho back across the border to the US side. A shop in Santee awaited our arrival and got to work on our little van baby.

While the car trouble caught us off guard, we were lucky to be that close to the border, and still have plenty of time to continue our adventure.

Even back where we started, we realized… we’re still on vacation!! (That’s where the greedy seagulls come flying in… “caw-caw” hahaha!)

We’ve never had this much time to do absolutely nothing at home. Some days we slept in till 10:00 am, others …. extended coffee time (with donuts), English Premier League soccer games, camping in Idyllwild, riding beach cruisers, getting caught in the rain while on the beach cruisers…making it to a special family wedding… taking walks, discussing why dogs shouldn’t wear sweaters…

You know, all the important things… 😉

Okay- fast forward–>

Getting Pancho back from the shop has given us a BIG second wind. Re-packing, re-arranging… with some experience under our belt; we’re raring to go and ready for round 2 in Mexico! Woooooot!!

¡Vámonos!

Despacito

There they were… a stranded, foreign couple in the middle of nowhere, trying to flag down help on a two lane highway, in what J described as a “Dr. Seuss desert forest”.

Oh shoot… did I say “they”… I meant “we“…

You almost always start evaluating yourself from an outsider’s perspective in these types of situations….. “Would I stop for me?”

Haha, not to fear! As a couple, I’m pretty sure this was our 4th time hitchhiking… Yes, we’re real experienced “hitchers” 😉

The last time? Running down the El Yunque rainforest in Colombia, with all our luggage, trying to make the bus back to Cartagena…yes, we did score a ride (sweaty and everything) barely making our autobús. Woot!

We have the different ‘waves’ down…

This one was the forceful, double handed ‘parade wave’, communicating, “Hello, we are friendly… but, Please. Stop. Now. Thanks.”

Moments later, a small cargo truck with two men pulled off to see what the commotion was… Although, relatively calm, I could not remember the word for “tow truck”…

The stage was mine… It was like an anxiety ridden game of catchphrase… motioning and blurting out phrases, “we need a big truck for the van” … “You know the larger one to take the little one”… “The vehicle to put the other vehicle “…

“Una grúa?”…. “Si, si, una grúa”… There was only room for one of us in the cargo truck… (Neither of us wanted to leave the other alone…) After going back and forth regarding our options, the men offered to drive slowly behind us until we made it back to town.

The clanging from Pancho’s underbelly was concerning; we certainly didn’t want to make it worse. Guided to a mechanic, we posted up for a few hours to see if there would be a quick fix…

It was an interesting diagnosis to say the least. The mechanic had a hose cut on both ends and was using it like a stethoscope… holding one end to his ear and moving the other end to the transmission, engine etc. announcing, “Ruida aqui?…no… Ruida aqui…no… Ruida aqui?…Si, es el motor.. Tengo quitar el motor”.

Um… What…Remove the engine?!?! J and I exchanged some ‘I don’t think so’ looks. We quickly asked the mecánico if we could make it back to Ensenada. “Si, es posible…” That was good enough for us and really the only possibility at that point.

“Muy despacito”, he cautioned. Giving understanding nods, we thanked the mechanic for his time and started back North.

Just like the song…

“Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito
Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito”

Nervously stepping onto the dance floor, poquito a poquito, 40 mph for over 130 miles. We just kind of held our breath, encouraging each other along in this fragile dance down the highway… While stress was in the air; I’m proud we both did great at focusing on the positive ~ PMA alllll the way. The clattering had subsided some…fingers crossed…

Gracias a dios! Hours later, driving into this familiar area was such a relief… made it back to Ensenada.

A quick stop for tacos later, we were high-fiving; it felt like victory!

Punta Baja

Thick, juicy, gooey MUD.

Hundreds of earthy suction cups grabbed at Pancho, trying to wrap their tierra tentacles around his svelte body.

We were a sailboat in a distressed dirt sea, dodging Lock Ness Monsters!

The roads were not prepared for all the rain; one wrong turn from El Rosario and we were fishtailing through the country side, in search of Punta Baja.

Mi Capitán pulled it off, slipping, sliding, gliding, he manned our ship through the worst of the storm.

Just as the sun was setting; we successfully anchored at our destination: Punta Baja. Man were we excited to see that light house tower.

Pancho stood strong on the point, his proud chest puffed up in the ocean breeze.

Hallelujah… We cracked a beer and took a moment to exhale and appreciate being capsize-free. That was close!

It was our first time to Punta Baja; while we experienced some chaos getting there, the discovery made up for it!

Those who seek adventure will find it! …