Skip to main content

Los Angeles to Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico

We had a good trip down Baja. The roads were better than we expected. There were several areas of construction that were terrible and about 75% of the roads had no shoulder (they were two lane narrow roads) which made it difficult when semi-trucks passed going the other way (which was frequently), but  all in all Baja is doing a good job keeping Highway 1 in pretty good shape. What was a little disconcerting was all the shrines by the side of the road. It seemed like there was one every 3 to 5 miles.  In the really bad, high curves there were two or three.
We left Longbeach at 4:00AM on 10/17 and arrived in Catavina about 3PM. Catavinia is about 1/3 of the way down Baja and about half-way between the Pacific and The Sea of Cortez. It's in the middle of a National Desert Park and it was beautiful.
Driving towards Catavina.
Our Hotel in Catavina - it was great to go for a swim.
Sunrise as we left Catavina.

A fog bank rolling in as we approach Guerrero Negro (on the Pacific side)

Heading into Baja California Sur - the state line is just before Guerrero Negro.
 This is also where the time changes to Mountain Time.

Lunch stop in Guerrero Negro - Great Carnitas!

One of about six military checkpoints along the way. Sometimes
they searched and sometimes they just asked us some questions.
 I don't think we fit the profile for gunrunners!
The next stop was San Ignacio. An Oasis in the middle of the desert.
This is a restored mission which was started in 1728 and completed in 1786.
It was beautifully restored in 1976.

San Ignacio town square.

One of the bad sections of road which is being rebuilt.

It got worse - still under construction.
Then it got better.
This took the prize for the most overloaded vehicle.
Two of the many shrines along the side of the road.

Heading toward Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez.

A long and winding road.

First view of the Sea of Cortez.

Back in Santa Rosalia where we spent about ten days last year.
We stopped to visit with our friends at the marina and
we were going to have a shrimp taco at our favorite taco stand,
 but it wasn't there anymore!
We decided to stop in Mulege for the night so we would get to 
Puerto Escondido in the morning instead of in the dark.
Dinner at Las Casitas. It is still the "off season" (and early) so we had the place to ourselves.


 We got up early, stopped in Loreto for breakfast, and headed for P.E.
Finally off of Highway 1, we headed into PE at 10:00 am on Wednesday, October 19.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mexico Ferry Travel: Getting from Guaymas to Baja and Back

Since our car was in Puerto Escondido in Baja and we and Loomba-Loomba were in San Carlos on the mainland, we decided to make an adventure out of getting the car over to the mainland and do a Copper Canyon trip on the way back to Guaymas. This involved two different ferry trips, a bus, lots of driving, and a train. Ferry travel is not cheap or easy in Mexico.  We arrived at the 8PM ferry  (Guaymas – Santa Rosalia) on Saturday May 27 th at 6PM, as required.  There had been some pretty strong northerlies for a few days and the ferry isn’t very big so we asked if it was definitely going to sail. They said yes so our friend, Ray, who had given us a ride from San Carlos, left.  At 7:45 they decided the weather was too bad to go – next ferry would be Monday (maybe). We took a taxi back to the boat and decided to wait until Tuesday the 29 th . This time we had Ray ( who speaks fluent Spanish) call and make a reservation in a cabin for us for Tuesday.  We arrived at 6PM. They ha

North to Vancouver Island..........

 ........this time on our van aboard the Coho Ferry to Victoria. It was a really fun week visiting old cruising friends and for Jim to see old haunts from his time living in Victoria (many years ago). The Coho ferry leaves Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula and arrives in downtown Victoria in one and a half hours: We drove up the west side of Vancouver Island then cut across to a wonderful Provincial C ampground on Gordon Bay on a beautiful lake. The Provincial Campgrounds are big and very well maintained. From Gordon Bay Campground we headed to Nanaimo to hook up with Bob and Gisele Coffey (s/v Relax) where we spent the night. We did a lot of catching up, took a couple of walks around the ponds surrounding their neighborhood and then headed up to another BIG and Beautiful Provincial Park:Rathtrevor Provincial Park about one hour north of Nanaimo. We spent two nights "buddy vanning". . From there we drove (along with Coffeys) down to Shawnigan Lake to visit Ian and Diane (

Two Fall Road Trips 2023

The first trip was doing the Selkirk Loop. We headed first to eastern Washington, then northern Idaho, then British Columbia. We highly recommend. Crossing the Columbia                                                                                                    Priest Lake, Idaho                                                                                                   The FREE ferry across Kootenay Lake We headed to Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park. It was beautiful, nice hikes, good place to ride our bikes and the added bonus was that the Kokanee salmon were swimming up river to spawn.  View of the lake The visitor's center in the park was wonderful and we learned a lot about the fresh water salmon. From there we headed to Nelson, BC. and then Beaver Creek Provincial Park The next morning we headed west with a stop  in Metaline Falls where we had a great             breakfast at "The Farmhouse".                  We stopped in Colville for fuel and to stock u