September and early October 2003 were very wet times in Baja. First, Hurricane Ignacio pounded the Cape area before heading northward and dumping several inches of rain on us. A couple weeks later, Hurricane, cum Tropical Storm Marty tracked up the Gulf during a full moon. The tides, coupled with the storm surge, were pretty destructive. More rain accompanied Marty. Puertecitos reportedly got 9 inches.. At the end of the season, (another) Nora and Olaf churned off the Cape region. Olaf headed east and made its landfall near Cabo Corrientes, south of Puerto Vallarta. Nora headed inland north of Puerto Vallarta and became a remnant low. Nora headed due north into Arizona and dropped a couple more inches of rain on San Felipe in the process. The result of all this activity was greenness, unprecedented in my experience.
We headed down south for the season's first trip on Saturday, 17 October. The desert looked pretty much the same until we hit the south end of Laguna Salada. Then, green stuff started appearing in increasing numbers as we neared San Felipe.
A high pressure system had settled in over the Northeastern Pacific. San Diego was hot. San Felipe was hotter. We ran our supply chain in town, gathering beer, gas, ice, groceries, tequila, and phone cards in the process. We stopped at Tonia's restaurant and she gave us some fish machaca, gratis. Loncho was down south.
An hour and 15 minutes later, we were in lovely Puertecitos. Nothing new on the road there. Nice pavement to Santa Maria, potholes and no pavement thereafter.
The Gonzaga road did not fair too poorly from the summer storm onslaught. Some washout of ballast from the roadbed was apparent, as were several erosion gullies at major washes. The arroyo erosion gullies looked as if the water washed over the top of the road after a minor lake pooled behind the "dam". The "dams" were not breached, however. The Huerfanito flats, from south of Huerfanito Grade to the Cinco Islas Cafe, were nasty, as they have been for some time now. I blew a tire about 28 miles south of Puertecitos. After changing the flat, I continued on to our casa, arriving about a half hour after Ed pulled in. I gave thanks that we had not been robbed or vandalized over the summer. Loncho showed up pretty soon after we arrived. He looks pretty healthy, considering.
The sunset that night made for interesting color over Isla San Luis.
The whole place was green. This is our front yard.
Here's the side yard early Sunday, looking toward Las Encantadas.
The view out back was similarly verdant. I took this panoramic shot from the roof of our ramada. As is tradition on the Dean & Cathy's Baja Home Website, all the panoramas on the following pages are displayed as 680-pixel-wide images. This is the same width as the other pictures (they're 680 x 510). If you like the image and want to see it full-size, click on the image. JavaScript will open a new resizable window with scroll bars to display the full size (510 pixels high) panorama. When you're done looking, close the window as the original page remains in the background.
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A Gambel's Quail ran toward one of our bushes. We don't see quail out this close to the coast too often.
We made a run down to Rancho Grande to get propane, water, and to have my flat repaired. The flat was unrepairable and Tony had very few 15 inch tires. I could not find a replacement. Fortunately, Ed has the same spare as I do, so we decided to wing it on the way back.
The ice machine at Rancho Grande is broken. One of their bulk propane tanks is empty, the other was 30% full. Propane cost a little over $N5.1 (pesos) per liter. Each 25 pound cylinder cost a little over $9 to fill. Pablo was only giving $N10 to the dollar, while the Casas de Cambio in Calexico were giving $N11. Having pesos would have resulted in a de facto 9% discount. Filling your tanks at Pablo's is still cheaper than having them filled in the States (even if you could have them filled). A word to the wise: keep an eye on the guy who's filling your cylinders. If they're empty, put no more than 18 liters in each one. If they're not completely empty, bring your own screwdriver and make sure you know how to fill cylinders. Tell the attendant to shut the pump off when liquid appears at he indicator port. Overfilled tanks are mucho peligroso. The RO system is running fine. Agua purificado is $2 American for 5 gallons. Pablo has plenty of liquor, cold beer and the usual supplies. I didn't note whether he had gas or not.
The Pemex station across the street is still closed. Do not expect it to ever open. In my opinion, someone who builds Pemex stations pulled strings with the government so they could make some easy money. No one ever intended to open this station, nor the one in Puertecitos. The stations were merely construction company pork barrel projects. On the way back from the Gonzaga area, I took these pictures of the "Punta Bufeo Plains". They're not usually plains, but pumice fields. This year though, all they needed were a couple of cows to look downright bucolic.
Here, a couple of buzzards take to flight.
On the way back, interestingly enough, we noted LARGE quantities of asphalt piled up alongside the road south of Km 32. I hate to jump to conclusions, especially in Mexico, but it sure looked like someone planned to do some paving. Hopefully, they'll continue improving the road to Puertecitos. Similarly, muchos maquinas were staging at Rancho Grande. Some dudes I talked with at Pablo's came in from Long Beach via Coco's Corner. The road out that way fared worse than the road from Puertecitos. A road grader was working at the Cinco Islas, but the day's work was spent grading a road toward the sea. Whether the road will be graded is not known. Also on the way back, we noted signs for the Baja 1000. I'm not really into offroad sports, but they're a fine thing to do if you're into it. I just wish they'd (whoever they might be) clean up their mess when they're done, especially, the mess they make of the road. I sure hope it gets graded this year, because the race trashed it last year and this year will be no different. The Mexican government, true to form, said the road was going to be repaired after last year's race, but so far, it hasn't been. Maybe, mañana.
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