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| On the road to Puertecitos |
Pulling out of San Felipe required some planning as we headed to Puertecitos, a sleepy, lonely village further south on Mexico 5 along the Gulfo de California. First we stocked up on some provisions, water, food, plus picked up some fresh jumbo gulf shrimp from Popeye's (the local pescaderio) and of course tacos pescado from Mariscos La Palma. Filled our tanks with fuel we headed out of town south on the only road along the coast. Once you passed the San Felipe International areopuerto the road changed to a more primitive rough asphalt.
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| Leaving San Felipe |
This stretch of Mexico 5 was about 55 miles long and became rougher as we traveled deeper into Baja. We started to slow way down as the road started breaking up and the hard rocky packed trail resembled not a road of any kind. We took notice of some of the road rehabilitation efforts while bumping along, gazing at the beautiful landscape, large prehistoric Cardon cacti, ocotillo, cholla and many scrub bushes like Mexican sage. High clearance 4wd is recommended with good to great tyres and as you are tossed around you can defiantly see why.
Arriving in
Puertecitos was non-eventful, a hilly, rocky cove with mostly crumbling houses and a wonderful empty bay to camp. We arrived towards the late afternoon as we passed the gate to the Seaside campo to soak in the natural hot springs located among the rocks along the coastline. The baths themselves are punctuated with 3 arches and a modest statuary of a maiden sitting in a relaxing position (bathing). As you walked down to the springs, it was the tide that determined which of the four different baths or spots to soak.
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| Puertecitos Bay |
We made camp along the opposite side of the cove next to the now de-funked restaurant as we popped our RTT next to a well worn Palapa. The wind was on and off but mostly "on" during our 2-night stay the peaceful atmosphere and the nightly show of the infinite stratosphere high above was well worth the experience.
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| Seaside Campo Puertecitos |
We had electricity each night from 5:30p-9p and were quite comfortable perched in our humble abode. Dinner was crazy good-jumbo prawns poached in a Mexican Provencal finished with whole butter and beer served on top of steamed pencil thin asparagus, no worries here!!
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| Hot springs low tide Puertecitos |
Our next stop south along the coast
Mexico 5 promised to be a bit warmer and we were told that the worst of the bumpy road was behind us.
Bahia San Luis Gonzaga is a picturesque bay with wonderful beaches and large Palapas to rent along side your campsite. Getting there was a trip in itself! The road promised to be better until the wash outs appeared. Chunks of highway sections were missing and large bridges were standing solitary as no road connected to or exited from the collapsed intrastructure. We were told the destruction was from the last hurricane, (2 years ago). We drove through the maze of detours- the road was a roller-coaster of dangerous turns and twists.
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| Puertecitos, Baja |
Washouts appeared out of nowhere. Some were not marked very well as we saw the skid marks on the pavement of vehicles and trucks coming to an almost deadly stop at the roads edge. This was not a road to drive at night.
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| Gonzaga Bay |
We arrived at
Gonzaga Bay along with the wind! As we explored our way around we decided to camp at one of the many palapas (lucky #7) on the bay that
Rancho Grande offered. But first we stopped at
Rancho Grande officina located across the highway to pay for our site and grab a cold refreshing ice cream and a coke.
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| Camping on the Gonzaga Bay |
Setting up camp took some figuring as the wind and the palapa played a key role as how we parked the rig.
After some jockeying we popped the RTT and made camp. The wind was blowing pretty hard while we noticed the tide going out. The palapa was key as it blocked most of the wind so we could eat and cook in relative calm.
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| Looking north Gonzaga Bay |
That night the wind grew fierce and Trixie was uneasy about staying in the RTT so in the middle of the gale she decided to sleep in the front seat of the rig, where she was more comfortable. I was determined to ride it out in the RTT and what a ride it was. Morning, the sun was out and the wind diminished to a comfortable breeze.
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| I spy Palapas on Gonzaga Bay |
After breaky we pulled out the fishing poles and gave it a try, no luck, so we relaxed watching the birds. The next morning we were awaken to the sounds of sea lions roaring off the coast of the distant island, very cool!! In the afternoon we took a long walk to the north end of the bay to check out the small community of beach homes and a hotel called
Alfonsina's. Ice cold beer with US prices, we had one beer and walked back rubber necking at the small and large abodes dotting the north side of the bay. Large weathered whale bone were scattered about and made for a very fasinating walk back.
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| Lucky #7 Palapa |
Packing up the next morning we jumped on
Mexico 5 south, to connect to
Mexico 1. Hoping the road improved, as it did for awhile, then it was a 4WD track and a spectacular one at that. The scenery was breath taking and the rock, cacti desert formations were never ending desert-scapes were changing at every little valley we navigated into- there was plenty to keep us visually busy.
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| Mexican sage |
Our compass headed south-west toward
Mexico 1 then due south to
Bahia de los Angles and
Mission San Francisco Borja.
Hope to see you on the Trail!
🚙........
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| Pelicans and Swallowtail Kites resting Puertecitos |
