Greetings to all, the WeOverlander Team is about to embark on our Mexican journey, traveling down through Baja then across the Sea of Cortez via ferry from La Paz to Matzatlan. This portion of our adventure promises to be more seasoned from our past experiences traveling the USA on a off-road dirt trail called the TAT Trans America Trail (TransAmTrail.com).
We left the Miami FL area in March 2018 and crossed the USA via TAT- a continuous dirt overland trail winding through such states as GA, KY, TN, AK, OK, MS, NM, AZ, ID, OR, UT. not particularly in that order, with side trips to MO, TX, WA, NV, and CA. So now in 2019 we start our travels into Baja California, Mexico and perhaps beyond into Central America.
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| "Baby it's cold outside" Running Springs CA. |
After a long hiatus of 2.5 months visiting family and friends for the holidays in CA. and weather permitting we were ready to hit the trail once again. Research and preparation were the key as we enhanced our kit with a few needed items as well as deciding to leave our bicycles in CA. We tried to keep our load light while making sure we had what we needed when we needed it! Leaving the bikes gave us room for other items we felt more prudent as we crossed the international border into Mexico, ie.. gas and fresh water.
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| Extra fuel Rotoflex |
With the help of
Baja Travel Club located in
San Diego our crossing was less stressful than it could be, especially when bringing your rig across the international border for an extended period of time (6 mos.).
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| Navigation systems, InReach |
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| The Club |
BTC helped us with
Mexican vehicle insurance, tourist visa, stamp (TIP) and fishing lic. along with travel tips and accommodation discounts. Feeling confident our plan was to cross at
Tecate after visiting BTC to fill out our paperwork (TIP and visas). We would then cross first
thing in the morning after camping the night at
Potrero State Park 5
miles north of the
Mexican Tecate border! But before leaving
San Diego
we hit up a place called
Shakespeare Pub located in old town, for some
of the best Fish n Chips we had in a long time, light, crispy
moist, the batter was spot on. The chips are fresh and were the perfect
accompaniment, Delish!! With bellies full, weather miserable and rush hour traffic we took to the road, I-8 east to CR 94 heading to the
Tecate
border.
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| Rain at the Tecate border |
Temps dropped as the road wound through the
Otay Mountains about
3000+ft el. where we experienced even colder temps and some spotty snow flurries,
WTF!!. Making it to the border just before dark we scouted out our route
for the morning crossing; looked simple enough. Now we headed to
Potrero State
Park, pulling in as the rain was now mixed with a little snow and hail,
great! We found a campsite close to the open air restrooms popped our
tent and climbed in bracing ourselves for a cold damp night! Brrrrr. Morning arrived
not a moment too soon as temps hoovered just above freezing. We tried to time our departure in between the icy
rain and hail showers to collapse our tent with frozen, biting fingers.
At about 10:00am with our kit repacked we headed for the border. We crossed the border in pouring rain with no apparent issues, waved
through to the
Mexican side where we parked to get our visas stamped and
our TIP purchased. Our visas were filled out expertly by the crew at BTC and we had no
issues as we completed the immigration portion. Next step was to
registered our rig with the
Mexican authorities. However, a small glitch as the the ofisina opened at
2pm!! We had about 3 hours to kill in the cold, wet weather. With no tourist sticker on our car!! Hungry and without our morning
coffee as we warmed up in the car and decided to find a warm place for some
breaky and coffee. Cruising around the city of
Tecate we found just the restaurant, with parking right out front, we headed for our first
Mexican meal,
Chilaques with Carne Asada for me and a Mexican Queso omelet for Trixie with plenty of hot
coffee for both of us. Satiated we headed back to the border station to get our TIP completed. Within 35 minutes TIP and visas in hand we were on the road heading south to
Ensenada, on
Mexico 3, Ruta de Vino.
The winding road promised sun shine as we drove deeper south. We arrived in the birth place of the Fish taco,
Ensenada. Around 4:30pm we pulled over to one of the many fruit stands and grabbed a Coco Frio and enjoyed the view of the
Pacific Ocean as the sun filtered through the scattered clouds.
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| Morning at Santo Tomas, Ensenada |
Our next step was to find a dry and warm room! We chose
Santos Tomas for two nights just off the main street. Conveniently located we loved walking the many boulevards and started to zigzag our way along Ensenada's street food carts. After a trip through the country to
La Bufadora, a blow hole located south of town we worked up a appetite and headed out on foot again to eat some more delicious street food.
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| La Bufadora |
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| Local |
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| Cliffs at the Bufadora |
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| Looking back at Ensenada |
First on the Ensanada list of street food carts is a place recommended called
La Guerrerense. This was a little cart sporting ceviche style tostadas. With only a few selections available we choose the Mixta with fresh avocado! Tasty yes!, but we had yet to find the apex of the taco de pescado.
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| Fenix crew, true chicas Ricas!! |
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| Location, location, location |
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| just a sample of many Tacos de pescado I ate at El Fenix |
After walking the streets (most with no street signs) we came upon the mecca of fish tacos
El Fenix. This is the quintessential fish taco-a true benchmark! They were so good we even went back for breaky before leaving
Ensenada the next morning.
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| Road to San Felipe Mex-3 |
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| Downtown San Felipe, Melacon |
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| Local boat yard |
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| Fishing Pangas getting ready to be pulled out |
Next stop
San Felipe via
Mexico 3 east to the
Gulfo de California.
San Felipe is a small fishing village with beautiful open beaches, friendly people and great seafood!! Here we camped at
La Palapa RV and Camp for 5 nights on the water while we enjoyed the warm temps, fresh seafood and the laid back atmosphere, with our toes planted in the sand.
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| Palapa's on the playa de San Felipe |
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| La Palapa RV and Camp |
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| Bike Hospital San Felipe |
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| The freshest pescado around Popeye's |
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| Looking into San Felipe |
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| Many El Jefe's |
Pulling up stakes we headed further south on the coast to
Puertecitos, hot springs and you guessed it-la playas...
See you on the Trail!!
🚙.......
