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| East Cape Coast 4wheelin lonely playa |
Pulling out of Los Barriles we drove on 20 de Novembre north toward Punta Pescadores about 17klm. The paved road winds around a small mountain range exposing glimpses of the coast. As we entered Punta Pescadores the road turned to a dirt track. Heading north we drove through this small village scattered with old style ranches.
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| Winding track along east cape coast BCS |
With each turn we climbed the narrow track carved into the mountain side. Below us deep gorges and rocky faces with dramatic views of the Sea of Crotez and the pure white sandy beaches below. This section is about 27klm long of breathtaking views and narrow passages. Both hands firmly gripping the wheel I negotiate the twisting path up and down and across the deep dry wash outs.
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| Climbing the cutout cliffs BCS |
Our
Land Cruiser preformed flawlessly as our tyres gripped their purchase we climbed the stunning track pulling over to explore trials leading to lonely beaches. This is one of the top 4wd roads in BCS we have crawled. Not wanting it to end we passed
Bahia los Muertos as the track again climbs in elevation we started veering away from the coastal edge.
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| Beyond the valley Canal Cerralvo and El Sargento, BCS |
Inland we came upon
San Angel old rancheros and haciendas as the trail continues twisting and turning their rocky purchase. Eventually we came to rest on a ledge as we saw the valley spilled out below, what a ride!! Just as the road turned to dirt it turned back to pavement and we started heading west.
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| Punta Pescadores playa |
Small sleepy Mexican village
Juan Dominguez Corta was a place right out of time. Crawling through the center of town stopping at the many "topes" (speed bumps) we watched the school kids walking home sucking on frozen flavored juice in a bag.
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| Cool bike shop in El Sargento |
Continuing west we spied our turn off to
El Sargento about 12klm north we take the turn and passed
La Ventana heading into
El Sargento as
we looked for camping.
El Sargento is also known for Kite boarding and some great snorkeling. Unfortunately the wind was kicking for the kite boarders making the water very choppy and murky for snorkeling not the best of conditions.
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| Tango Azul Campsite El Sargento |
Tango Azul campground and casitas was perched up above the village giving way to a wonderful view of the
Canal Cerralvo and the back drop
Isla Cerralvo. White caps dot the indigo blue waters with a clear view of the Isla in the background not a bad perch to be camped at! We camped here for 3 nights before moving on to
La Paz.
Easter Sunday was closing in fast and we were in
El Sargento just for the weekend hoping
La Paz wouldn't be so jammed for the holiday week we entered on a Monday. We considered large crowds as Easter is the one of the biggest of holidays for the
Mexican culture, known as a beach camping family holiday. Pulling out of
El Sargento we headed for La Paz on 286. We climbed
Sierra las Cruces through
La Huerta before we descended onto the vicinity of
La Paz.
We entered from the south east where a major road construction project was under way. The rugged detour was interesting to say the least dodging earth movers dropping into ditches to allow the massive infrastructure forms move into place.
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| Malecon La Paz looking north |
La Paz is the capital of
BCS a large port town with a oil refinery. The only place in
BCS where you can see the sun rise and set over water. Driving into
La Paz you notice they have all the large scale businesses and many different neighborhoods. As we navigate our way to the
Malecon Alvaro Obregon the heart of
La Paz, a 3 mile stretch of shops restaurants hotels and bars and the turquoise bay of the
Sea of Cortez.
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| Kids playing in public fountain malecon |
Day or night this whole area was a pleasure to walk and explore you can even spend a day at the beach just yards from the malecon's sidewalk. Instantly we really liked
La Paz a real city with local people and flavor. Most tourists were from
Mexico here for the holiday to enjoy the lay back atmosphere, beaches and stroll the malecon.
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| La Paz centro, window to our room, Ripe!! |
Our first night we stayed at
Pension California since 1965 this place was a little ripe!! Cheap and centrally located we got our bearings to explore the city. We had two goals one was to inquire about the ferry to
Mazatlan and the second was to wait out the Easter holiday week before pushing on to the mainland
Mexico. The next morning after coffee and pastries we headed north towards the port terminal to seek info on the
Mazatlan ferry crossing. Then to
Playa Pichilngue and Playa El Tecolote the amazing stretch of beaches just north of the city. Here we were thinking of camping close the the ferry port, as the road winds around towards the beaches, the traffic got intense. We wheeled around checking out different coves all where busy with holiday campers. We stopped for a beer at a busy palapa sipping on our almost cold beers we watched as family after family unloaded and claimed their meager spot on this very crowded huge stretch of beach.
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| Hacienda Los San Juanes mining ruins, San Antonio |
Heading back into town we decided to find some better but cheap accommodations as we searched we found more cool spots we liked about
La Paz. About a kilometer south of the malecon we found a clean and inexpensive small hotel room close to restaurants and walking distance to just about everything. With the info we received from the ferry terminal it was better to leave on a Wednesday night at 8p and get to
Mazatlan Thursday at 8am.
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| El Triunfo smokestack "La Romana" |
So that meant we had some time to spend in La Paz about a week. Considering our options we agreed to get a place with a kitchen so we could self-cater, we turned to AirBnB. We located a small studio apt 1.5klm east of the malecon across the street was a well stocked local store, housed in the same building as the apt was a tasty ice cream shop.... Sweet! This was home for about 6 nights we got to know the area pretty well. Just down the street a half a block was a pescadera I bought a kilo of U-8 shrimp for under $12 bucks, dinner was super tasty!!
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| door adorned with old stamps |
We toured the
Mueso Regional de Anthropologia E Historia, Plaza Consitucion and Jardin Velasco. We also took a side trip out of town to the
Santuario de los Cactus a jam packed cacti garden a bit unkempt. Getting there was another opportunity for 4wheelin fun taking the dirt road past the Santuario we wheeled in some wonderful back country going through scattered ranches. As we found our exit out past the ruins of a old mining settlement along a river, located in
San Antonio. Back on the main road
MEX 1 heading to
La Paz we drove through
El Triunfo another mining town.
El Triunfo boasts the largest smokestack at 35 meters "La Romana" and rumored to be designed by Gustave Eiffel. Unlike
San Antonio, El Triunfo has under gone some extensive restoration in hopes to attract visitors.
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| Old Willys Overlander El Triunfo |
We drove back to
La Paz to have a seafood dinner on the malecon before packing it in tomorrow to catch the ferry to
Mazatlan a 5pm check-in and 8pm shove-off if all goes according to plan!!
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| On Easter they roam the streets blessing the Land Cruisers!! |
Hope to see you on the Trail!!...
🚙.......
