Heading North Again

Thursday rose with all of us preparing to head north again. Jonathan and I had to do laundry and pack up all our belongings again. Dave, Cyndi, and James needed to figure out how to pack the souvenirs into their already full bags, with the added stipulation of not breaking anything. Then we all had to make sure the rental was in the proper state as required by the contract. Instead of following them to the airport, we gave James thorough instructions on how to get to the airport and the gas station to fill up the car before they turned in the rental. We said our goodbyes at the rental then, with me praying that they would do alright without my translation and navigation skills. Apparently they made it safely and in time, as later the next day when we finally got internet, we saw an email from James from late the previous evening.

Jonathan and I headed first to the nearby Wal-Mart, as our pantry was rather empty. This time, I was prepared with a list based upon an meal schedule we had worked up the week before. On an impulse, I even bought some of that cactus sold there to add to a few of the dishes. After that, we were ravenous, and thought we would try the VIPS restaurant that we had seen a few times throughout Baja California, normally near a Wal-Mart. It ended up being a Mexico-wide chain that did not do a good spaghetti dish nor a crepe. Fed, we left driving up the four-lane, divided highway, Mex-19 to Playa Tecolote near La Paz. By the way, if you never seen pelicans dive bombing in coordination like they do at this beach, you are missing it. It is fantastic. Several pelicans take off together and glide in circles through the air, then they all start angling off together towards the ocean, often flipping over backwards when they dive bomb. If it there are calmer waters/wind, the splashes they make are rather loud.

That night, Jonathan and I cooked our first meal of the new schedule, which happened to be the first meal with meat we had ever cooked in our van. I called them fajitas, but the chicken slices were not from fajita meat. It was delicious though, I must say.





Next day, we headed back across the Peninsula to the Pacific side to try to watch for whales. To do this, we planned to stay at the Mar y Arena Restaurant in Puerto San Carlos. However, when we arrived, the place seemed like it was out of business. Not willing to stay in an unofficial location, we decided to give up on the whales and go back to Ciudad Constitución and stay at one of the parks there.

Afraid of the bugs we think we caught at the place we stayed at last time, we decided to try another location, Palapa 206 RV Park. This place had warm water for showers at least, although many mosquitos inhabited the building. The one thing it really had against it was the dogs. There were a lot and they made noise all night long. Normally I don’t have an issue with noise after I fall asleep, but they were rowdy enough all night long to keep even me up. Then in the morning, we found that they had left us another present, or should I say the opposite? When Jonathan finally got around to go use the restroom, he couldn’t find his shoes. I told him he had left them outside last night, and he replied that they were no longer there. My response was that someone had obviously taken them, most likely the dogs. Sure enough, he walked to the front of the van and found one of his sandals, but the band had been ripped through and the sole chewn.  Nothing like waking up to that in morning, I tell you.

That is definitely one of the things I don’t appreciate about Mexico: the rampant dog population. Very obnoxious. Jonathan hates that every spot we stop, every dog in the neighborhood has to come up and mark its territory on our tires.