Sunday, December 9, 2012

Along the Eastern Coast

Upon leaving La Paz, we piloted Chuck down to the small town of Los Barriles and made camp in the Martin Verdugo Resort. It was a nice little spot on the beach with hot showers and free wifi. They even had a pool.

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As we travel farther south, though, I can tell we are entering tourist country again. Everyone speaks English decently, including the gas attendants.  And the beaches are becoming hogged by resorts.

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After doing our laundry in the coin-operated machines at the resort, we decided we would make our way to Cabo Pulmo. A national park, Cabo Pulmo houses one of the few coral reefs on the eastern shores of the Pacific. About 5 miles of the road to this location is gravel and washboarded. Our guidebook says that there is supposed to be a simple campground there that charges a small fee. But it seems that this has disappeared. When we arrived at the location, we could see where the RVs used to enter and park, but it was roped off and there was no longer a sign. Since it was getting late in the day, we figured we would drive on to our next destination that wasn’t planned for another day or two, but it was only 5 miles away down the bumpy gravel road. However, to do so, we needed to turn around, and we found that the road just wasn’t quite wide enough.  So we ventured farther down the road to find an intersecting road to turn around in. When we did find it, we still didn’t have enough room, so we were stuck in the middle of the road, blocking traffic which suddenly became very busy. :/ So Jonathan and I got out and removed the trailer, in the process jarring Jonathan pretty hard when one of the chains didn’t get removed. With the trailer out of the way, though, we were able to let the travelers pass.

When we arrived at Los Frailes, we couldn’t figure out  which “road” we were supposed to turn on to get to the boondocking spot. Jonathan ended up turning a bit early and landed where there were a bunch of Mexicans living or staying. Discovering we had made the wrong turn, we tried to turn around and got stuck in the sand. I am sure Jonathan could have gotten us out eventually, but there were a couple of Mexican men standing there watching us. Upon seeing that we were stuck, they volunteered to come push. With their help, we got out quickly and efficiently. Muchas gracias, amigos. Next turn we made, we got it right and avoided getting stuck. Then to rest so we could enjoy Monday’s shenanigans.

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Spanish Words of the Day:
Washing machine: la lavadora
Dryer: la secadora
Trailer: el remolque

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