"No Show" or Big Show

A year ago I boarded a plane in Zurich heading towards Newark, New Jersey to start my adventure of a journey through the Americas. Probably someone else got lucky and got that seat where I was a “no show” to return to Switzerland. I have experienced a lot of fantastic things, seen beautiful nature and awesome cities and most of all met a lot of interesting, nice, warm-hearted, open minded people on my way. The best though, it is still going on.

I would like to thank all of you that have supported me while getting prepared, working on my truck and eventually setting off to my journey. A thank you also goes to those that have made it an unforgettable experience by crossing my path. And I would like to thank you for joining me right now for a portion of my experience by reading this blog.

Thank you.

Kind regards from Mulegé, Baja California Sur, Mexico

thomas

Way to Bahia de Los Angeles and on

some times you're better off taking the Baja race track than staying on the rough  main road

The road south from San Felipe is good, not always paved but in very good condition. Easily doable with any passenger vehicle or a motorbike. Wouldn't maybe bring a Porsche but otherwhise pretty easy. There is one military check-point on the way and you might have guys with automatic guns searching your vehicle. I crossed a couple of military Hummers full of soldiars with guns and everything. I kept waving and smiling at them friendly, they did too. Once I crossed a white pick-up van with guys on the back with guns, they looked like military too and I waved and smiled and they all waved back.

Left over's from the race form little shrines

Coco's Corner: You will almost have to stop at Coco's. Since he has the road kind of barricaded off and guids the rare trafic through his yard. He will sell you a Coke or a Modelo and share some of his stories with you. Coco has no legs from the knees down but will move around like that rather quickly. He is running his "Coco's Corner" since over 21 years and had the world visiting him. His shelter is full of signed ladies underwear and bras of all types and sizes and he has pictures and parts and pieces of many Baja race cars or bikes. When I was there one Hummer after the other pulled up, the machine-gun guys where super nice and friendly. Soon Coco run out of cold drinks. Coco's corner is even on the maps. As John told me, that's a have to. The road back to Mex 1 is easy and uneventful.

In the middle of the desert I found a boat...

In Bahia de Los Angeles I camped at "Daggett's Campground & Sport Fishing" cool and easy place, directly at the beach. Turn right when you get to the roundabout and head North, just less than a kilometer and you'll see the sign to the right. There are several rigs that seem to be parked there permanently but they are all parked in the back, so you get the front row beach sites. There is no power or water at the sites but they have toilets and showers and a "drink water" fosset with non-salty water. The water in the sea of Cortes is beautifully clear. I did some Kayaking down into the bay and back. Strong winds from the West make it very hard to paddle back should you decide to head for one of the 5 islands in front of you when you are at the Daggett's. Therefore I did not... There must be good fishing there, I met a couple of guys from Santa Barbara and they said they would come here every year to fish.

bedroom view

Camping at Daggett's Campground

While I was Kayaking near the shore I could see many beautiful colored fishes, just the kind of type that used to be on my doctors assistance desk in a big fish bowl when I was a tiny little kid and got my flue shots. Just before I was about to turn around to head back North a group of dophins where passing by about 50 meters in front of me. It was beautiful, they were jumping like they would have gone to school at sea world.

The road further down is easy, some sandy spots but doable with a passenger car up until the cross road where it goes east to San Francisquito and South-West to El Arco. For a short while it gets a little challanging, not really four wheel drive territory but you want a car with high ground clearance. Four wheel drive does not hurt either. More important though, I would say are good tires and a full size spare. I also drove up to the Mission Santa Gertrudis, surprisingly well marked everywhere and down from there on a Baja 500 style sand piste, all staight with some wash boards but if you speed it up high enough you'll kind of fly over them and your car will stop rattleing. Soon you'll be back on Mex 1. 

The road to El Arco...

...can be a little rough

But the finale is Baja 500 alike

Mexico first day

The border crossing was rather painless. Actually after all I heard and read about it I must say it was fairly straight forward. The only thing; one really has to know what to do, because if you happen to get a green light in the nothing to declare line, you’re good to go – so you think – no one will stop you or tell you that you have to get your tarjeta de turistico at the Migracion, neither to go to the banjercito to get your car temporarily imported. Luckily for me, my friends John & Silvia in Redondo Beach, where I was happily staying for the last couple of days have prepared me well. John has extensive knowledge of Mexico, many trips that he led as tour guide as well as motorcycle and car trips. He spent a lot of time with me, figuring out a red line for me through the country.

And also as John predicted, I could not even stop at the US border to get rid of my green three months slip stapled into my passport. While heading south across the border in Calexico passing the US immigration building everything is fenced off, two lanes become one and there is no place to park neither a way to walk across to the other, the US side. So I went on, without stopping and still have the card in my passport. I am sure the immigration officer up at the top of the world highway in Alaska who got so excited about me re-entering the USA after my time in northern Canada went into the immigration system this morning to check whether that crazy Swiss guy with his blue truck was doing as he told him to. And he’ll be even more upset with me now thinking I was still in the land of the free. So next time I’ll enter the USA I will probably get the supermega “Taliban treatment” at the border. All that said, I will check the immigration homepage, maybe there is a place I could send the little green paper in with a copy of my entry stamp into Mexico, might be the way to get rid of my “red flag” in the US immigration system and at the same time of the green slip.

I love the US; a wonderful, very beautiful country with a lot of open minded, tolerant people, however if you are a tourist wanting to spend your savings in the US rather than in your own country or somewhere else, the process at the entry points into the country is a rather intimidating one. The style of these guys working there must be something they get specifically trained on, sometimes this pseudo authority comes across almost a little comical for an official dealing with, even though not another official or an authority, but still with an adult.

Currently I am camping at the Villa Marina Campo Touristico (N30°54.945’ W114°42.863’), a fairly nice campground directly at the beach about 18 km South of San Felipe. The front row is all taken up by RV’s that seem to have found their final resting place here and except for two none of the snowbirds have arrived yet. But the second and third row are sheltered for shade and offer a roof terrace with fantastic views over the ocean, the empty beach and on the other side into the hills. The facilities are a little beaten up but everything works and is clean. There are showers (without shower heads but a pipe coming out of the wall and the water runs with sufficient pressure); clean flushing toilets and everything seems very quiet, clean and safe. To get here take a right turn at the roundabout in San Felipe towards the airport, which is signed. About 8 km down the road the paved road to the airport makes a sharp right turn shortly after that turn left, there is a bunch of “property & land for sale” signs pointing in that direction and the road is still paved and in fair conditions. About 7km down that road you will see a large sign and a short gravel road leads you to the beach and the campground.

Shaded Campsite

Sunrise from the roof terrace

As you may have noticed I have changed my blogging a little, inspired by John and looking at several blogs with him I will turn my English blog a bit more into something hopefully useful for those of you travelling too, or planning a trip to those countries I am visiting. My German blog will remain more a story book of what I experience, who I run into on my trip and how I am digesting all the impressions I get while being on the road. Hope that keeps it nice and interesting for those of you speaking both languages and give you a little more useful stuff to read should you be on the road yourselves.

Feedback is always welcome, looking forward to your comments.

Bye-bye Northamerica

I am spending my last few days in the USA with my friends Silvia and John in Redondo Beach. I haven’t seen them for years, just great to spend some time with them again. Riding bikes along the beach, eating out, hanging on their fantastic roof terrace drinking wine, listening to music. – Life is good. 

My dear travel companion Ursi has left yesterday and has arrived safe back home in Switzerland. Thank you for a great time from the wilderness to the beaches, from desert to the cities.  

With the excellent help of John, who has been leading Tours into Mexico for many years, I am getting prepared for the Central America part of my trip. While almost a little sad to be leaving North America, I am now looking forward to an exciting time in Mexico for the coming months. Tomorrow I will leave LA and head to the border at Mexicali.

Bye-bye Canada, Bye-bye USA - Holà Mexico!

"Walking my Dog"

Dinner at Lori's Diner

Quick Replacement

To get some relief of the pain of having lost my Paratrooper Pro Mountainbike to some Banditos in San Francisco I have looked for a replacement pretty much the next day. The specs where reset and rather than being robust and an equally versatile fellow to the blue truck it should be foldable and small when not in use in order to hide unseen in the belly of the blue truck when the car is parked somewhere.

The time of mountain bike trips is over, the Dahon Vitesse P18 is a road bike, it is extremely light and unfolds in less than a minute, despite its small wheels it is surprisingly fast with the eighteen gears. When folded it fits inside the truck and can not be seen from the outside. This should make it last longer in my possession than the Paratrooper did.   

O.k., the white color was not my first choice... but there was no other color available and I got a 200 Dollar discount.