Puerto Peñasco (a.k.a. Rocky Point)

After a few stops looking for CETO on a recommendation as a place to stay, and then an RV park which was not very appealing, we found campground at Playa Bonito called Conchas del Mar and for $12 we passed the entrance after the friendly family that runs the place lowered the drawn chain that is manned 24 hours.

We found the campground not too crowded, and enjoyed the last of the spectacular sunset over the Sea of Cortez before taking a short walk to the resort next door for a proper Mexican celebration dinner of chimichangas and fried fish.  I asked the waiter what an appropriate tip is, and he told me not to tip in Mexico, that they make a good wage (more on this later).

We camped next to a friendly Dutch couple who had an envy-invoking converted Mercedes police paddy wagon with custom carpentry, antique cabinets, gas range and plenty of electrical stuff that they had built and shipped over from Spain to Vancouver.

We spent two nights there, as to have one “day off”.   On the off day we visited the CETO museum, which was closed except for the small desert botanical garden and a whale skeleton; it was not that exciting of a tourist stop and I wouldn’t recommend spending time on it unless you are bored and don’t have much else going on.  After spending a few weeks in Baja it turns out whale skeletons are pretty common.

TIP:  Conchas del Mar is a great beach camp ground.  Downsides are that it’s huge so it’s a long walk from the beach camp site to the restrooms/showers/running water.  Also there are a couple stray dogs that call the place home and they made Ted a bit uncomfortable when he walked with us back/forth to the bathrooms.

The second morning we awoke at the crack of dawn and packed up camp as fast as possible (read: not fast) to try to make it to the west coast of Baja that same day.  That proved to be another challenging driving day that exceeded our expectations. Nina got to play at a playground at the City Park during a pit stop in El Gulfo de Santa Clara, while I fended off a prerequisite panhandler before being able to order my gas from the attendant. Feeling rushed, again, from our ambitious travel day ahead of us we kept pushing on, and ended up stopping for lunch at a tiny little cafeteria in the town of Riita, which was run by a charming old man and got us fed for next to nothing with some very basic bean burritos and quesadillas which were better, but not unlike, what you may buy frozen in a grocery store back at home. Of course the salsa was amazing, and the cookies we picked for a desert were something new and illegible, but still satisfied our sweet tooth.

Following our National Geographic Adventure maps, which were key for knowing where there are actually gas stations because there are shockingly few of them in North Baja, we made it to the freeway and then to the exit for our final gas up in Tres Valle before a 40 mile off-road trek.  Jen had unwittingly called the brother of the proprietor of the Cuatro Casas Hostel (where we were headed) in a search for a closer stop for the night, and he’d told her taking the dirt road would save many hours vs. driving up to Mexicali and Ensenada and back down the west coast.  He also said the road “wasn’t that bad”.

The dirt road was very slow going given how heavily loaded our truck was and how badly we did NOT want to blow a tire or a shock in the middle of nowhere.  We ended up doing the last half in the dark, which was not our plan but turned out okay and got us to Colonet at a reasonable enough time to find an open taqueria and get to the Hostel sometime after Nina’s bedtime. She was cashed out in the car, even through another bumpy 8 or so km to the ocean and being carried to the room, and awoke in the morning in a strange bed (thankfully in good spirits) asking “who’s house is this?”