Baja

Day 1: We got up at 5:45 am, left Karissa & Trav's by 7 am, and crossed the border by 7:30 am. We stopped for breakfast at La Fonda, and I got banana pancakes with coconut syrup. Yum!

We met up with our other Baja buddies, Matt & Michael at La Fonda. They ended up joining us for breakfast. Matt, a friend of Karissa's that she met while working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, also lives in Encinitas, is a teacher, and loves to surf. His wife Paula was supposed to come but couldn't get out of work, so he brought his buddy Michael, who came from San Luis Obispo. Anyway, after meeting up with these guys and eating breakfast, we caravaned it down to Punta Cabra.

The ride to Punta Cabra was long. It was a good few hours south of where we ate breakfast, and about 5 hours south of the border. Once we arrived at Erendira, the closest town to where we planned to camp, the paved roads became dirt roads. A bumpy ride from that point on.

From Erendira we drove north up the coast. The beaches were empty and the coast was rugged. It was an incredibly beautiful coastline. I couldn't help but think that the California coast must have looked like this 50 or 100 years ago. Just open coastline, no hotels, no crowds, and no highways.

The last thing we saw before arriving at our campsite was a huge herd of goats. And we're staying at Punta Cabra, which basically means Goat Point. How appropriate!

A few minutes later we arrived at our Punta Cabra, and we were elated. Not having ever been there before, we had no idea what we were in for, but we were very happy with our new spot.


This was our first night there, and our first sunset. We were all ecstatic to be there.

The first night Rob was in rare form. He had a few rum and cokes and decided to start speaking his mind. He told Michael he was a regular Joe, he told Travis he was a grouch, he even called my best friend a sourpuss! Then he said the dog, Bungee, was a sourpuss too. At least he was being equally opportunistic! Then he asked what he was doing hanging out with all of these white guys? So needless to say, I had my hands full that night. But everyone had a good sense of humor and we all laughed about it the next day.


Day 2: we woke up, made some coffee, and headed out to the beach to watch the waves. Rob was playing guitar and we all took turns hula hooping. It was a nice morning. Matt, Travis, and Michael wanted to take off to go surfing about an hour north of where we were camping, at a place called Punta San Jose. Rob went with them to take photographs. He was really excited to use his new camera. So the guys were gone, and Karissa and I had the campsite to ourselves. K took a little nap and I took a long beach walk, read my book, "Three Cups of Tea," and wrote in my journal. When K woke up mid-afternoon, we decided to get started on some Tecates with limes. We were off to a good start with our Tecates when the guys got back. We all watched the sunset together, then Matt made some soup, and we all sat by the fire eating soup and drinking tecates. Rob was mellow and still recovering from the night before so he took it easy with the partying. The guys were playing dominoes and it was Trav's turn to get the most drunk. They were pretty funny with their dominoes. Rob won the game. I think everyone else was too drunk or confused by the game or both to know what they were doing.

Day 3: On our last day at Punta Cabra the guys decided the waves were good enough there to stay, so they headed out to catch some waves. Rob and I and Karissa walked down the beach to watch them surf. Rob was taking photos from the edge of the exposed reef, and Karissa and I were checking out the tidepools. It was so cool watching the little crabs and sea urchins cruising around their little worlds.

That night around the fire everyone was going for broke. There was no drunk guy because everyone was going all out. Rob even did a back somersault with an open beer and didn't spill the beer! There was a lot of reminiscing going on because even though it had only been a few days, friendships had been formed and many memories had been made. Rob was jealous because we had said Matt's wetsuit hoodie was cute, so we wanted to borrow it. Matt obliged so Rob was in his glory in his wetsuit hoodie bliss.



Day 4: In the morning we packed up and headed to La Salina, where we were planning to celebrate New Year's Eve. After three days of no showers or toilets or running water, we felt we'd won the lottery having a shower, a toilet, and a nice clean bed to sleep in. We had a room overlooking the ocean and our own private deck, all for $35 a night! Karissa and Trav knew everyone at La Salina, which was nice too. Our rooms were upstairs, and downstairs was a bar, a restaurant, and a dance floor. Because it was New Year's Eve, the place was packed, mostly by retired Americans, and a few younger people, but from the looks of it, it was mostly all expats.
We got some drinks, margaritas for starters, ate dinner, and hit the dance floor. The music was mostly 80's (catering to the crowd I guess) but every now and then the band would play a good one, so we'd have to hit the dance floor. Karissa is completely Mexican at heart. She didn't care about any of the American songs, but every time a Mexi song came on, she was so there! She taught me her little Mexi moves, and when we left, one guy said we were the best dancers out there! What a nice compliment. Then again, we were the only women under 50.......
We miraculously made it to midnight considering how much everyone had partied the night before, and everyone was hugging and kissing. I gave Rob a kiss and Karissa and Travis a hug, and thought about how grateful I was for living through another year. Life had its ups and downs, but it's so nice to every now and then have a moment like that to remember how lucky we are to be here, to be alive, and going through this journey we call life.

Day 5: Got some breakfast at La Fonda then hit the wine country. Because it was New Year's Day, none of the wineries were open, except for La Dona Guadalupe's. The wine was terrible, and I'm no wine snob, but it was really bad. But the area was beautiful. And wine country in Mexico? Who would have thought? So just the novelty of it alone was worth seeing. That last night we were tired so we ate an early dinner and went to bed. We'd had a good run.