Snippets

April 4   Erendira

Last night we stayed in the village of Erendira on the Pacific Ocean. Impressive surf. Huge swell. Crashing tons of water. We decided we didn't need to travel this stretch in Valdesca. This morning, two cups of coffee each and we’re off for the border. This area is green green green. Fields of cauliflower and artichokes. Dinner last night was quesadillas, left over from lunch, and margaritas.

North of Ensenada and south of Rosarito, flying along on the toll road, we passed Baja Film Studios (AKA Fox Exploratorium). I looked them up later and realized that "Titanic" was filmed there, as was "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." They have a 20-million-gallon tank and 2000 ft of ocean front. The director of "Master and Commander" effused, "The Baja Tank was our Pacific and our Atlantic, our Brazilian Coast and our Galapagos Islands."

As we ogled the studios on our way by, we missed our turn-off to Tecate, nearly causing me to blow a gasket at the next toll booth, in Rosarito. These tolls are not cheap. We had to pay something like $5 to get off the toll road having paid $7 to get on it. And we were just going to turn around and go the other direction. But the guy at the toll booth didn't care and made us pay the toll. He did give us directions on how to get to the free highway to Tecate, which is what we were looking for. In my annoyance, I didn't pay close attention to the directions he gave me and we ended up right back on the toll road, going in the other direction, heading for a toll booth, where we were going to have to pay the toll again. When we got there, I waved our receipt from 5 minutes before, and told the guy we had made a mistake and wanted to get on the free road (in Spanish, mind you). He gave me the directions on how to do it. And then he asked me, "So what do you want?" I told him, "I don't want to pay again!" Without another word, he locked his register and marched back to the cars lined up behind us and started directing them to move to another lane. With horns honking behind him, he directed Tim to back the boat up and then moved a pylon for us to turn around. 

Headed north once again, we took the Rosarito exit and then the (badly labeled) turn for Bajamar (the free road), and then... To find the left turn to Tecate we had to stop at a store and ask where it was. We were looking for MEX-2, indicated in my 2009 Baja California Almanac.  But apparently that road, since 2000, is called the Corredor Tijuana-Rosarito. And, it turns out, you cannot access it from the toll road. You have to know that in advance and exit the toll road 6 miles south of the Corredor or pay the toll and backtrack 7 miles. I found this online, from someone who had a similar problem in 2006,  "At that time, the entire road was finished except for the final interchange in the southwest with MEX-1D, in southern Rosarito, near the FOX Exploratorium Studios. At that time, one had to take a badly signed detour road carved through the hillside, where you joined free MEX-1 through the city, before you could enter MEX-1D [MEX-2 in my almanac]. I do not know if that interchange has been completed as of now, but road projects in Mexico usually take a very long time to complete." A very long time... It's been like six years.

Once we were on Corredor Tijuana-Rosarito (which means Tijuana-Rosarito Expressway), we realized that it looks good but it isn't. There are monster potholes, stop lights, and slow-going local traffic. As our Catalan friend Martha says about Spain, "Pais! Pais!" What a country...

April 5 Tucson 

I asked Tim last night, “What things did you like about Mexico?”

He said, “It’s a lot easier to list the things I didn’t like about Mexico!”

“But that’s not what I asked you.”

“OK, I like the food, I like the people, I like the cactus, I like the other plants, I like the scenery, I like the fish, I like the sailing, I like the camping, and I especially like the protected coves!”

We both agreed that we also liked the lack of pretense in Baja. It’s hard to come back to a place where so many people have a high opinion of themselves.