An ongoing adventure of travel and living while using a wheelchair. Tim has been disabled from birth. Darryl is his father and caregiver who travels with him.
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(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) After a fun-filled and relaxing day at Bahia de San Quintin, we're relaxing in our room at the Mission Inn in Vicente Guerrero when my wife announces that her brother just posted on Facebook that he, his wife, and their two kids are at Estero Beach Hotel in Ensenada. While we'd had some other plans, mostly of the shopping variety, for tomorrow, this changes things. The wife and kids live in Mexicali so it's a rare day when we get to see them. I haven't seen the boy for five years and I've never met the girl. We quickly rehash the itinerary. Third night at the Mission Inn is cancelled and a quick call to Estero Beach gets us a reservation for tomorrow night. Bags are repacked and we bed down to get rested up for our impromptu family reunion the next day. We have a final breakfast at the hotel restaurant, shower up (which will come in handy for what's ahead), check out, and hit the road.
On the way down, Letty saw a guy selling copper pots on the side of the road. I said we could stop and take a look on the way back if he was still there. He was so I have to honor my promise. She checks out the dozens on display and shows me the pot she wants and tells me the guy wants $180 US for it. I start back towards the car. She tells the guy that I won't spend that much money. He drops the price to $120. I show him the $80 I have in my wallet and tell him he can have that for the pot because that's all I have.
Deal. Now just to find a spot in the van for a rather large copper pot. We chat with the guy for a few more minutes before continuing on to Estero Beach, which is nearby.
After checking in, we find our room is just three doors down from Letty's brother's room. It's large and the hotel has been upgraded since we've last been here. A spacious room with two queen beds, flat screen with a whole lot more than the three, barely perceptible channels we had last time, and the same patio with the great ocean view.
Families come together on our patio. Tim, my brother-in-law, and I kill a bottle of tequila together while chatting in the ocean breeze.
My nephew and niece are two very sweet kids with the girl being a little more of an extrovert than the boy. I take them over to the nearby beach.
Between their very basic grasp on English and my similar skills in Spanish, I'm able to at least teach them the joys of building sand castles.
We spend the rest of the day just catching up on the patio before having up to a great steak dinner at the adjacent restaurant and calling it a night.
In the morning, I go to take a shower but when I turn the spigot all the way on, nothing comes out. I call the office but there's no answer. It's about a quarter mile walk to the office so I wait a bit. After about an hour, the phone rings. It's the front office apologizing that there's no water. There won't be until noon, they say. I'll be out by then, I say. "How about a free breakfast on us?" "Won't the restaurant need water too?" I ask. Probably, the lady at the counter admits. I ask for a room discount which they are not too keen to give. Hanging up, I thank God that I took one last shower in San Quintin, along with Tim taking one too, so we can get by if we needed to. A half hour later, two water trucks arrive to fill up the hotel's cisterns. Water is now available and all talk of discounts are off the table.
With that, it's one more plate of chilaquiles in the restaurant and it's off to endure the border crossing back into the states. It's a complete pain but at least today it only takes us 68 minutes to cross compared to the almost three hours of our last trip. That's it for this trip into Mexico. For us, and you, this will wrap up our Month of Mexico.
Darryl Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick All Rights Reserved Photos copyright 2015 - Letty Musick All Rights Reserved
(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) It's morning in San Quintin. Actually, Vicente Guerrero, the city right next to San Quintin. That where the Mission Inn, our hotel, is. There are two here. This one with two accessible rooms with its English spelling and another one on a nearby beach, Mision Inn (notice the Spanish spelling) that is not accessible.
We've come simply for the proposition "what if we kept driving past Ensenada? What would we find?"
Watch the Video!
San Quintin is the next town of any size south of Ensenada. It's around three hours driving time further down from that large, port city. Baja travel guides note that this is the last chance for a few hundred miles to access major services for drivers on Mexico's Transpeninsular Highway like gas, car service, ATM, supermarkets, and decent lodging.
While the town is sizeable, it's not large. The highway is the only paved road in town. It's a dusty, muddy, and basic place. I have to wonder why they even have car washes here like the somewhat inapprotriately named business we see across the street from the PEMEX gas station above.
The town is nice. There's no drunken tourists clogging the streets or drug cartels shooting it out in the background. It's main business is farming...this is the tomato capital of the world with thousands and thousands of red fruit ripening to send north to supermarkets on the other side of the border.
Just because there are few, if any, tourists around doesn't mean there is nothing to see. Strapping Tim in tight, we head west down an unpaved dirt and gravel road. Signs say we have three miles to go. After a very bumpy few minutes, another says two miles to go. Tim's complaining mightily about the beating he and his chair are taking when we see another sign..."Yeah!! You made it!"
Finally, we pull up to the bay where a gentleman waving a flag directs us into a small parking lot. We find nowhere to park with a wheelchair van so we go back out, explain it to him, and he puts us in a spot right next to the boat ramp where there's also a wheelchair ramp to access the facilities.
We're at Bahia de San Quintin and the Molino Viejo (old mill) restaurant and bar. At the top of the bay, you'll find this large restaurant, larger bar, an ocean front plaza to relax it, boat ramp, parking, small history museum, fish cleaning sink, a couple of spartan motels, and another restaurant and bar next door.
The plan is just to spend the afternoon exploring, eating, drinking, talking to people, and unwinding.
A small flea market is set up between the restaurant and neighboring Old Mill Hotel. Letty goes browsing there while Tim and I set up at a waterfront table and enjoy a bag of chips and some Mexican Coke.
Dozens of pelicans fly around, dive bombing unfortunate anchovies, and pose for pictures on the pilings. I walk over to a rock-protected depression at the narrow neck of the bay where kids are pulling in fish and clams.
This used to be a large wheat mill. An English company was granted a concession to grow and mill wheat in the area. Remains of the millworks litter the area. Ships were loaded with flour and sent out to the world.
Now, it's a sleepy but beautiful little fishing village where fisherman line up at the boat ramp to head out to the abundant waters. At 3:00, the boats come back in where loads of large fish are taken to be cleaned at the sink.
We visit with the manager of the Old Mill Hotel and she shows us one of the four accessible rooms here. It's a large room with a large bathroom. A queen size bed shares the space with a twin bed giving plenty of room for 3 people. I imagine there'd be plenty of room for a roll-in bed if needed also. The shower is big and barrier-free. It is a very accessible room.
Beyond that, however, it's not much. No TV (but that would be a feature, not a bug for some people) and no air conditioning. Here in the fall and winter, that's not a big deal but those hot Baja summers would present a challenge even if it is on the ocean.
Outside is a nice sized patio with a large fireplace and grill. At around $40 per room per night, this would be an ideal place for a family reunion or get-together. I'm already planning one in my mind...
We go back to the Molino Viejo and have a few drinks...Tim and Letty with their Pina Coladas while I try the Cadillac margarita. After, we visit the small museum next door.
Dioramas depict the areas history while a few artifacts, such as a mammoth tooth and some native tools, illustrate a more ancient history.
Over across the driveway, we find the remains of a boat on the beach, another little plaza, and some informational signs about the bay. Tim and I go to the water at the edge of the boat ramp to get our toes and wheels wet.
We end the day having dinner back at the restaurant, filling up on steak, burgers, and fish before bumping our way back to town and the Mission Inn. It's delicious food and very budget friendly. Where else will you get a great ribeye steak dinner with all the trimmings for less than $15 these days?
Tomorrow, we have more plans for San Quintin but those will be interrupted for a more important mission. Stay tuned for that. Darryl Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick All Rights Reserved
(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) So, we've arrived at our hotel. If I'd have blinked, I would have missed it, but we're here and settled in.
This trip is a bit different. Usually, I'd find a destination then suitable accessible accomodations. This time, I'd found suitable accomodations and knew nothing about the destination other than it was in Baja, close to the ocean.
The room at the Mission Inn is as advertised. It's clean, modern, has an accessible bathroom with roll-in shower, quiet, and comfortable. At $63 a night, it's very reasonable, too.
I walk out to the road while Tim and Letty unwind in the room a bit after dinner. I notice a cantina next door, on the other side of a canal. I go back to the room to collect the rest of the family and off to the bar.
It's an easy walk with just about 15 feet over that canal that only provides a narrow but accessible path between it and the highway. We wait patiently for a break in the traffic and wander over. We're reminded why Baja is called the "Outback of Mexico." Beyond Ensenada, it's a pretty wild and sparsely settled region. Walking into the bar, it's like stepping onto the set of a western...rustic, spartan, lots of exposed beams, adobe, and a large fireplace overlooking well-worn tile floors.
The Baja Fiesta serves a varied menu of Mexican cuisine but since we've just had dinner, we head into the bar.
The bartender comes over and pours us shots of Patron. He speaks perfect English...as he should because he used to live in Portland, Oregon, and came back down to help his family run the business.
I notice the selection of tequila is a bit on the paltry side.
"People around here don't know how to drink tequila. They're more likely to order whiskey or champagne."
He tells us of people who come in for parties and order the most expensive bottle of tequila, only to have him make margaritas out of it.
I see some bottles of Baja Fiesta IPA beer in the fridge and ask him about it.
"My mom makes it and we sell it. She also makes the wine."
I have to have a bottle. It's pretty good and I let him know.
At that point, an Asian man walks in and the bartender calls him over and says we like the beer.
"He helps my mom make it."
A lively discussion of homemade and craft beer ensues with the Asian man, the English speaking Mexican bartender, and us. It's an international beer seminar here on a dusty road in Baja.
After a few rounds of tequila and beer, we ask for the bill and call it a night. Total damage...$12 and it's an easy walk back to our room, even in the dark. Fun times.
Darryl Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick All Rights Reserved
(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) I love the Lyle Lovett song, "The Road to Ensenada," and I love the road itself (click on that link to hear the song, it really is a lovely tune). While the rutted, poorly maintained, pothole pocked road of my youth is still there, these days we don't like to live such a harsh life.
That's why we'll pay the 6 or 7 dollars it takes for the smooth, well maintained, and fast toll road from the beaches of Tijuana to the outskirts of Ensenada, a little more than an hour south.
Watch the Video!
Only this time, we're not stopping in Ensenada. Today, for the first time, we're venturing beyond into unknown territory as we head another three hours south, looking for the twin towns of Vincente Guerrero and San Quintin. First, we must arrange the proper paperwork. When you cross the border into Mexico, there is a signal. Supposedly, get a green light and off you go. A red light means further inspection. We have found, though, that if you are driving a van, you'll be directed into the secondary inspection bay no matter what color of light you got.
We planned on stopping anyway to get tourist permits at the immigration office, so it's not a big deal today, but it's annoying at other times. An inspector tells us where to park after he's given our car a cursory search. After getting Tim and his chair out, another guard tells us no, this is not the correct place. Put Tim and the chair back in the van, drive across the road (100 feet or less), park there, and walk into immigration. Can I just move the van and Letty and Tim walk over? No...you must put everybody back in and drive. Such is the bureaucratic maze you go through in our neighbor to the south. To be fair, although it's much more straightforward to come back, getting into Mexico takes but a few moments. On the best of days, coming back into the States takes hours. It's hard to get straightforward information on getting a tourist permit (AKA a tourist visa) online. You need one when you go south of the border area (Ensenada, in this part of Baja) or stay longer than 72 hours. Online, the instructions are a mishmash, but basically it said to go to the immigration office, fill out the form, take it to the bank next door, pay the approximately $25 fee, go back to the immigration office to get your permit and have your passport stamped. In reality, that procedure is just for those who stay more than 7 days in Baja or go into any other part of the country for any amount of time. If you're here less than a week, there is no fee. We simply filled out the forms (one for each person), had our passports stamped, and we were on our way. The exit of the parking lot goes directly to the ramp for the Ensenada road.
A short but hilly drive puts you at the beaches of Tijuana with its giant bullfighting ring sitting a few feet south of the international border fence. The first toll plaza awaits here. Today, the toll is $2.25. There are three toll boothes, so the total toll will be $6.75. The toll varies with the exhange rate. You can pay with either Mexican or U.S. currency but you must choose one or the other (you can't, say, pay with dollars in the first toll booth, pesos in the next one, etc.).
While the extreme northern Baja coast is getting a big dose of urban sprawl, with not a lot of empty land between Tijuana and Rosarito, there's still sections of coastal beauty that rival Highway 1 in northern California. In fact, this highway's number in Mexico is 1. While hordes of tourists decades ago contributed mightily to this, big industry and moviemaking has put it over the top.
When Hollywood found that they could make big blockbusters for much less down here (it's only a three hour drive south), they transformed the town of Rosarito into a movie town. The large studio on the south side of the city, whose backlots can easily be seen from the toll road, is where James Cameron came to film "Titanic."
It's been a busy studio ever since.
The rest area bathroom stops near the first toll booth are pretty palacial, even by American standards. Beyond Rosarito, not so much. When it's time for a needed break, the first rest area we pull into is closed and has pretty much been taken over by vendors. We keep going.
Another rest area soon pops up. It's open, sort of. The bathroom has pretty much been abandoned by the government but enterprising local men have taken to keeping it up hoping to get tips from stopping motorists.
The college student manning it today keeps it as clean and friendly as he can, even though there's no longer any running water, with a couple of large barrels of water outside. He explains the situation to us and he uses his tips to pay for his schooling.
Letty is impressed with his industriousness and leaves him with a bag of her cookies, along with the tip. I look over the side of the parking lot and see a lovely campground down below, with cabins for rent (pictured in the video preview, above).
What a beautiful, lonely spot to hunker down for a couple of off-the-grid days it would be.
Back on the road, we soon pass Bajamar, a resort with one of the best golf courses on the West Coast, and then into the city of Ensenada itself. We're not stopping here today, though (see our trip to Ensenada here). This is just the halfway point.
The cities and towns that make up the bay of Todos Santos (All Saints) have made it a pretty sizeable city. It's a lot of stop and go for the next 20 miles until we make it past the last stop sign at Maneadero, the last town we can go to without a tourist card.
Since we have ours, we push ahead to the Valle de Santo Thomas. Gone are the litter strewn streets of the cities and towns, along with the shanty towns of the poorest parts of each town. The scenery turns from occasionally very nice to spectacular as we wind through Baja's wine country.
It's late December and recent rains have made everything green and lush. Vineyard after vineyard flashes by. We need to do some wine tasting down here sometime but today we're just passing through.
Once we leave the Ensenada area, the road becomes a fairly well maintained two lane highway. There are two mountainous areas to climb over with some parts having perilous drops down into the chasms below with no guard rail to retard your fall.
The hundreds of small roadside memorials we pass today remind me to be ever-vigilant while driving this road.
I'm doing well but some local drivers can be very reckless and idiotic, passing on blind mountain curves hoping their luck will hold out and a large truck won't be coming the other way.
I see a semi truck going just the speed I want to go and being careful on the road. I tuck in behind him as protection to let him clear the way for me (that's why you see the truck in front of us in several of these photos).
Over the mountains, we come back to the coast and endless fields of tomatoes, strawberries, and other assorted produce. Most of this will end up in the supermarkets of the U.S. west coast.
We go through several towns, almost identical, with shops and dirt parking lots right on the highway. It's the same in every town...small bumps on the road leading to a large bump in the middle of town. It's where the pedestrians are supposed to cross.
Halfway through one town, I almost miss the Mission Inn. Breaking fairly hard, Letty and Tim are asking "what's wrong.?"
There's our hotel...I almost drove right by.
We settle in. It's a decent, clean, and modern hotel in the middle of town. The room is good with two queen beds and a bathroom with a roll-in shower. Quite a find down here in the land of the inaccessible.
It's dinner at the hotel's very good restaurant then we'll settle in for the next part of our adventure. Darryl Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick All Rights Reserved
