On to Mexico

Gnarles in our bed-ahhhh!

Zen Garden

Oh no!

Look Dad! These ones are huge!

 

 New Beige in Mexico

 

Friday –

Today we took care of some business in the morning and then drove up to Cardiff-by-the-Sea to hang out with Colin Cabral.  The Gnarly One was in top form as usual and we went out for some fruit smoothie breakfast.  He showed us around the Swami’s meditation garden where live what must be the largest Koi fish in recorded history.

Surfing was next on the list so we stretched into wetsuits and went down to the surf break at Swami’s beach.  There were lots of top dudes in the water competing for the waves.  Me, not having ever really surfed before, and having seen movies like Point Break, know what Radical Dudes will do to Newbies like me if I make their stoke level go down.  So, I paddled out and stayed to the side of the main break while Colin got into the main mix.

I did catch one wave kind of by accident, while I was lying down on the board.  I expected it to just roll right under me, pass me by, and leave me floating there, like all the rest had been doing.  But maybe I had floated in to far or maybe this one broke earlier than the others, I don’t know.  All I know is that I was lifted up and then had the bottom dropped out from under me.  I kind of expected that I would crash, but when I looked up I was in a sea of frothing white water and I was zooming really fast towards shore.  It was quite a rush.  But then I thought about what Colin had said about the rock reef here, which is what makes the waves breaks so big in this spot.  What if I hit that?  I knew that there were rocks under the water, but I could not see them and I was going really fast toward shore.  So before I got in too close I bailed off of the board and luckily into as space in the rocks where there was sand on the bottom.  Marcie read her kindle on the beach while worrying that I would have a run in with “War Child”.

We all went to this gas station to get 99 cent fish tacos after that and then drove out to Escondido, CA to the Stone Brewery.  This company is one of the stars of the craft brew universe.  Their beers are big, bold, creative and tasty, so this was a real treat.  We had a couple of pints and some pretzels, and hung out in their bar/patio area.  The grounds there are landscaped with a lot of real, natural stone, running water and fire displays. 

We dropped Colin off at his class and then headed back to the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego to a magical, dollar bill coated pizza joint called Hoboken.  This is where the Giant Squid spins pie.  We ate, drank and watched the Celtics squeeze out a victory over the Knicks.  Hopefully a little preview of Sunday’s Boston/NY contest.

Saturday –

We bid adieu to Diana, Dual and Stella this morning and headed over to the UPS store to take care of some business.  After a muffin (me), bear claw (Marcie), and coffee breakfast, we drove to the bookstore.  There we purchased Lonely Planet Mexico.

Then it was South to the border.

Last stop in the US was Tecate, CA, a border town where we exchanged money, bought Mexican auto insurance (required), and gassed up the truck and the extra tank we carry on the roof.  We also figured out why our extra water tank was leaking.  It had been punctured by one of the bikes on the roof.  So we got a tube of rubber cement and fixed that. 

Then we drove over the border, parked and went into the immagracion office to get our tourist visas and passports stamped.  That was the last thing that we had to take care of for now.  So free and easy we drove off into the Mexican desert, east on highway 2. 

We turned off of the main road and a town called La Rumerosa, onto a dirt/dust 4-wd road that went up into the mountains pretty high to where there are trees and an alpine lake.  The drive was pretty bumpy, but we did pretty well with our new air bag shocks and new tires.  Not to mention my off-road driving skills honed on the 4 wheelers and woods trails of Nova Scotia. 

We arrived just before sunset and drove around the far side of the lake to make camp.  It was pretty chilly up there.  There were no signs (that is definitely a theme), but I’d have to guess that we were at least 5,000 feet elevation.  So I collected firewood while Marcie set up the kitchen and cooked dinner.  The sunset over the lake was beautiful.

Soon we were eating our dinner of butternut squash soup with green beans appetizer, and polenta with Spam entrée, beside a roaring fire.  When a pickup truck with park officials drove up and told us in Spanish that we were not permitted to camp or have a fire where we were currently camping and sitting by the fire.  I told them I didn’t speak Spanish, but they didn’t speak English, so I’m not sure what happened but they ended up allowing us to stay and keep the fire as long as we left tomorrow.  This was fine by us because, as usual, we were leaving the next day anyway.  So we stayed warm by the fire, roasting marshmallows.  I think that I roasted one that was a 9 out of 10!  My old technique was to roast down close to the coals to control the heat.  My new technique is to go up high where the top of the flames lick, and rotate in a rotisserie style. 

Sunday –

Super Bowl Sunday.  Its Giants v my Patriots today for the title at 3:30 pm pst.  So we have to drive down out of the mountains and to the town of San Felipe, on the Sea of Cortez and the east coast of Baja.  First a breakfast of coffee/tea and oatmeal with dried cranberries and apple sauce.  Mmmmmm…..

I drove a couple of hours south until we got to the pavement and then Marcie took over for her first international drive of the trip.    We had a somewhat awkward exchange at the full service gas station.  They did a great job on the windows though. 

A short while after that we came to our first military check point.  These are set up by the Mexican government to try to control the flow of illegal drugs and weapons by the cartels.  Its kind of like a US border crossing with the 95% chance that you will be asked to get out of the car and it will be searched.  The difference is that these ones are done by guys with machine guns.  This time was no exception, so they made us get out, and they looked around the car, in the bed, and even in the fridge.  Soon though, we were on our way.

Not long after that we were in San Felipe, Baja Norte, Mexico.  We found an internet café, and then a restaurant, The Taco Factory, where we got front row seats by the big screen, fish tacos and XX lager’s with lime, and settled in for the big game.  As of right now its 10-9 Pats at half.

Monday  2/6/12

This is Marcie.  I think Jon is still sulking about the game.  Right now I am lying in the back of the truck outside of the Taco Factory where they are broadcasting free wifi waves and posting this blog. Jon is taking care of business as usual.  The Taco Factory was great yesterday as they gave us free clams and 2 for XX Lager’s.  That was the great part-the bad part obviously was that the Patriot’s lost.  Oh well, as I said with the Steelers…maybe next year.  After the game we went on a hunt for the churros cart man for some hot cinnamon sugar goodness. No go though.  We did head over to our favorite American Ex-Pat bar Al’s to get some house made tequila, which is excellent. Now we are going to spend another day and night in paradise and head on our way.  Talk to you again soon!