Baja, traveling on the fun side of the wall!

There are many places in the world that I wasn't entirely sure I would ever make it to, and Baja was definitely one of them. I mean it's not exactly California and it's not exactly Mexico. I guess it's just a little peninsula all on its own. Here you can see me on the Sea of Cortez marveling at the idea that I am in Baja!

No disrespect to any of my readers, but I figured perhaps a geography lesson on Baja would help you to go through the rest of this blog post. Trust me, I didn't know a lot about Baja before I got here so take a minute with the map before you proceed.

Interestingly, the entire story of our Baja trip actually starts at El Zarape Restaurant in Imperial, California, before we crossed the border. We had the loveliest waitress who shared a childhood memory with us. She said that there were no M & M's or Oreo's when she was a kid; they simply put salted plums into oranges whenever the weather got too hot. I have to say her family might have gotten it right. Oh and she also put up with our extremely bad Spanish and helped us gain confidence before we crossed the border.

The next day we were extremely excited to cross the border, but simply had to stop at a bank to break some money before we went. Unfortunately we had forgotten that Friday is payday. I and my 50 to 70 best friends waited in line to see a teller. I guess I had forgotten that so much of America relies on face-to-face banking.

We crossed the border at Mexicali, Mexico. It's incredibly interesting that one of my most harrowing experiences in all of Mexico happened at this border crossing. We knew that we needed to pay a sum of money to be tourists in Mexico. But once we crossed the border there was no indication as to where to do this. Mike couldn't park anywhere legally so I jumped out to figure out what to do. When I walked towards the border crossing, a rather official looking guy spoke to me in broken English to ask what I wanted. I explained in Spanish that I was looking for our tourist Visa. He asked for our passports and took them while leading me back towards the border crossing. He told me to stay there and then walked out of the room with our passports. Let me tell you, I don't let my passports go anywhere without me so I followed him. Luckily he had predicted that Mike would go around the block and try to park again and he was simply going out of the building to flag down the Beaver Lodge. I have to say that I owe my passport paranoia to my Mom who has always been so good at keeping our passports safe wherever we traveled.

Our first tourist destination was San Felipe. It was a lovely Ex-pat town. It had a lovely waterfront area were you could walk on white sand beaches and swim. Unfortunately it was a bit American for our taste, so we kept heading South.

What a good call! We ended up spending our first night boondocking on this amazing cliff overlooking the Sea of Cortez (aka the Gulf of California). The amazing thing is that there was an empty structure on this property. Don't think that Mike and I didn't wonder what it would cost to purchase a house and a bay right here.

Here's a bit of a better view of the area with the Beaver Lodge included. Sunset and sunrise anywhere is one of the best things in the world, but across borders makes it even more magical.

There are many checkpoints in Baja. This one was at the edge between paved and not paved Baja Route 5.

The Mexican highways on the other hand are a more interesting bag. Here are two of the pothole fills on Mexico national route 5. Luckily we missed them!

The best part about this road is that the desert ecosystem was astounding. I've never seen so much biodiversity in such a short distance ever before. As far as I'm concerned, Mexico can keep the dirt roads that separate Baja and Baja Sur if it allows this beautiful desert environment to remain just as it is.

Just in case you are wondering if I made up the fact that it was a Mexican state road, here is the route sign as well as the mile marker. It may not seem all that bad now, but let me tell you that this 30-mile road crossed about as many washes. I can't imagine how long it's going to take the Mexican government to put a proper highway through this section.

In the middle of this no man's land Route 5 highway we found this town. And yes, I'm showing you the entire town! They seem to serve a small amount of cold beverages and a few snacks. This might seem irrelevant, but wait until you see the kinds of vehicles that traverse the road I've just shown you.

Don't ask me how they make it around the hairpin bends, over the enormous potholes, or past the beautiful cacti. But they do, and they bring goods and services from the United States or Mexico proper to Baja Sur.

On our trip I came in close contact with the boojum “tree” Fouquieria columnaris. In Mexico the locals call it cirio. This is the Spanish word for a taper candle. Trust me, if I could have caught it in bloom you would fully understand why they would call it this. One of the reasons I'm so in love with this plant is that we saw it with Mike's Aunt Michelle in Arizona for the first time. It's just magical to finally see it, months later, living in its natural environment.

I'm only going to address military checkpoints once in this blog. Because if I addressed them every time we crossed them, you'd stop reading! We crossed approximately 16 all the way down and all the way back through Baja. We had one truly amazing experience, and one negative experience, so I feel as though explaining them both will do all of them justice. At one of our first crossings we ran into a Military Police supervisor named Dennis. He asked for permission to search the Van, which we of course granted. He climbed into the Beaver Lodge to talk to Mike and while looking for contraband he carried on a genial conversation. On the outside, his subordinate talked to me in much more broken English, and I responded in my best Spanish... Estamos en Baja por trece días y no estamos llevando drogas... y nuestra camioneta es un Ford año 2001 ... Unfortunately there is not a Dennis at every border crossing, and we did have one negative experience. I would say that this was a one-time experience except we met this particular individual on the way down through Baja and on the way back. He is the only person, military or otherwise, who tried to extort anything from us. We ended up losing four granola bars but kept our flashlight. You can draw your own conclusions about how the Mexican military treat most people.

As we passed into Baja Sur we passed the first of many Gray Whale statues. In season it is one of the biggest tourist draws to the area... that and swimming with Whale Sharks. Unfortunately it was the wrong season to swim with them, so Mike and I have a plan to come back some day when that will be possible.

I was very excited when we entered Baja Sur. Some of that excitement waned when we realized how far apart the towns and things we wanted to do really were. We spent an inordinate amount of time driving down long stretches of highway. May I remind you that the peninsula of Baja is 744 miles as the crow flies, and 939 miles as the person drives.

One of my favorite things that we did throughout Baja was to go grocery shopping. At home I relish the ability to go to all different ethnic groceries, but it is even better here as even the cuts of meat are foreign to me. Oh and the prices are about 1/2 of what the same item would cost in the U.S.... assuming you have Pesos.

Unfortunately we don't have any facility to keep eggs, but I was happy to see that most groceries keep them on the shelves. One of the most infuriating things about American food practices is that we pasteurize and refrigerate eggs, allowing them to be over 3 months old when they are purchased by the consumer. If you are a lover of water-poached eggs you know that this means that the whites have denatured, not allowing them to hold together in that perfect water-poached way. I'm sure that these eggs would have been perfect for poaching.

One of the first things that we had planned in Baja Sur was to visit Ojo de Liebre Lagoon, which translates as "hare eye lagoon". It is a coastal lagoon located near the town of Guerrero Negro in northwestern Baja California Sur, see map at the start of the post. To get out to the lagoon we had to pass through the largest salt production area I've ever seen. It was miles in all directions and it took us more than an hour to go the 20 miles from the gate to the lagoon. To be honest we were lucky to even get in because the entire area is closed when there are no whales about. Luckily the gentleman who was the security guard at the gate spoke just enough English, combined with our bad Spanish, that we were able to explain to him what we wanted to do and he opened the gate to let us through.

We're very lucky that he did because the entire area was beautiful. As you can see above, there was a pair of nesting Osprey. This is the closest I've ever been to an adult individual and it was beautiful to see him take off and soar around his partner and nest.

Unfortunately the museum behind the whale skeleton was closed, but it was cool to be able to see how large the Gray Whales actually are. It was hard for me to tell if this was a real skeleton or a cast model, but either way it was reasonably accurate. Being a bio teacher I was a little bit bothered by the fact that they left out the vestigial back legs! If they'd been included I could have used this photograph in my biology classes during our discussion of Evolution.

As I write this, Mike and I are safely back in the United States and have managed to continue our trip, but we thought you all might be interested in the craziest thing that happened at Ojo de Liebre Lagoon. Mike and I were sitting outside reading and enjoying the solitude and the lagoon views when the fire alarm in the car went off. Mike shot me a What did you leave on the stove look. I said, "Nothing" as I stood up and followed him to the van. And it was not food on the stove, it was the switch to the inverter at the back of the van. Both Mike and I had thought it was original to the van and not put in by the idiot that we bought it from. I mean we swapped out ALL of his wiring... except this piece which caugh on fire.

Luckily Mike caught it early and we had a fire extinguisher on hand. He ripped apart the bed and put out the fire as I fought to get windows open to vent the smoke and fire suppressant out of the van. We had just enough to put it out. In stunned silence we stared at the van. No joke, one more minute of burn time and the van would have been conflagration. As it was we have lost the use of the inverter, charred our sheets, burned the outside of the van a bit and covered the van in suppressant, but that is all. The batteries, tail light, speakers and bed are actually all in reasonable working order. I asked Mike if he thought that we should sleep outside but he said no... after ripping out all the wiring and disconnecting the inverter we should be OK. I was mentally exhausted and after some clean-up we just went to bed. I dreamed of lovely BBQ'd food and then woke up in a panic imagining that we were the BBQ.

The next day dawned clear and fire-free. We cleaned up as best we could and headed out of the Lagoon area towards San Ignacio which is a palm oasis town. One of the things that we wanted to see was the Misión de San Ignacio. The site for the mission was originally discovered in 1706 by Francisco María Piccolo. He immediately saw the agricultural possibilities at the palm-lined Cochimí oasis of Kadakaamán ("arroyo of the reeds").

This mission served as the base for later Jesuit evangelical expansion into the central Baja peninsula. The impressive church you see above was constructed not by the Jesuits, but by the Dominican missionary Juan Gómez in 1786. Lucky for us it has survived intact and we were lucky enough to catch the second half of Sunday Mass... all in Spanish of course.

The entire mission was beautiful but I was particularly taken by the stunningly carved front doors. It was almost like being in Italy; the level of detail and care that this country puts into their churches and missions rivals the best ones I've seen on the Continent.

The town itself was lovely and exploded into life after Church let out. Mike and I took a walk through the town square and around a few residential blocks and then back to the square again where Mike wanted Ice cream. We ended up getting a date milk shake and a date cake from the hot pink restaurant in the picture. I'm glad we did because we did not see too much more date-related baked goods after this town.

The next mission that we visited was in the town of Santa Rosalía and was named Mision Santa Rosalía de Mulegé. It was not as lovely and grand outside but the inside of the church was still impressive.

I loved the simplicity of the irregular stone flooring and the beautiful wooden pews. Some of them even had inscriptions dedicating them to loved ones. Even though you can't see it in this photograph, many of the mission churches in Baja had an odd feature in common. They had a glass and wood box that housed a life-size re-creation of Jesus's body after he came down from the cross. As I looked at it I wished I spoke better Spanish. I wished I could ask why so many mission churches had this feature in common. As a wonderful little bonus, outside the mission there were two Frangipani trees. They have always been one of my Mother's favorites and I was overjoyed to see them in their more common color, white and yellow, as well as the beautiful pink paridell you see here. My mother has memories of climbing the Frangipani tree in their yard in Australia when she was a kid.

After that we were headed to Bahía Concepción. It one of the largest bays on the Baja California Peninsula and is about 20 miles long and is situated on the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula. As you can see, we managed to put the Beaver Lodge right next to the shore. The only thing between us and the sea was a fire pit.

Even though we were really just 500 yds. off the highway, it felt like a million miles. There was nobody else on the shore anywhere near us and the best thing is that it was free camping!

After walking along the shore and swimming in the sea I settled in to read the book that I picked up on the CDT. It was blissful to relax in front of a fire and listen to the waves crash.

We didn't do a whole lot in Loreto but it's a place we may come back to some day. This is one of the seaside towns where you can get a tour to swim with the whale sharks.

We did walk around the old town and tour the mission before we left. This one also had the life-size Jesus in a glass casket. I've really enjoyed seeing all the missions in each small town. They all have very similar stories of being founded, used, then abandoned and rekindled in the more modern era.

Baja highways are packed full of descansos. Sometimes they are large and decorative like the one above, and sometimes they are little bigger than a child's doll house, but they always have a religious figure or cross inside. They are a magical place to stop and think or pray. If you've ever shopped in a hispanic grocery, you may notice that there will be a large display devoted entirely to religious candles. Mexico may be a Catholic country but they hold on to many practices that stemmed from old traditional religions. One such practice is placing colored candles, each color having a distinct meaning, or candles with saints on them in the descansos to remember or honor a loved one. Also many of the shrines contain personal items from the individual for whom the shrine was erected. I found them fascinating and made Mike pull over for many of them as we traveled through Baja. If you're interested in seeing some more pictures of them, you can jump over to Instagram (c_cocozza) and look at some of my Baja posts.

Of all the big cities we visited on this trip I have to say that La Paz is probably my favorite. They have a beautiful downtown area where you can walk along the waterfront. You can see me standing in front of one of the many statues that line this waterfront walk. But it's more than just that; In La Paz you can see real Mexican families. This wasn't as obvious to me on our first go round in the town but it sure as heck was after we saw Cabo San Lucas. In La Paz you can make a living wage, raise your children, go out to the market, go out to the park and just live a normal life. In Cabo the cost of living is so high that many Mexicans who move there work 12 to 16-hour days, 6 or 7 days a week, and live in flophouses with multiple roommates. This is an embarrassing and humiliating way to live, and as far as I could see was not the way a normal Mexican family lived in La Paz. Mike and I went shopping in the farmers' market as well as in a pastry shop. I wish I had more photos of the way of life in La Paz, but unfortunately it just didn't strike me as special until I had time to think about why my visit to La Paz stuck with me so much.

Welcome to Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Paz de Baja California Sur. This was possibly my favorite church that we visited anywhere in Baja. Mike is very tolerant of my Catholic ways and when I went in I knew that I wanted to spend a few minutes kneeling in prayer. For those of you who are not aware, my father had a very deep spiritual faith and sadly departed this life a few years ago. In this cathedral it was very easy for me to think of him because I was surrounded by the religion that he loved and the language that he taught.

While I was spending some time praying in my own thoughts, this gentleman walked up the aisle towards the altar. What you see in this photograph is what he did. In America. things of this religious nature simply do not happen. He was not pretentious or showy; he simply knelt in front of the altar, put his hands up and spent time praying then he bent down, kissed the floor 3 times and left. The unfortunate thing is that many churches in America are closed unless services are going on, so spontaneous religious moments are hard to come by. I felt very privileged to be able to see how the average religious Mexican goes about their faith.

Luckily for us, La Paz is a big enough city that there was an English-speaking girl in the city information center. I owe my best meal in all of Baja to her. At first we told her that we wanted to eat at a typical Mexican restaurant. She gave us the name of one and then said, "Do you like seafood?" My immediate response was, "As long as I can't see the water while I eat it. 😂" She said, "Oh I totally understand but this place isn't like that, it's actually pretty far away from here." After we headed toward the city and looked it up on Google we realized that "pretty far away" meant just under 4 miles. The even more amazing thing is that when we got to the restaurant it was the one that I had spotted on the way into the city and almost made Mike stop at for dinner. It was filled to the brim with locals and a Mariachi band. As soon as I saw it I was in love, and I have to say that the food definitely makes it amazing!

Here is a picture of the Mariachi Band. They were a wonderful addition to the experience. Now Mike will tell you that I looked at the prices on the menu, considered them like they were American prices, and ordered accordingly. Please keep in mind that this was the first Mexican restaurant that we'd eaten in and I did look around the restaurant to try to imagine what the portion sizes would be like. When our food began to come the very nice waiter said, "¿Te gustaría mudarte a una mesa más grande?" (Would you like to move to a bigger table?) I blushed and nodded yes. We helped them move all the food and spent the rest of the evening eating the most amazing ceviche, octopus and marlin tacos. Lord have mercy, may this restaurant be what heaven is all about.

After our amazing dinner both Mike and I thought we just don't want to have to drive out of La Paz to find somewhere to park and stay. So on a whim I pulled up Orbitz and checked what the hotels in the area would cost. With an intake of breath I told Mike I had found a place for $25. He gave me a look that said I wonder if there will be cockroaches there? When we pulled in, neither of us could believe it. The Beaver Lodge was safe in the parking lot and we had the most beautiful view from our room.

The even more insane thing is that there was a rooftop pool that we were free to use! Mike and I went up for a swim and enjoyed looking out over the city of La Paz. Something else very exciting happened while we were in this hotel, but you're going to have to wait a little bit longer to find out what it is.

Now I am mixing our two trips to La Paz at this point, but I think it makes a bit more sense that way. This is Paloma. When we first walked into the brewery she was totally uninterested in dealing with us. We were just those tourists, just like every other tourist. As soon as she displayed that attitude, I felt as though it was my job to win her over because I wanted to know why she felt that way. We had the most incredible night just hanging out and talking to her. She's the one who made me love La Paz the way that I do and see it as a city in which one can have a present and a future.

Welcome to the Tropic of Cancer! The Tropic of Cancer is currently 23°26′12.8″ N. of the Equator. I say currently because of course all lines on the Earth are moving as the Earth changes its tilt. Wherever it is on the globe it marks where the Sun can be viewed directly overhead. This Tropic occurs on the June solstice because the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun to its maximum extent. Sadly we miss this event by about a month, but being there was amazing.

After the Tropic we arrived in Cabo San Lucas. We wanted to see the arch, and parked in a free parking not too far away. Immediately we were accosted by people trying to sell us boat passage to see the arch. I refused to settle with any of the first people who accosted us and said to Mike "Didn't you say we could walk there?" He looked it up and in theory you can but it takes several hours. I was annoyed; how can you take several hours to walk something that's less than a mile. Then Mike told me that we had to do it at the perfect time of day. Reluctantly I said we'll do it for $15 a person. When we were going to the dock we saw people feeding the Harbor Sea Lions... Just keep this piece of information in your brain for the future.

When we went out on the boat we came across this beautiful rock structure which is known as the rock of Baja. If you check it against the map earlier on in the blog, you'll see that it bears a striking resemblance to an upside-down version of Baja.

Luckily we did decide to go out in a boat because, as you can see from these photographs, we would have needed to climb across an extremely rocky shoreline to be able to see... oh, wait... nothing! What I didn't realize is that you really need a distance perspective to see the arch. After we got back from this lovely boat ride we were spoken to by a guy who said do you want to go fishing?

Most people who know me know that my answer to anybody who talks to me on the street is no. Not just no, but NO! I don't say it rudely, just firmly. The answer is I'm not interested in whatever it is you're trying to sell me. But Mike loves to go fishing and we really hadn't done any crazy splurging on this trip so far... Well unless you count Dry Tortugas and my Mom was kind enough to help out with that one…

Perhaps you will remember some of these views from yesterday as there is only one way out of Cabo harbor. It was nice to get to go past the caves, birds and arch in the early morning light.

So we booked ourselves a 31' fishing vessel and headed out to sea at 6 am. As the boat pulled away from the dock, we stopped to pick up ice and then to pick up bait from a fisherman who had spent the entire evening catching tiny mackerel. I'm a bit obsessed with mackerel as I find them one of the most delicious fish, directly behind yellowtail. Sadly these ones were way too small to eat!

As you watch this video of the Sun rising over the tail of Baja, I want you to think about how idyllic this fishing trip could have been. Now white-out that entire vision, replace it with waves that went between 8' and 10' and put our tiny 31' boat in that water. For the first 2 hours that we were out on our fishing trip, the captain did all he could to keep water from completely flooding our half of the deck. I've never been in seas that were so big in a boat that was so small. Mike always said he didn't get seasick and I always said the same thing. Thankfully neither of us was lying because neither of us had been in seas quite like this before.

In the last hour of our fishing trip the captain managed to hook us into a school of Benito. It was amazing how it happened because I think the captain was at his wits' end so he came down, opened one of the beers we brought on the boat and offered it to Mike. He gratefully accepted and then all of a sudden there was a fish on the line!

They weren't the size that you would want to keep because these guys should go back in the ocean, feed and breed the kind of things you want to pull out like yellow fin and blue fin tuna. I couldn't be sad at all because between the two of us we reeled in 11 or 12 of them. Also what the heck would we have done with a 50 to 100-pound fish if one of us had managed to land it. All in all it was a really beautiful day on the water and all I can say is I hope some day to be able to own a boat and just spend lazy days on the ocean.

Now remember when I asked you to think about the sea lion that was being fed in the Harbor… Please don't judge me for videotaping this instead of stopping the behavior, but it was just so cute!! Don't we all get one Mulligan?

Here he is again, jumping on the stern of the boat. In his face you can see him saying "Hey are those your mackerel? They could be my mackerel if you give them to me."

Sadly, we have begun our progression back up the peninsula of Baja. I know now without a doubt that if I want to learn Spanish I simply have to go somewhere and live where there are no English speakers. Both Mike and I have decided that it's an enormous priority for us to speak Spanish. We're going to get a native-speaking tutor when we get back, no matter what it costs. Views like this don't exactly have a price.

As I told you, we were working our way back up the coast and this was in Loreto. If you've been keeping up with our blogs you know that Mike and I really like to Geocache. This was our one in Mexico. We did enjoy the card that was inside the cache, but amazingly also pulled out a pin that commemorated the 125th anniversary of the Canadian state. If you remember back to the very beginning of our adventure and this blog, we were in Canada for their 150th anniversary on July 1st of last year. Now both Castor and G.S. have pins from Canadian anniversaries!

So we were working our way down the coast rather quickly but I insisted that we stop in Santa Rosalía. It's just this time we managed to find a place to park the Beaver Lodge and were able to walk up through the town. It was truly a lovely town that had very typical houses on a hill that you see all over Baja.

We also found this beautiful statue in one of the triangle street areas. The Mexicans really have an amazing way of using every inch of their cities either for housing or for beautification. This plaque was a difficult translation for us. The statue helps you understand that the meaning is something along the lines of You have your children's hands for a while but... something along the lines of Your heart will always belong to them? This is not a direct translation because that doesn't make any sense but I think it's the spirit of the plaque. Anyway it doesn't really matter; it was beautiful and we really enjoyed translating it together.

I had told you that I made Mike stop at a series of descansos. But this one was special because there was a puppy involved! When we drove up he was sleeping in the shadow of the green one on the left and I was so concerned because he had no water. Mike found a plastic container in the car that we didn't mind losing and we filled it and left it for him.

I'm amazingly glad that we did stop because this photo above is one that I took in the green descansos. It's probably my favorite example of the length to which the Mexican people go to honor themselves and their dead.

I want you to look at this beautiful spot by the Gulf of California waters. I know it looks idyllic and spectacular, but less than 200' away from us the trash begins. In Santa Rosalía the Mexican government thinks it's appropriate to put not landfill but a literal dump right next to the highway, right next to the beautiful ocean. We had to go more than 4 miles out of town to find a parking spot that was not covered in trash. I'm proud not to have supported this city with any of my money.

OK I know that graffiti is not the perfect way to express oneself, but I truly appreciate the people who made this graffiti! I especially appreciate it because when we were in Mulegé we saw it printed on T shirts! My favorite one is the one that read Don't worry you're on the fun side of trump's wall. This was all fun and games until we ended up in Tijuana...

Luckily it was Miles to go before we sleep, and Miles to go before we sleep in Tijuana. So we still had some magical moments in the Baja desert. Mike and I came across a tiny sign on the side of the road that indicated an archeological site. Unfortunately all of the signs were so broken and cracked that we couldn't use our Google Translate on them. Because of this, at the onset we weren't entirely sure what the whole archeological site was about. Amazingly, halfway through we found this beautiful crested cactus. It reminded us of the beautiful crested Saguaro we had seen in Arizona with Mike's Aunt. Mike and I had no idea that there were such things as crested Saguaro; we had even less idea that other large cacti could do the same thing!

When we got to the end of the trail we came across this magical cavern. When you go inside you get to step into the traditional Mexican past.

It's nothing like what we saw with the Ancestral Pueblos in the American Southwest; these native peoples use an immense amount of color and shape in their drawings. It was very cool to just sit in their cave and look around at what they had created.

After that we drove through an area that is known as The Valley of Hills. It was a truly astounding drive. We wound around the tops, sides and valleys of mountains. As we looked into and across this region, there were truly valleys and mesas as far as the eye could see.

In the evening we stayed at an incredibly lovely RV camp on the ocean. You would think that the entire coast would be covered with them and also hotels, but oddly it's not. In fact being able to camp on the coast is something of a rarity and not well publicized! You need to know where to turn down a long dirt road that brings you here. As you can see from the whale skeleton, they're probably busy during that season but absolutely dead during the rest of the year.

We were the only RV in the entire park and thus had the beach pretty much to ourselves. The boat sitting in the middle of the sand indicates that someone comes at some point to make a living here but they've already come to shore and gone home for the day. We spent a lovely afternoon walking up and down the beach collecting sand dollars. Don't forget these guys; they're going to come into play later!

When we read reviews about the RV park, some people had said that you don't always get the most beautiful view of the ocean from your campsite. We got really lucky and had a stunning view all the way out to the water. Another thing about the campsite is that I have to admit this was the first time I ever had what I consider to be a hot, totally-ocean-water shower. We'd read online that the showers were a bit saline, but I have to say it was a bit beyond that.

In the morning we moved on to a place called the Guadalupe Valley. If I had to describe it I can only imagine it's what Napa Valley looked like 25 years ago. Here there are a plethora of wine owners trying to eke out a living. But unlike California, any winery that chooses can have food on premises. I heartily agree that this is a better way to go.

We didn't visit too many wineries, but luckily Google told us what the majority of people thought were the "best ones". Here's a view at the first winery we stopped at. The vines that you're looking at in front of you are an Italian grape varietal, as that's what this particular winery specialized in.

It's lucky we stopped at the winery that we did because our waitress told us where to have dinner that night. She told us that a neighboring winery had the best food truck in the world. Normally I don't agree with people's grandiose assertions, but I have to say this woman knew her food!

Here is a view of what the tables and the outdoor area looked like. You can see the tiny food truck in the background and all the tables full in the foreground. They had a tiny menu and Mike and I chose some of the more interesting dishes. We had lengua (tongue), roasted mushrooms and a pato confit (duck confit) sandwich.

We were also lucky enough to have the last glass of their house-made beer alongside their house Rose. In this part of the wine country you don't need to order the most expensive thing to get an amazing product; you just need to say bring me the house wine.

Here is a shot of what our food looked like when it came. I know I've spent a lot of time photographing and posting pictures of our dinners, but I have to say that Baja really did not disappoint when it comes to cuisine.

After dinner, both Mike and I decided that perhaps we should get a hotel room for the evening. Remember that hotels here aren't completely ridiculous so we can afford to stay in a hotel in the same way that we could afford to stay in a campsite in America. On the way there he spotted cervesarilla. They had a lovely location with a very 1950's construction building and metal artwork in the gardens. Even though the owners didn't speak any English, they worked hard to ensure that we had a lovely flight of beer before we went on to the hotel.

In the morning we had to head North towards the border crossing in Tijuana. On the way there we passed this enormous Jesus statue on the side of the road. I wish I could tell you anything more about it but we were driving by and I just snapped this photo.

I guess I haven't exactly addressed where all of these signs that have been pervasive through the cities and Baja have come from. They were erected for one of Mexico's anniversaries and seem to be focal points for tourist photos and family outings alike. I certainly never felt sad and ashamed while standing in front of one before, but the one in Tijuana makes me sad. If you look in the background you can see the border wall between the United States and Mexico. In a minute you'll see some decorations that Mexican citizens have drawn on their side of the border wall; they're actually quite beautiful.

This one struck me the most. I know that in our current social climate we might want to read in to one of the words in English, but I caution you against doing so. If it had been meant to refer to our current president, it would also have been translated into Spanish in the same name but it wasn't. This strongly indicates to me that this picture was drawn and created long before our current political situation. The rest of the border wall and other beautiful art installations are also shown on my Instagram account. If you're interested in what this park looks like on the Mexican side you can check it out there.

The last thing we did in Tijuana was one of the craziest and most touristy things. I had really wanted to go downtown to try to find a souvenir to go home with. Unfortunately almost every town that we'd been through was either devoid of souvenirs or had souvenirs that I jokingly said were made by the Mexican Chinese industry. By that I mean simply turned out in bulk. We had read online that there was such a thing as a Tijuana Zebra. They were conceived of in the 1950's as a tourist option, but this one lone zebra persisted into the modern era. I was happy to pay my 40 pesos to have my photo taken with this painted donkey. The man who owned the stall was lovely; he dressed us up, entertained the donkey, and took our photograph all at the same time.

After this it was just a matter of getting across the border. You might think that this would be a simple matter. We're Americans coming back to America, what could be easier? Unfortunately we sat in over 2 hours of traffic before we got to the border crossing. During this time people tried to sell us all kinds of last-minute craziness. Did you forget to buy an enormous Jesus? Did you forget to buy a jug and 6 mugs? Don't worry, someone's here to sell them to you along with stuffed tortillas and juice. When we finally got to the border crossing we were asked to go to a secondary checkpoint. This is not the kind of thing that one wants to tell their parents about, but unfortunately our Spot device showed that we were stationary in the border crossing for almost two hours. Questions were asked by our families and we had to finally admit we had smuggled sand dollars across the border and Immigration and Customs police had caught us. You wouldn't imagine that illegal sand dollars would cause such a ruckus, but they do! After that we drove north into California and left Baja in our wake.