We’re in Mexico!!! We’ve been around the western United States for the past, almost two years. We went to Canada this last summer, and now we decided it was time to get even more adventurous and drive to Mexico. We are currently at Bahia Concepcion (Bay of Conception) in Baja Sur, Mexico. Our plan is to explore the entire Baja Peninsula over the next two months or so. We are here with some great friends we met last year at the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. It is a bit warmer than Arizona, although it has been colder than usual here, just like everywhere else this year.
We are dry camping (for those of you who don’t know, that means without any hook-ups) on the beach called Playa El Requeson. It is absolutely gorgeous today. The air is nice and warm, but the water is pretty frigid. We’re about 20 feet from the water on a beautiful sandy beach. So awesome!
We started our adventure on Tuesday, January 31st, when we crossed the border for the first time into Mexico. We choose to go to the Calexico East or Mexicali II border crossing because online people were saying it was the best one for our big rigs. Our motorhome is 36 feet long and 13 ft 8 inches tall. Our friends fifth wheel is 41 1/2 feet long. We are big. So we had to really scope things out on the border crossing. It turned out to be a great choice, although we had some adventures.
First, we started down the lanes for the commercial trucks because that is what we thought we should do because of our size. There was a long line of trucks at a stand still in the left lane. We have been told to stick to the right-hand lane from the online info. However, the truckers soon made sure we knew that was the wrong way to go. They started honking their horns and rolled down their windows and got out of their trucks to let us know we shouldn’t go down that lane–it was truly for commercial trucks only. So then Mike had to back-up and drive over the median to get to the “car” lanes. Our friends had to actually make a U-turn and then come back around to go through. So, lesson #1, use the car lanes.
Lesson #2, use the second to the right lane, not the right lane. The right lane is for those who have items to declare, and although it said RVs should go in that lane, there were some super tight corners. Our friends scraped the curb with their tires and we lost both of our sewer pipe vent caps due to a low hanging tree branch.
Lesson #3, DO NOT APPLY FOR YOUR FMM ONLINE BEFORE CROSSING THE BORDER. We thought by doing this we would save time at the border. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The online process is super challenging to navigate and buggy. I was the only one among the four of us who got all the appropriate documents in email. Everyone else was missing something. In fact, I did Mike’s the exact same way as mine, but the documents never came. When we got to the border office, they were going to charge us the $687 MXN peso fee again because we didn’t have everything we needed. We talked them into helping us get the original documentation for all of us but one. However, that was at the cost of 1 hour and 15 minutes of standing around waiting for the email to be received from Mexico City to redo the online forms for us. If we had just done it at the border instead of online it would have been a 5-10 minute process. Never to it online again.
They searched our RV, with Mike there with them. They were looking for drugs and weapons. They didn’t even look in our refrigerator or look at our food. It was a very simple process and not very invasive really. Just don’t have any guns or gun paraphernalia when you cross. That’s a quick trip to learn Spanish in a Mexican prison. Our friends had some guns that they left behind in a storage unit. We left in the storage unit our bear spray and pepper spray (illegal in Mexico) and several other items to simplify what we had with us and make the process easier. Do you research ahead, but I would say you don’t need to worry about them taking food crossing into Mexico. We’ll see what happens when be cross back to the States in March.
We worked our way through the streets of Mexicali. Not too challenging, although Mike commented that the Mexican drivers definitely have different rules of the road than we Americans. That is very true. We then drove about 4 hours to San Felipe through mostly unpopulated desert country. We arrived at the Club de Pesca RV Park about mid-afternoon and selected an awesome spot on the beach.
Our first stop, San Felipe, is a fishing village that has become a destination for many people. They communicate fairly well in English because there is a large ex-pat population here. Last year in September they had a hurricane which caused some major problems and caused several hotels to have to close because of damage. They have recovered mostly from that, but one fellow said the fishing hasn’t returned to normal levels yet, which is putting a fair amount of strain on the locals.
Then we headed into town for our first celebratory dinner in Mexico. We ate at the Mariscos La Palma restaurant. It was fantastic. We had fish and shrimp tacos and the best shrimp ceviche. Yummy. Our friend order the seafood tower and he said it was amazingly good. We highly recommend that restaurant. So good.
The local grocery store, Calimax, is a nice store. I found out they don’t take Citibank Visas (I had to pay cash because I didn’t understand), but I had no problem with my Cyprus Visa. This store is nicely stocked and was great for refilling our fridges after clearing them out to cross the border with no fresh produce (totally unnecessary).
Later in the week, we walked down the beach to the Malecon (the shopping area along the beachfront). It was a typical tourist trap area with the same items in most stores and the street peddlers. We didn’t buy anything, although I was thinking of getting a blanket for when we are sitting by the fire at night. Still thinking about that.
On Friday, our friends wanted to go to a local brewery that had good reviews, so after Mike finished working for the day, we went with them to the San Felipe Brewing brewery. I had a really good Root Beer Float and Mike had a Root Beer. Our friends did a sampling of several of their brews. Their favorite was the peanut butter port, I believe. Then we headed back into town for dinner at The Taco Factory. We ordered the steak Marcojettes (mortar). It came in a stone mortar bowl that was they cooked the food in- so it was hot. It was good food, but more pricey than the first place we ate at and I would say not as good. But as we sat eating out dinner, we noticed across the street a street food vender selling churros. So after our dinner we went to the churro stand. She was making the churros to order. None of us had ever seen a churro made and especially not to order. She was serving regular churros and something called a churro relleno–stuffed churro. Mike got a chocolate churro relleno–stuffed with Hershey’s chocolate syrup. I got a cream churro relleno. They were both super, duper good. We enjoyed them very much. Good food and good friends.
We had the empanada lady come on Saturday and sell us chicken, beef and pineapple empanadas. The pineapple ones were by far the best ones. Put a little greek yogurt on them and they are even better. That was yummy on Saturday, but after two days in a row of heavy meals, we were ready for our normal diet again.
We spent a few days just enjoying the beach. Looking out at the waves. Walking on the beach. Finding sea shells. Having dinner on the beach. We had fires at night in an old washing machine drum. They let us “rent” this for fires on the beach. It was awesome! We decided rather than buying the expensive Solo fire that a lot of RVers are raving about, it would be much cheaper to go get and old washing machine drum and it works great. I was so relaxing. Mike got some work down and I replaced the cover caps for the sewer vents on the roof. It was just a nice introduction to Mexico.
On the weekend, we attend church at the San Felipe branch. It is a small congregation of people–mostly Mexican, but with a few gringos. It was a very uplifting meeting, and it was good to partake of the sacrament.
With our friends we drove about 30 minutes south of San Felipe to the Valley of the Giants or Los Gigantes. This is a private ecopark in the desert where the gigantic cardón cacti that grow up to 60 feet tall and can weigh up to 25 tons. They are huge–the largest cacti in the world. You pay 200 pesos to drive into the park. We had our Jeep so we could go on all the roads in the park. Non-4×4 vehicles were recommended to stop and the fallen over palapa. I would heed that warning as the roads got quite sandy and would potentially get a regular car stuck. We even spun out a few times. These massive giants were impressive and well worth the 200 pesos and drive. Be prepared to have pokey, stickery things attaching to your shoes and socks. I would suggest shoes, not sandals. Also the temperatures were warmer there because it is inland a bit and not subject to the coastal breezes that had been chilly. A very pleasant afternoon.
Then back at our camp for the final evening. We saw the full-moon rise over the Sea of Cortez. It was amazing. I enjoyed San Felipe, but several people told us that the best of Baja was yet to come, further south. They were so right. More to follow on our amazing adventures in the Baja.
I know what you are thinking–IS IT SAFE to drive into Mexico? I did not feel unsafe anywhere in this journey so far. I can’t wait to explore more. I’m sure there will be many more amazing adventures to come. In my next update, we will be visiting the “friendly” whales.
