Baja Mexico Trip 2015-2016. Part 9

Trip to San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu

Ciudad Insurgentes 

Mex 1 Construction

Driving in the ditch while the road is being built.

It is the 11th of December 2015, and we are camped at RV Misiones or Misiones RV Park in Ciudad Constitución.

We will stay here for three nights and do a one-day trip to San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu.

After San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu we will continue up north to San Juanico on Scorpion Bay and Bahia San Juanico.

Today then, we have a leisurely breakfast and pack some lunch and fill up our water bottles and coffee in our travel mugs. The trailer will stay put at RV Misiones for two nights by itself.

We stop at the first gas station and fill up diesel and ask the gas station attendant how the roads are going north from Ciudad Insurgentes.

He said with a smile, some good, some not so good.... and he was spot on.

Between Villa Ignacio Zaragoza and the turn off at Ej Francisco Villa to go to Comondu we encountered: narrow roads full of dangerous pot holes and wash outs.

We found about five km of new road "Mex 1" and then another five km of trail in a sandy ditch while they are working on the Mex 1.

Apparently the Mex 1 will come through here from San Ignacio straight down rather then going over Santa Rosalia, Mulege and Loreto.

Finished Section of Mex 1, North of Ciudad Insurgentes

The sign on this part of the road has already changed from BCS53 to Mex 1.

It will take some time to get all this done, but when completed it will be great.

We turn off  the Mex 1 to the east at Ej. Francisco Villa heading east into the Sierra la Giganta mountains. This road is mostly paved and is in good condition.

As we come up to the foothills, we encounter a good size creek that even has fish in it.



We climb up towards San Miguel Comondu and the scenery is just wonderful. San Miguel Comondu is a sleepy little town in a beautiful oasis.

Drive up to San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu. Watch for washouts.

Creek crossing the road

Small Oasis on the way up to San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu.

Incredible scenery

Oasis with palm trees close to San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu.

Oasis with palm trees close to San Miguel de Comondu and San Jose de Comondu.

Ruins in San Miguel de Comondu 

A newer small hotel in San Miguel de Comondu

Liz walking the cobble stoned streets in San Miguel de Comondu

A renovated home.

Another ruin. If only these walls could talk!

In San Miguel de Comondu we parked the truck and walked around the cobble stoned streets looking at old ruins and current buildings.

Some of the ruins in San Miguel de Comondu are from 1709; and from a Jesuit Mission that is probably from 1750.

Some of the ruins have been incorporated into a later dated church.

We observe old men and women walking and sitting around town. They seem to be enjoying a slow paced lifestyle.

Two young teenagers in tight pants walked by throwing candy wrappers on the sidewalk.

A loud Juke-box is playing Latin music for the benefit of half the town.

On a side street we find a sign indicating a wine cellar. We had to check this out!

A wonderful old man, I think called Mr Morales came out to greet us.

He asked if we wanted to taste his wine? Hello..... do I really need to think about this!!

Inside we went, passing the bedroom into the inner grand room completely open to the garden.

Mr Morales disappeared to his wine cellar and came out with a ¼ bottle of wine.

He gave us a taste in some small plastic cups. It was great, a bit like Port or a Sherry.

Since 100 years they have produced wine up here. Mr Morales said the vineyard is quite far away up in the hills.

He has been producing wine since 1960 under the Shangri-La, Vinto-Tinto Artesanal 100% UVA.

I asked if I could purchase a bottle and he said YES.... made my day.

$130 Pesos later, I now had a wonderful bottle of wine.

We chatted a little in his main living room.

The table was stacked with stuff, the old Singer sewing machine was standing in the corner, and the laundry machine was beside it.

The back wall is open to the beautiful garden with flowers and fruit trees.


One of Mr Morales daughters came for a visit, very nice lady.

Shangri-La Winery

Mr Morales pouring some wine.

Anders with his priced bottle of Shangri-La wine.

Mr Morales and Anders in deep discussion about wine. 

Anders with his priced bottle of Shangri-La wine.

Drive through the oasis to San Jose de Comondu

Wonderful landscape on the way to San Jose de Comondu

Mision de San Jose de Comondu

Village of San Jose de Comondu

Mision de San Jose de Comondu

Liz in San Jose de Comondu

Inside the Mision de San Jose de Comondu
Very special.

He also has a daughter in La Paz who speaks English. Up here in San Miguel Comondu English is very limited or non existent.

We said good bye as new found friends. Mr Morales, you are a wonderful man.

We found our truck and drove through the palm forest further up into the mountains on a gravel road full of pot holes and rocks.

After about three km we arrived in San Jose Comondu.

Here there are some ruins left and a nice old church.

On the church wall are some old photographs of 1901 showing old colonnades and a bell tower which still existed from the 1750's.

Many inhabitants of this area are still fair skinned descendants of early Spanish pioneers, though by now many are inter-mixed with Mestizos from mainland Mexico.

We were eating our packed lunches in San Jose Comondu and were people watching.

One can not imagine living in some of these homes or running one of these so called businesses.

I think we have to shift paradigm, people are happy, they laugh, they talk, they sell gas out of a 45 gallon drum. If you own a pig, you tie him to the tree...

People are very happy with what they have.

After lunch we returned back to San Miguel Comondu and drove back down the mountain to Ej. Francisco Villa.

What a fantastic day we have had, just love the friendly folks and the wonderful country of Mexico.

From Ej. Francisco Villa we headed north for San Juanico and Scorpion Bay.

More on this in our next blog post.

Here are some more pictures from San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu

Cheers,

Anders and Liz

Baja Mexico Trip 2015-2016. Part 8

Leaving Coyote Beach, Drive to Ciudad Constitucion

Sunrise over Coyote Beach, Baja California, Mexico

It is time to move on, with some sadness we are leaving our good friends Dave and Lynne behind on Coyote Beach.

We have enjoyed so many friends here and really loved the warm water, swimming, and hiking.

We will both also miss the Spanish lessons we just started a few weeks back.

We will miss the waterfront dining right by the sea, we will miss the laid-back lifestyle and will really miss boondocking.

It is so nice to be able to create your own electricity and be self sufficient.

First things first, it's the 9th of December 2015 and today is the day we break camp. Wow, it's amazing how much stuff you take out of the RV when you boondock in a warm and beautiful climate like this.

At the end of the day we have the fifth wheel trailer and the truck all packed and  hooked up and ready to go.

Dave and Lynne invite us out for supper at Burro's, and we enjoy a nice meal together.

Liz and Anders Make a pit-stop on our way to Ciudad Insurgentes and Ciudad Constitución,
here with the Sea of Cortez in the background

Wonderful Vistas

It's now early morning on the 10th of December. The sun is coming up, and we are ready to go. We say goodbye to Dave and Lynne and our other good friends Dodi and Joel.

We are on the road heading south. We have traveled this road a few times before, and it all looks familiar. We make a few stops along the way and soon pass the town of Loreto. We drive over the Sierra la Giganta and the truck is getting a good workout.

Sierra la Giganta provides a Rugged Backdrop

Drive up the Sierra la Giganta

After climbing up the Sierra de Gigante we arrive up on a high plateau with incredible vistas.

From here on it is a pretty straight road down to Ciudad Insurgentes and Ciudad Constitución.

The area of Ciudad Insurgentes and Ciudad Constitución is a large agriculture area. Here you can buy all kinds of vegetables and lots of citrus fruits.

We have planned to stay in Ciudad Constitución at the RV Misiones where Pat is the owner.

We check in for three nights.

More pictures from this part of our trip in our web album.

Cheers,

Anders and Liz

Camped at RV Misiones

Boondocking

Boondocking or Camping Without Services.

Enjoying dinner with friends while boondocking on Coyote Beach, Baja Mexico.

Boondocking or camping without services is a lot of fun but you should be prepared. If you plan to boondock there are certain things that will be very nice to have.

On our fifth wheel we had a solar system installed. The system we have is by GoPower and is called Solar Elite. We had it professionally installed.

The system includes:

• Two 160 watt panels for a total of 320 watt.
• 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter for AC power
• 30 amp pulse width modulate digital regulator
• 45 amp smart battery charger
• 30 am pre-wired automatic shore power/inverter AC switching kit
• DC inverter install kit
• Inverter remote on/off
• 50 ft of MC4 output cable and all mounting hardware.

Inverter installed on the wall in the pass-through compartment.

Remote in the trailer to turn the inverter on.

Two solar panels on the roof of our trailer. Nice to have when boondocking.

Another view of the inverter in the pass-through, part of our solar system

We now have four of these 6 volt batteries. Lots of storage for boondocking

Our trailer from above showing the location of the solar panels on the roof.

We also installed two new 6 volt deep cycle flooded batteries. This year we have added another set of batteries and now have four 6 volt batteries. This will be sufficient for most campers.


If you have an RV that is older then 2015/2016 (like we do) you should definitely change all the lights to LED lights, this will make a hugh difference.


Go through your RV and see how many you need and order them on Amazon or where every you prefer to shop. You will be surprised at how many lights there are in your unit.


Having some kind of solar system is pretty well a must if you plan to do a lot of boondocking. If you don't, you pretty well have to run your generator every day and it might not be appreciated that much by others if it goes on for longer periods.


With our system we run our Nespresso coffee maker, hair dryer, TV, computers and just about anything.


It is really nice to just turn one switch and there is power in every outlet.


We often camp on Coyote Beach ( Baja Mexico). At the beach there are two local fellows that will sell you water, but otherwise there are no services.


The "water man" provide you with a 45 gal plastic barrel and comes and fills water when you need it. The cost is about US $10.00 per fill. You then have to have some way of pumping the water into your RV if you use a RV.


A 12 volt pump will do that just nicely. We added a 1/4 of a cup of bleach to each tank we filled up. We do not drink this water, but use it for all cooking.


If you don't have water readily available you have to have some other way of getting water to your RV. This can be as simple as a bucket and carry water from a creek.


What else do you need? You will need a blue boy or grey boy. This is a little wagon to transport your waste water away. We have a SmartTote LX 4-Wheel waste tank. Ours is the 27 gallon one.

Our trailer, boondocking on Coyote Beach

Gray water disposal setup.

If you are considering the 35 gallon one, remember even the 27 gallon is very heavy (225 lbs) when it is full and can be tough slugging in sand and soft ground. Better to make two trips or empty more often.


On Coyote Beach you dump the black water into the outhouses and rinse with the grey water.


Many people will dig a pit by/under the RV for the grey water and keep it covered with palm leaves.


Before you discard wastewater of any kind, make sure to know what the rules are in that area and do it responsibly.


When you boondock you learn quickly to conserve water and power. There are many ways of doing this. Use a small plastic container for doing dishes. Use a solar shower bag for rinsing off when you come out of the water or otherwise having a shower. Take sponge baths instead of showers and I'm sure you can think of a few.

Life is good....

Boondocking at it's best.

Baja Mexico Trip 2015-2016. Part 7

Coyote Beach on the Bay of Conception or Bahia de Concepcion, BCS Mexico

Panorama of Coyote Beach, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Boondocking (dry camping) on Coyote Beach is an incredible experience. Coyote Beach is located about 20 km south of the town of Mulege right on the Bay of Conception in the Sea of Cortez.

The Bay of Conception or Bahia de Concepcion is the largest bay in the Sea of Cortez also called the Gulf of California. It is located half way down the Baja Peninsula on the east side.

The Bay of Conception is about 32 km long and hosts a variety of fish and other marine animals. The water is wonderful for swimming, but you have to be careful, there are some Stingrays in the sand.

Keeping my food in hot water

I know from experience. I got stung while playing around with a Frisbee in the shallow waters. This does not mean you should not go in the water, just shuffle your feet as you walk in the sand and they will take off. The stingray does not seek you out, it's just if you step on them.

If you do step on one and get stung it is very handy to have a snake kit with you so you can suck out some of the venom.


Since I'm pretty allergic to bee stings and all kinds of stuff we keep two kits with us. One in my back pack and one in the trailer.

The following is what I was told to do after my wrestling match with the Stingray (my sting was on the top my left foot, and cut right through my boot): As soon as possible, we used a suction extractor to suck out some of the venom. We did this twice for a bout 2-3 minutes. We were told to never try to suck the venom out with your mouth for any type of sting or bite.

Bite and Sting Kit

Suction Device from the Bite and Sting Kit

The sting on my foot.

I was told to put the food in as hot water as possible and this really eased the pain tremendously.



I had to have the foot in the hot water (keep adding hot water) for two to three hours. You will know, if you take your foot out of the water too early, the pain is pretty awful.



Further I took an antihistamine and two Advil.


The next day I was fine. If you do get stung, make sure the stinger did not break and there is not a piece left in your foot or leg.

Boondocking on Coyote Beach

Boondocking or camping without services is a lot of fun but you should be prepared. If you plan to boondock there are certain things that will be very nice to have.

Our trailer boondocking on Coyote Beach, BCS.

On Coyote Beach there are two local fellows that will sell you water. They provide you with a 45 gal plastic barrel and come and fill water when you need it. The cost is about US $10.00 per fill. You then have to have some way of pumping the water in to your RV if you use a RV. A 12 pump will do that just nicely.

On our fifth wheel we have a solar system installed. The system we have is by GoPower and is called Solar Elite. I had it professionally installed. More info in our blog on Boondocking.

Liz and I hiking above Coyote Beach, Baja Mexico.

We love Coyote Beach and the surrounding area. The little town of Mulege is very friendly and you can get all the basics here. Good meat you still have to go to a bigger city to get. We stock up in Ensenada once we have crossed the border. Ensenada has a Walmart and Costco.

Going out fishing early morning.

We got a bunch of trigger fish

Filleting trigger fish.

Most of the time down here we go for our morning hike before it gets too warm.  We take the truck and go into the back country and explore little wonderful towns.

If you like fishing, it is plentiful. If you like swimming the water is fantastic. Paddle boarding is becoming very popular. If you have a kayak of some kind, bring it along. A small sail boat is a blast down here. Snorkeling is high on the list for fun things to do.

Wildlife watching is pretty good, with Whale Sharks coming into the bay and all kids of birds.

The day on Coyote Beach starts early. Most of the time we are up before the sun rises with coffee in hand. This is around 6 am. The sun sets around 6 pm and it is pitch black by 8 pm. This is also referred to as "Baja Midnight"

There is a local "Cantina" or restaurant that has a dance every Thursday night with dinner.... it is just wonderful. There are a lot of artists down here and you can also attend many different art shows.

There are many local people that come and sell souvenirs, produce, fish, shrimps and ready made food. Please be friendly to these people, most are absolutely wonderful. Many of them and their families will not eat unless they sell you something. They work really hard. We usually buy what we need. If we don't need anything we say "No necesito, gracias", with a smile. This means, I don't need anything thank you. Much better then just saying NO.

When buying from the locals or vendors on the beach you will need small bills, so keep this in mind when you head south. You can take out local currency at bank machines in Mulege and most other towns of size.

We have made many friends here and created many memories.

Dinner on Coyote Beach with the moon coming up.