Of our original group of 87 people and 49 RVs, only 22 RVs continued south.  With the charity work done, the others decided to return home or head north to another destination.

With our smaller number, we still divided up into groups with a group leader and a tailgunner and stayed in touch by CB radio.  We had heard that the road from Ensenada to San Quintin which is Mexico Highway 1 was bad in places due to road construction.  This had no connection with the toll road collapse between Tijuana and Ensenada.  We knew the 122 miles from Ensenada to San Quintin would probably take four and half to five hours due to detours onto dirt roads.  

We did encounter 4 detours onto dirt roads with pot holes, but the trip was not as bad as expected.  In Baja there are many many “topes” which is Spanish for speed bumps.  The Mexicans love speed bumps and you can come across them very unexpectedly.  The most unnerving part of driving in Mexico are the narrow roads with no shoulders and big dropoffs.  The driver has to constantly be on guard and I did quite a bit of watching out my side window to be sure we were not over the white line on the shoulder side.  

This area is largely agricultural and we saw asparagus and a type of prickly pear cactus growing.  We saw a lot of the cactus for sale in the grocery stores and were served it in restaurants.  They scrape the spines off the cactus before selling.  They can be sautéed or boiled and taste very much like green beans.  In this area they also grow peppers, onions, strawberries and tomatoes.  We saw many greenhouses and Baja’s largest tomato processing plant is in this area.  We also saw many vineyards.  We stopped to take a break and there was a truck selling oranges and one person in our group walked over and bought some.  As we got closer to San Quintin (pronounced San Canteen), we saw 5 inactive volcanoes of San Quintin Bay.  Due to haze we were not able to get a picture from the window of the RV.

About 5 miles outside of Ensenada we came to a military checkpoint.  Every RV in our group was inspected which meant a military policeman with a large rifle came inside to look around.  He asked us where we were going, if we had a dog, looked under the bed and then asked if we had a GPS.  When we said yes he asked where it was.  When we showed him he said okay and left.  It seems everyone in all the groups were asked if they had a GPS.  We had been warned in advance that sometimes they ask for Coke or candy and one man had his rib eye steaks “confiscated”, but we did not experience that happening.  We passed through one other military checkpoint but they just waved us through.

Everyone arrived safely at El Papellon RV Park and we pulled onto the beach for dry camping.  That means we are self sufficient and do not rely on electricity, water or sewer hookups.  Bill set up the solar panels he bought to recharge our batteries and we used fresh water from our RV water tank.  We all set up in time to continue our Happy Hour 4 P.M. tradition, except this time it was on the beach!  During Happy Hour a man pulled up in a pick up truck loaded with fresh clams.  Several of the people in the group bought the fresh clams…..a dozen for 50 pesos which is about $4.00 in dollars and they were huge! 

Bill and Bob spent some time discussing engines and RV stuff.  You can see the reflective tape on the driver’s side mirror.  We had been warned before leaving for Mexico to put reflective tape on our mirror so the truck drivers and buses could see the mirrors on the narrow Mexican roads and not knock them off.

We finished the evening by going next door to Bob and Sharon’s RV where we enjoyed a spirited game of Mexican Train dominoes.

Monday brought a much needed rest and a day to catch up.  We had our yearly Mexican Connection 8 Board Meeting followed by a General Session where new officers and wagonmasters for 2015 and 2016 were chosen.  The rally next year will be held in Kino Bay on the Mexican mainland, and after this rally is over the new wagonmaster will travel to Kino Bay to begin scouting out a places to stay and possible activities in the area.  A Mexican Connection rally was held there years ago and we hear it is beautiful.

Tuesday was our final day in Ensenada and it was spent doing laundry and preparing to head further south on Wednesday to San Quintin.  They say San Quintin is where you start to see the real Baja.  Ensenada is a cruise ship destination and that has made it very touristy.  The traffic is pretty bad in Ensenada and the Mexicans drive fast and recklessly.  While I was waiting for the laundry to be done I took a few last pictures of our campsite and the Estero Beach Resort property.  The laundry consisted of two working washers and 4 dryers that took two cycles to fully dry.   But I was grateful for them!  The resort had a nice pool and hot tub,   as well as a nice building for us to have our meetings and Happy Hours.  

In the early afternoon we went with Bob and Sharon to another large grocery store for some supplies.  The store was large and very clean with many fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat.  Just like Walmart, they had bins of fresh but unrefrigerated meat sitting out for you to select what you wanted.  Again, very limited supply of any frozen food.  You never know what you may see on the side streets of Mexico.  

Tuesday evening we had a farewell dinner at a Mexican restaurant where there was much good times and cheer.  

On to San Quintin!!

Sunday we took two tour buses to a place where they have a ocean blowhole called La Bufadora.  The drive there was beautiful and we had the same tour guide as we had on the tour of Ensenada.  Her husband was the driver of one of the buses and her son who is 18 years old and working on his license to be a tour guide was the on the other bus.

The blowhole was more of a tourist trap than I expected with a street full of vendors and restaurants.  The blowhole was not as spectacular as we had hoped since the tide was going out, but the view was wonderful.

We had lunch at Habana Banana where we ate upstairs and enjoyed the view.  Our friend Sharon decided to take the slide down from the second floor instead of the stairs! 

After lunch we went to a local orphanage.  This is a good time to to talk about one of the goals of the Mexican Connection 8 which is to do charity work in Mexico.  One of the members of our group is a retired fireman and his town of Durango, Colorado donated $30,000 worth of used equipment and supplies to the firemen in the outlying areas of Ensenada.  The town of Ensenada has a fairly decent fire department, but the outlying area have practically nothing.  They were given uniforms, jackets, boots, hats and other equipment firemen must have when fighting fires.  Some of the men in our group took the equipment to the firefighters and the retired fireman said it was such a humbling experience  to see how much the help was appreciated.  The fireman said the fire engine they had was older than the engine he rode on 30+ years ago when he was a rookie fireman.

Mexican Connection 8 donated clothes, toiletries and other personal items, as well as school supplies and money to several charities in Ensenada.  The money raised during our auctions and raffles during Happy Hours was used to help the children in the orphanage we visited today as well as several other charities in Ensenada.  Some of the ladies had made beautiful dresses for the girls.  When asked what the orphanage needed, the reply was food and toilet paper, so several leaders of our group made arrangements to take them to Costco.

The orphanage we visited was called Kids Kingdom run by an American minister and his wife.  If you are interested you can google them and read more.  They had children ranging in age from 5 to 24.  They were well cared for and happy, though somewhat awestruck by the large group of Americans visiting.  The two older children had grown up in the orphanage and were now attending college.  They choose to continue to live at the orphanage and help out.  One younger child has muscular dystrophy and is taken twice a year to Mexico City for treatment.  Another older boy is a special needs child and is currently taking classes at a school that will teach him a trade so he can get a job.  Before leaving we had some time to go to the playground and interact with the children.  Visiting the orphanage was truly a humbling and sobering experience. 

Later that evening we had two auctions, one silent and the other a regular auction, all items donated by members of the group.  Through the sale of raffle tickets, $440.00 was raised, with half going to the winner and half to the orphanages.  Of course the winner immediately donated his winnings back to the charities.  Women baked pies and cakes which were bought at big prices…all going to help the children of Mexico.  When the owner of the resort where we were staying saw the huge amounts of items we had brought with us for the charities, it warmed their hearts and opened doors for us.  The same happened with the tour bus company and tour guides.  When they were asked where their were orphanages and people needing help because we wanted to help them, again it opened doors for us.  We were initially only supposed to have the one tour of Ensenada with the buses.  When the tour bus company found out about our charity work, they gave us buses to go to the blowhole at significantly reduced rates.  They were also willing to make a side trip for us to visit the orphanage instead of returning straight back from the blowhole.  The tour guide and her husband made treats for us to have on the trip and thanked us over and over for what we were doing for the people of Mexico.  I am proud to say that our little Mexican Connection 8 group raised over $7,000 in addition to the $30,000 donated by the firemen.  The group in charge of charities scouted out the area and visited all the possible charities to receive our donations.  They presented a list to the group and we voted on the charities and how much each would receive.  The money and supplies went to several orphanages, a shelter for abused women, and a group that provides wheelchairs and supplies to ambutees and handicapped.  We did check into a nursing home but they said they were okay.  A couple people from our group went to visit the shelter for the ambutees and were driven there by a woman who is a double ambutee herself.  They later told us she drove her car through busy downtown Ensenada traffic using a stick with a crossbar at the bottom that she used to push the gas pedal and brake.  Needless to say the couple came back wide-eyed from the experience.

After the auction we went home tired but feeling like it had been a very fulfilling day.

Saturday found us taking a tour of the Estero Beach Museum here at the Estero Beach Hotel and Resort near our campground.  The resort provided us with an English speaking guide and the collection of over 400 years of Mexican history and culture accumulated by the owner of the resort was amazing.  

Saturday afternoon we drove into Ensenada to Walmart and Costco.  I expected Walmart to look like the Walmarts in the United States.  It was small and crowded with merchandise like washers and other appliances flip flops and clothes crowding the aisles.  The food selection was limited and I had trouble trying to read the labels.  I thought I would be able to figure out what items were by the pictures alone, but I was sadly mistaken.  Besides being in Spanish, the pictures look different.  The selection of frozen food such as vegetables and tv dinners was very limited or not available.  To my dismay they do not have Diet Coke in Mexico, but instead they have Coke Light which I did not care for.  No Diet Coke, no Breyers ice cream…..WAWAAAA  🙂  In the meat department they had a huge bin of fresh chicken legs cut up and you just got a bag and selected your fresh chicken.  The bin was huge…like what they put watermelons in at the store.  I really wanted to take a picture but I was afraid they might get upset if I started snapping pictures.  Between not being able to read the aisle signs and labels, shopping was a little frustrating.  I was uncomfortable buying meat because I didn’t understand the labels and I wasn’t sure what I was really buying.  It took 4 Walmart clerks to understand I wanted frozen chicken.  I knew pollo was chicken but I didn’t know the word for frozen and Bill was in another part of the store with the spanish/english dictionary!

Next we went to Costco which was exactly like the one in the United States.  You would not know you were in Mexico if it wasn’t for the signs in Spanish.  They were even giving out samples of cheesecake and beef and sausage.  Or at least I think it was beef and sausage!!

On the way home we stopped and had lunch at a little taco stand that had been recommended to us by a hotel employee at the campground.  Bill and our friends had fish and shrimp tacos which they said they were better than the ones we got down at the fish market. 

The day ended with more fun and cheer at Happy Hour!

On our first full day in Ensenada the wagonmaster had arranged a bus tour of the city.  We boarded 2 large buses with an English speaking guide for the short drive into town.  We stopped at their convention center which was originally Hotel Riviera del Pacifica, a hotel built in 1930 and popular with the the rich and famous especially in the 1950’s until it closed in 1964.  At one time it was one of the most prestigious and luxurious hotels in Baja.  It especially became famous during Prohibition in the United States when alcohol was banned.  Some say the margarita was invented at this hotel.  They had a list of many of the people who stayed there. They even had a quote from John Kennedy on the grounds of the hotel.  The building had beautiful wood ceilings and mosaic tile floors. The grounds around the hotel were beautiful and we spent some time walking around.  

We then went down to the port area near where the cruise ships come in walked to Plaza de Las Tres Cabezas where there were 3 large busts of famous Mexicans patriots and heroes, as well as a large Mexican flag.  We stopped at an area selling fresh fruits and vegetables as well as other items for sale.  Our tour guide then walked us down to the fish market area where there were large displays of fresh fish.  There were many little sidewalk cafes selling fish and shrimp tacos and of course margaritas and Mexican beer.  A large group of us had lunch together and sampled the many salsas provided, some of which were very hot and spicy!! 

A tradition with the Mexican Connection 8 is their 4:00 Happy Hour.  Each day at 4:00 everyone meets in a nice building provided to us by the campground where we had happy hour and announcements.  It was a great way to meet others and hear about everyone’s adventures.  We are enjoying our campsite and the camaraderie of the group.  

Well, we arrived in Ensenada!  To give you a little background, we belong to an RV group called Escapees.  They have a subgroup, or chapter, called Mexican Connection 8.  Once a year they get a caravan together and travel down to Mexico to explore, have fun, and do a little charity work.  This group has travelled to Mexico 29 years. This year they decided to go to Ensenada in Baja, California, which is really part of Mexico.

We met up with the Mexican Connection 8 group in San Diego on February 3rd and had 2 days of getting to know each other and some informative meetings on traveling and camping in Mexico.  On February 5th, we were all ready to go!

There are 47 RVs and 90 people in the group this year.  They divided us into groups of eight rigs with each group leaving ten minutes apart, which would prevent us bunching up at the border crossing and all getting to the campground at once.  Each RV was required to have a CB radio to stay in touch, and each group had a leader who had experience traveling in Mexico the last rig was our tailgunner who also had Mexican experience.  Our wagonmaster (trip leader) had made a scouting trip down early to check on the road conditions, the campground, and to let the border crossing know we would be coming through with 47 RVs…just a little courtesy call to let them know to expect us.  The main toll road from Tijuana to Ensenada had been destroyed by an earthquake back in December…it just collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, so the wagonmaster wanted to check out the detour road to be sure it could accommodate RVs.

Our group of eight RVs was the last group to leave San Diego around 8:50 Wednesday morning.  Our wagonmaster had told us that it was possible we could get inspected at the Mexican border, but since they were expecting us and they did not want to back up their border crossing with 47 big RVs, they may or may not inspect us.  We had to all stop and get our FMMs (Visas) stamped at the border and then we were waved through.  Only one RV in our group was stopped for a quick inspection.  Later we found out about a fourth of the 47 RVs were stopped for a quick inspection, not bad.  Because the border crossing knew we were all coming, they provided each of the six groups with a federal police escort through the city of Tijuana, which was very nice except he escorted us through at about 25 mph!  At least we saw a little of Tijuana! 

The police escort left us at the first toll plaza where we paid to get on the toll road which we would travel on for a short distance before taking the detour due to the road collapse.  The toll road was much like in the United States and we paid 63 pesos which was a little over $5.  We had gone to Costco in San Diego before we left and exchanged some American money for pesos.  We had to go through one more toll plaza and paid another 63 pesos.  The views along the way were beautiful of the Pacific Ocean.  We also noticed what the border fence looked like from the other side!  The smaller brown fence is the Mexican border and the larger white fence is on the American side with a road for the border patrol vehicles. 

One of the best things about traveling in a caravan like this is the safety of traveling in numbers.  Shortly before we were to get off the toll road and take the narrow, winding, and mountainous detour road, one of our back tire sensors went off warning us of low tire pressure, and the tire next to it was heating up because it was taking more weight due to the low pressure in the other tire.  Bill used his CB radio to tell our group leader we needed to pull over.  Luckily by then we had reached the end of the toll road and there was large enough place for all eight of the RVs in our group to pull safely over.  All the men in our group immediately came over to assist Bill in diagnosing the problem.  The motto is “no one gets left behind”.  If the problem was one in which it would require hours or days to fix, the tailgunner would stay with the stranded RV until the problem was fixed and the others would continue on.  Bill and the others quickly found the problem to be that the tire stem loosened on the rim which caused air to leak slowly.  Before we had hardly gotten out of our RV to check the problem, a Green Angel appeared.  These are trucks provided by the government which patrol the area and come to the assistance of stranded travelers.  Bill had an air compressor so he was able to get air to put in the tire.  The Green Angel insisted on putting the air in the tire for us and helping any way he could.  He then escorted our group the 22 miles on the detour until we were back on the toll road again.  As I said, the detour road was not the best to travel in an RV, but we made it!  The tourism is suffering some from the collapse of the toll road and they are doing everything they can to be helpful and friendly in the Baja region. 

When we arrived at our campground, the wagonmaster had arranged for the first RV group to be parkers, so they were waiting to show us to our sites and helped us park in our spots.

To our surprise the campground has free WIFI…not the best, especially at night when everyone is trying to use it, but still much better than we expected since we expected nothing.  The signal is very slow and weak so we were not be able to post any blogs with pictures. until now.  We have 20 amp electrical service so we have to be careful that we don’t turn on too many appliances at once.  The water pressure is very low and we are using the water to shower.  We filled our water tank up before we left San Diego and we are using that for drinking.  The water here is salty and not something you would want to drink. even filtered.

The Estero Beach Hotel and Resort where we are staying is beautiful and our first night here we had a welcome dinner at the hotel restaurant with margaritas and a great mariachi band that entertained us before and during dinner. 

I will stop the blog here and let you know more about Ensenada in another blog post.  We have a bus tour of Ensenada planned and I will tell you about that next time!  Due to extremely slow internet at our campsite we walked up to the hotel office to do this blog.  Hopefully it will go through okay with pictures included.

Adios from Ensenada!