Headed out of Phoenix on Feb. 27th before light, the plan was to cross the border at Algodones. The tribe of nomads consisted of Chuck Hathcock a biologist from New Mexico who had made this type of Baja run before, Michael Doyle another Baja veteran (and a real one) who frequently runs pits for various baja enduro races, and myself... I seem to be out of my league. I was the Baja rookie, but tried my best not to look like a tourist. Tried, but failed since I carried my camera around my neck everywhere and spoke Spanglish with an urban Texan Accent.
Well about this time in the trip I realized I forgot my field book. This is serious! My fieldbooks have gone with me everywhere, it's like I left my best friend behind! A best friend that has been shoved in my back pocket and sweated all over. But more importantly it's where I take notes regarding the natural history I observe, gps coordinates etc. So we had to make a stop in Yuma for me to pick up a subsitute (its not the same :( ). While we were there Michael made his famous stop at Del Taco. Apparently before going on a trip he buys about a dozen burritos and sticks them in the fridge behind his seat and will munch on them all trip (yes over a week later). Twinkies have nothing on Del Taco.
I picked up a spiral but would face ridicule the entire trip as I had to take notes in "spiral," while Chuck the good biologist, could write in his field book. Nice way to start.
After crossing in Algodones which is not named after the Cotten family (an honest mistake), we had to run through Mexicali to pick up our permiso de turismo. We headed south through the Baja northeast desert, which is some stark terrain bound for San Felipe.
Chuck's Tacoma and Doyle's Powerwagon were our faithful desert mules.
In San Felipe I got my first view of the Sea of Cortez!
And my first baja fish taco's from a taco stand. Which were something like $4.50, yes please! I do enjoy tacos, I enjoy tacos like some people enjoy fine wine. For the fish tacos alone this was going to be an epic trip.
Our very sweet taco lady, was shy.
The next morning a cold front came through and it was down in the forties and wicked windy!
This was kind of a bummer since there were several animal species I was hoping to see in this section of Baja. I got over it quickly though with the pretty scenery.
We pushed on south on Monday, trying to get south of the cold. Somewhere about now was when I realized just what kind of trip this would be, because we found the end of the pavement...
Where are the fireworks??? Also - great pictures! You are getting very good at capturing the pretty things and cropping out the DANGER in which you put yourself.
ReplyDeleteThanks Becca, ya I figured the cartel man holding a shank was not that easy on the eyes. Fireworks were a little later. I'll have to get some pictures from Chuck though because I was the one with the lighter not the camera.
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