Baja Bound – Day Three

Heading for the town of San Ignacio

Bahia Gonzaga is a spectacular place to wake up. We took a long walk along the beach.  Just a handful of others were about.  We crossed paths with a very nice young woman, Linda, with her rescue dog.  She and her boyfriend, both from Texas, had acquired a camper van and had been traveling for several months.  Somewhere along the way, they came across a dog and decided to adopt her, but only until they returned to Texas and (presumably) could carry on with their post-pandemic lives.  Linda was a bit concerned that Lava might go after her dog, which was shy.  But Lava, with his usual charm, brought her out of her shell, and they placed nicely.  We chatted for a while, then we all decided we needed to break camp and move on.  But before leaving, Linda brought over a breakfast smoothie she’d made.  Quite tasty.

We went back to Alphonsina’s for huevos rancheros and cold refried beans.  After warmish beans at El Alamo, we’re starting to think that’s how they are intended.

We will be driving the new Hwy 5 south to Hwy 1.  Long before the ‘road’ from San Felipe to Bahia Gonzaga was paved it took Fred and Sid several days to make the journey. More recently, Fred drove his motorcycle along this path while it was under construction. At that time the road was paved from San Felipe to Bahia Gonzaga and under construction beyond Gonzaga. So we expected to see a trail of rubble when heading south from Gonzaga.  It was nothing of the sort.  It was a curving highway through a beautiful forest of Boojums and cardon cactus.  Quite lovely.  After merging with Hwy 1, we retraced along the burro/Landcruiser tragedy road.  We checked out Guerrero Negro, partly to cement memories of previous visits and partly curiosity about how it’s developing.  It seems to be thriving.

Our next stop is San Ignacio, the oasis town.  We’ll stay at La Huerta, a very nice hotel near the square where the Kuyima office and a good restaurant are.  

Lava is welcome at the hotel (for a small fee).  I mentioned that he is a repeat customer.

The village of San Ignacio is almost drowning in giant palms.  It’s home to a Mission that we visited before.  There are a few hotels and restaurants and many homes and small businesses.  A lot of it is workaday and shabby, but you can tell that people are resourceful.  

We stopped in at the Kuyima office to let them know we would stay at the hotel tonight and not the whale eco camp.  It will be good to have a shower and the comfort of a bed and sheets.  We’ll make the drive to the camp tomorrow AM, in time, we hope, for a 10:00 whale run.  I fell in love with a stuffed, soft, gray whale.   (Spoiler alert: I bought it later.)