Part 5: Los Cabos

We’re heading from La Paz to Cabo San Lucas this morning. Nineteen miles south of town we are supposed to arrive at a Y in the road, and then bear right to Cabo San Lucas through Todos Santos. But almost an hour later, still no Y, and now cows are starting to appear on the road. So when a pick-up truck loaded with workers approaches, I signal to him by flashing my high beams. He stops, and I find out I took the wrong direction and am driving on the Highway 286 to La Ventana, rather than North! An hour and a half and 48 miles later, I’m back to square one –in La Paz. But this time a Pemex gas-station employee gives me the right directions. Thirty minutes later, here is our Y! Turning right, there is a newly paved road, compliments of the Mexican government after Hurricane Juliette’s damage last September.

The green vegetation that appears as we approach Todos Santos is welcome after driving through miles of dry country. Todos Santos is the Baja’s art colony. This is an old mission and sugar cane town, but today it is better known for the many Norteamericanos in search of small-town ambiance. There are galleries, craft stores and restaurants, as well as a bookstore called El Tecolote. The town is only a mile from the coast, and just south of the Tropic of Cancer, meaning we’re now in the Tropics! A monument in the form of a big ball, along the side of the road between San Jose del Cabo and Los Barriles, attests to our southern location.

Seven miles south of town is the small farming town of El Pescadero, where, from the road, we can see a restaurant with a huge tree growing through its roof.

As we get closer to Cabo San Lucas the road turns inland. Before long, we’re descending the last hill to town. The main road doglegs to the left, letting us bypass the chaotic streets of this fast-growing town. For many campers headed down the peninsula for the first time, Los Cabos (The Capes) is the ultimate destination. The Los Cabos area really covers two major towns: Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, which is located about 20 miles east. San Jose is the older town, and is more relaxed and comfortable. Cabo San Lucas, on the other hand, is chock full of hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and activity. The area between the two towns is known as The Cabo Corridor where most of the campgrounds are located.

Fashionable hotels like the Inter-Continental, the Sheraton, the Melia and the magnificient Solmar are for the rich and famous. Cabo San Lucas is probably best known for its deep-sea fishing and its world-

class golf courses designed by celebrities like Roy Dye, Robert Trent Jones and Jack Nicklaus. Happy hours are everywhere, such at the Hard Rock Cafe, El Squid Roe, Latitude 22, the Giggling Marlin and Carlos and Charlie’s, to name only a few.

Caroline and I rode our scooter up to the Pedregal, an almost-downtown high mountain, which, at its top, overlooks Cabo San Lucas, with a great and dramatic view. As far as the beaches are concerned, the choice is plentiful: Medano Beach is the most popular, but there is also Playa Santa Maria, Playa Chileno Bay, Playa Cemetario, Playa Barco Varado and Playa Palmilla. Solitude seekers head for idyllic Playa del Amor (Lover’s Beach), which is overlooked by El Arco, a natural rocky arch and the pinnacles of Los Frailes (The Friars).

San Jose del Cabo, founded in 1730, is situated where Mex 1 highway meets the Gulf of California. The town is the local seat of government for the "municipio" of Los Cabos. Despite its emergence as a resort area, San Jose maintains a sleepy small-town charm, content to sit in the shadow of its more popular, hectic, partying neighbor 20 miles south. Boulevard Mijares runs through the centre of town, divided by a landscaped mall ending at a fountain that is attractively lit at night. The Palacio Municipal (City Hall), built in 1927, is also worth seeing.

Once returned "home" to the Villa Serena, the RV Park that we are installed in for the next two weeks, we decorated our Christmas tree with the cooperation of one of our Mexican garden cacti.

The two Cabos are great destinations to enjoy unforgettable vacations. The sun is faithfully present every day and clouds are absent over the towns. A sunscreen is then mandatory to avoid a big red nose . . . like mine now!

Part 6: From Baja to Mainland Puerto Vallarta via ferry

From Los Barrilès, we are now heading towards Todos Santos, since we have missed the road to La Ventana. The town of Todos Santos is fabulous: laid-back and full of art galleries, shops, boutiques and taquerias where you can eat some great tacos! Six miles south of town is Playa El Cerritos, a wonderful, free beach with about 30 rigs already installed for the winter; among them several BCers looking for the sun during our cold and rainy winter. The sunsets over here are absolutely gorgeous! We will finally spend four days at this great spot!

Overall, we’ve been a month in Baja and we’ve never been sick in any way, even though we have eaten at several road taqueria stands, and peeled fruits and vegetables from different stores and walking salespersons along our way. Neither have we ever felt ourselves threatened anywhere in anyway. Except for some understandable deviations due to hurricane Juliet, all the roads were fine.

Moreover, the Mexican people were very nice to us: shy, extremely respectful, helpful, smiling and happy, and have contributed to a great trip in this great part of Mexico. We have slept with our motorhome on some beaches in isolated or remote places (most of the time with other campers around, but not always closed to us) with some of our stuff outside for the night (like BBQ, chairs, table, boat and beach shoes), and never, never has anything been stolen or even touched by anybody

else. We’ve used common sense at all times, never drove at night, never slept along the road at night . . . and everything has been just fine! This was a good experience for our first year of RVing. Caroline and I think we were safer in Baja than in many towns in the US at night. I think that all the serious warnings we received about bad situations on the roads were amplified from what is the reality.

We will get back to La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, two days in advance to make sure we don’t miss our ferry to the mainland. In the meantime, we stayed at Playa El Tecolote about five miles north of Pichilingue, which is where the ferry docks are. El Tecolote beach, like Playa El Cerritos near Todos Santos, is free of charge, and it’s no surprise there are about 20 rigs parked on the beach for the winter – again, most are from BC!

On our departure date we arrive at the Pichilingue ferry docks to hear that the ferry will depart eight hours later than forecasted: Mexican schedule! Instead of leaving La Paz at 3 p.m., it will be at 11 p.m. At 9 p.m., when it’s time to get on board, I have to back up into the ferry, and the darkness was not helping me. And it smells on that ship dock! Goats, cows and lambs produce an ammonia smell like crazy! That’s probably why there were some urine odours floating in some halls of the ferry. The cost of the trip for our less-than-14-metres-motorhome, a very simple room with bunk beds, two chairs and a less-than-clean bathroom, was 7,300 pesos, or around $1,300 Cnd.

We went to our cabin for the night, since we are not allowed to stay in our motorhome. The up and down rolling from the ocean have Caroline passing a bad night. Me? No problem at all! I slept straight to 8:30 the next morning. Finally, we arrive at the mainland at 7 p.m., 19 hours later. The sunset at Mazatlan is simply incredible! What a warm welcome!

Forty-five minutes later we arrive at the private campground of Las Canoas RV Park. Thanks to our internet contact with Lynn and Dan from Vancouver, we will have a great week in Mazatlan. There are 56 sites with over 150 palm trees and . . . it is right on the beach! Mazatlan (downtown) is something to see: very busy, full of people in every corner, noises, black smoke from diesel buses and trucks, etc. We also visited the Lookout hill to have an aerial view of Mazatlan. Nice!

Back on the road one week later, we stopped at Teacapan, a little village on the Pacific two hours south of Mazatlan. Seeing a tiny RV sign along the road at the entrance of the village, we turn in at Isla Paraiso, not really a RV campground, but a condo and houses complex, and . . . what a beautiful place! Surrounded with hundreds of palm trees, with a private beach, we are the only RV here. The next day, we drive seven hours on the "libre" (the non-toll highway) for the first time to Playa Chacala through San Blas in Nayarit state. You should see that, wow! Again, what a place! Playa Chacala is on a bay with a beautiful sandy beach, palapas, and lots of palm trees, too. Mexico – what a great country to discover!

We’re now only one hour from Puerto Vallarta, where we will stop for the Christmas and New Year holidays from December 19^th to January 7th. We’ll be very far from our families for the first time in years, but will reach them by phone on these special days. Also, this will be the first time we won’t have to shop for Christmas gifts. Also for the first time, we won’t see any snow at all for the whole winter, but this won’t be a great pain to me . . . Ho-Ho-Ho!

We set up camp at Tacho’s RV Park in Puerto Vallarta. Today a huge 48-rig caravan arrived, all French-Canadians from Quebec! Now with more than 200 of our "compadres," we’ll feel at home!