Cortez Sea
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Baja California (4)
The road down the Baja continues.
1. We passed by the Mission San Luis Gonzaga, simpler but no less lovely.
2. Stripped interior.
3. Bell tower…
4. Decorated door.
5. … and amazing knocker.
6. Detail…
7. Some other buildings probably built in the 19th century remain. These are the only of its kind we saw during our trip.
8. It wasn’t possible to drive faster than 5-10 mph on that kind of roads.
9. Small Church in a very small village along our road…
10. Some “aroyos” have water during the winter.
11. Another mission that we couldn’t visit since it’s private property and we should have had an appointment.
12. Mountain oasis…
13. Another small isolated church.
14. Vivalavida and Baja Shaker then borrow a beautiful canyon to reach the coast about 140 km north of La Paz.
15. Stony descent.
16. Ascent to the pass accessing the coast. Here, a spring creates a small oasis.
17. There are some river crossings…
18. While Andrew went to see the village of San Evaristo, I climbed a peak to look for a point of view. Vivalavida looks very small from up there!
19. What a view!
20. San Evaristo not far away…
21. In one word: superb.
To be continued… 😉
Baja California (2)
It continues down the Baja, along the Sea of Cortez.
1. First sun rays on Baya de Las Animas, at low tide.
2. Our campsite on the beach.
3. Read turkey vultures warming after the quite cool night.
4. Vivalavida leaving Las Animas through salt fields.
5. The track is very rocky, sometimes really rough too.
6. We approach the beautiful beach of San Rafael…
7. … of dazzling white sand. First bath for Andrew who is a man of water! 😀
8. Also the first Heerman gull, a very pretty bird really common here.
9. Lagoon behind the dunes…
10. Still beautiful cactus.
11. Baja Shaker climbs a small pass in the light of late afternoon…
12. New camp on the beach in the bay of San Francisquito. We saw our first whales of the trip that evening.
13. Unikely glimmers…
14. … of this especially quite sunset.
15. Dawn will be nice too.
16. An attentive inhabitant of the desert!
17. The trail winds through the cactus.
18. Parasitic plant forming small aesthetic balls on a cactus.
19. You said staight..? 😀
The next update will take you in some towns in central Baja and will continue down the east coast. To be continued…
Baja California (1)
Here is the time to count the trip of Vivalavida in Baja California. We went there with Andrew, a Swiss friend already met in Geneva whoh also has a 4×4 Ford van. He came to the U.S. for a about two months and we agreed to meet at the Mexican border for exploring the Baja California together. It was a first trip there for both of us and given the remoteness of some places, driving two vehicles was a real advantage in case of failure.
I called his van “Baja Shaker” because its suspensions are much harder than those of VivaLaVida and rocked him not just a little on some bumpy tracks! 😉
We met at Ocotillo for a first night in the Anza Borrego Desert before crossing the border the next day in Mexicalli. From the first meters on Mexican territory, all immediately changes. It is like we were thirty years ago, with old cars, homes in bad state, even if the big american brands seem present in the cities at least. We had been advised not to stop us near the border and sleep at least 100 miles away to the south. So we drove south along the Sea of Cortez since we had decided to go down on the east side of the peninsula and back along the Pacific coast.
1. First night on the beach not for away from San Felipe.
2. Puertecitos, small fisherman village…
3. … where teh view was quite different of the deserts through VivaLaVida travelled during the preceding weeks.
4. A stop at Coco’s Corner, a wellknown road junction of that area.
5. It’s a mountain area…
6. … with many washes which don’t see rain often.
7. Almost everything that grows here has thorns!
8. Vivalavida going down into a wash to access the bottom of a gorge. We camped on the opposite rim just next to the ruins of a 19th century mission.
9. Cactus flower.
10. Going up the gorge, we found some water…
11. Sometimes I had to use the shears..! 🙂
12. A beautiful cactus forest !
13. Really exotic !
14. My feet remember of a few large spines..! 😉
15. They are also giants..!
16. Descent to Baya Los Angeles.
17. Funny circular house at Baya Los Angeles.
18. Continuing south, the scenery is magnificent.
19. The sun goes down…
20. Last rays. We slept on the beach of Las Animas that we reached only at night…
Next to come soon…
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