Baja is one large desert, but a very diverse desert. The terrain traveling from east to west, goes from sea level, to several thousand feet, back to sea level in a rather short distance. The peninsula spans only 28 miles wide in the most narrow areas and 120 miles in the most wide. The terrain is so harsh however, that the roads are generally in fairly rough condition. Sometimes these short distances can make for a rather long and strenuous day of driving.
The Mx 1 is a paved, two lane highway, that runs the length of the peninsula. It is generally in decent condition, but we are trying to stay away from it as much as possible, opting instead to travel the coast roads. We feel we may miss out on a lot of the Baja experience if we stay only on the main road. Plus, Blanca is itching to get her tires dirty, she has been prepping for years to go out and explore!
The need for a real shower with hot water, internet, and a restock on supplies, brought us back to the Mx 1. We stopped at a restaurant/motel/rv park in Guerro Negro, to satisfy the hot shower and Internet. This being the first time we have paid for camping in Mexico. Well, guess what? Hot shower? Not tonight! Jodi enjoyed a nice, freezing cold one instead. Internet? Not tonight! We sat and watched one page try to load for hours instead. Haha, welcome to Baja, and the introduction to manana time. Well, manana came, and to our surprise we did have hot showers and internet! The internet made dial up seem fast, but it slowly and painfully did the trick.
Our restock of supplies involved many, full immersion style Spanish lessons, which was quite challenging to say the least. Honestly, neither of us can remember a time when we have felt this stupid and clueless. Ha, we have a lot to learn! Why did our Spanish lessons repeatedly teach us words like lion, and duck?? These are not useful words!
After our errands, we were off. Once again, headed for the trail less traveled along the Pacific, hopefully to find some surf. We headed west towards Bahia Asuncion. The road was surprisingly good, minus a couple of missing sections, which are marked by a few tires or maybe some random trash. Little trails to the side, safely traveled us around the vehicle munching holes! It was a beautiful ride, through mostly desert and some interesting salt flats.
Bahia Asuncion is a sweet little fishing town. It has everything one might need to sustain themselves. After exploring the town a bit, we aired the tires down, and headed south along the coast. Once again, we found a new sliver of paradise, all to ourselves. Man baja, you are fricken awesome!
