Visiting Southern California on the way to Mexico

 Dear Readers,  Just let me say that this whole narrative starts out a bit slow, so bear with me.  I've been reading ahead and even I was interested in what I had to say. 

October 20, 2009

Hello again,

 

Here's some more photos of what we've been doing.  Last time I wrote we were at Bass Lake and since then we've traveled through King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks as well as the area above Bass Lake (high above) that is a scenic byway.  Gorgeous weather and beautiful places.

 

We've also been out to the Pacific to meet our friends Tom and Celeste for a few days, over to Victorville area to spend some time with Mike's daughter and her family and we're currently parked at the Marina in Long Beach visiting Mike's long time friend, Jim and his wife Sue.

 

The first of the photos is called Eagle Peaks and they sure look like Eagle's to me!  The General Grant tree is the third largest tree on earth and is at the entrance to King's Canyon National Park.  There is a scary road that takes you down into King's Canyon where there are raging rivers and towering mountains.  I loved it. 

 

In Sequoia we saw lots of wildlife (including a coyote that very casually waltzed through the parking lot one evening) and the General Sherman Tree, which is the largest living thing on our planet.  The hike to Tonopah Falls was beautiful.

 

Pismo was lots of fun with our friends though each of us were at different various stages of a bad cold.  Mike and I are now recovered and I hope they are as well. 

 

 

We had fun visited with Leah, (Mike's stepdaughter) Jay, Aneesa, and Jay's Mom, Sheri, in Apple Valley. They are looking for a new home and we wish them luck in their search.  Aneesa is growing up so fast.  I can't believe she's almost 9.  They have beautiful sunsets in their desert which is the one with the Joshua Tree. 

 

 

We're getting ready to cross the border into Mexico within the next week or so.  We have no plans at all except to race through the border town to safety after entering our neighbor to the South.  We will not have our regular internet service and we are also putting our phone "on vacation" for the five or six months we plan to be there.  We have no idea how often we will be able to check email but please keep in touch.  I'll try and do an occasional update with photos and give you all some Spanish lessons!  

 

Take care and aloha for now.....Gayle and Mike   

Oct. 21, 2009

Hi again,

I wanted to do photos one more time before we leave for Mexico.  I've not had good luck with the internet staying connected at this location so I'm going to put in a brief email and I plan to write more about the Salton Sea in a separate email.  Plan being the key word.  It's an interesting place.

We left Long Beach after a couple very fun and filling days.  Also fun filled.  Alas, the Port asked us to leave because we were too big - they measured us and we were over 20 feet.  We could have told them that!  Anyway, it was fun and we'll go back someday and they'll just have to measure us again!  Thanks Jim and Sue.  It's your turn to come visit us, if and when we ever are home!!

We went up to Joshua Tree National Park and the photos are here to prove it.  But is was cold and after one night we decided to head to lower ground and warmth.  We did hike to the Lost Horse Mine which was interesting.  A guy lost his horse and while searching he found a claim that he bought for $1,000 and mined it for years.  So he named it after the horse, well, actually not the horse but you get the picture. 

The Salton Sea is where we are right now and it's a place I find to be fascinating.  Thousands of migratory birds come here every winter and I really would like to be here in January - actually I'd rather be in Mexico but if I did ever happen by some January it would be cool to see all the birds.  There's quite a number of them right now and they're so fun to watch.  I'll try to write more about this place, like I mentioned, in a separate email as I fear the Verizon gods are going to cut me off.

So we're staying another night and goofing off.  Note the beer label from Trader Joes - he's Trader Jose' for this product.  Gotta love it!

Thanks for listening.....

Aloha and Adios,

Gayle and Mike

November 10th, 2009

Hi,

We're actually in Bahia de Kino on the western side of the Sea of Cortez but this email has photos taken before we crossed the border.  I 'll do another about here soon.  Maybe even today.  I wanted to share a little information about the Salton Sea because I find it to be fascinating.  We also made a couple of stops in Arizonia that there are photos included here......

The Salton Sea was originally the northern part of the Sea of Cortez, where I happen to be sitting right now.  With the changing water levels thru time a huge delta was formed between the two existing bodies of water.  The Colorado river once flowed into the Salton Sea but the fields and orchards needed water and now there is very little water that actually flows into this very salty sea.  It's shrinking and since it's home to over 400 varieties of migrating birds each winter.... well,...it's an issue.  It actually used to be smaller than it is now.  At one point the irrigation system that was built in the late 1800's failed during the particularly wet winter of 1905 and the river's entire volume poured unchecked into the Salton Sea.  The Southern Pacific Railroad had to re-route 40 miles of track and actually move it further away a second time some years later.  But now nothing much flows in or out and it's kinda smelly with dead fish laying around the shoreline.

  

The question is asked, can the sea be saved?  Apparently, no effective ways to "save" it has been devised though the California State Legislature did pass a law in 2003 that says the State must "undertake the permanent protection of the wildlife dependent on the ecosystem."  I understand that 80 to 90 percent of the North American endangered bird populations are presently supported by the Sea.  Hopefully the salt content that keeps increasing won't kill the fish that the birds depend on for food.  Anyway, it's an interesting place and reminds us all that the world, which is losing icecaps, etc. was once way wetter than it is currently.  There is a ton of land between the top of the Sea of Cortez and the Salton Sea.  I love them both!!! 

So there are more photos of the sea birds of the Salton Sea.  We have Pelicans here as well, but no white ones.  And isn't that white heron pretty?  We only get the gray ones up North.  The fire we had on the beach our second night had funky old wood with creosote and the colors were quite brilliant.  Mike went wood hunting and didn't disappoint.  We also found a little out of the way petroglyph place north of the main highway between Yuma and Tuscan.  Cheap camping out in the middle of nowhere is one of our favorite things. 

We spent the last few days in the US in Tucson at a State Park that had lots of friendly roadrunners.  I'd never seen them up close before and these guys were very friendly, so I got some fun shots.

We crossed the border into Mexico at Nogales last Friday morning.  Our Mexican insurance went into effect; we cancelled our US insurance and took off!  You always know right away when you're in Mexico because the world changes.  It becomes crummy but way more interesting.  And you must "slow down" in every way.  One fellow we met while waiting (and waiting) for our car permits to be processed said to visit this country you had better "laugh or leave".  We were practicing that while waiting (and waiting) for the credit card machine that is necessary to process the car permits became operational once again.  It only took about an extra 45 minutes or so.  And we made some new friends in the process.

Well, I'm off to help Mike unload our 8-horse motor for our dinghy from the truck right now.  I'll try to do another email about where we are currently today - but it may be MANANA!

Adios,

Gayle

November 10th, 2009

Hello once again,

Well, I've got to make this short.  The crowd is gathering here in back of our camper for the nightly 4pm cocktail party.  See the first photo for a view of what I mean.  Except that the sun is still way up so it's quite light.

We're in Kino Bay which is about 250 south of the border on the western side of the Sea.  We weren't planning on coming here but our first night in Mexico we camped next to some Canadians that said they came here years and years ago and have never made it any further and that we should give it a try.  So we did.  And low and behold, who should we wind up camping right next to but those same folks!  We didn't even know this was the park they were coming to!  So now we're pals with Chuck and Linda and a score of other people that come here a lot. 

We're right on the beach and the views you see in the photos are what we have right in front of us at all times.  Or, actually, in back of us because we have our butt end pointed towards the ocean as it has a better view than from our nonexistant front view.  The rate here is about 12 or 13 bucks a night with full hookup including free internet.  Skype works so CALL me!  Of course, the water only runs part of the time and even when it does, it's pretty slow.  And we've been warned by some not to drink it but we hear that Clorox does wonders!  Gotta get used to the "bugs" sooner or later.  Mike just went to take a shower and he didn't come right back so apparently the water is currently running!!  Oh, he's back and it worked!  He's been taking dips in the ocean and rinsing off from the outside shower of the camper. 

We've been eating lots of seafood since the guy who sells that stuff showed up our first morning and we bought some of everything almost.  We still have some of the huge shrimp but the scallops and the flounder are gone.  The local tortilliaria charges 5 pesos (about 40 cents) for a half a kilo (more than half a pound).  Diesel is the equilivent of $2.40 a gallon.  The endless shrimp cost 110 pesos for a full kilo.  The exchange is giving us about $1.30 for every $1 so we're feeling like this is a pretty good deal.

We're pretty busy (doing what?) and have decided to stay longer than the initial three days we signed up for.  We took the dinghy off the top of the camper and maybe by tomorrow we'll actually use it.  We got the motor out of the truck today and did go buy some gasolina!  These things take time.

Photos are of some of the local sights and our view mostly.  Oh - and for those of you that have been wondering.  I took a couple shots of the inside of the camper finally.  I keep waiting for it to be neat but it never is so I just took the darn photos and there you go!'

My pot of Mexican beans is ready to take off the burner (pressure cooker going strong) and I've got to grab my wonderful margarita and go see everybody.

Adios for now,

Gayle (and Mike though he only receives these and never writes them, of course.  Do ya, honey?)

Dear Readers, 

I might mention here that I have been to Kino Bay once before.  It was in 1997 when a ponga took us, and our insurance adjuster, out to Tiburon Island to go to my beautiful sailboat, Slow Dancin, that was beached and in sad shape.  We'd shipwrecked a few days earlier during Hurrican Nora and were rescued the next day by the Mexican Navy.  Sitting in Kino Bay now, I could see Tiburon and could not help but remember that terrible experience.  

Here's an excerpt from a book I've written called Sailing With Chalchi, The memoir of a seafaring cat and her human, soon to be released on Amazon. 

Chalchi also writes this book.  Her words are in italics.

"We had been warned of a hurricane called Nora that was heading our way, so we sailed further east and anchored at Tiburon Island in Bahia de Perro.  (That's Shark Island in Dog Bay....has a pirate sort of sound to it) Through a series of events that involved cables being wrapped around our propeller, a dragging anchor and high winds as soon as it got dark, we wound up grounded next to a cliff with heavy surf pounding us all through the night.  The boat was eventually holed and there was water inside.  

Poor Chalchi was so afraid.  We all were afraid and hoping the boat would hold together despite the beating it was taking.  She did, thank God, and many other boats would not have.  

I didn't know what to do and I was mad that I ever got on this stupid boat in the first place.  Some of the outside water was on the inside.   

By morning I think we were all getting used to being wet and things weren't quite as noisy.  Some people came to look down at us from the cliff above and then Mom gave them some of our things and they helped us all get off the boat.  The land was scary and there was a big dead snake.  I didn't like this place at all and we had to stay there all day long. It was hot and I had to pee but was to scared to even try.  You must relax to do that, ya know.      

It was nightfall before the Mexican Navy came to rescue us in a 200-foot ship with 75 crew members.  Poor Chalchi.  She was scared to death of the fast boat ride out to the ship and as soon as we got there, she jumped out of my survival suit onto the deck.  The ship personnel had gotten misinformation regarding us and were under the impression that we had a baby.  Well, Chalchi was forgiven for being a cat and not the baby they were expecting.  

They treated us very well with food and a shower.  We had brought very little to shore with us but did bring cat food.  However, we had no litter box.  

I wasn't feeling so good by then.  It was a long way back to land from wherever we were and then we went to a sort of house.  I finally couldn't hold it in any longer and found a closet to go in, hoping I wouldn't get caught.  Silly me. Of course I was busted.  But I sure felt better.

This place was kinda cool.  Outside there was a big sand pile and my people let me use it for a potty.  Except there was one bad thing.  There was another cat there, a little one.  That darn cat could sneak into my new house and eat my food.  I tried a few times to chase it off but then I decided that I would break my own rule about hating all cats.  This one was just a kid and didn't know any better.  I’d make friends since I knew I could be the boss.  We had some fun together, but he was kinda dirty and probably had fleas. 

 

The Mexican Navy took us to San Carlos and gave us a ride to a hotel.  It was a big pink place on the hill.  People we knew started to show up as they heard about our shipwreck.  We shared our air conditioning with them.  After a couple days we, made our way out to our boat with an insurance adjuster.  Our boat was now laying sideways on a small beach since the water had receded.  We'd been robbed and the boat was absolutely trashed but we were able to get some of our things that we desperately needed, like clothes and a toothbrush."

November 21, 2009 

 

Hola Amigos,

 

I think it's Saturday and we're now at a place called Huatabampito at the Mirador Hotel Restaurante and RV Park.  We're probably about the equivalent of half way down the Baja on the mainland side.  And we are smack on the beach!  I've not included any photos of this place yet, but I'll take some and you will see.  Our back wheels are about 50 feet from the water's edge at low tide.  And this beach goes on for miles in either direction. And the food is good at the restaurant.  Too bad Mike still feels crummy - I'm fine.  I drink tequila and he does not - they say that it kills everything!

 

The photos I've included this time are of all the other places we've been so far.  We stayed at Bahia de Kino for over a week.  Partly because we got sick and partly because it was a wonderful place and the people were marvelous.  We were able to put our little boat in the water and dingy our way over to Pelican Island and another shore to the south.  The photos of the shrimp boats were taken from our ride which was also the day we ate the dreaded tamales that we think were the culprit to our digestive system issues ever since!! 

 

Kino Bay is a place that I had visited one time before and in extreme circumstances.  Off in the distance past Pelican Island is the largest island in the Sea of Cortez, Tiburon (shark) island.  In Sept. of 1997 I was shipwrecked there as hurricane Nora passed to the west.  The large "doors" and the attached nets on the shrimp boats pictured were the reason for the wreck.  We had inadvertently anchored on one and when the wind started to really howl, the anchor pulled the "door" along the bottom and we were headed for shore.  Realizing that we were dragging, we hauled anchor and the nets did their dirty work in the propeller and then we had no engine.  It was too late and impossible to sail out of the situation, even though we tried.  Anyway, long story short - beautiful and thankfully very strong, Slow Dancin was on the shores of Bahia de Perro (Dog Bay) on Shark Island.  Sounds like a pirate story, huh?  So after the rescue by the Mexican Navy, about 24 hours later off a nearby beach and being taken to San Carlos,about 100 miles south, we had to return to the beached boat with the insurance guy.  And Kino Bay was where we left from.  So this area holds some terrifying memories for me, personally, and it was wonderful to go back there and be on land and be safe and have none of it matter anymore.  I did spend some time looking out at Tiburon and remembering.  "Slow Dancin" saved my life - Chalchi's too.  She was also Mike's and my first home together.  Thanks, girl.

 

So - the photo of the boats and the mountain in the background are in San Carlos.  The mountain is called Teates de Cabra which means Teats of the Goat or, as I've always called it, Goat Titty Mountain.  It's a cool mountain and a beautiful area.  We stayed two nights in a nearby trailer park and then made our way, about all of ten miles, to Miramar and the Hotel Playa de Cortez.  They have a lovely place to park an RV out back and the hotel and the grounds are stunning.  It's very old - built in the 30's.  Two nights there and now we're here! 

 

Hopefully Mike will start to feel better.  He's up and down but did decide to start on antibiotics today.  That should kill the bug good and dead.  He's having to do all the driving and we do have a couple branches attached to our stuff up on top - it's not easy driving in these little Mexican places.  The trees are low and the bumps in the road are high!  They have these speed bumps called topes and they are huge.  You'd better not miss seeing one - and they're not all marked.  And, of course, there are no maps and relying on signs isn't always reliable.  But we're doing okay and when we get where we're going - it's Miller time (actually Pacifico as Mike ran out of his Miller's a few days ago) and all is right with the world.

 

I'm writing this offline so I'm really hoping that it sends next time we hook up.  Otherwise I will have to rewrite it........hope it works because it's a cool way to do these letters, etc. 

 

Hope everyone is keeping warm and dry.  We are........

 

Adios for now,

Gayle (and Miguel)