Up early since we didn’t get much sleep. We were all packed and on the road before 7am, after spending some time watching dozens of pelicans diving for their breakfast and last look for seashells.
Roads here are crazy today.
dirt pile ON the road
We are definitely off the beaten path as most people doing ‘The Baja’ follow Highway 1 south. We are presented often this morning with 2 or 3 options of roads intertwining, snaking through the rocky landscape.
3 lane road, Ev tends to take the left side but not always
Other roads always looking ‘greener’ than the one we are on. In this case not greener but smoother, or with less sand to bog down in. Washboard is standard. Everette is thrilled now that he has found the side road on the left where he can go a whopping 30 kmh instead of 15!!! This would be funner with quads!! I’m thinking we might be having scrambled eggs for brunch today as we have our new pack of 30 eggs on our front dash to keep them safe, but on this road I’m not sure there is a safe place to keep raw eggs.
Many of the roads here remind me of going camping with Mom and Dad & my brother, Shorty, following the hydro roads in back country British Columbia. Mom’s muscles probably all tense against the passenger door, Shorty and I squeezed in the middle with Dad at the wheel. Dad and I casually tending to “spits” (sunflower seeds) and taking in the view not overly worried about the loose gravel and drop-off best seen from Mom’s seat. Viewing the bright celestial sky with Dad, or catching more lake trout than him. Sweet childhood memories. Now we are building our own children’s memories.
Took us almost 4 hrs to cover 55 mms this morning from Gonzaga Bay to Hwy 1 & only saw one other (moving!!) vehicle that entire time. Definitely slow going but we saw countryside most tourists miss. We have all tires still intact….so are the eggs.
wet desert
through our windshield lakes to traverse
We pass thru valleys with surprisingly lush green looking cacti. Maybe they look so green because of last nights rains? There is certainly beauty here.
Cholla (CHOY-ya)
Ocotillo (ah-ka-TEE-yo)
Saguaro (sa-HWAIR-o)
And we discover where Dr Seuss must have gotten some of his tree ideas. The boojum tree (cirio) is plentiful in the desert that goes down the interior of the Baja. It looks like an upside down turnip with yellow tufts of fluff coming out of the top.
We cross from Norte Baja (Baja California) into the south (Baja California Sur) going through a border check where they want to spray the bottom of your vehicle to target insects, and we change to Mtn Time. We drive through Guerroro Negro which is a town built around the salt flats. We get delicious pescado tacos (fish tacos) the kids have been begging for since we had our first taste at a Sunday market. You can tell they enjoy them when they start planning their birthday meals around pescado and their (Laars’) birthday isn’t until June!!
Tonight we are tucked along a lagoon under date palms. A beautiful setting here we will explore more in the morning. We are thankful that there is no wind tonight and we only have noise from a town road. That’s is more manageable than the gusts of wind. We have a relaxing evening talking, reading, singing songs, being together. Family.
VIEW FROM OUR KITCHEN
new growth
cool gnarly tree at our lunch break
Acrobatic Thoughts 
I love that you are including spanish words in your posts. =D I’ve been curious about fish tacos…they keep getting mentioned in my spanish course.
You will hopefully have a new reader soon. Remember Nicky, that friend of Britt’s who teaches dance? I saw her tonight at The Nutcracker (Garrath’s wife and two girls were in it so I wanted to go see) and gave her the link. She was asking about you guys. =)