Taking the baja down the Baja: Day 7

Note: This is a recap of Day Seven of our journey driving a ’68 bug from Sacramento, CA to Sayulita, Mexico.  You can catch up on day six here. 

Our search for coffee in La Paz took us to a shop just a block away from the hotel, with Shakespeare quotes on the wall.  We enjoyed our flat white and mocha outside, next to the Sea of Cortez, and took a few moments to catch up on some work.  Then it was time for the big event of the day: getting ferry tickets.

When we mapped out our trip, we knew we needed to catch a ferry ride from La Paz over to Mazatlan, and main land Mexico.  We found some information online, but we weren’t 100% sure on the details.  Did it only go to Mazatlan on weekdays?  Was the Saturday trip just to Topolobampo? (Still need a pronouncer on that one but it’s fun to try!)  How quickly would it fill up?

Finding the ferry dock wasn’t too tricky, and we asked the man directing traffic where we needed to go to get a ticket.  He motioned to the building and parking lot.  We parked, walked inside, and took a number for the ticket counter.  The office was filled with what appeared to be local families, on their way to or back from vacation.  I’m pretty sure we were the only Americans driving our ’68 bug across the country for kicks.

At our turn at the window, we learned we needed to be inspected and weighed first, before a ticket for the vehicle could be issued.  We went back outside and got in line for that.  The agent in our lane asked about our paperwork, which we had, and our VIN number, which we could not point out for him.  I’m sure it’s on the car somewhere, but we had no idea where.  After a few words of explanation, and absolutely no inspection, he waved us through to the scales.

The bug weighed in at around 1500 pounds.   Back inside the building, we purchased two passenger and one vehicle ticket for the ferry the next day, and got instructions to show up two hours before departure.

Feeling confident about the next leg of the adventure, we headed off to celebrate with some waves at Todo Santos, which basically involved driving straight south to the Pacific side once again.

Lunch was on a nice patio in town, with two stray dogs snoozing nearby.  Before we ate our meal, dessert arrived via a woman and her children, selling donuts for five pesos.  We got two.

The key to burning off chocolate icing is paddling out, so we hit the surf shop in town to pick up a leash for one of our boards.  The woman running the store was happy to sell us the leash, but cagey about the local breaks, clearly pretending not to know much about La Pastora, which we’d heard was amazing, and steering us more toward Cerritos.  But we wouldn’t be detoured so easily, and double checked the online descriptions for La Pastora, which was rumored to be a good place to get barreled if you hit it on the right day.  (To be clear, only one of us was looking for that sort of thing.)

The bug was a trooper and pressed on through all kinds of sand, brush and hills.  Several times we spotted farms and fences, and surmised this might be La Pastora, only to walk down to a flat beach.  Finally, around sunset, we saw an opening in the brush and turned off — there it was!  The waves were once again no match for my skill level, so Edgar grabbed a few while I flowed on the beach.

When the sun went down, we headed to a hotel I had booked online, but when we got to the gate no one answered.  There was a note and a giant bell to ring for the clerk.  We gave it a couple pulls… nothing.  Called the number…nothing.  The neighbor came home and mentioned the desk kept “crazy hours” and that if we kept trying someone “might answer.”  Rather than being stranded at dark in the street, we decided to press on into town and found the Maria Bonita.  The young girls working the counter enjoyed some giggles at our Spanish, but they did have rooms available, and we had ourselves a place to rest.  Dinner was sushi with a hot pepper Mexican twist…. an unexpected and tasty fushion!

Miles traveled on day seven: about 50 from La Paz to Todo Santos, plus a good amount of wandering in search of La Pastora.

On day eight: We watched the struggle to climb Everest while traveling through the night on the Sea of Cortez.