February 19th

We’re starting to get the hang of the layout here in Puerto Penasco.  Today we were off to the Bodega Aurrera, A.K.A. Walmart for supplies.  We navigated to it faultlessly, and even figured out a new, more efficient route.  Such are the small victories of life.  

Took another coupe of pictures of the road on the sand dunes.  Also learned the terrible truth about the groin they’re building out front.  7am and it sounds like something out of world war two (tanks), as the huge cat clanks it’s way out onto the groin to start the day.  Soon the trucks start arriving, dumping load after load of large rocks, and building continues apace, until dusk halts construction around 6:30 pm. And the purpose of this?  It’s so that humongous cruise ships can dock in Puerto Penasco.  They intend to offer three day cruises down the coast to Puerto Vallerta. The street vendors are all a twitter about the possibilities of such large amounts of traffic.  Of course, that would mean the end of the RV Park, as development would surge meet the traffic.  Will it be financially viable, or another promotion gone bust? Quien sabe? as they say hereabouts…. 

February 18th

Meagan’s birthday today!  We unsuccessfully tried Facetiming with her a few times, but the wonky wi-fi would not even permit audio only.  In the end, we bit the bullet, turned on Nancy’s cell and made the call on Telcel.  What ever it costs is worth it to talk with our daughter on her birthday.  Three feet of snow and -38 in GR, chilly here at 23 with a cool ocean breeze.

The road to 'Choya"

The Reef RV Park is a coupe of miles west of Puerto Penasco, literally, on a big sand dune.  The pure sand road is watered and graded daily; it also allows access to Choya, an american development out on the point to our west.  The Reef “Get Wrecked at the Reef!!" also has a large bar and restaurant.  It caters to recreational americans, who pile in on the weekends, toy haulers and trailers disgorging quads, side-by-sides, sand buggies, and motorcycles.  They spend the weekend ripping around on the extensive dune systems to the north of us.  There’s 2 or 3 tandem hang-glider trikes that give expensive rides all weekend, with flight patterns that would give the FAA nightmares. Most flights include a low-level buzz of the waterfront/campers, often less than 40 feet over the row of motorhomes.  Sunday night/Monday morning they all go home, leaving the park in quiet, to the snowbirds. When the sea haze clears at dusk, you can see mountains on the western horizon, in Baja, I think.  The tidal range here is extreme, from 15 to 27 feet (9 metres), depending.  The Bay of Fundy looks more impressive, due to the extensive tidal flats, but the tides here are nearly as extreme.  Nancy & Kirk were out at low tide, last night, supervising some clammers.  She tried fishing, but the wave action defeated her flat water setup.  Wilson’s Plovers, Willlets, Oystercatchers, Snowy Egrets, Blue Herrons and a myriad of gulls, Brown Pelicans, and Cormorants make a living on the beach out front.  Nancy also wanted me to mention she enjoyed watching a pod of dolphins playing/fishing in the surf out front the day we arrived.

February 17th

We went into town this morning to get some Pesos, apparently Banco Santander has the best exchange rate in town.  In the parking lot, I was chatting with the one-armed window cleaner working over my windshield and glass, me improving my pitiful Spanish, he improving his English.  I gave him $US2 and he thanked me and moved on.  As I sat there enjoying the morning, watching he and the old newspaper hawker chat and holler greetings to passing taxis and commercial traffic, it struck me that Mexico is a lot like up north in Canada. Time is a little different.  Folks are a little bit more relaxed, and a little bit more rigid, all at the same time.  Things work, generally, most of the time, just not in the time frame you’re used to, nor in the exact fashion you’re used to.  Yet, it’s all very familiar, in an offbeat kind of way.

We went to the malecon (a walk along the waterfront) in Puerto Penasco this morning.  Nancy headed back into tourist and seafood shops, and I just sat on the benches on the seawall and admired the palm trees, Brown Pelicans, and ocean.  I was hit on twice by condo-lead hawkers, once very nicely and once less so.  There was a young Mexican couple very affectionate in a proper sort of way, looking out to sea in the red 5 Peso permanently mounted binoculars and taking couple selfies.  They take security quite seriously here; a campesino with a backpack was digging around in the malecon garbage container, and had just moved on down the street when a Policia 1/2 ton dropped off an officer, who ran up the stairs to the next block, looking for someone, while the truck scooted off down the street.  It stopped a block down, a quick conversation, and the campesino resignedly climbed into the truck bed, and away they went.  

Nancy showed up with a pound of fresh shrimp (and a couple of sun dresses), so it was home we went, for refrigeration. (and a beverage, it was after noon, after all). The latest topic of discussion is whether the new Coastal Highway is completed or not. We’d like to head down to Bahia Kino, but if the Coastal Highway is not finished, it means driving out to Santa Ana, then south through Hermosillo (pop. 1,000,000!) and then back west again.  The question has been sent to forums and Bahia Kino RV Parks.  The Reef RV Park's font of information, Gus, says all done, better than the highway from Lukeville, no problemo.  We shall see what the consensus is...

February 16th

The line of condo’s to the east of us have decided they need more sand on their beachfront.  They are attempting to do this by the construction of a massive groin out into the harbour.  It has scoured sand out front of our RV Park, and deposited it in front of the condos, so I guess it’s working. (Check it out on Google Earth)  They continue to extend the groin, rumour has it, another 1/2 mile. !

Took a few more pictures at our campsite showing high tide.  The RV Park is now relatively empty, a lot of folks moved on this morning.  I talked with the front desk and arranged a wash & wax for $1.50 per foot, plus $10 extra to get the roof done as well, plus they come to your site to do it.  There’s a lot of acerage to the Bigfoot, so this sounds like a great deal to me.  At the front gate, there’s a crew doing body work on RV’s, including removing cooked graphics, sanding them down, and then painting them back on.  Haven’t had a close inspection, but it looks good from far.

Nancy & Kirk had quite a walk today.  With the wind and waves, there was occasional spray coming out a coupe of blowholes in the rock.  Kirk took this as proof something was down there, and would cautiously creep up on the hole, only to leap straight up and back when it did blow.

One night back in Ajo, Nancy was in line at the local grocery/hardware/liquor store with a bottle of Appleton’s Estates Rum for me (on sale!) and a large bottle of tonic water for her.   A large young sheriff in line made a quiet comment in Spanish to the next cashier, which Nancy caught as "a terrible thing to do to a fine rum”.  She laughed, explained and said she was not drinking them together.  The embarrassed sheriff protested that he was not judgemental…….

And another lovely evening.

Puerto Penasco SON

Woke to the sound of rain on the roof. I guess deserts aren’t as dry as I’d heard.  We took our time getting rolling, both because of the rain, and because the border was less than an hour away and our insurance didn’t start till 11 am.  Here’s the thing about rain in the desert, I was wearing a rain jacket while we were hooking up the Accord in the rain.  It stopped while we were in the process, and by the time I got into the Bigfoot, a couple of minutes later, I was totally dry.  It is greening up with amazing speed, it's unbelievable how fast desert vegetation responds to moisture.

We stopped at the border to get our FMT’s, or tourist cards which you theoretically need if you are staying longer than 72 hours in Mexico.  In practice few people get them if they are just hanging about Puerto Penasco and returning to the US, and no one checks.  It took us a while, as blatant rule-follower Nancy debated the finer points of the law with Migracion, but eventually they relented and gave us 180 day tarjeta de turista cards.

We cruised into Puerto Penasco, effortlessly negotiating the road construction (congratulating ourselves for our previous reconnaissance run in the Accord).  We got a waterfront site at the Reef RV Park, dropped the Accord and set up house for the week.  We're looking south at the Sea of Cortez.

February 14th

There’s two things you should do prior to flying a new glider, it’s A) Give it a toss to ensure the cg is correct, and B) ensure the controls are correct, i.e. left is left, and up is up.  For a variety of reasons (I have a long snivel), I did neither.  As a result, this afternoon I bought some white gorilla glue and a sanding block, to apologize my Radian back into flying condition.  It’s not all that bad really, but it will have red scars in the spinner to remind me of the 5P’s of flying; preflight planning prevents piss poor performance.  Poor Nancy had tossed the ill-fated flight, and took the subsequent crash poorly.

Saturday today, and the local market was on at the town square.  We wandered about and enjoyed another perfect Arizona morning.  

Next up was auto insurance for Mexico.  We choose Sandburn’s, who are both online and have a local outlet.  Back at camp, Nancy poured over the documents obsessively.  I was about to give her the gears about it, when she found a critical error, country of residence USA instead of Canada.  Back we went for a new policy.  

There are still Baja bugs running around here, shades of youth again.

We were listening to a Mexican radio station the other day; except for the Spanish, you could have been listening to CKDM in Dauphin, with lots of excellent accordion polkas and other familiar dances.

So tonight we're attending to details for our morning departure; not too early, since our insurance starts at 11 am.  We’re off to Puerto Penasco, at least initially, with a weeks insurance in hand.

February 13

We went cruising Ajo today, looking for a place to fly the Radian.  We found their regional park where you can dry camp (they have sewage dump and well) for $18/week or $25/month.  Very dry, though; it was dusty even without a wind.  It also had a roping area, complete with corrals, horses, and lots of lights so you could rope at night.  Nancy spotted what we thought was r/c planes cranking and banking, to the west.  We drove over that way until we realized, nope, not R/C, that was A-10s in the distance, cranking steep banks and diving down very low for a run.  

Checked out the airport, where someone was flying a hang-glider trike, and the golf course, which is rumoured to have great breakfasts.  There were plenty of places to fly, just no where to land.  Where there weren’t low shrubs, the bare ground was sharp, coarse gravel and rocks.  If you weren’t adept at catching your glider when landing, and I am not, at best the belly would be shredded every landing.

Then we found the only open green space in town, the baseball diamond.  We unloaded the glider and chairs, and we were starting to assemble the Radian when the groundskeeper drove up and warned us he was about to turn on the sprinklers.  

OK, let’s go see the big hole.  Ajo had a very active copper mine for many years, and the resulting open pit (and the tailing piles created) are quite impressive.  The interpretive centre was closed, however, and it has the only really good viewpoint, since the public is kept well back from the edge by fences everywhere else.

Back we went to La Siesta, for a swim and snooze.  We went to Estrella’s for an early supper, one of the two restaurants in town.  Back to the RV park to load Kirk and the glider, and off to the baseball park.  A lovely warm, calm evening, it would be a perfect night to get in the maiden flight on the new glider.  Except, Friday night, the field was covered in young men in uniforms, warming up for the big game.  Imagine, maintaining and actually using the baseball field for baseball.

Sorry about the lack of pictures.  We have taken a vow to take more (or at least some).