Leaving the Sea of Cortez

Our plan was to spend three nights at Santispac Beach (100$, flush toilets, no power or water), but since we can no longer use our generator we can only go one night without shore power.  It turned out that was just as well.  The toilets were pretty rustic, but functional when we turned in for the night.  Overnight, both the mens and womens sides had been clogged (too clogged to be cleared with a plunger), leaving no available toilets until Ana's Restaurant reopened some time later in the day.  Rather than hang around, we hit the road.

Santispac Beach...

We stopped a short distance down the road, hoping to use the facilities at the nearest Pemex.  We found those toilets clogged as well, though not sufficiently so to prevent us from using them (we were getting desperate).

We thought we would camp at Mulege, hoping to find a hardware store open on Monday where we could get a means of emptying the gas from our generator, which was leaking much more noticeably.  It was clear after a visit through town that the chances of finding what we needed would be slim, and we also were not able to get any money from the only ATM in town.

So we continued north, hoping that perhaps a store in Santa Rosalia might be open on Sunday, or at the very least that we could get some cash.  It took a couple of attempts, but we were finally successful with the latter.

The Gustav Eifel Church.

Santa Rosalita is a very unique town for Baja.  It was the site of a copper mine that only recently reopened.  A lot of the copper ore from there was sent to San Francisco in the 1850s, where the ships were loaded with lumber from Brookings, OR for the return trips.  As a result, most of the historic downtown is constructed of wood, rather than stone, adobe or brick.  Since the mining company was founded by French investors, the town has more of a French Colonial feel to it.  If we hadn't spent so much time looking for necessities, we would have spent more time exploring the town.  But we did see the church built by Gustav Eifel, and managed to take a picture of one of the old, rusting steam engines used to transport copper ore.

There is no place to camp in Santa Rosalita, so we pressed on, opting to stay three nights in San Ignacio at the Rice and Beans Oasis (which had been a stop earlier, on our way south).  There we met a couple, Dale and Lisa, from Caldwell, ID, who had extended their stay in order to watch the Seahawks vs. Pacadores (Packers) on the satellite TV in the bar.  It was our first chance to see a football game this season, and it was possible to bring Lana into the bar, so we joined them for the first half.

Before going to watch the football game, I took a look around San Ignacio in hopes of finding some means of getting the gas out of our generator.  The owners manual recommends using a hand siphon, probably because draining the tank directly would allow engine oil to get places where it shouldn't ought to be.  I was hoping I could find a turkey baster in the mercado, but no luck.  So I went into the center of town and found a pharmacy that was open.  I drew a picture of what I was looking for, together with the word "jeringa," Spanish for syringe.  Luckily the entire store consisted of less than ten feet of shelving, and I eventually got a rubber ear syringe for $1.35.

We had saved an empty 1.5 liter glass wine jug, so when I returned to the campground I set about extracting as much gasoline from the generator as I could.  In the end, I got a bit more than three liters before the ear syringe started to soften and deform.  That would have to do.  At least now the gas is well below where the leak was occurring.  And after our first full day of driving, we are no longer noticing the gas fumes.

We've been pretty impressed by the many Mexican dogs that roam around the towns, because the vast majority are very well socialized.  When we were here last, there was a very sweet mama dog who had recently given birth, whom we've been calling Mamacita.  She was still here, making the rounds in the bar and around the hotel and campground, hoping to solicit a few scraps of food from friendly tourists.

I was walking Lana when Mamacita decided to join us, so I opted to let Lana off lead to see how they did together.  As usual, Lana put her bossy pants on, but Mamacita was OK with that - she was more than willing to put up with her anti-social behavior if it meant getting something to eat now and then.  We were hoping that Lana would learn a little etiquette from Mamacita, but it was clear that she was too busy being jealous.  But she at least tolerated having Mamacita around the camper, and learned that not all dogs are a threat to her.

On our second night at San Ignacio, Mamacita brought two of her puppies to meet us at 4 am.  We woke up to some whining, opened the door and didn't see anything, and then attempted to get back to sleep.  The whining continued, this time I could see Mamacita at the rear of the trailer.  She came right up when I opened the door, and not long after the puppies appeared from under the trailer.  She was wanting to come in, likely because it was cooler than she was used to, but of course Lana would never accept that, so we had to close the door and listen to the whines a bit longer before they eventually moved on.

Since grey whales give birth in some of the lagoons in this area, we sometimes will see whale bones along the side of the road and a few small towns have complete skeletons on display.  San Ignacio is one of the latter, with a simple display at the intersection leading into the main town square.

We decided to take the 35 mile trip out to Laguna San Ignacio, a favorite nursery for grey whales.  Of course we are a few weeks too early for that, but it was worth finding that the road is now almost completely paved, and the last stretches of new roadbed were being put in place and will likely soon be paved.

The beaches of the laguna were littered with all types and sizes of empty sea shells, but about the only sealife we found were some small snails and an oyster or two.  With no sea critters to watch and the fishermen all out in their boats, we didn't hang around long.  We will likely return on a future trip to see the grey whales.

I used some of our downtime to contemplate reorganizing the van's interior so that we can add a few items that would make life easier for us: a privy tent, so we can have some privacy when we use our Luggable Loo; a hatch cover for the galley, to keep it from getting so hot in the southern and western exposures; and a chair for Lana (so that she will stop stealing ours).  We think we can achieve that, plus give Lana a larger den area and make much of the rear third of the van much more accessible.  So we'll be ready to go, once we have access to some tools and a warm place to work...