Dia 6: Guerrero Negro, BCS, Mexico

Most of the drive today was through mountainous high desert.  The roads were often the narrow, less-than-20-foot-wide roads that our guide book warns about, but just as often there were wider sections, often with ample shoulders.  It was a 215 mile scramble to the next town with a Pemex station, there being two abandoned former Pemex stations along this stretch.  But in Catavina, which is about the mid-point of today's drive, there were men with red 55-gallon drums selling gas beside the road.  We suspect this is mainly because of the Baja 1000, as we ran into one support crew that had no idea that gas would be an issue here.  We wish we had noticed what price they were being charged, but the folks that needed the gas weren't concerned with that minor detail.  And it was interesting that we didn't see any signs on the highway outside of El Rosario warning that there was no gas for 300+ km (we knew because of our guidebook), and it wasn't until we were within about 100 km of the next station that we began seeing signs to that effect.

The drive today was quite scenic, mainly because of the unusual cacti that were everywhere along the route, and also because of the vast fields of granite boulders in the northern section of the route (the Valle del Cirios).  We took the time to stop and look around in a few places, though graffiti and trash detracted from the experience.  The top two photos above are of a cirio, also known as a boojum tree.

We passed through two more military checkpoints today, both of which were brief stops.  They only wanted to know where we had come from, where we were going, and whether we were on vacation.  We also passed through an agricultural inspection station, and had to "donate" 10 pesos to have the undercarriage of our van and camper disinfected.

Baja, California is split into two states, Baja California Norte (B.C.) and Baja California Sur (B.C.S.).  We crossed into the latter early in the afternoon.

We caught up with the Baja Amigos tour group at Malarrimo Hotel and RV Park, where we are camping for the night (186$, power, water, cold showers and wi-fi).  They had pulled in shortly before we did, having stopped at Catavina the night before.  We got to know a couple of them, and had the feeling that if we had wanted to be more sociable that the others would have let us re-tell our story to each of them.  But it was time to get some work done, so I tried to be polite, but more than a bit distracted when they would stroll by.

The folks with the clipped mirror caught up with us here.  They have been down here several times, and despite the huge motorhome, they are experienced at navigating the narrow highways.  It seems three 20-passenger busses were heading north on Mex 1, and they had crossed about two feet into their lane.  The first and second buses moved over, but third didn't.  There was no where for the motorhome to go, so the bus ended up taking out their mirror and breaking a few windows.  Before heading south today, they rigged the mirror in place with duct tape, and duct taped a small mirror over the damaged mirror so that it has some utility.

The restaurant here is reputed to be very good, so we decided to have dinner.  It lived up to it's reputation, but we felt the small margaritas that we ordered were bit overpriced.  But the cost of a great dinner and camping still came to less than we usually spend to park overnight at a KOA in the states.