View to San Felipe from north of our campground
So our first boondocking spot was a bit more adventurous than we would have preferred. No RVer likes unexpected soft sand trying to take their rig into the abyss. But a day of relaxation at our hard won spot had us recovered and ready to travel to parts more civilized. San Felipe, here we come!
Sandy road, no thank you.
You would think that after having one of our pack stuck in the sand, we would have wanted to get far away from the source of the drama. But no, why not stay and see what our hard earned boondocking spot had to offer? A walk past our parked rigs revealed sandy roads that we would have been unwise to proceed on. But the scenery was already looking different compared to the California desert 150 kilometers north of us. Lots of Ocotillo were scattered about – with green leaves and a few flowers just starting to show up. It might be quite spectacular out here in a few days, but we were not going to wait for that.
Stick-leaf. Mentzelia oligosperma, aka EVIL
One plant that we definitely did not appreciate was something colloquially called Stick-leaf. The name is apt: the leaves stick to EVERYTHING. Cloth on shoes. Shoe laces. Jeans! And dogs, poor Juno (curly haired doodle) was just covered in the stuff after even a short romp through the terrain. It’s a particularly deceptive plant as it looks like a nice green leafy thing with yellow flowers among all the other green things out there at the time. Some googling taught us that a comb applied to the dried leaves would eventually remove the offending bits. One mitigating factor in favor of the sticky leaves is at least they don’t irritate the skin, at least for me. They feel a bit scratchy against the skin, but no more so than Velcro, which these things are the natural version of.
Coyote Melons, Cucurbita palmata Not palatable.
There were some other unexpected bits, like unexpected fruit and unexpected beauty. I had a camera along for the fruit, but not the beauty. The fruit was a melon growing across the dirt road, could it be edible? Alas, a quick googles photo ID tells me this Coyote Melon is yucky to the taste, so no melon harvest to bring back to the group. But it was a cool plant to encounter in the desert.
Looking down on my rig
The beauty was encountered on a morning walk with our group that went way longer and deeper into the hills than expected. We were camped on the plains with the ocean in the distance. A mile away were hills. A road lead to them, with a bunch of open pit mining scars around the area. We walked up to this, then climbed a hill to view the next valley over. There was more mining, but also a grand vista showing the interior desert ahead of us. There were also beautiful rocks scattered about in the mining scar, if you cared to scramble around a bit. I brought back a rock, but no photos, having left even my phone behind not expecting a long walk into the desert. I know, no water, no first aid, no extra cloths, but it’s only two miles down a road for F’s sake, chill people! The boondocking potential out there was huge, but for a dip and a washed out bit of road between the highway and the view. That’s the way it goes – I’ve seen this many times with the motorcycle where one barrier separates you from the road and a great boondocking spot.
I have PTSD looking at sand now
We were ready to head out. There was no trust of anything off road after the unexpected sand hole from hell, so two of use backed down the road to the first intersection we could turn around in. Backing up isn’t my strong suit, but it beats getting stuck. An Ocotillo was tied back to give us a little more room to maneuver going backwards – they grow right up against the roads here. Fortunately, there was a Y branch in the road not far back with a good turn in to get us going forward again the rest of the way back to Highway 5.
Margaritas are great stress relievers.
The short drive into San Felipe was unremarkable other than the traffic circle in the middle of town. The streets converge on this intersection, so you’ll be using it regularly. I almost got smoked by a truck that raced out at the second exit, with me going to the third exit at the same time. Yes, I’d have been at fault, but I still don’t know how I was expected to see the vehicle coming about behind me and passing in front of me on his way out of the traffic circle.
After getting settled in for a night, we hopped in a cab, getting a little tour of the main strip of town, with a lot of advice thrown in by our friendly cab driver. He recommended Restaurante Rosita, on the main strip facing the ocean. His advice was good – the margaritas were huge and tasty, along with the food. I’m sure you can get cheaper food at some local stands, but don’t forget: service, ambiance and bathrooms cost something too!
That RV Over There on that chair
Across the street from Rosita’s is the main boardwalk with the expected touristy attractions. The big beach chair was a fun posing spot for Sara and Aaron, who are documenting their adventures at That RV Over There. Go check it out! We were camped at Campo Turistico #1, a basic campground whose main advantages were reasonable pricing and walking distance to town. But we were soon to learn that the campground was typical of the service you get down here: iffy power, water and sewer dump, if even available. They did have a decent ocean view, and a restaurant on site that is serviceable. I’m still not sure what was in the margareta I had there the first night – I got a very weird buzz from that one. I’d recommend going into town for most meals – better stuff awaits you there.
Memory aid tourist picture
Street swings
Lighthouse just off the main strip
San Felipe was quite a good first town stop for Mexico. It’s not too big to have city crowd problems, but not so small that there are no services or restaurants in town. But you definitely know you are in Mexico – the infrastructure is not as well kept, and sometimes in a severe state of decay. But everything is maintained good enough to serve its function.
The street photography potential is huge here. I could have photographed a hundred buildings if I was just out for photo touring.
Roof dogs on da house
There were many unexpected things about Baja Mexico. The street dogs were definitely among them. The expectation was that I would be seeing a lot of mean starving dogs wandering the streets – to be avoided. Rather, I saw many well fed friendly dogs. Even the roof dogs were wagging their tails like mad while they barked at us in passing. I’ve lost respect for these “animal rescues” bringing back the “poor” dogs from Mexico. The dogs down here are better adjusted than most ‘merica dogs. If the rescues wanted to spend some useful effort, go setup free spay and neuter clinics. There were way too many pregnant / nursing bitches around for my liking.
Not buying this
The street and small shop vendors were more interesting than your typical tourist zone stores. Yes, there was the standard tourist souvenirs, but mixed in among them were things like cattle skulls (decorated and bare), day of the dead masks, and random stuff of which the picture on the right will stand without further comment.
As much as we all liked San Felipe, we needed to get a move on south, there is so much more to explore! Getting out of town had one close call on account of me not remembering that my RV is tall. The water fill place had an awning out that totally didn’t register on me as I backed under and almost into the roof of the sloping beams and lights. By the time I stopped backing up, I was at zero distance – having just touched the beams and lights on the way in. That would have been an expensive bill had I gone any closer to the building! It was a close shave to fill up with reverse osmosis water, which we have found everywhere as we traveled further south. But you’ll have to read on to the next post to see what we found further into the depths of Baja Mexico. If you want to see all my Baja pictures together, click here to go to my Flickr Baja collection. You’ll get some extra photos not seen here, plus a preview of what is to come. Photos show up before blog posts ya know.
