The entry to old town Mulege
We were headed south to Mulege. Our plan was to try a beach spot just west out of town, then hit one Harvest Host spot just a bit further south. That was going to be our furthest south this trip. We don’t have a ‘must see everything’ attitude traveling a new area. We’d rather take our time, see what we felt like seeing, and come back if there is still more to see. Frankly we had missed a lot of stuff coming south in the first place – there was much to see we could hit coming back north too. But first let’s dive into what there was to see as far south as we got!
At the Santa Rosalia pier
While we had found out the local advice can be questionable, one thing they did get right was the lack of ATMs south of us, so it was a trip back into Santa Rosalia for me for a final cash run. Like everything else, it seemed the best chance of cash was in the same area everything else was, so back down the busy road again, but this time with a bit of previous experience. I approached the road from the north this time, parking before the Leys, with the plan being to walk the block up to the bank. Leaving, I could turn at the Ley and avoid the worst part of that crazy road. That part worked out good, getting the cash ended up being more difficult.
There was a Banco Azteca in the Electra store with an ATM at the front. I try this machine out and find it does not like any of my cards – it seems to be out of order from what Spanish I can parse from it. I head into the store, going to the second level where the bank is in this case. This time the ATMs are clearly out of order, with signs in front of them. I head up to the till, thinking I could do this old school somehow with my card. But no, this is not possible. With a bit of help from a supervisor and some pointing on the googles maps, I am told that the Coppel department store down the street has a bank machine.
Off I go to this store. After some searching and querying I find out this store also has a second level with a bank and ATM’s in it. It seems to be a common layout down here that the bank is always placed such that you have to walk through the whole store to get your cash. You have ample opportunity to see everything that might tempt you along the way. I’d say this is a sales trick I have not seen in America, surprisingly. I walk the second level of the Coppel, past more things to buy to get to my ATM finally. I’m relieved when I finally get my pesos out of this machine. The next alternative would have been across town, or perhaps the Leys; never checked there.
But the store wasn’t done with me yet. I had assumed I had walked across the whole second level and made a line for the back wall on the way back looking for the stairs down. I see stairs going up, but not down. I wander along the whole wall, thinking I’d just forgotten which side I came in on but no stairs. I actually circled around the area, going WTF, where are the stairs before I finally see the stairs down much closer to the middle of the floor area than I remembered. It is true in walking as in driving that the way back is much shorter than what you remember coming in. I really thought I had walked across the whole second level rather than coming in the middle from the stairs. But at least I had found my way down and out of the store!
Now I could have gone food shopping at the Leys rather than wait for Mulege, but I had not been impressed with that store in my last visit, plus I just wanted to get the hell out of Santa Rosalia. So back to my RV I go, getting back to highway 1 and out of town as quickly as possible. The drive down was a retrace for about twenty minutes past our previous camp, then onto new territory south of there. I drove the flat plains an approached some hills in the distance. Once in the hills it was very scenic, with a not too bad winding road that eventually dropped down to Mulege.
Typical narrow street. At least the telephone poles are away from the curb on this one!
While I had not liked the narrow busy streets of Santa Rosalia, they were still wider than some of the streets of Mulege. I passed the entryway marking the old town entrance knowing narrow streets were ahead, but man, these were on a new level of narrow. I was headed for a water spot Carolyn had said was accessible, thinking I’d need a top up to last me the rest of my time in Baja. The first part of the road is not that bad, it’s a two way street that is just a bit narrow. Then you hit the one way streets and start to see the real narrow bits. It’s OK until you have vehicles parked on the side, that is the problem – a particularly wide truck and a telephone pole across from you will leave you pulling mirrors in and praying you don’t scrap your tire on a sharp curb. I get to the water place and see an entry into it. I’m not going down there – not wanting to back into the street if I can’t turn around! Had I been brave, I could have turned around in there I found out later. But I decided that I didn’t need water that badly and just wanted to get out of there.
Not a street, quite.
Turning down a side street to get to the other one way going back was really narrow. I actually pulled in my mirror once just make things a little easier – I might have made it, but it was super tight. My turn back onto the one way going back was no better. But at least there were only smaller cars parked along here so getting by wasn’t too bad. It definitely would be even tighter for the others in our group – my rig is just a bit narrower than a standard Class C. I get out of the old town and park my rig near the Super Market, meeting up with Carolyn there.
“Super Market” kitteh
Yes, it’s just called the “Super Market” just to be simple and confusing to us English speakers all at the same time. I’ll just use quotes around the name to try and clarify that a bit. It turns out waiting to shop at the “Super Market” was a good call. They had a better selection of dry goods despite being a smaller store than the Leys in Santa Rosalia. However, they were expensive. They seemed to know they were the only place with cone style coffee filters in two hundred kilometers and charged appropriately to take advantage. It helped them too that they were on the main highway, allowing you to avoid the narrow streets you’d have to take to get to the Casa Yee, which had a pretty good selection too, with possibly better prices. Of course, you’d shop both for maximum selection like everywhere else we’ve been to in Baja so far.
A bit of exploration of old town Mulege was in order, so we set off past the entryway arch and into the old town. But hunger wins an immediate stop to eat lunch at CazuelaMolcajete, the first place we see on the way into the old town. It’s a decent lunch place, but I think I’m getting spoiled by all the good food. I am no longer blown away by every great meal here. But I’m certainly not missing McDonald’s at this point!
Advertisement on the main street into old town Mulege
Lunch and a bit of town exploration done, it was time to check out the beach spot we had scouted out on iOverlander. The googles recommended a route that didn’t look too unreasonable, but I was already on guard about its recommendations seeing the narrow winding roads between the highway and our beach spot destination. I’m in the lead this time, with Carolyn following behind me. We exit left down a road that is supposed to go to the water, with a right there to our spot. But the sign says ‘private’ to some effect, which I ignore for the moment, not having a place to turn around until a spot I see ahead. It turns out there this is an entrance to a doggy day care (vet?) of some sort. If there is a turn ahead, I’d be going right through their property to get to it. So, a turn around is in order – back to the highway to try route two to our destination.
The third entrance that didn’t work out
I get to the second turn, with a nice blind corner on the highway I need to turn left on, which I do just as a car appears before me. I am committed, so boot it across the lane hitting the road at a higher speed than I’d like. Of course, this being Baja, the road immediately drops down steeply and roughly to a sharp right turn. I am being thrown around, not getting traction to slow down until just before the turn, which I thankfully negotiate.
Not quite a road in Mulege
I hear Carolyn through the walkie talkie “I’m not going down there”. Good call, this is not the road you want Carolyn. But I’m on it now, looking at some low trees ahead of me the roof of my RV is going to scrape on. It’s not some little twigs either, we are talking some serious branches I need to get under. But I’m not backing up the hill to the highway unless I absolutely have to, so off I go under the trees, wincing at the scraping branches across my roof. I get to a more open road that looks like it actually goes to the water and then right to our spot! I survey my rig, seeing that my roof vents seem to have come through the low trees unscathed. I hear Carolyn on the radio saying she scouted the third possible entrance and no bueno, there is a gate and ‘private’ sign in front of that.
I radio back that I’ll walk over to the highway from where I am parked to direct her in at the Tecate signed store. I’m so flustered at this point my bad pronunciation is particularly bad. “Tec-tate” does not get through very well when you’re supposed to be saying “Te-caught-teh”, especially on the radio. But Carolyn is a bright girl who eventually figures out what I’m trying to say despite my atrocious pronunciation. We meet at the road and I proceed to guide her back to my rig.
Oh, but the fun is not over yet. The googles may have screwed us over but I can play that game too! In my inattention to the route back to my rig, I direct Carolyn to turn right up ahead, not realising that the turn is prior to actual route turning right. Carolyn turns right just as I realise that we have not arrived at the junction I thought we were at, but it was too late. Carolyn goes motoring up a steep hill that meets a T intersection at the top. I catch up and see a look on her face that explains exactly how she’s feeling at the moment. Fortunately, the T intersection allows a turn around to go back down the hill forwards. A multi-point turn around later, we arrive back at the correct route. We continue, past the correct right turn at the church to my rig.
Cisneros Workshop
We’re not done yet, this spot is going to make us sweat yet more to get there. The road we are on does indeed get to the water with a sharp right at the end, narrowing right at the corner with two stone fences blocking you in on either side. I lead on, getting past the corner and see something coming the other direction. Oh no! It’s a truck towing a large fishing boat, just about the biggest thing you can get around this corner on its own. I manage to make it around the corner and find a spot to let the rig by, but the fishing rig is too close before Carolyn manages to make it there. I can’t see exactly what is happening, but a bunch of yelling and gesturing ensues, fortunately(?) mostly in English. I scrunch over as far as I can in what little space I can move forward and wait. It turns out that Carolyn was able to make it around the corner, then back up on the other road of the T intersection we were in, but the fishing boat driver had been concerned about the maneuver Carolyn was pulling in some fashion. I was just happy when the fishing boat managed to pull past me, and around the corner, leaving us with the one lane road beside the water to follow.
Not a bomb hole in the roof, just round owing the the unusual roof beam pattern, I think
Finally, we arrive at the dry flat where our camping spot is supposed to be. A bit of rough road around the edge of the flat is traversed, owing to me not trusting the “dry” part of the flat bit. We come to the first potential camping spot and scout out the area. There is an abandoned house with what looks like a bomb hole in its roof here, and some level spots to park. But a little walk down the road cutting into the grassy dune reveals a much nicer spot closer to the water. However, the dune part is quite sandy, possibly too sandy for us. On a day where we were feeling braver we might have tried the road, but we agreed that getting stuck now after all this trouble getting here was not worth the better spot just down the road. We settled down near the abandoned house to de-stress after that adventure in driving. At least having scouted ahead, we could give That RV Over There some proper directions on how to get to the spot when they were heading over.
What we worked so hard to get to
The beach going to what I’ll call ‘Bird Island’
This was not too bad a spot. You could just see the ocean over the sand dune, and certainly hear it when the waves were up. But it was not a place of solitude really, not that we were expecting that at this point. People came by both vehicle and horse passing our rigs, as the flat was the short cut path back to the hotel. At least some of the cars chose to take the road along the water, cutting the traffic going by a bit. We figured out pretty quickly that a lot of traffic was being generated by the hotel across the dry lake bed from us, starting with the Hotel Serenidad. That, and the locals living all around the hotels, probably working within walking distance of them.
The tourists get taken to “bird island” by horse
We chatted with a few people that went by, including one long time visitor that informed us that it was perfectly fine to be there, and that it was safe. Not that we asked, but it’s always nice to be told that. There were a few vans and trucks that passed us as well to brave the sandy road bit, going in to camp at the nicer area just past us. We kept second guessing ourselves, we could have made it, probably? It was only a short walk over there so there wasn’t too much reason to move, especially since people would have come over there to camp with us anyways. The beach there was the nicest I’ve seen – a mix of black and brown sands with a few pebbles in it. It certainly was nice for walking, but unfortunately I never made it into the water here. The weather was always just a little too cold and often too windy to brave the water. I’ll have to save my dip in the ocean for next year, as I never did get a good chance to go swimming, at least not without freezing in the process.
Poolside Serenidad
One thing we had at this beach spot yet again was the ability to walk to a restaurant. We had several to pick from actually, what luxury! I was doing some research online and quickly decided that we must visit Hotel Serenidad. The place was known for good food and margaritas, which already put it on the visit list, but it also has history, being here since before Highway 1 was paved in 1973. While the occasional road warrior would come down the hundreds of kilometers of dirt road before that, their main clientele was fly in. To facilitate that, they have their own airstrip, right beside the hotel grounds. As you can guess, this did attract some famous clientele back in the day. If the restaurant on site was good enough for John Wayne, it would be good enough for us!
Courtyard eating area
The place is luxurious, but faded a bit from its glory days. There is a corner of RV sites that I’m sure are a more recent addition. Only one plane sat on the runway, so the place certainly isn’t hopping. I get the impression that of the many bungalow rooms, only a few were filled when we were there. The restaurant had one other table to serve while we were there – a group of bikers on caravan who parked their bikes right on the grounds of the courtyard. Why not, it’s not like there are a ton of people that would find the bikes in their way. It’s too bad, because the food, service and margaritas(!) were all quite good. Being faded is good in that it is all original. You probably are having a similar experience to what “The Duke” would have had in his visits here – evidently he was a frequent guest.
De nada
We exited the place the way most guests would have in the ’70s – via the airport runway strip, passing the one lonely plane sitting there. The runway crossing turned out to be a shortcut back to our camping spot! While the hotel had not been quite the prettiest place we had been to, it had certainly been the most interesting place to eat, drink, and be merry. Had they had baths, I would have seriously considered booking myself a room for a one night treat, but no, showers only – not enough on their own to get me to shell out the roughly US$130 a night.
We enjoyed our “almost beach” spot at Mulege quite a bit, but it was time to move on for one last little adventure in the area, a trip to Mulege Brewery on the Harvest Host plan. But first, a resupply back in Mulege, with much more exploring this time around. The brewery was only a half hour down the road from our camp, so we had plenty of time to explore Mulege before heading to the Brewery for beers and dinner. See you next time for that, and the bit of return north travel I could do with our group before rushing to Texas!
