Baja California is a peninsula (half Island) with a huge size: i think something like 3 times Israel, a length of 1800km. The peninsula is crossed by a single 2 lane highway while most of the population, arround 3 Milions, live in proximity to the high way, most of the area is truely untouched. The climate is mainly dessert in nature, besides 2000-3000m mountains in the center.
My journey through baja took me from the US San Diego, crossing the border to the mexican notorious border city Tijuana. From there i basically crossed the peninsula all from north to south all over for a period of a little more then two weeks.
Coyote Cal`s Hostel at Erendira
Crossing the border is the easiest thing you can do, just pass through a revolving door, without anyone to put a stamp on your passport, i had to look hard to do it. However, on the other side there is huge line of cars for entering the U.S.
As i landed in Tijuana, immidiately i got the feeling of being in a third world country. Everything looked pretty neglected and uniformed personel just 50m from the border barely knew English.
I followed what most of my friends told me: "Don´t even stop there! Its not the real Mexico", Tihuana is known for alcohol, sex, drugs, violence (also quite funny: Mexicans who paint their donkeys as Zebras and offer paid rides) and many young Americans who cross the border to consume all of that.
I caught the bus to Erendira, where is the only hostel in baja located, hoping to meet some fellow travelers and plan ahead. Every thing away from the main road has to be reached using hitch-hiking. So there i was waiting with 3 other Mexicans waiting for a ride, and realizing that my non existent Spanish is a serious problem. The only word that i underdstood was "Gringo"=American (usually), feeling like a hated stranger (and as i found out later many times, Americans are not appreciated at all in Mexico).
I arrived at the hostel, shocked to see that i am the only one. Apparently some violent accidents scared tourists away. But eventually some people came each day, and i ended up staying there for 3 days, gathering information, drinking playing and watching some amazing nature life with fellow German friends: Pelikons (Saknayim) diving like missiles into the ocean for fish and Dolphins playing arround, communicting with a little kid using drawings on the beach and picking up muscles (zdafot) for cooking and most important relaxing.
The black birds which i actually thought are chickens at first are actually voulchers (Ayt) and thery are seen all over (like chickens) eating corpses and you can get to a distance of only a few meters.
The 3 Musketers
The hostel had the only bar in town which was the local meeting place. Over there i met my ticket on, 3 American guys: Gordon, a retired lifeguard, Deen a school principle and bob and English doctor.
This guys were on their annual boys baja tour, away from job and family just having their fun, drinking all day long, visiting their loved spots over baja, fishing and biking.
They offered me to join them and become part of the gang and help Gordon getting the monserous American truck while others where motor-biking through the baja famous dirt tracks.
I must say, it was pretty hard for me at first. This was the first time i got to travel with people far from my age zone (maybe made me feel like an outsider kid sometimes). But as the time went by i really had fun with them and this was the first of many fellow older travelers who i enjoyed their company.
I think all of them surprised me, each one in his own way. Gordon turned out to be a real scholar regarding to middle east issues, this guy knows everything: reads "Haarez", listens to "Algazira", plenty of articles etc. This made a really interesting connection between us. i must say that i learned some new things. Also he thought me a lot about baja´s nature, with his many years of experience as a bird hunter and fishing.
Dean and Bob surprised me with their youth spirit, having fun like American college boys (a lot of drinking, putting a plastic fish bate in Gordons tortia, etc).
First it looked wrong, especially the school principle who can drink, curse and seems far from the role model. But after that i think i really liked the fact that people can put everything aside, do whatever they want, leave the limitations at home and feel free and also the same time be extremely serious discussing work and goals (almost a contradiction).
All of us where invited to a house BBQ party at a local house.
Catavinya
Again alone...really wanted to go up the mountains to an astronomical observatory (The lowest light pollution in the world) but i decided no too: too late, alone, no spanish, not appropriate gear, not sure its open or to be short, i was chicken !!! So i caught the bus to Catavinya.
Catavinya is a small isolated town in the middle of the desert, mostly simple shaqs, a grocery shop, restaurant and hotel. But the views are absolutely unbelivable, virgin views with huge Pitaya cactuses (Organ pipes in english), Sirio trees - found only here and India and many more.
You walk through this views, and you never have enough...
I hooked up with Robin, a 58 years old English guy (the only other Gringo in town), which is traveling the area for long. While most of the time, i was drained and only wanted to sleep with the chicken frying temperature, this guy was busy all the time, reading travel books, making notes, study spanish, almost made me feel lazy. He was quite a nice and polite English guy (still cursed a lot) and a nice conversation partner and made me feel sad for not finding the right woman and have a kid.
Santana & Pablo
The main problem about this towns is that you only have a bus once a day in the evening, which means you are going to get to the next destination late at night and then you are stuck.
So the only real option is hitch hiking (Tremp), so i tried that.
Two hours later, drained by the heat of the dessert i went frustrated to the hotel bar to have something cold to drink and to think whats next.
As soon as i walk in, 2 Mexican guys immediately ask me what do i want to drink and i find my self sitting with them drinking 7 Mexican blody marries, talking about Mexico, but most of all they were talking of weman, pussies and hasling the waitresses (which actually worked).
Arthuro Santana (a brother of Carlos Santana - famous guitarist), is a wealthy 62 (the real age is 70) years old, very warm and generous man (The Mexican Zeev Revah - Israeli actor) and Pablo, an energetic young guy, always with a drink in his hand, but never gets drunk manages Santana's farm and actually his right hand assistant. This guys just went on a little vacation.
It went like this:
Santana: "This is your country, you are welcome, it's all yours, you are going to love it and to enjoy it. Please, please, i beg you, give me two weeks to show you the country. Dont worry, everything is already paid".
And it kept going like a mantra for 2 hours, as he was pretty drunk. I was a bit sceptic and defensive all the time, and he senced it and really tried to make me feel safe all the time. Eventually we were pretty drunk, but i was still clear in mind and manged to carry my pack.
But despite my strong objections, Pablo was sent to fix things up and i got a hotel room and went to sleep.
Three hours later this guys woke me up, completely drunk, with 1 liter bear bottles in their hands and the show kep on going. As i found out everywhere so far, Mexicans don't drink water at all, only bear=cerveza ! If i thought that Germans and English guys drinks a lot, i can really give the title to the Mexicans !!!
The next day i joined them driving down through baja. They are really used to drink even while they are driving and bribe the police if they get caught, so i had to beg a lot for not drinking and driving together, and actually it worked, so i kept on going with them.
A gas station
Apparently, Pablo was raised in Baja - Gerrero Negro, so we stopped there to say hello to his friends and to try the local seafood delicacy. This soon turned into lunch at a typical family´s house.
Most of the time i felt really divided. From one hand it was a reall authentic experience and the people were so nice and fun. But on the other hand, i just wanted to get the hell out of there !
Gerrero Negro is a small very poor fisherman town. My first conotation was a refugees camp (Gebalia). Dirt roads, everything is neglected, trash all over.
And when we got to the family house, i got even worse feeling. This people never heard about the word hygene: neglected, trash is everywhere fills the yard as well, animals just roaming arround leaving their dropings everywhere, if you need to pee - just choose a nice corner in the yard. For example if they drink a bear and need to get rid of it they just throw it over the head some where.
So little by little family and friends gathered arround, drinking endless amounts of bear and things started warm up. As Mario (the husband of the family´s daughter) came, everything was revolving about sex. He took my Spanish-Hebrew dictionary and looked for all of the sex related words in the dictionary, mostly naming his friends, father in law and the guests Santana and Pablo gay=homo (I can´t see that happens in Israel).
This guy was very friendly and nice and kept trying communicating with me with a 5 word english vocabulary and was constantly eiger to show his guest his kingdom and status.
To me, he was the king of the Kasba. He took all of us with is car, making all kinds of tricks, showing me arround and eventually insisting me to have a spin on his car (after 5 times saying no, i surrendered).
Me & Pablo
King of the Kasba
No doubt that this visit is a funny experience i will never forget...
After a rough night when the guys drank to death, trying to look for some weman (the wrong kind - i managed out of it saying i have a grilfriend), Santana was pretty demoralized in the morning swearing (like last time) that he will never touch bear again, well maybe one...or two.
He also realized they also managed to waist almost all of the money they had, without even getting to their destination - La Paz. So in the middle of the road towards our finale: a pretty lagun, he decided to end it and go back.
I can only guess what happened with them next...back in Catavinya, drinking bloody marries to death...
South till La Paz
So again, i was alone...no tourists (dead season), no room on the bus, nobody stops for rides, 40 derees and my feet where boiling on the road, pretty depressed i had to stop and hope that the last bus will have room. But as i found out, everytime that i feel down, i meet someone interesting that lifts me up. This time it was an unusual man, a Chinese-Mexican mix, who used me to practice his English, entertained me with some magic tricks and was happy like a child to get 1 Shekel to his coin collection.
So...with new energies, the bus of course had room, and i headed towards the east cost: the Salton sea. I found myself in Mulaje, a nice touristic village, and as Santana said: "The water is clear and blue like your eyes". As i was looking for a hotel, i met Israel for the first time: Erez, who was surprisingly a slodier of my friend Amichai (i tried hard to get some embarassing stories, but with not too much luck). Apparently this guy came after me to Erendira and was hoping to meet for ther entire time.
Unlucky us, we rented snorkels after a storm: Not blue and not clear, So we decided to leave. I had really hard time to convince Erez to go on for an uncertain destination, hitch hiking on a back of a pick-up truck (this even scared me, Mexicans are crazy drivers, won´t do it again in the high-way).
We landed in a dream, Torquize clear water with rich marine life, sleeping under palm roof admiring the view. As i saw all the time, the Salton sea is absolutely amazing, reminds me a little bit of Eilat, only with hot water.
What was really funny about this place, is that it was run by a 14 years old kid. He was driving the jet bikes, loading them on a trailer, driving the car when necessary (his father even send him to Mulaje=30 min to get supplies) and dealing with the gusests while his father mainly relaxing.
My taxi driver (Don´t worry Mom, only one kilometer)
La Paz
So on we went to La-Paz, the Capital of Baja California south state, where i stayed for quite some days. La-Paz is a very calmed city with some great beaches, nice sea food and street food, an ice-cream shop almost every 50m, not so many foreign tourists which is great and the most amazing sunsets i have seen in my entire life.
So it was mainly about stopping for a while, meeting people and enjoying the night life.
The locals have a pretty funny way of having a night out...They just take the car and drive back and forward through the malicon for hours and drinking in the car while doing that.
Suprisingly there are no accidents, but the main road is just one big traffic jam.
Sadly for me, this was also a place where i got exposed to the severe drug problem Mexico has and this is evident wherever i go.
The south loop
The time came, and our ways split (Erez and me) , i must say i wasn´t so sorry.
It was nice to have a partner and also talk hebrew for a while, but we were very different and i actually missed traveling alone when all kinds of unexpected things happen and when you don´t need to make any compromize.
I decided to go after a trek, just couldn´t leave baja without feel it with my legs. But all of the information sources where little and i had to go there myself to gather info. The place is a high mountain ridge in the middle of the dessert as is declared internationaly as a natural bio-sphere: it is an isolated reservation, circled by desert with 3 kinds of vegotation types (height dependent) and unique species found nowhere over the world.
So i got there, and every person i talked to managed to confuse me more. Too many snakes this season, on the other hand it´s raddle snakes (you can hear them) and also i found out that locals relate mythical powers and dangers to snakes so it was a little bit exaturated. Next people told me i was crazy cause it is the rainy season and i´m going to be wet all of the time and i don´t have the right equipment. So finally i managed to find a guide who offered me his cabbin (the only one on the mountain) but said he can get me up there in 2 days and i should stay at least 5 cause there is too much to see. So with not so much time, and no desire to be alone on a mountain for so long in an unfamiliar teritory i just folded and went on to rest on the beach...
I´m telling you this, cause this kind of things happend all the time. I guess off-season has some serious disadvantages with no so many options avalable, while the advantage is no tourists.
By the way, in this town (Todos Santos) is found Hotel California from the very famous Eagles song.
My last stop was Cabo-San Lucas (close to where the ocean and the sea of Cortez meet), actually a terrible place, but i just wanted to see this baja as well. It is totally Americanized, with the wrong things of America, young drunk stupid Americans, people racing cars in the streets not carring about anything, not so beautiful as everybody told me, and apparently an Israeli population who i tried to avoid (i met one of them who was actually a criminal in the past and fled with serious depths).
But as i found out, even there i can socalize with nice unexpected people. As i was walking through the street, i met some Mexican street kids (in their 20´s, leaving in the street): an Alcoholic cheff, a girl that came for vacation while all of her stuff got stolen. I discovered their world of living in the street, and a lot of the Mexican hate towards Americans.
This people asked for nothing, totaly respected me, showed me arround and where very interested of Israel and the world i come from.
Leaving baja
From baja i went on a 6 hours ferry ride to the main land, no doubt the largest ship i have been on in my life, mainly sleeping on the deck after spending the night in the station joking all night with some Mexican guys.
Thats all till the next time...
