Taking the Baja Ferry from the Mainland to La Paz
Ah, La Paz. I had forgotten how good I feel here. This morning I awoke at 7AM to the soft splashing of the fountain outside our patio, a view of coconut palms, multi-colored bougainvillea and of course the Bay of La Paz and a sky with a few lingering traces of sunrise left. I put coffee on to perk and took the dogs for what will be our daily walk along the malecon. The peace and quiet was soothing. Well, it is La Paz right?!
It took us about three weeks to get here from very snowy Idaho. Our last stop in the US was Nogales, where we were stuck at the romantic Super 8 Motel (they take dogs OK?) because there's nowhere to stay between there and San Carlos. We knew we would never make our Thursday reservation for the Guaymas ferry, so we used a website called NativeTrails.com and made a reservation for Topolobampo for Saturday the 15th. The guy charged $714.50 to our Visa and told me to look out for an email voucher the next day, which we would need to claim our ticket in Topo.
We got to San Carlos and found a spot at a beautiful RV park surrounded by dramatic jagged mountains and within walking distance to a deserted beach. Checked my email, still no voucher. We spent the next day hanging out at the beach and checking things out. I was in San Carlos Easter week of 1970 and all that existed was one very rustic RV park. Now, it's a gringo suburb of Guaymas where they are building more and more condos all the time.
Anyway, the voucher never arrived so we had to go to Plan C. That was back to the Guaymas ferry, so Saturday we packed up and drove to Guaymas to try for a ferry ride that night. No such luck! We were told the soonest we could travel would be Monday so we made a reservation for then. Back to San Carlos … to a different RV park for a couple of days.
Monday, St Patrick’s Day, we almost got corned beef and cabbage in a restaurant at the San Carlos Marina. It wasn't on the menu or the daily specials so we ordered burgers. Then we saw plates of corned beef coming out and asked if we could change our order. The guy said sure and we were stoked. When the food came out 15 minutes later it was burgers. Raw burgers. Need I say more? A different guy told us the meat was already on the grill when we changed our orders. The dogs enjoyed the meat.
We headed back to Guaymas, to wait for the 8:30 PM ferry. No one was in the office so we never bought our ticket. After a couple hours, Terry mentioned to me that the ferry was there, but it was SMALL. He gave me a real funny look.
"How small?" I asked.
"Well, you have to walk over to the other side of that building to see it." I did and I about lost my cookies on the spot. This "ferry" was big enough for maybe 2 big trucks and four or five cars. It had 2 cabins only, no services and it made the term "fart in a skillet" seem inadequate. A front was passing through and we had some rain along with the cold and wind that day. There was no way in hell I was going on that ferry across the Sea of Cortez in a storm and I went back and told Terry that. And we went to Plan D.
We headed south to Obregon where we spent a pleasant night in a comfy hotel and the next day we found the Baja Ferries office in Mochis without even making one wrong turn! However ... even though they said there was space on that day's ferry we would have to drive to Topo to get the tickets because they had to measure the "mini motorhome." Off to Topo we go. When we arrived the lady in Topo said there was no space on that night's ferry so we would have to wait until Wednesday. OK fine. We actually got tickets this time. And the charge was only about $500. Obviously the non voucher sending dude mischarged us. No worries. I got a credit. Plan D was going to work! Or maybe it was E by then, being a day later and all. Quien sabe?
We drove out to the beach at Topo which is called Maviri and is a spit of land facing southwest with restaurants and a few privately owned camping shelters. I did mention this is Semana Santa right? Easter week in Mexico where EVERYONE who can goes to the beach and either parties or camps. It's fun but it's nuts. We camped next to one of the restaurants where they gave us power overnight in return for some dinero.
We got to the ferry dock at about 7PM with boarding at 11PM. We had tickets and we were in line and we were really going to get to Baja! Though this was our fourth trip across on Baja Ferries, there were so many more people than normal that it was mind-boggling. It took them over 2 hours to feed everyone on the buffet line. Of course there were no cabins available and there were bodies under every table, in the corners, on the tables, even kids sleeping on the window sills ... pretty much every usable inch of floor space was taken up with sleepers. We had no bedding and so didn't do the floor thing. Instead we slept in chairs ... for a while in the restaurant and later in the bar.
As dawn’s light started to break I looked out the window at 6AM. The dawn skyline was familiar. The La Paz Pemex plant was right off to the port side. We were here!
We're at El Moro now. We have a wonderful, firm king sized bed. After living for 22 days in the Cruiser, this one bedroom unit is like heaven ... luxurious and roomy. And we love Club El Moro. Everyone that works here treats us like family, so it feels like home, but with maid service, a restaurant and bar! And we already paid for this unit a long time ago, so the price is soooo right too!
Guess what? Me encanta La Paz y espero que nos vemos pronto.
I LOVE LA PAZ!!!!!!
Abrazos a todos,
Ana Peligrosa y El Terrible
Ann will be signing her books at Allende Books in La Paz on Thursday, April 24 from 4 to 6 PM. Appetizers from Cooking with Baja Magic Dos and wine will be offered.
I LOVE LA PAZ!!!!!!
Abrazos a todos,
Ana Peligrosa y El Terrible
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