Cataviña

We are camped in the desert tonight.  It is a teeny town; teeny even by Baja standards.  The stars are bright white and twinkling and it seems that the sky is absolutely filled to capacity with them.  The trailer is buffeted by the gusty winds, but we are warm and secure and I have Ellen’s warm, sleepy arm on my waist.  I don’t want to move, her tiny little arm radiates so much heat and love.

We left Vicente Guerrero around 10 and soon afterward found a brand new Baja.  The trip from Ensenada to San Quintin or from Mexicali to San Felipe, while somewhat remote, is always full of reminders of the human machine.  It is also on roads that, while more narrow than our in the States, are not frighteningly so narrow.  Today we found the real narrow roads.  I pulled in my driver’s side mirror and twice, was terribly glad I did, as the passing space was tighter than I could have believed.  There is rarely a shoulder, but today’s roads were not only without shoulder, but to quicken the heart, with decent dropoffs at the edge of the pavement.

Once leaving Lazaro (right after San Quintin) we followed electric poles for a while and then they quit.  We began to leave the thick green and found some of the barren desert - though it is still much greener than ever before.  We headed towards the ocean and followed the coastline of the Pacific Ocean for a while, watching the waves break in giant (so they seemed after the calm waves of the Sea of Cortes) then turned inland and snaked through countless kilometers of windy road, mountain peak, range top and valley.  We climbed a gigantic grade and found ourselves on what seemed like the top of the world.  Guess what we found there; a flat (yet green) mesa of desert?  A military checkpoint.  :)  They waved us through and we made for El Rosario.  The attendant topped us off so high we had a nice puddle on the ground and I stopped him.  Since there are no facilities for 219 miles or so, I think they really try to top tanks off.  As soon as we pulled into the station, a senora and her daughters? sold the kids some bracelets.

We wanted to lunch in El Rosario but couldn’t find an open taqueria.  Strangely, everything was closed and I expected the famous restaurant (of lobster and crab burrito fame) to be obvious, but it wasn’t.  We finally took lunch at El Descanso; somewhere between El Rosario and San Austin.  We tried "machaca" (dried, shredded beef) and carne asada.  The restaurant was simply a restuarant and domicile; no town, no gas station, nothing.

Outside of El Rosario (but quite a bit outside) we saw two cyclists heading south.  They were in need of nothing, so we gave them the lane and passed.