Baja California with the Z's - Day 1

 Before I start on day one of our Baja California trip, we left on Tuesday, February 21, to displace closer to the San Luis de Colorado I Border Crossing.  We stayed at the Cocopah Casino near the village of Somerton, AZ.

We were under a Wind and Dust advisory so the winds were blowing quite strongly!

Spacious spots, no amenities...

It cost $10 a night to stay in the parking lot dedicated for RVs.  For one night, it was fine though a bit noisy at times what with the Yuma Airport and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma next door!

OK, onto to Baja California!

Wednesday, February 22

Lori caught the sunrise for me:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Navigating to the San Luis de Colorado I border crossing point proved easy enough:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

As we approached the Mexican border agents, they opened up a lane for us specially.  Documentation for the vehicles was checked, a cursory search of both our vehicles was conducted and then we were cleared into Mexico's state of Baja California.

We had to do a bit of circling to a good parking spot to enable us to leave the vehicles and go get our FMM forms stamped.  It's kind of like a tourist visa in our case and required.  Chris and I managed to fill our forms wrong online, failing to include our middle names, so we got to pay the fee twice.  Doh!  

All in all, we lost about an hour at the border with the FMM paperwork redo and payment and yet were on the way by 9:30 AM!

The streets of the border town of San Luis de Colorado:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

We motored right through town and Google Maps got us through the route that ultimately had us exiting San Luis via State 40 and eventually to Federal Highway 5.

Chris Z. was driving their overlander rig, Stewie, so Lori took pics as we drove along the 2.5 sometimes very windy hours or so it took us to get close to San Felipe.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

After an hour stop at a pullout along Federal Highway 5, we found a nice spot close to the beach by the Sea of Cortez.  It's north of the outskirts of San Felipe and we had the place to ourselves.

Looking west, you can the dust blown up into the air

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Our view of the beach from the Z's gazebo

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Around 2PM I headed to a nearby market to check out their alcoholic selections.  We'd chosen not to bring any booze into Mexico to avoid any problems with customs you see.  The selection was, as expected, a bit weak and the beer was incredibly pricey!  888 Mexican Pesos for a 12 pack of Tecate!  I didn't get that needless to say.  

I did pick up a bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequila for a mere 320 Mex Pesos though, pretty inexpensive.

As I walked outside I saw this:

A quick text exchange with Lori Z. and I went and bought 9 tacos for 35 pesos each.  (I think this was the Gringo price and I didn't even try to haggle).    I'll have to learn!

I returned to camp with no issues, and we had us a late second lunch:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

3 Tacos with Care Asada and 6 al Pastor (pork)

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

yes, that's a smile...dammit

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Our first Baja California Sunset was OK: