Baja Day 3- STARTING THE WORK WEEK

February 13, 2023

STARTING THE WORK WEEK IN BAJA, MEXICO:

Most everyone in our group works full or part-time, so today we stayed most of the day at Papa Fernandez. Cora and Tyler and Kelsey and Magnum both have a Starlink, which is a satellite driven mobile internet source. Since nobody has cell service in Baja right now, and we don’t have SIM cards, we have been using the Starlinks. Luckily, they have had more than enough bandwith for all 8 of us! We are so grateful to Cora, Tyler, Kelsey, and Magnum for sharing.

If you’re wondering what sort of jobs we have that allow us to live remotely full time… We have two software developers, three remote teachers/ tutors and a remote school psychologist. It’s amazing how much COVID has changed what we can now do online.

It was a surprisingly cold and rainy day, so I’m glad that we were hunkered down for a while. I personally didn’t have a lot of students today; most of my tutoring happens in the evenings. I did a lot of reading in my book (A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper) and writing blogs in bed.

BAJA PUP FRIENDS?– AUGGIE AND ASHE PART 2:

After I did as much sitting as I could take, Zak and I took Auggie for a walk and Magnum brought Ashe along. They don’t do so great on the leash, but we figured after a walk they would tire themselves out and get more familiar with each other. After our walk, we took them to the beach (so they didn’t get territorial over their areas) and we let them off leash, and it went pretty well! They played, just separately. Auggie doesn’t love playing with other dogs, but she loves playing with sticks, and so does Ashe, so they both played with sticks in each other’s presence. Hopefully soon they can coexist in the same area without us worrying about them getting in a fight. It can be tough having two rescues. We’re super glad that Ashe is a boy because Auggie does NOT like other female dogs.

LEAVING PAPA FERNANDEZ:

After work today (around 3:30 PST) we all got ready to leave. We paid $150 MXN/night per van! Not too bad! We said goodbye to Aurelio who helped us with Matt and Chelsea’s van and then we were on our way.

We stopped at a Pemex gas station right outside of Papa Fernandez so a few people could fill up. While we were waiting, we met a couple in a Ford Transit who were down to Baja for their fourth straight year and even had a toddler with them! We were headed to Bahia de Los Angeles, and they said that Bahia was one of their favorite places in Baja! They seemed like good people.

Our drive was a bit long, and we got in after dark (which wasn’t ideal) but the walkie talkies helped us call out any big bumps or potholes in the road—we weren’t going to hit another one of those again! On our drive we saw a ton of Mexican Giant Cactuses (biggest cactuses in the world?), Dr. Seuss (Boojum) trees, and we even saw 2 Bighorn sheep, a burro (donkey), and 2 horses! The roads down to Bahia were only partially paved because of a hurricane that came through in October.

CAMPO ARCHELON:

Driving down the driveway to Campo Archelon, we saw signs about recycling! Apparently, this is just about the only place that separates trash. Zak and I were so excited about this because we had been storing a lot of recycling under our sink. When we parked, Zak and might have gotten stuck in the sand, but we were too hungry to worry about it. We all jumped out and ran into the Café (Café Siete Filos) to get dinner before the kitchen closed. They had a limited menu, but the place was very cute! We got smoked fish tostadas (yum!) and smoked fish quesadillas. We also got margaritas (our first in Mexico!) and they came in huge glasses! Because the margs came before the meal, we felt them quick. The slight head rush of the alcohol in this cute little café made it feel like our first real vacation day in Mexico.

The food was great, and we also had the BEST ice cream! It was so, so creamy!! Some of the best ice cream that I’ve ever had! It was just vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, but sometimes simple things taste the best. Matt and Chelsea paid for dinner for all eight of us because we helped them with their wheel (even though we didn’t truly do much). It was totally a surprise and so sweet of them! They told us that even if we didn’t do too much, they were just grateful that we didn’t leave them as their van broke down. But truthfully, even if we had never gotten the wheel to unlock, we would have never left them!

MAKE SURE THE TOILETS FLUSH!

After dinner, we all walked to the bath house to find the showers and toilets. The toilets were in stalls that were surprisingly short (even I could see out over them!). Thank goodness I only had to pee because these toilets were NOT flushing! Note to self: check to make sure the toilets flush BEFORE you go!

ENDING OUR THIRD DAY IN BAJA:

We are back in the van and Zak is very asleep right now. I think that we are stuck in the sand, but can’t be bothered with it now, we’ll deal with it tomorrow. We had such a nice time at dinner tonight, and we are so grateful to have such a nice group to be with here in Mexico. I love that we’re all a little different.

I learned a new word: revolver= to come back!

SPENDING SO FAR (1 USD to 18 MXN):

At Campo Archelon, the exchange rate for MXN to USD is 18 to 1, so that’s what I’ll use as I add up our total.

• Camping for 2 at Campo Archelon- $288 MXN- $16 USD

CURRENT TOTAL: $4027.32 MXN — $223.74 USD

Want to read more about our trip to Baja? Make sure to catch up on Baja Day 1 and Baja Day 2!