Dom & I usually spend a couple of days in El Cajon, San Diego area between tours to ready ourselves for our next tour; car maintenance, laundry, grocery shopping and a little bit of down time. Oak Creek RV Resort is always clean and friendly with pools that are a treat. It feels like coming home.
We arrived to Potrero County Park to spend 2 nights; the Park is not far from Tecate, the border crossing we use.
The park is large and beautiful and the group is assembling. Dom & I walked around to introduce ourselves and have a short visit with each one. Everyone is excited to go to Baja and so are we. Grady has 2 playmates on this tour; a golden doodle and a schnauzer puppy.
The border business went quickly and everyone returned to the Park with plenty free time to enjoy the hot weather and the beautiful surroundings before gathering at our place for their rendez-vous reception (briefing & orientation).
At 2:30 everyone arrived with their chairs and started visiting together as Dom served chilled beer and wine. Once the table was set with a variety of tasty finger foods every one dug in. The briefing and orientation progressed nicely as we sipped, munched and got to know each other. Just about everyone bought t-shirts and hats and we all laughed about having uniforms.
First day driving in Mexico
At 8:20 the group convened in the sunniest spot to have our pre-driving meeting as we will be doing before every driving; we review the day including road conditions, distance, campground information, excursions and eating out options.
Everyone fell into driving order and we were off to Tecate our border crossing. Every RV was boarded for an inspection and a few questions. About half an hour later we are all moving through Tecate which was a schnozzle due to construction but we found our way through it and maneuvered out of the city and got up to almost highway speed; we drive at 80 km per hour with the caravan. It felt good to be on our way and the anxiety of the border patrols and the first Mexican city out of the way. Our first body break is always interesting as we hear the first comments and impressions of Baja, Mexico.
The highways change from 4 lane to 2 lane with shoulders to 2 lane with no shoulders to hill climbing and decants which is a good sampling of what we will be traveling on throughout Baja.
We travelled the wine route which is very scenic with numerous vineyards and olive orchards. Along the way I pointed out: the winery we will be touring and tasting wines, and our cute little campground we will be staying in on our journey back.
Ensenada loomed in the mist ahead as we neared the Pacific Ocean. Ensenada is the third largest city in Baja and is locally referred to as The Cinderella of the Pacific. It is an important commercial and fishing port as well as a cruise ship stop.
A cruise ship was in but we didn’t see the crowds of tourists that we normally would with a cruise ship in the harbor. We drove the malecon which is impressive with the pounding surf on our right and the city on our left. Thankfully due to road construction many of the lighted intersections were manned by flagmen so we got through much quicker with fewer lights for us to be stopped at. Flag men tend to wave the whole caravan through.
We stopped at Costco, parked in their parking lot while the group shopped at Costco and the huge Mexican grocery store across the street. We spent an hour and a half here to grocery shop, do banking and have lunch.
We left Costco and continued on the highway and exited to Punta Banda with a stop to fuel up before arriving at our stop for the day, a beach campground Punta Banda.
We pulled into Villarino RV Park, set up and met at the van a half hour later for an excursion to La Bufadora (blow hole). A fog set in and the tide was high so La Bufadora performed well for us. After being sprayed and photos taken we walked and looked along the Mexican stalls. Some of us bought stuff and we definitely enjoyed the churros.
Back at the RV Park a few of us walked the beach before sunset.
