Driving North While Down South

Monday dawned, and Mexican Highway 1 beckoned us out of Loreto, heading to Laguna San Ignacio and a date with destiny, or at least 300 grey whales, which I would call as good a stand-in for destiny as anything. But first, we were driving to the town of San Ignacio for the night, before heading to the whale camp on Tuesday.

That was assuming we could survive the Mexican speed bumps.

Let's just say that speed bumps in the US are nothing compared to speed bumps in Mexico, or "topes" as they are called. Speed bumps in the US are usually pretty easy to see; topes tend to sneak up on you and launch you higher than a hippie on peyote. Don't believe me? If these guys bring it up, well, that says something. (Of course, they want to sell tourists extra insurance, but still.) To put it another way, topes were the one condition where Marina wanted me to drive slower, not faster.

Eventually we cleared the topes and the edges of town and hit the open road. It was a lot of driving past a lot of cacti. Oh, and a bunch of armored trucks carrying Mexican soldiers carrying heavy weapons and wearing ski-masks. You know, out for a casual drive with friends.

I found the landscape a little jarring and stark at first, but by the end of the trip, it would seem lovely. That was even before we drove past Bahia de Concepcion.



It was a day of driving. And then more driving. We stopped in Mulege for gas and a little lunch and wandering--I didn't like the pictures I took enough to post them here--and then a brief stop in the town of Santa Rosalia. Santa Rosalia was noteworthy for three reasons--1) originally established by a French mining company, the architecture looked markedly different than anywhere else in Baja, and there was a classic French bakery; 2) there were masked soldiers standing on the sidewalk with machine guns and a destroyer in the bay; and 3) everyone knows that at least one of the gas stations in town is owned by a criminal, and the workers will try to cheat you. We had to get gas in Santa Rosalia later in the week, on our way back from the whales, and we went to the crowded station where all the locals went.

After Santa Rosalia, we cut inland, away from the water, and drove to San Ignacio, where we would spend the night before the 90 minute drive across the desert to the whale-watching camp.

San Ignacio is a small town around an oasis, in a part of Mexico famous for whale-watching and cave paintings. It has a classic small-town plaza. We strolled around the town in the evening, watching kids skateboarding and checking out the Mission.







It was the sort of plaza where one might feel compelled to lean against a wall picturesquely. And in fact, people do just that.



All the evening would have required for completion was a couple of Pacificos with dinner. Oh, that's right, we did have a couple Pacificos with dinner. Nice.

To be continued, with the drive to the whale camp, and the stories you've all been waiting for.