Road Trip day1
23 April 2014 | San Quintin, Baja Ca.
Fred
We left San Diego at 8 am and arrived at Tecate at9am and met our friends and traveling companions, Bob and Darlene Spriggs. We crossed the border and each got a red light so we had to go for inspection. Penny chatted up the officer in Spanish and he just gave us a light going over. Bob had to pull out all his wine and was told that each person was allowed 6 bottles. Lucky as we only had 12 and they had 14 but he let that go. Also we found out where immigration was and it is in the building at the crossing and not in the next block as I thought. So you drive one block turn right one block and then one block and turn right and you are on the one way street at the border. An official lets you park and in you go for stamp stamp and you are on your way. We got our visas in advance at the Discover Baja store in La Jolla so they were prepaid with the bank receipt and filled out so it was really fast and easy to do.
So now we are in Mexico once again and we drive through the wine country in Guadalupe Valley. We took the small bypass road this time and it was pretty cool and we all said that we needed to do a future weekend trip here next.
Next stop was El Trailero, a taco stand that I have used before that is just outside of El Sausal as it has really clean rest rooms and we needed one. The food is really good and carne asada tacos are 17 pesos each and really good.
Next we paid a visit to Baja Naval where I have a private parking space as we spent a ton of money last winter having Tapatai painted. Said hi to a few of the workers we know and checked out the activity in the yard and took a walk on the boardwalk. Bob was looking for an 87 foot Trumpy motor sailer that was supposed to be down here but thankfully we didn't find it. If you know Bob you know why we were lucky we didn't find it.
The drive down to San Quintin was pleasant enough with only a few harrowing experiences such as a semi passing another semi going up hill as we were going down hill. A few detours where road work was going on but the road was in great shape.
We checked into the Jardines Baja Hotel and it is a very delightful and really clean place. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and the birds singing is really loud. We went to the Old Mill Hotel and Bar as it is the place we have heard about for the last 40 years and wanted to check it out. It is right on the water and was established in 1887 and is quite quaint. The Margaritas were killer and my 7up was nothing to write home about. Bob got off his stool and couldn't find the door out so it was good that is was along in my role of designated driver.
We returned to the Jardines and went to there restaurant for dinner and we all had sea bass for $125.00 pesos each($10.00). Outstanding! So now we are off for Guerro Negro a out 250 miles south so stay tuned.