Here are some photos of the potluck and our new friends.

Don,Bud and Les, such lovely hairdos,aren’t they handsome???? but Ineke just told me that the fine gent at the right is Terry, not Les!!!! sorry Terry!!!

Bud, chatting with Fred,who is really called Santa Claus, and his wife Cindi, i am not sure of the other lady’s name.

One of the first nights we were there, a potluck was organized, i know most of the names of all the campers, but not all………  One fellow, a fine gent in his early eighties, travelling by himself to San Felipe in his (to me) very large motor home, EVERY WINTER ,since his wife died several years ago ,has become a dear friend and that is BUD!!!         Bud took us around to look at the sights, to get to know the area, where to go shopping for groceries, he also took us for a drive to the airport ,to see the country sides on the way.    But, more about that later.

The potluck was awesome, i love it, when there are so many different dishes, i bought a fig tart in town, as i cannot bake in the Westy, and there was not any left by the evening so it must have been good!!     This  was a good chance to get to know most of the folks, there is Bud, Judy and Les, Linda and Don, they are from B.C.,close to us!!!    Then there are Chris and Gladys, Chris owns a very powerful looking dune buggy, and YES!!! i had a ride on it!!!    Chris’dad Fred  came along too, Cindi, Fred’s wife stayed home, Randy and Tammy also own a dune buggy, and i think that Bert and Roel also had a ride in that one.

San Felipe, and actually , most of Mexico, is loaded with stray dogs, they are everywhere, mostly a brown color, very, very skinny, the females have hanging bellies and nipples, none of these dogs are spayed or neutered.     The reason i mention them is because at the potluck, a stray dog constantly hung around, actually, she was very beautiful, she didnt seem scared, and i found out that some of the campers feed her , mostly people food, so apparently she wont eat dog food, now that tells you something!!    I liked her very much and even toyed with the idea to bring her home.    But……she is used to freedom, to go where she wants, she would have to live on our boat, so much to consider, and i had no idea how old she is.    Apparently an organization in California ,USA, is picking these dogs up, getting them fixed, they then get a red collar, and let go again.  I saw several dogs with red collars and this female here in the campsite had one too…….

lone Mexican dog.

The beach is lovely, with low tide is goes on forever, pelicans dive for fish all day long, and the odd time, a Humpback whale swims by.   Bert found some very nice shells for me, some quite different, the sand is a pinkish color and quite course ,the beach can be driven on, so most of the dune buggies end up driving on the sand, and you can go for miles at low tide.              One fellow kept flying over in a uni airplane, i think thats what it is called, not sure, i will post a photo so someone can tell me the right name.The campground is closed off by a big fence and locked gates, this is mainly so the salesmen cannot come and see us, the odd one did slip in , with sun hats, sunglasses and jewelry.     I find it very sad it has to be like that, it did not feel good to me to be “closed off”.

Uni plane!! he would take us out for a half hour, for 30 US!!

Roel and Bert on the beach

Life is so vibrant here, even though folks have a hard time, they are busy, music plays everywhere, mostly Mexican music, but just outside the campground, a casino opened up every day at 3, and started up the boom box, placing it right outside the doors, this boom box is well over 3 feet tall and very, very loud, they mainly played American hits, like i said, starting at 3….. till 3 in the morning!!!          After about 6 nights, i was used to the constant music, on the weekends though, the musicians on the Malecon , the main road at the water, started playing, and singing, and playing the trumpets, this definitely went on all night!!!      I believe its a totally different experience , being right inside a town, instead of a resort, we got to know some Mexicans and found them very friendly and courteous.    They all try to make a living, either with selling food and drinks , or jewelry, t-shirts and hats.    The only thing i did not like is that all the prices were in US dollars, and for us, that is very expensive as the Canadian dollar is so low right now.    I asked one lad if i could pay in pesos , and he had no idea how to convert the money.

Lots of touristy things to buy.

So here we are, camping in San Felipe, the campground is right at the beach, also right in town, we managed to get two spots next to each other, we then were surrounded by folks from the USA, all in very big rigs, the 5th wheels being pulled by very big diesel trucks.     They really did a double take when they saw our Westfalia, and it looked like they were kind of feeling sorry for us……   How on earth could two people camp in this little thing???  We had the bikes tied to the back, and the first thing we were told was that they might get stolen, one large motor home had their bike taken right off the back, the cable lock cut, while they slept with their heads right next to the back, but, the guy that stole the bike was caught, the bike returned.   I decided to create a booby trap for the bikes, they were locked with a very thick , strong cable but i emptied one of the stainless steel water bottles, then put some small rocks in the bottom, and then tied it to the bikes, so that no matter what, the culprit HAD to move this bottle, and therefore make quite the racket!!!  There were no more problems!!!

Things are hard here for the locals, San Felipe is a fishing village , or at least, was, the government closed down the commercial fishing, and the men here are having a very hard time, they can still fish for themselves but not sell it anymore.

In order to get the small boats out into deeper water, the men use an anchor to slowly pull themselves deeper.

Hwy 5 is in pretty good shape, no holes ,which is good, but the very first thing we noticed was the huge amount of garbage, mostly all plastic bags, lining the roadside.    At first i wanted to stop to pick it up, but these plastic bags went on for close to 300 km, there is no garbage pickup, which brings me to the huge problem of plastics.

In school, in Holland,in grade 8, we had a biology lesson, talking about nature and the impact of plastics.   At that time there weren’t any plastic bags just yet, but Tupperware had shown up and everyone was so exited about this product.    My biology teacher told us, “remember, this will never go away, you cannot destroy plastics, it will always be here”     now, 50 years later, the world is saturated with plastics, the oceans are full of it, and the bags are lining hwy 5 , in the Baja ,Mexico.      But, i need to say too, once we were back home, driving towards Sidney on West Saanich road, part of the this road was also lined with plastic bags, i wonder , is it up to the governments to put methods in place to recycle plastics??       Why does Sweden only put 3% of its garbage in the landfill??   The rest is all recycled, so is it a matter of money, of priorities????     I could go on and on, and i am sure most of you have your opinions about all this too.      The mountains , towards the West are all solid rock , in the most beautiful colors red, we saw some open pit mining, and looking into this online, there is gold mining here, there are huge exploration holes in the ground here, some well over 700′ deep, and there are 588 more holes in the Sierra la Laguna mountains.   They are estimating that there are 1.7 million ounces of gold imbedded here .

The gold deposits here are bound to arsenic, and once the gold is mined, the arsenic will seep into the ground waters.   there are aquifers just below the mountain regions here , that provide the drinking water for the Baja, and the arsenic is a huge threat to peoples health obviously!!

We saw all kinds of huge dust plumes, at first i thought they were dust devils, but then we realized that there are lots of dune buggies out there, it seems to be the main pass time of the folks here, Mexicans and Americans alike.    More about this later…….

January 16, so today we head into mexico, first we drove from El Centro to Mexicali, there, from one second to the next, or so it seemed, we were in Mexico, the border patrol,all soldiers in desert fatique ,holding very big guns, checked out the Westy, opened the doors, one young solder had a big smile on his face, he liked the Westfalia very much!!    We then had to drive into Mexicali and find a parking spot so the guys could go and get the tourist permits.     Its important to have these, especially when you leave the country again, its a way for the Mexican government to keep tabs on who is in their country.   So there i sat, watching the goings on, the noise ,music, all the colors, cars going every which way, somehow not hitting each other, taxis come honking by, which means that they are looking for a fare.    But its the colors, instantly, from one country to the other, vibrant reds, orange, blue and green, buildings painted in bright colors, some of them in very bad shape, but overall, so much life and sounds.     Once the guys came back, we headed out on HWY 5, South bound towards San Felipe.

HWY 5, South bound towards San Felipe , at the Sea of Cortez.

Slowly but surely, the scenery changed, everything looked desolate and dry, the air was full of dust, there was just nothing growing here.    I started reading the road signs and the billboards along the I 5,   “IS GROWING FOOD WASTING WATER???”

“STOP THE CONGRESS CREATED DUSTBOWL”
“NO WATER<NO JOBS”
“DAMS AND TRAINS ,WE NEED WATER STORAGE NOW!!!”
“FARMERS DO SOMETHING AMAZING;THEY USE WATER TO GROW FOOD!!”
So there you have it, its a very sad situation, all the land here looks dead, and there are thousands of acres here!        If you want to read more about this, go to     WWW.FAMILIESPROTECTINGTHEVALLEY.COM

This was a big eye opener for us, i had read about the drought here ,but seeing it with your own eyes in a different perspective, i found it very sad.   The coast on the contrary ,was having quite the time with flooding, immense rain fall caused the roads and hillsides to wash out, many roads were closed at the time we drove South.

Close to Bakersfield, we left the I 5,and drove onto route 58, the whole trip started to feel like some kind of race, we werent happy, towards Los Angeles, we climbed Mount Pinos,4144 feet high,in the San Emidgio Mountains, the Westy just kept right on going, no problem at all!!!     Such a tough car, we truly love travelling in her!  The goal was to be in El Centro in 5 days, where Roel and Ineke were waiting, and we made it!!!   So far we drove 2777 kms!!!!!!

We met up with Roel and Ineke in El Centro, on January 15.

This gorgeous tree ,with beautiful red berries was standing at a road side stop, i believe it to be a Deciduous Holly, but i am not sure…..

On January 11, we had the Westy ,”Curtsy Too”,fully packed for a drive to the South.  The plan was to meet up with family, close to the border of mexico.  We only bought some canned goods, as we needed to cross the border into the USA, once we did that, at the Peace Arch , we stopped at Safeway and bought veggies and fruit.    It rained most of the  time but we drove almost all day, stopping only for a walk,lunch, and our coffee in the morning.   We followed the I 5, but after a while ,that road becomes very tedious, big semis roaring by all the time, once in Oregon, we found some nice campsites, very well maintained and clean, showers are free, and excellent WIFI.          Within a couple of days, we had our routine going, we both slept in the bed below, i had bought an extra sleeping bag from LLBEAN, and we were very warm and cozy!!!      On day 4, while driving  up hill,4000 feet, i saw ,out of the corner of my eyes, the Westy’s roof, slowly but surely rising upwards!!!      I have never seen Bert pull over so fast, thank goodness we were in the right lane, the wind was blowing like crazy, big side gusts, so we were so lucky to grab the roof in time, for some reason, it had not clicked and locked into place!!!   needless to say, my left eye from then on, kept a watch to the back, but it never happened again!!!