Personal Shoppers

Roberta brought us homemade tamales and empanadas in the morning. When we were running low on tortillas and vegetables, she would bring those the next day. Kai and Toni used coolers to supplement their small refrigerators, so Roberta also brought them ice every day or two. She usually came early morning and if we were out kayaking, we would leave a grocery list and pesos and she would leave change and put the food in the cooler.

There was also a fellow who would bring shrimp, scallops and fish. We would buy a kilo of fresh shrimp and grill or sautee them with butter and garlic. We ate so much shrimp that I got tired of them.


~~~~~ The Dining Palapa ~~~~~

Beach Shopping

The first couple of days that we were here, the vendors descended upon us, wanting to sell clothes, blankets, jewelry, tamales, fish, etc. When they saw that we're the new kids on the block they swarmed like flies, arriving in minivans and trucks full of merchandise.

We picked out our favorite vendors and told the others we weren't interested in their wares - no need to return thank you. After checking out Mulege to get an idea of the best prices we could get, we were then ready to bargain with the beach vendors.


Adolfo had the best selection of clothes, blankets and jewelry, and he gave us prices better than anything we found in town. We bought blankets, t-shirts, bracelets, and beach dresses. His assistant made us custom eyeglass straps so we could hang our sunglasses around our necks. He also has a shop in town called 'How Many, What Color'.

Home on the Beach

Playa Santispac is on Bahia Coyote within Bahia Concepcion. The central area has 2 bar/restaurants - Ana's and Ray's. There are several beach front palapas for camping and many leased sites where people leave trailers or simple structures year round. There is a large packed-sand area between the restaurants and the beach sites where, in high season, motorhomes are crammed in. Fortunately, October is a slow month and most places are uninhabited now.

The north side curves around and there are about a dozen palapas and campsites and, further on, a few permanent houses. This part is a small peninsula with good shell hunting on the inner side and a more remote beach on the larger, bay side. There are a couple of nice places to camp there but it is windier and the water is rougher.


We followed a dirt road south along the water for about 1/4 mile to a more private sandy beach backed by mangroves and a small lagoon. The family now camped here are leaving tomorrow, so we rented all 4 palapas hoping to have the beach to ourselves most of the time.


The water is shallow and calm here - great for launching kayaks or swimming. And it's a peaceful, quiet setting for just relaxing with a good book too.

San Ignacio to Bahia Concepcion

We stopped in Santa Rosalia on our way to Mulege to visit a French bakery and Iglesia Santa Barbara de Santa Rosalia. The church is a prefabricated galvanized iron-walled structure designed by French architect Alexandre Gustave Eiffel in 1884 and brought to Santa Rosalia to be assembled in 1897. It was originally a prototype for missionary churches to be built in the French equatorial colonies to withstand the effects of a tropical climate.

I was disappointed in the bakery - Panaderia El Boleo, though maybe we were just too late in the day to get authentic French bread and pastries. We did buy Mexican bread and pastries.

We never pass up the ice cream stores.

On the road to Mulege that afternoon, we saw a few bicyclists and wondered why they were crazy enough to ride bikes up and down the high desert mountains with temperatures in the 90's. Seems like you can't carry enough water on that long stretch to prevent dehydration.

Mulege would be the closest town for shopping and replenishing groceries, so we scouted it out on our way through. I was glad to see a store-front on the outskirts of town that sold reverse osmosis purified water. In addition to selling gallon jugs of water, they had a hose for refilling our own multi-gallon bottles and the fresh water tanks in our rigs.

We checked out all the beaches along Bahia Concepcion and decided on Playa Santispac. Well actually... I would have preferred Playa Escondida because it's more remote, but the other gals wanted Santispac for the availability of amenities. Hey - it's A-OK with me because it's all lovely.

Birding With Miguel

This morning our guide, Miguel, picked us up at dawn for a couple hours of bird watching on the Rio de San Ignacio. Toni and Kai are the serious birders, so Miguel paddled their canoe while they used their binoculars and cameras.

Donna and I paddled a double kayak through the light morning mist hanging over the water. Miguel had looked through our english-written bird guide the night before, identifying local birds by their pictures. He then indexed the pages so we could read about the birds as he pointed them out.

Cave Paintings

The excursion to the cave paintings was interesting for Kai, Donna and Toni. I decided not to join them for this outing.





There was some traffic on the road to the cave paintings.

El Padrino

El Padrino campground was our home for 2 days and nights. We enjoyed the ambience of being next to the date orchard and having the horses walk through camp at night. The bathrooms and shower were marginal and water seemed to be available sporadically, but hey - this is Baja. The owners are very friendly and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

San Ignacio

Donna wanted to check out some cave paintings, so we decided to spend a couple of nights in the charming oasis village of San Ignacio. We stayed at El Padrino campgound next to a date palm orchard on the outskirts of town. During the night I heard loud crunching sounds outside and when I shined my flashlight, I saw a couple of horses nonchalantly munching the grass next to my rig.


I chose not to accompany the others to the cave paintings, since I didn't feel like riding 4 hours roundtrip in a car and hiking 4 miles RT in the desert heat. So I cheated... I walked the short distance into town and went to the Museo Local de San Ignacio, which displays color photographs and a mock replica of the famous rock art.

On the plaza next to the small museum stands the lovely Iglesia de San Ignacio, built in the 1700's. I had read it's history and the description of the elaborate facade in the Baja Handbook, so I enjoyed studying the engraved stone plaques and ornamentation.

Boys in Uniform

Military check points are set up at several locations along the highway. I'm not sure what the purpose is, unless it's part of the 'war on drugs' program. There are usually several young men present, dressed in camo uniforms and carrying rifles slung over their shoulders. They are always friendly and usually do a superficial search of our rigs. Actually, I think they are just curious about 4 old ladies (we are all in our 60's) traveling in 3 rigs. They always ask questions like, "Where are your men?" and "Do you like to travel alone?"

I never leave my rig during the searches and only allow one person inside at a time. They seem to open drawers and cabinets out of curiosity, rather than doing an actual search. At the Guerrero Negro checkpoint, one fellow looked through my refrigerator and asked what was in a carton. When I told him it was apple juice, he asked if he could have it. "Sure" I said - I was glad to provide a bit of refreshment to someone who had to stand in the hot sun for hours.

Looking for Whale Sharks

Today is our last full day at Gecko since someone else has reserved our beach shangrila starting tomorrow. We love our beach house because it's at the far end of the camp away from most of the other huts - private and quiet. Hardly anyone else has been here. October seems to be a perfect month to come to Baja; not too hot - temps in 80's to low 90's and the water is still warm. Most people don't start coming down until Nov/Dec.

Toni and Donna had left to take a long walk along the south shore of the bay, and Abraham came over to ask if Kai and I wanted to go out with him to look for whale sharks. He said they usually start coming into the bay in the summer, but for some reason he has only seen a few of them this year. They are 20 to 30 feet long and eat plankton, not people. Some folks even swim with them by grabbing onto a dorsal fin and hitching a ride. I would totally freak if I were swimming and saw one of these giants cruising nearby. The movie "Jaws' has forever altered my relationship with the sea.

Someone reported spotting one yesterday at the end of the bay, so we took the boat out hoping to get a lucky sighting. We didn't find any whale sharks but we enjoyed the cruise around the bay. We saw Donna and Toni on a far away beach and they hitched a ride back to Gecko with us.