Baracha! Is how you say “hammered. Two hours into our Baja adventure we were tanked at an 80 year old birthday party of someone we didn’t know (but got to know well enough to mooch food off of) and I had lost my eye glasses. Welcome to Mexico.
Backing up to the journey down here Col and I left NoHo California aroudn 7:30AM, March 31st 2012. We had a map we were following and cross checking with google maps
until they both led us to a dead end. Whoops!
We drove for a little bit on this “road,” an appropriate introduction to what lied ahead in dirt roads and beach driving.
We arrived at a little airport where White Lighting is waiting for us and met up with Baja Joe and Lins, Colleens second cousins and our gracious hosts.
one of them being this adorable pup called Chewy
They drove us over the border (of which no one even looks at you, meanwhile the line to get back into the states was hours long) to Costco for some last minute supplies. After a military check point where we had to get out of the car for them to search it we were off to Baja. Our first stop was Pete’s Camp.
The sun was out at this point, but I hadn’t remembered to take a picture until we were leaving. Margaritas ahoy.
3 pitchers later Col and I are on the dance floor, youngest people there by at least 20 years, but out partied by them all. Paul was turning 80 and celebrating his birthday here. You’d never know he was 80, is what we told people when they asked how we knew him and skirted the question. We found the food, made friends, ate the food.
Boomslam:
The sun went down and we were sufficiently introduced to the lifestyle of laid back Baja and ready for dinner. Well, we left right after we first jumped on some unattended 4-wheelers.
Dinner was at Andres, we hightailed it:
noted the best Mexican by our hosts.
No doubt it was a pretty and delicious dinner, my fav kind
Chille Rellenos and Fish Tacos
Baja Joe ordered us Margaritas
even though we already felt like this:
This is where we asked the waiter how to say “hammered” by acting drunk (which while drunk was surprisingly difficult), but finally was successful and then decided to call it a night by 10PM. We both woke up around 3AM dehydrated and dying for water. We had gotten to the house after several margaritas and in the pitch dark so finding the kitchen in this house was rough. I tried my best to navigate through the house quietly, this point still thinking I had lost my glasses I was blind, drunk and in the pitch dark. I finally gave up and chugged water from the bathroom faucet. I remembered the water issue that people warn you about in Mexico mid chug. Too late now. Thankfully, turns out Baja doesn’t really have that water problem. When back to bed I heard Col stirring so she got up and lighted our path to the kitchen for us to guzzle water and go back to bed feeling a little less like death.
The next morning we were up and at ‘em early to go for a ride in the rail, a rail is like a suped up go-kart.
Off we went
We bombarded through the desert, at times going ~70mph, across dry lakes and backdrops of mountains to our first stop, a desert bar.
Baja Joe bought me my first desert beer from the barkeep who came out from around the corner bringing beer off a huge block of ice.
We hung out with the desert dog
drank our Tecate and admired the weird décor
used the bathrooms. yep.
Pouring some out for our homies
Baja Joe and Lins
and then took off on our way to find a place to hike
Stopped for lunch. It has not been super easy avoiding meat and fish here, but we stocked up on Clif and nut bars for most meals on the go
Everyone else was stocked on snackies
Including homemade pickles!
Suiting back up we were off again. You have to cover up completely else expect your ears, nose, eyes and mouth to collect half the desert from sitting in the back of the rail
We passed some exciting wildlife. These burrows are from a nearby ranch so I guess not necessarily wild life
Pit stop for a flat tire. Notice the dudes changing tires and the ladies taking pictures.
We had a convoy of 5 rails busting through the dry lake
dry lake de amor
The last site being this rotted cow carcass
After a good six or seven hours in the desert we headed home for showers, Chinese food and ice cream in town of which the rest of my pictures have not made it onto the computer yet. We’re currently at the pool down the road playing pool volleyball while soaking up their free internet and power supply to charge our laptops. It’s day seven and I am super behind documenting the adventures. To be continued!
one word: awesome.
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