After a great morning session at Punta Baja I got a little restless. So I packed up and committed a sin in the process- never leave good surf. From El Rosario its 73 miles to Catavina. This is the longest mountainous section of Mex 1. At this point, the desert scenery really begins to come alive. Up until now its just been a desert. Not much to see. And hot! The highway passes through granite boulder fields and huge cardon cacti. The orange and yellow bell like blossoms are cirios trees.

After several hours driving in the desert Riley and I were like fish out of water. We needed a beach. And fast. I drove straight through town, found a boat ramp with a little beach off to the side and we cooled ourselves off for a few.
We checked in at Daggets under a palapa on the shore and dug in for the evening.

With each new dusk I find myself asking a simple question. Did I take full advantage of the daylight? For the most part its rise and shine around 8. But as each new dawn arrives the two of us are up earlier then the day before. My internal alarm clock is going off at 4:30 now. Sometimes I check out the sunrise. Sometimes I go pee and fall back asleep till 6:30 or 7.

The routine around the van is pretty simple. Fold all the blankets. Stow everything away that was used the evening before: laptop, cords, books, lanterns and flashlights. Feed Riley. Make coffee and breakfast. Clean and put everything away. Clutter can build up pretty easy in such a small place if I let it. But it drives me bat shit crazy so I can’t. The one thing I forgot (so far) is a simple hand broom. Sand has taken over the floor of the van.

At around 10 it started to heat up so we bailed camp in search of a beach. Surprising enough its been hard to find a proper beach in Baja. Plenty of cliffs and exposed reefs though. Riley was starting to get hot and so was I, so we went back to the beach from the day before. We swam around and I dug into my book for a bit. Later on I spotted some gringos towards the other end of the beach so I walked over and said hello.

Simple hellos while traveling can lead to some pretty cool experiences and new friends. We ended up at a BBQ at Bryan’s house and met his family and a few of his neighbors, including some locals. I met Pepe, a pescadero, who is the go to guy in town. He’s been fishing this bay his entire life so its no wonder these gringos use him to captain their boats and call him the mayor.

Like I said, the days start early so the nights end the same. About an hour and a half after sunset its was time to retreat The next morning we said our goodbyes to new friends made and rode back off into the desert.