After taking in some of the layout and beauty of San Ignacio it was time to press further South. The first stop was Santa Rosalia, and mining town that is bursting with activity. Walking Riley through the streets in search of pesos was pretty amusing.

Everywhere I stoped local people had their cameras out snapping pictures of Riley. They came up to the van, “Como te llama su pero?” His name is Riley. They repeat it. Rauwly? This goes on for a couple more rounds. Finally I say Gordo. His name is The Fat Man.

There is a huge problem with stray dogs in Mexico. Spaying and neutering is not common here. Most families can’t afford it. Puppy’s are the ones that usually find the new homes. If they make the cut and learn to behave they have a place to stay. If they don’t; its off to fend for themselves.Mexicans need better education on topics like this and others such as protecting their own environment. The only problem is, they hate it when white people come around and tell them that they are wrong for dumping their shit into the ocean and littering their backyards with tire trash. But I digress.

So we bailed Santa Rosalia in search of another beach. Mexico 1 led us to Mulege.  37 miles outside of Santa Rosalia. Mulege reminded me of San Ignacio. Both have a desert oasis look to them. San Ignacio is far more charming though. The wind was picking up and I couldn’t find a beach that had any protection. The inlets where the gringo homes are situated looked pretty inviting so I asked around and they said I would be swimming in shit. Too many gringos and shit in the water. Mulege was out.

I spent the entire day driving and was ready to call it quits. Bahia Concepcion was just down the road so I decided to push a little harder. I’ve read amazing things about Concepcion. We haven’t come across many beaches thus far on the trip. When we did the weather wasn’t on our side. For two years I’ve seen pictures of over landers camping next to the beach with their setups. VW’s with their tops popped, awnings and beach chairs set up. I outfitted the van for when my time came. I pulled into Santispac beach. I found our first slice of paradise.

Riley and I pulled up next to a little hidden beach away from all the others. We took in the beautiful scenery and swam around in the warm Cortez waters. Eventually we found a little company by making friends with some German girls living in Mexico. I gave them one of my boards to paddle around on for a while. Eventually they took off and we were on our own for the night. Or so I had thought.

Right around dusk three drunken Mexicans came over and tried to make conversation. I scanned my surroundings. We were clearly all alone with these dudes. My initial gut check said to pack up our shit and find another beach. These dudes were clearly camping here for the night and were going to have a full blown fiesta in the process. Fuck it. I’d rather join ’em.

So we hung out with a mechanic from Santa Rosalia, a militario from San Ignacio, and an engineer from Hermosillo. They blasted cucharacha music from the stereo and I got my Spanish on. I tried to answer as many questions as I could. They came at me all night. The militario taught me how to find the North star in the sky loaded with somany. I told him about my Hawaiian sling and we took it out for a test. I spotted with the light. He hunted down the fish with some pretty good luck.

The next morning I cooked everyone breakfast with some of the evenings catch. Their party was clearly continuing so I loaded up and said hasta lluego. What remained for the next two days in Bahia Concepcion was nothing but calm waters and sunshine. After Santispac we camped at Playa Escondida and El Requeson.