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.

As we made our way towards Baja Sur we stopped over in San Ignacio for the evening. San Ignacio is a beautiful palm oasis town that is probably most known for the grey whales that give birth in the near by lagoon during the winter months. We shacked up at the Rice and Beans restaurant and did a little sight seeing the next morning.

I wanted to walk the town a little more but sometimes its hard to do that with Riley in tow. These are simple adjustments that I will have to figure out as we move on.

Loreto was supposed to be an overnight stop. I’ve been here for 3 days. More of this to come.

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.

Just outside of El Rosario is a point break called Punta Baja. Baja is a pilgrimage for regular footers in search of long sweeping rights with off shore winds. I checked the reports in El Rosario the evening before and it looked promising.

Waist to shoulder high with light offshores, it was just enough to get me to suit up and jump into the frigid 45 degree water. I got into some fun waves for a few hours and then headed over to the fishing village to see if I could barter my way into some fresh catch.

Francisco and his amigo work at the local restaurant and told me that all the pescaderos were over at Guadalupe Island and they wouldn’t be returning until manana. So we hung out for a little with little said between us. The one thing we had in common was a love for the sea. So we stared off onto the edges of the world, listened to a little Buena Vista Social Club and sought out the answers to our questions.