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| Views from the East Cape Road |
The drive down the coast was
stunning. On the left, the Sierra de Laguna Mountains stretched skyward; on the
right we passed sand dunes, wide open stretches of the Pacific and massive
resorts. Out in the water we spotted whale after whale. Grey and humpback
whales blew CO2 into the sky after long dives. Occasionally the whales showed
us their flukes before a deep dive. The first time it happened I almost did not
believe it.
Brian exclaimed, “IT JUMPED. IT JUMPED!!”
He had seen a humpback fly out of
the water and land. A few minutes later, I did not believe my eyes, watched as a
massive creature hurtled out of the azure Pacific and came plummeting down. The
splash, at least a mile distant, looked as if a bus or yaht had just crashed
into the water with white froth spraying wide.
Arriving in Cabo San Lucas and San
Jose del Cabo felt like having an ice bucket of water dumped down my neck. Row
after row of ridiculously sized houses, hotels, and condos lined every
buildable inch. Walmarts, Home Depots, and Office Maxs showed up. Mega, Soriano,
and Telcel superstores, the Mexican analogs to Big Box X, Y, and Z in the US
stole the remaining spaces.
In the sprawl of Cabo we neglected
to make the right turn and eventually realized we were eight kilometers north
of our desired exit. We turned around and began our slow search for the East
Cape Road that Suzy had recommended. The dearth of signage made navigating the
roads tough and we ended up on a gravel road heading the wrong direction.
Luckily we spotted some construction and as per our usual routine, I jumped out
to ask for directions. After a brief conference they pointed us in the right
direction and we promptly followed a road to some sort of private resort area;
the guard adamantly insisted that four filthy young men could not go on this road. With one more set of
instructions we finally found our bumpy, rocky, and holey road.
While Suzy said the East Cape Road
was in good shape, we forgot that the recent intense hurricane had a big impact
on Southern Baja. Thus much of the road was washed out and destroyed, making
driving intense. It is safe to say we each lost a couple layers of enamel from
our teeth. Despite the road’s rough condition, the scenery was the opposite;
granite sand beaches with rocky basalt outcroppings filled the coastline.
A few kilometers down the road The
Beast died! The choke light came on and Brian started the car up but I heard a
strange buzzing noise
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| First real breakdown |
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| Finished product |
“Wait, wait, let’s look under the
hood” I implored. As we stepped out and opened the hood, what we saw shocked
us. Our air intake unit had entirely bounced off. Luckily the unit fell away
from our main fan where it would have been obliterated. Wowza, we dodged a
bullet. Pulling out the duct tape and some zip ties we cinched the air intake
hose to the housing and attached the filter unit on tightly to its platform.
A few kilometers after Villa Zapatos we
jangled past a deserted villa. We had to check it out. Sure enough, the two story,
round walled, bleach white villa with blue tiled swimming pools and hot tubs
was completely deserted. The windows and sliding glass doors had all been blown
out, we assumed in the last hurricane. Someone stripped all of the copper
wiring from the place, but on the whole the building was in good shape. Easy
choice we agreed, we are staying here. Folks in fancy cars periodically stopped
to gawk at our car as we set up camp.
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| Our deserted villa |
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| Our cooking, dancing, and sleeping quarters |
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| The fancy bar |
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| Dinner over the hot-tub |
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| Sad to leave our villa |
Elliott
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