Who knew that diesels don’t produce their own vacuum to help power the brakes. We didn’t!
Our new motor has an added vacuum pump that creates some vacuum…we needed more.
As we drive into La Paz, Baja, we see the big orange Home Depot sign and stop in to get the components to fabricate a DIY vacuum tank!
We broke out the Swiss army knife and drilled a hole for the brass fitting and cemented everything together. We spliced the new DIY storage tank into the brake booster line. And voila lots of extra vacuum to power our brakes!
The Wee Rover is much happier now because after updating the throttle cable in the last blog she just wanted to go, go, go! We wanted to be able to slow her down and brake, brake, brake!!
Many people told us we shouldn’t go to Mexico. It is scary. It is dangerous. The people are unfriendly, or will rob you. We heard all of the stereotypical phrases you can imagine.
We crossed into Baja excited, but with a bit of trepidation. Were these people correct? Were we making a huge mistake? We couldn’t help thinking about the things we had been told (even though a fair number of people told us the exact opposite). Who should we have listened to?
After almost a month in Baja, we are glad we didn’t listen to the nay sayers. We have found the people to be incredibly friendly, kind and welcoming. One example is Christmas Eve.
We are in Agua Verde sitting in our little screen room making dinner when two of the local young people we say hello to every day on the beach walk up to the Wee Rover. They wanted to wish us a Merry Christmas and to invite us to their family’s Christmas Dinner later that evening. Well, it wasn’t quite as simple as that! We used our simple Spanish, and Google translate, and 15 minutes later we figured out they were inviting us to the family dinner. We didn’t want to impose on their family time, but it seemed like they really wanted us to come, so we said we would stop by to say hello.
Well, a few hours later we had eaten a second dinner, played with the kids and the dogs, showed everyone photos of Vermont and our travel route map, and taken photos together. All with very little actual communication! They even invited us to come back in the morning to open presents with them.
Such a welcoming family and place…we felt lucky to be a part of their family, if only for a short while. We are extremely glad we didn’t let the fear dampen our adventure! Onward and upward…well actually onward and southward. On to the next adventure!
Esperanza and her son Miguel. We saw Miguel most days on the beach walking or running. We always said hello to each other and it was he, and a friend, who invited us to dinner.Our host, Ismael, and our Quebec friend, Pierre, who luckily spoke Spanish!The extended family. Darrin and the guys. Diana in the background is in Agua Verde practicing to be a Veterinarian. She is living with Ismael and his family.Esperanza and her family were more than welcoming. We didn’t speak the same language, but some how we made it work and had a great evening.
Tidbit: We have not only met amazing locals during our time in Baja, we have met many other travelers. Most we only spend a few days with and say adiós, but a few turn into good friends we hope we will meet again somewhere down the road.
We were lucky enough to meet Kirsten and Will when they sailed their boat into the bay and joined us for fish tacos at Maria’s on Christmas Day.A beautiful Christmas sunset!
Agua Verde is a tiny little town in a cove on the Bay of Cortez, far from the main route south. It is accessed by a 25 mile twisty steep dirt road, or by boat.
We aren’t really beach people, but we decided it was far enough away from the beaten path, and the hordes of RVs lining the easily accessible beaches, to be just our kind of place. It took a couple of hours down the rough dirt track to get there, but wow was it worth it!
Swimming, snorkeling, stars at night and a siesta during the day, fresh fish tacos at Maria’s tiny little restaurant, Brisa del Mar, just down the beach, and a great little general store that supplies the 200 or so residents of the village, and us, with everything we needed, or all the junk food we didn’t need.
I think we may be turning into beach bums!
Tidbit: We are from Vermont, which is French for Green Mountain (vert mont), and since we were far from home we thought it was serendipitous that we ended up in Agua Verde, or Green Water, Baja
While in Utah, we found our secret canyon. On the Bay of Cortez, we found our secret lagoon.
We were looking for a spot to pull in for the night, when we saw a couple of faint tracks in the sand leading off into the bush near a small rock cairn.
As usual, we turned in…
Shortly, the tracks dumped us in the front yard of a tiny cinder block house. In front of the house, a woman was hanging up her wash as a little boy played peekaboo through the slat fence. We hopped out, said hello and pantomined falling asleep while pointing toward the beach. She noded that it was ok to sleep futher down the track…and that is where we found our Secret Lagoon with our own little tiki bar right out of Robinson Crusoe!
We ended up spending 5 days walking the beach, looking for hermit crabs and collecting sea shells. Beach life isn’t too bad.
Look who I found curled up in my seat. I thought I heard an “I call shotgun!” Bobbie decided we were a back-up plan, or perhaps the Wee Rover was just a nice quiet place to nap away from all the camp dogs.She wasn’t quite as happy with this arrangement.She does make a very cute hood ornament. She isn’t amused.A few snuggles for the stow away.And she is safely tucked back in her new basket on the front of Sven’s bike. They are off on their next adventure. Perhaps we will see them again somewhere down the road.
High winds kept us in Loreto a few extra days so we took the time to do a bit of maintenance on the Wee Rover.
Over the past few weeks, we have had a couple of little engine stumbles at odd times, so while we had wifi I did some research. The hesitation, and the few mini stalls are a fairly common indication that the fuel filters needed to be changed. We carry a couple of extra filters, so we popped the old ones out and the new ones in. Voila! Problem solved.
The other maintenance item was to make the change from bell cranks & rods to a cable actuated throttle. This is what happens with the “crank & rod” system. We try to slowly climb some nasty bit of track and the rover hits a bump, the diesel rocks a bit on its motor mounts and the wee Rover pops a little wheelie! Just kidding, but it does jerk forward a bit like we jabbed the gas peddle! Makes it tough to pick our way around over a rough patch, or a tiny cobblestone village street. Switching to a cable should fix the problem.
The mounting brackets for the new cable system came with the motor conversion kit, but we needed a bicycle front brake cable to complete the swap. Off we went to find the only bike shop in Loreto! Broken Spanish, pointing, and hand gestures were used to get a custom brake/Wee Rover throttle cable. A second trip to the bike shop, the next day, to shorten the cable to the right length. And a third trip, the next day, to find 2 bolts to mount one of the brackets. Three days, a few miles on foot exploring Loreto, and we had all of the bits ready to install! Even the little things are an adventure on the road.
Old fuel filters switched out and new throttle brackets ready to go in.The new cable throttle system all installed. The arrow pojnts to the bicycle cable.
A bit more Cabo. A bit more trendy. A lot more touristy. A bit more city than we usually do, but everyone said we should go, so in we went to a campground right in town. It ended up being a really nice stop. We met up with other travellers, made a few new friends, saw a wedding in the old mission, ate great food, visited a street fair, and enjoyed the constant live music. We had a really nice couple of days…and we got to meet Santa!!!!
Loreto is right on the bay.Another beautiful mission. The architecture is exquisite outside…And inside.The best tacos so far!Cooked over an open grill.And enjoyed right at the counter. We are eating with Sven who we first met (with his kittie Bobbie) in San Ignacio. We enjoyed spending a few more days together in Loreto. Can you find Santa in this picture.Baja is vibrant with bright colors and constant music.Another lunch with new friends Keith, Lydia and Michel.Keith is actually Santa incognito! Shhhhhhh….
So, we are walking around Mulege, Baja, a town day of running errands. We need to find a local sim data card for our Wi-Fi box, a stomach antibiotic for when, or if, we get ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ and some groceries. Along the way to get the sim card, we pass the local bakery. We drool over the pastries but decide to wait for the goodies until after we find a card. An hour or so later, sim card in hand, we are back at the bakery and ordering up sweets. We plan to sit at the street side counter so we can watch the world go by, but the young lady motions us inside to a table. We walk in and a woman sitting at another table gives us a funny look while her husband chats on the phone. I look at her and we both realize that we know each other! It’s overlanding friends, Marilee and Rob. Over a year ago, we camped next to each other at Boice-Cope County Park in Oregon and struck up a friendship. What a strange world…Who would have thought, that we would have met up in a small bakery in Baja over a year later. If we hadn’t waited for our cookie, or the owner hadn’t motioned for us to have a seat inside we would have passed right by each other.
What are the odds?Yummy coffee and pastries.The nice phone lady who was very patient with our broken Spanish. A local data card allows us to use our magic wi-fi box to research places, download books, and upload our blog.In Mexico you can buy antibiotics, and other medicines, right over the counter, no prescription needed. We are now prepared for ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ (aka the trots, Dehli Belly, travelers stomach…)
Mulege is on the bank of a river right on the Bay of Cortez. It is lush and green right in the middle of the desert.This wonderful smiling lady and her husband made us some yummy tacos for lunch. We always eat at the street vendors (our one rule when choosing a place to eat is that we can watch them prepare our food so we know it is fresh).Baja is full of dogs. Some are strays looking for some attention or a morsel, and some, like this one, are well loved and fed, but roam around town at their leisure. This sweet boy belonged to the owner across the street. He had wandered over to the sunny side of the street for his afternoon siesta.Mission Santa Rosalia sits on the hill above town. We hiked up to have a look.The mission is usual closed, but there happened to be a young man there who showed us the inside. It was gorgeous inside…and out.Well worth the hike up.On the opposite hillside from the mission was the town prison.That’s the mission over yonder across the river.A very similar structure to the mission. Both trying to redeem souls?This unique prison opened its door during the day. The inmates could leave for the day to work and see family as long as they were back at a certain time for the night. Mulege, until recently, was isolated…no where for the prisoners to go.The cells were very tiny.A two holer.We loved our time in Mulege, wandering the streets and visiting the sights. The small town and friendly people were just our speed.
An old copper mining town, Santa Rosalia has the feel of a hardscrabble industrial town not meant for the prying eyes of tourists. The narrow roads, minimal parking and lack of campgrounds keeps tourists in RVs or even large vans away, but not the Wee Rover. The small town reminded us of many we have passed through on this adventure, just everyday people living their lives, raising families, going to work and buying bags or boxes of tomatoes.
Two stops drew us to Santa Rosalia. The first was a prefabricated church designed by A.G. Eiffel (the same guy who built that big tower in Paris) made entirely of stamped metal squares painted white. It was constructed at Paris’ 1889 World’s Fair, after which it was taken apart and put on a ship for Africa. Instead, it found its way around Cape Horn and to the east side of Baja and Santa Rosalia where it is still in use today. The second stop was a French style bakery with homemade bread, cookies and donuts. How could we pass that up?
Right on the bay, Santa Rosalia has a busy port, railway and mine.Boleo Mine (copper).Eiffel’s prefabricated church.And inside. We loved the purple light from the stain glass windows.A French-style bakery.A peak in the back room where racks of bread are cooling.The town square decorated for Christmas with a hopping tomato market. The truck on the left came into town (not sure how since the roads are extremely narrow) with a load of fresh tomatoes. People were buying them by the box and bag full.
