All Ears: Traveling Baja

This week, my wife and I are driving (yes, driving) to Loreto, Mexico from Northern California - about 1500 miles one way. While that distance may not be impressive for salespeople and long-distance truckers, when you are driving in Baja, it can be challenging. With the exception of dodging cows on the narrow highway or rock slides, it is really a very pleasant trip. The weather may be a bit hotter than last year.

Why drive? Our original intention was to transport a huge load of donated children's clothes to some of the orphanages that we passed last year. I should have done my homework first, since used clothing is actually BANNED from Mexico. Why, you ask? According to the State Department, clothing has been used to smuggle guns and drug money across the boarder; and used clothing devalues the textile industry in Mexico. If you try to bring clothes (and many people, church groups, etc. do this) the Mexican officials can heavily fine you and confiscate the clothes. So, not wanting to be arrested for smuggling thing IN to Mexico, we have found another local church to accept these clothes for distribution in our local community. However, if several dozen cute little dresses and other children's clothes somehow get mixed in with our many suitcases, what are we to do? I guess we will just have to give them away. Oh, well.

If we would have known that the price of gas was going to hit $4.00 a gallon (it is probably a bit less expensive across the border), and that the clothes were not going to be filling the truck, we would have flown less expensively. Of course, now that the airlines are canceling flights right and left, maybe we are still better off taking a chance of hitting that random cow or donkey on the road.

We have the house/pet-sitter all lined up. The plants have been watered; the mail held at the post office. The tires have been inspected and rotated; oil changed. I hate to share this but I practically have the car packed five days ahead of time. Am I anxious to go or what?

I always keep five gallons of spare gas in the back of truck; just in case. Just because there is a gas station along the highway does not mean they have gas. We didn't have to break into the spare can last year, however. Gasoline prices in Mexico are controlled by the federal government, so in most cases, you do not have to shop around for the best price. Between towns, you will see flat bed pickup trucks with a barrel of gas on the back. The owner of this traveling gas station will gladly charge you two to three times the going rate, estimate the number of gallons they give you, and you have to trust that it is really gasoline. It is always best to fill up every chance you get and at nearly every gas station.

People do judge Mexico by what they see at the border - a big mistake. Once you get beyond the sleaziness of the border, you will find a beautiful country with beautiful (and honest) people. We feel safer driving through remote areas of Baja than in downtown LA or Oakland. Sure, there are bad guys everywhere, but we didn't really see any in Baja.

We have one, mid-way stay in the little town of San Ignacio where we will actually be staying in a Mongolian yurt for the night. I have been thinking about buying a yurt for the grandkids, but I thought it would be good to stay in one first. Since we will not have the truck filled with kid clothes, we are bringing the kayak. San Ignacio is an oasis, and of course, everything in Baja is close to the ocean or Sea of Cortez. Rather than just take pictures like we did last year, we are going to jump in the kayak and explore those beautiful lagoons and coves; maybe snag a fish or two.

Our final destination will be the formerly-sleepy town of Loreto. We want to spend as much time as we can here before it becomes spoiled. A few cruise lines have now found it, and there is a huge resort just south of town with luxury condos and trendy shops. We plan on spending most of our vacation exploring the desert and sea kayaking. We are staying in a rental owned by one of my former patients. His children were also my patients, and now, I take care of his children's children. These are more of my grand-patients. The thought really makes a guy feel old.

I will be celebrating (sort of) my 57th birthday while in Mexico. I wonder if the Mexican waiters will put an American hat on my head and sing "Happy Birthday" with an English accent. Being on the Sea of Cortez, the seafood in Baja is wonderful and relatively inexpensive. This is usually all that we eat while we are on vacation. The beef in Mexico could be road kill; you see enough dead cattle along the highway. Some of the meat hanging in the butcher shop looks like it was cut with a chain saw. We are packing our own steaks from Costco; frozen in a thick, Styrofoam cooler used to store vaccinations.

We bring our own water, but Loreto has a very clean water treatment plant where you can buy five gallon bottles for about a dollar. The only time that I got diarrhea was from bottled water that I bought in Mexico. Someone probably refilled an empty bottle with a hose, re-sealed it, and sold it to me. Diarrhea and kayaking are really incompatible activities. Actually, diarrhea and ANYTHING is incompatible.

I will blog and post on the Ear Disorders board about every other day or so while on vacation. Actually, the Internet service in remote Mexico is better than what I have at home.