The Baja Paddle

I left camp at 6:15am this morning to hitch a ride to the main highway 66km up the road. I was picked up within minutes by two guys in a truck, Felipe and Jose. I got in, we did our introductions, and Jose started to pray. The entire 45 minute ride he was reading passages from the bible in Spanish, quite impressive. Maybe they knew something I didn’t. The two of them were headed for Santa Rosalia themselves, apparently to go on the radio. They offered to buy me coffee at a little shack by the Junction, but I thankfully declined. This was at about 7:30am. The bus was supposed to be there around 8 or 8:30am. I ended up waiting in frustration until about 10:30am when a surfer from Sonoma, Brandon, picked me up. He said I looked quite desperate, and I was. No way did I think the bus was coming, and being Mexico, who knows. We drove for about an hour to Catavina, stopped for beer and snacks, and talked a bit while eating Ice cream. All of a sudden he said “ Hey, isn’t that your bus?” It was, so I flagged it down, said goodbye, and grabbed my things. For the next 2 hours I could see Brandon behind the bus, until finally he passed us on a dirt detour. Funny. We got to El Rosario, where the bus stopped for lunch, and as we were about to leave Brandon pulled up. We exchanged e-mails, and I had to run after the bus which was leaving already. I ended up seeing him 2 more times on our way north. All in all it was a very long day, I didn’t get to Rosarito until about 7:30pm. I immediately grabbed a Taco and Torta at my favorite place and went to my parents place. I had some things to sort out, but I neede keys, so I went by our friends Isabel and Peters place. We had a beer together, I explained the revised mission, and went on my way. Elaine also came by to drop off our car keys, and to give us some info about whales at Guerrerro Negro, a place down south. I was sorting stuff in the garage when Isabel came around the corner. She’d made fresh milkshakes, and she’d been looking for me to bring me one. It was one of the best things i’ve tasted in a long time, and these people are just sooooo nice. I did laundry, talked to Liz for a while, and finally had a real shower. After that I crashed out in a real bed. A nice ending to a long day.