Once upon a time California was nothing more than a fantasy in the minds of plundering Europeans who believed a myth that described a far off land of plenty, a dream state where dreams come true and everyone has all they need and more. California became that mythical land made flesh and it all belonged to the King of Spain who gave away chunks of it as rewards to his loyal subjects.
This wondrous new land stretched from New Spain which was governed from the Mexica capital Tenochtitlan, set among the marshes of modern, dried out Mexico City, and California ended north of San Francisco at what eventually became the border with the Russian Empire at Fort Ross (“Rossiya” - Russia) which is now a California State Park.
If you read Dana’s “Two Years Before The Mast” you’ll get a good idea of what Spanish California was like and why Monterey, an all weather port, was the capital. After the United States snatched the western states from Spain and discovered gold at Sutter’s Fort Mexico’s last remaining chunk of California, retaining its original name of “Lower” (Baja) slipped into obscurity.
Under the Spanish Baja was divided into two by order of the Pope who decreed the northern half was to be proselytized by the Franciscan order and the Southern half by the Dominicans. Which decree ended their feuding and created an artificial border to this day mid peninsula! Under Mexican rule Baja California was the northern half, a land of rain and thus agriculture, industry and commerce trading with the American California which had become the industrial powerhouse of the original dreamers’ vision. The Southern half of Baja only became a state much later and was named Baja California Sur -BCS.
Baja California has a population around five million concentrated along the US border. The only large city in BCS is La Paz a city of only 250,000 people. The rest of the state is a desert of small towns and spectacular mountains and beaches. No surprise then that BCS lives off tourism. It is the outdoor playground for Californians from the US, Canadians and others.
Baja California runs on Pacific Time while Baja California Sur runs on Mountain Time. In this backwater at the southern end of the thousand mile long road there is only one highway of note, Highway One and our plan is to follow it beach to beach. So far it’s working!
Baja California, the one know erroneously to some gringos as “Norte” is home to a mountain national park with snowfalls in winter and where an observatory is located. We plan to visit that as well as Baja’s “wine country” in the Guadeloupe Valley a place with the sort of moisture BCS completely lacks. Therefore in the sparsely populated south where cell phone signals come and go Rusty lives off leash and we spend our days swimming and loafing and reading and playing backgammon.
Driving towards Loreto we were astonished to find a perfectly smooth highway which turned east at Ciudad Insurgentes and led us across a high desert of saguaro cactus leading to a distant mountain range. The formerly solid cellphone signal faded to nothing as we climbed into the range of craggy cliffs and canyons. It was spectacular.
We met some friends from our multinational Oaxaca campground, Cheryl and Guy from Brisbane on their right hand drive Australian custom camper, eleven years on the road and heading north to prepare to ship themselves home. We made a date to meet on the beach.
We stopped for water and gas in Insurgentes and in the event they arrived first! You will hear gringos advise you Baja is isolated and you should carry spare gas two spare tires and I suppose if your plan is to go deep into off roading desert tracks you should plan accordingly but for us on the paved roads Baja has gas, water food and cokes all over the place.
We got delicious empanadas and tamales in the middle of nowhere and had we wanted ice creams and junk food they were ready to oblige. It doesn’t get much more civilized than this.
After we drive through the mountains we spiraled back down to sea level, spotting a golf course(!) and a fancy resort far below us on the beach. Our goal was an isolated stretch of waterfront to hang out on for a few days. First we met up with the Australian couple Cheryl and Guy in their yellow four wheel drive truck.
Also on the beach much to our surprise was a huge RV towing a Jeep.
