We stopped at the entrance to the weirdest campground anywhere and dropped off another 240 pesos for our second night. We were free to explore San Felipe.
Baja is the oddest place. There is no sand for hundreds of rocky miles and then suddenly it’s all sand. You can’t escape the stuff as it blows into Highway 5. The approaches to San Felipe are underwhelming. Landscaping? Nah. Sand ? Lots of that.
San Felipe has a waterfront and a main drag probably littered with nice people from California and Arizona in winter. The signs are all in English.
I want to rent one of these!
Behind the seafront is where the business of the city is carried out. Dusty desert streets. I quite liked the feel.
I’m proud to say I noticed the Banjercito ATM. The army bank handles money for the Federal government and for tourists they have an office at the border to collect temporary import monies. You pay 50 bucks for the paperwork and deposit $400 from your credit card to import a newer car temporarily.
However we got a rather nice tip while touring mainland Mexico when we were told the Banjercito ATM at Melaque charged a very small fee for withdrawals. So when I spotted this one at the Army base I pulled over. We usually pay for gas with a credit card unless we are in the boonies and we use cash for most other things. This is probably our last cash withdrawal in Mexico as we have to be back in the US by mid June.
After we did some food shopping at the Calimax supermarket which had pretty decent fruit and vegetables we had lunch across the street. The security guard at the market suggested we go to tourist central at the Malecon (waterfront) but we ignored that.
We had roast pork, shredded with fixings. They brought us salsa and spicy sauces with corn tortillas and we made our own. With two Coke Zeros lunch was 150 pesos, $7:50 fir everything. Rusty sat quietly as always, no bother to anyone. This is Mexico. He got his pork with dinner.
We drove north for ten minutes and found the Harvest Host winery. Harvest Host is an organization across North America where local businesses encourage visitors to spend a night in their campers and buy a few products. We tasted four wines and bought a pizza. And got to sleep for free in their lot. The highway is nearby but there just isn’t much traffic at night.
Tomorrow we take to the road to Ensenada as we hunt down the rarely visited San Pedro Martir National Park high in the mountains where it snows in the winter. But not I believe in May. I do know we’ll be out of Internet range for a couple of days.
