Wilderness And A Wall

There is something indecent about daylight pushing the darkness away at five in the morning. For a low latitude tropical aficionado like myself darkness should rule my roost till some time past six every morning. 

We left the Ojai Ranch RV park at 5:45 in the morning. We were going to drive nine hours to Santa Ana in far distant Sonora. In one day. 

The road out of Tecate, Highway 2 bustles across farmland and through villages and suddenly takes flight high into the mountains. And what spectacular mountains they are!

We took the toll road (Cuota) marked in the map as 2D, because we wanted to make miles but I had to stop for a few pictures. 

The grandeur of the mountains was exhilarating and the pink tinted rock gave the drive the air of Martian exploration. From there we returned to earth and the road took us dead due east at sea level more or less. Desert vistas of which we have had our fill started early and went late…

The wind was out of the south and it blew warm and hard all day, and not in a good way. I watched 18 wheelers swerve as they plowed through the wind and blowing sand. 

We had driven the previous day through the outskirts of Tecate listening to NPR on the scratchy San Diego station, a taste of the States we hadn’t had for half a year. It was odd, seeing the wall because on the US side of the line there were only empty hills, more desert. The wall was the only structure. 

It’s forty miles from Tecate to Mexicali and you know when you’ve arrived. There’s a sign saying Mexicali: 988,000 residents and it’s probably a low estimate. 

We were not touring so all I had to do was keep driving on the six lane bypass. Bye Mexicali! Hello mainland! Finally we were out of Baja land of desert and surfing and weird beaches. We were in Sonora, colorful mainland Mexico which we craved.

San Luis Rio Colorado was the first town in Sonora and within sight of the wall we bought gas at $3:41 a gallon for regular. Reading stories of six dollar gas in California made me happy to be in Mexico. That and the food. 

It was a strange day, all three of us getting more and more tired as we made our way east. Past Mexicali on the way to Sonoyta Highway 2 runs along the border. Right along the border. 

A military patrol running down the highway ahead of us. We should have stopped at the restaurant where we passed them as they tucked in. Locals know where the good food is!

The border on the Mexican side is a wall, a backdrop to daily life. On the US side it’s a complex of lights, cameras, patrols fences and roads. 

Sonoyta was next, and I’m compressing the tedium of the driving here. Layne had fried some sausages the day before in camp. Periodically she got up, peed and brought me hot tea and a sausage sandwich. Tell me you don’t wish you were traveling in a camper van. We were keeping up with Google’s speed estimates. 

Stopping for me to pee(!) the wind was horrendous. But Rusty who hates wind in his ears surprised me and was ready to do some exploration. We were all three bored! 

Sonoyta. It’s across the line from Lukeville. It’s an average Mexican town. Gas was down to $3:52 compared to Google’s estimate of $5:60 in Lukeville. That’s all I know. We drove on. 

We’d seen a five mile back up of trucks waiting to enter the State of Baja California from Sonora at a checkpoint. This line in our direction of travel was only a kilometer long but we were glad to drive by in the car lane. The inspection was thorough because our home on wheels was fascinating. The soldiers checked lockers and were totally professional yet completed their tasks with smiles and jokes all round. Yes they are soldiers and customs officials but they are not threatening or intimidating. 

Oh god it went on. And on. We took the road to Caborca which was our first overnight stop last December. We waved to the ARCO truck stop where we’d slept our first rainy night in Mexico December 30th but we kept going, we had another 60 miles to cover to Santa Ana.  

It was great being on the mainland. Street vendors were back after we’d seen none in arid unpopulated Baja. We saw souvenirs for sale south of the US border in Sonora State. We did more damned desert to our destination: Santa Ana Sonora home of a strategically placed campground.  

We could not find the bastard. We circled it like sharks but the campground did not appear. How was it we were the ones couldn’t find the well reviewed spot we needed so urgently? I was getting ready to drive some more and find a gas station for the night, when we finally sighted the gravel parking lot that is Punta Vista RV park. $17 for all facilities, not clean necessarily  and a little shade, just enough for us. 

I crashed in our recliner. 

Layne cooked pesto pasta for dinner. I opened the wine from the Guadalupe Valley. We had rosemary bread from Doña Lupe in the valley. We ate well.  

I fed the campground cats and drank Laphroaig in honor of Webb Chiles and his life of long journeys, and Rusty was snoring already. Nighty night as the sun went down and the temperature with it.

A long day. On the map our journey to San Carlos and it’s beaches. 

Lunch At Deckman’s

Layne likes to cook. From time to time she likes to splurge as she puts it and will hunt down an exceptional restaurant or eatery to take a taste of how the other half lives.

The idea to make a reservation at Deckman’s was a seed planted on our way to the national park in the mountains. Jeff and Nicole sat in the freezing cold pool with us one afternoon at Rancho El Coyote and we talked about eateries. Layne made notes. Their fish shop recommendation in Ensenada was first rate and we got some superb ceviche and shell fish and fillets for no money and top quality. Jeff sent me a picture of Deckman’s kitchen when it was busy. I recommend you pay attention to his suggestions! 

This is impressive stuff and when we got there for lunch at one in the afternoon on Thursday it was not as busy as this great photograph! They stress sustainability and the Slow Food approach to dining. You walk past the outdoor kitchen and there they are cooking like our ancestors! 

We approached with some interest and negotiated the usual sandy rusty road which was annoyingly crossed by several topes, speed bumps made of rope which are actually quite sharp to drive over and require extremely slow speed in our heavy Promaster. 
There were signposts everywhere in defiance of Mexican tradition which requires newcomers to blunder their way wherever they are going. Layne went ahead and I walked Rusty in the vast parking lot before locking him in and setting off for some adult time. 
The great thing about a camper is you can climb ate control the interior as you like. Ours is very well insulated and has few windows so on a breezy cool day Lind this the overhead fan was open and two sliding windows in back and Rusty was comfortable for our two and a half hour splurge. 
It wasn’t busy when we arrived and the kitchen did not look like Jeff’s great picture. The calm no doubt before the storm. 
Somehow we managed to download the menu from the wooden block and it was overwhelming. I gave up and said we should do the tasting menu with the wine pairing. So we did and for the record with 20% tip the bill was about three hundred bucks. We thoroughly enjoyed it. 
The food looked like this served with different wines, wine, rosé and red as we moved through the courses. I slipped Layne some of my share of wine partly because I was driving and partly because I didn’t want to have to take a nap. 
The amuse bouche came first, quails eggs which taste like the more normal chicken product in my opinion with Brussels sprout and lentils. Things were looking good. 
Eder our server brought bread and the proper first course of  oysters which were delicious with a dab of olive oil. 

Sliced raw scallops in a rather terrifying looking beet sauce which was actually tart and vinegary. 

The pace was steady and yet unhurried. Conversation was bilingual but obviously in this sort of place English is spoken as easily as Spanish. We were fifty miles from the US at Tecate. We could actually hear NPR on the van radio on and off at 89.5 (KPBS San Diego). Soft shell crab and vegetables: 
Lunch with a view. Eder told us he was born locally and learned English at school but mostly on YouTube, said with a shy laugh. We talked about about the dichotomy of the tourist economy bringing work and higher costs and the changes wrought in his native valley. It was a mixture of pride and trepidation in him such as we feel thinking about Key West’s gentrification. 

Lunch continued at a genteel pace and next we had sea bass which was delicious with properly crispy skin and an onion purée. The mussels were a little odd and out of place but I woofed them as I like them anyway! 

We got a spoon for the bone marrow and smokey grilled bread. The kimchi in the bowl was fresh and tasted better than most I’ve had but to me  it’s a weird flavor in the Korean fermented sauce that tastes mostly like old socks. Not that I eat many but if I did kimchi I’d what I imagine they’d taste like . I know it’s a bit crass but I’m just not a fan of kimchi  .

Then we got to the “main course” as they put it which was what is sometimes known as lechon or suckling pig. To me it tasted like pulled pork in a rather large slab with roast beets and carrots. Layne had mentioned she didn’t like beets early on and she got other vegetables instead. Nothing was said or noted but it just happened. Pretty smart. 

The formal palate cleanser was hibiscus sorbet with chopped cucumber, surprisingly delicious as a dessert. 

The dessert proper serves with sparkling wine was a series of  sweets made with orange and kumquat flavors. I tasted the wind and have the rest to Layne and I was done! 

You can imagine the grounds were gorgeous and even the toilet building set discretely far in the back has a rugged elegance all its own. 

Was it worth it? Of course it was. Which is not to say I want to eat like that all the time. I lived my $2:50 fish tacos in Ensenada but once in a while maybe has a good idea when she wants to splurge. It sucked up half our weekly budget but we can find financial balance later camping for free on a nice beach we know. It’s back on the mainland of Mexico at San Carlos which will be our last stop  before we have to return to the US.