Chip and Daisy’s Blog: Rancho Santa Inez, Catavina, Baja California

Monday, Feb. 19

Destination: Catavina, Mexico

104 Miles

We departed the beach on our way inland to Rancho Santa Inez, which is in the central highlands area of Baja California North. This area has many eye-catching types of desert plants as well as mountains and large boulders.  We spent an extra day here to have time to explore and relax in this remote setting.

We left at 5:15 am to top off our gas tank at this Pemex station—the last one on Mexico Highway 1 for the next 200 miles, an area appropriately called the “fuel gap.”  Our fuel range is 240 miles on level road. No need to take any chances.

However, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit, there were a few options for “gasolina” from roadside vendors who bought from Pemex to fill their gas cans and sold it at a premium price to travelers (mostly gringos) who hadn’t planned ahead.

The regular price we paid for unleaded gasoline (not diesel) at most of the stations was a little under 18 pesos per litre, which was about $4.00 U.S. per gallon at the current exchange rate.

We joined the rest of the our parking group at 6:55 am to continue our journey in the light rain. 

This stretch of the highway was among the worst, with potholes that were often deep and frequently too numerous to avoid. The only solution was to drive v e r y s l o w l y…

We also had to watch out for stray animals that like the grass on the roadsides. After all, this is open range country.

It isn’t surprising that it took about 3 and a half hours to drive the 104 miles to our next location. That included only a brief stop at a pull-off area for all of us to use the banos (bathrooms) in our rigs—no rest areas with facilities on this highway!

We had to remind out group leader that, unlike the motorhomes, we of the trailer and truck camper type had to exit our rigs and put the slides out to pee. We could not go on the move!

As we changed elevation and moved further inland, our scenery became more diverse.

At one point a small roadside chapel appeared of of no where. Obviously some traveler felt that prayer was needed here.

We encountered 2 wash out areas where the road was non-existent and under repair. There were no construction workers to provide guidance, so we just had to take turns with oncoming traffic.  If there had been running water in the wash, we would have had to turn around.

Our parking group arrived in Catavina and the Rancho Santa Inez about 9:30 and until 1:15 we were directing the remaining members of the caravan into parking spots in this dry camping area.

The potholes and bumps continued on the side road into the camping area. Everyone was glad when they were parked.

This region is called the Valle de los Cirios, and it is a protected nature area. We saw lots of “flora” but not much “fauna” in our hikes in the land surrounding the Rancho Santa Inez campground where we boondocked.

As you can tell from my  attire, it was a chilly morning, but warmed up later.

Our parking spot was next to the only other truck camper in our caravan. We liked having our friends Jerry and Judy Funk as neighbors.

 

I was feeling a little better, but Daisy was coming down with what several of the rest of us had.  It was cold and damp outside so she decided to not help with parking this time.  I dressed warmly and finished parking duties at 1:25 pm and on my return to the camper found that Daisy had a hot lunch of sausage gravy and green beans waiting for me.

After lunch we went for a walk and took the camera of course.

I almost walked into this jumping cholla cactus.

The area is named for an unusual type of tree which is native only to Baja California except for a limited population in one part of Sonora. The first photo above shows four cirio trees, which have the nickname “boojum” trees. The nickname is taken from Lewis Carroll’s poem, “The Hunting of the Snark.” The shape of the trunk is referred to as an inverted carrot, and the top may split into multiple trunks or even have a curled crown.

Boojum trees can grow to a height of almost 70 feet. They have lots of small branches that grow at a right angle to the trunk and are only about a foot long, with small leaves.

The top of this boojum tree was beginning to flower.

The predominant type of cactus was the organ pipe, which resembles the saguaro except that it has multiple stems from near ground level instead of branching from a higher point. It was named for its resemblance to the structure of a pipe organ. Two years ago we saw these at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, which is the only place where they grow in the U.S.

As the photo on the right indicates, organ pipes can grow to a very large size.

The blue fan palms above are also common in this region, and they can grow to a height of 50 feet.

On the right above is a blue fan palm tree that had hanging stems of fruit, which resembled very large clumps of grapes.

Some of the ocotillo cacti had colorful flowers at the end of their stalks.

This plant looked like it might be dead, but in one section the spring blossoms were showing their brilliant color.

 

We also found a few cholla cacti, such as this one called a “fuzzy bear” cholla.

 

The muted pastel colors of these blooms complemented the pale green of the emerging foliage. Nature is truly magnificent in its variety, and we were fortunate to be able to observe the different forms of beauty.

Announcements were written on the white board for all to keep up with activities.

A typical dinner of home made tacos, enchiladas, beans, and rice was served for us in the ranch house. It was not especially tasty but it was filling.

After dinner temperatures had dropped to 48 degrees so no outside evening socializing took place. We ran the generator in the camper to charge the coach batteries and the furnace to warm up the unit before we went to bed.  It had been a tiring day of travel.  We called it an early night.

Tuesday, Feb. 20

It is still cool and damp outside so Daisy and I decided to make it a leisurely, healing  day. We stayed in bed until just after 8 am when I fixed  home fried potatoes with sweet onions, bell peppers, and garlic.  Over-easy fried eggs were added to complete the pairing.  There was an optional organized hike to see petroglyphs that we choose to skip. Daisy was still recovering, but after a short rest she wanted to take a little hike. We decided to more closely investigate the boulder fields near us.

The lower part of the mountain behind our campground was composed of huge boulders, some of which even had palm trees and other plants growing out of them.

For example, this barrel cactus had found enough soil in the crack in the rock to grow and exhibit its bright color.

The shapes of some of the boulders were interesting, and we speculated on what caused these two to cleave apart with such smooth surfaces.

For some reason Daisy declined to follow me up here. She kept telling me to be careful, and I heeded the warning!

There is a state-owned operational airstrip above the campground. We hiked up to it and took this picture of our camping area from the paved strip.

It was 59 degrees when we went to the general meeting but within an hour the temps had dropped to 48 degrees. We did not stay for the outdoor happy hour because it was getting very windy.  Back at the camper I made a skillet dinner of chicken, onions, poblano peppers, canned tomatoes, corn, and cabbage.

I still was not over my cold, which was settling in my chest—not a good sign. At least Daisy seemed to be getting over hers. We played with photos on the computer, read our e-books, and were in bed by 8:30 pm.  The good news was that our next stop would be a full hook up one, and we would be there for four nights to give me time to recover.  It was going to be the site of a very special activity for me and I was determined to be healthy enough to participate.

Tomorrow we will see…