Day 142 to148
| November 25th to December 1st, 2007 |
From Bahia de Los Angeles on the way to San Ignacio.
Well...From what we can see now, it does'nt look too bad. But we can't see
underneath... After a quick inspection, it seems the wear on the coupler combined with an
excessive torsion of the trailer resulted in the coupler coming off the ball even though
it was locked on it. The coupler itself is seriously bent out of shape...
Marc gets the tools out and tightens the couplers adjustement as much as possible. We
notice that this is much easier to do with the trailer sitting up side down...
We winch the trailer back on it's wheels and, surprise! Everything looks OK! We can't
see obvious signs of damage. YOUPPI!!
Even the left fender, that's made of super thin aluminium, looks good. The spare tire
that's located just in front of it, took the shock and is still straight as it should be!
The 4 aluminium post that support the tent are also straight!
Relief!
We install a temporary "safety system" to prevent it from happening again and
we hit the "off-road" again...
Looks like your typical Mexicain repair, does'nt it?
Well whaddaya know!! It held to Bahia de Los angeles!
Now, the damages on the tent itself remain to be seen...The hinges are bent. Not too
seriously, thank God! We play chiro and push and bend everything back in it's place. Well
almost...They're still bent a little but, it will have to do...
This is where Ernie comes in. Retired, him and his wife Kay spend 6 months down here
and 6 months in British Columbia, Canada. He saw our licence plates and thought he'd
come and see if we needed anything.
Marc: "We could use a bag of ice."
Ernie: "Jump in the truck, I'm going to town."
M: "The coupler is bent on our trailer, do you think we can find that here?"
E: " Not a chance. What size is that coupler? 1 7/8 inches?"
M: "Exactly."
E: "I have that at the house!"
M: "Really!"
E: "Yep! I just finished building a trailer for a friend who's not going to be
here for another month. We could take it off of it. I'll write him and tell him to bring
another one."
M: "Incredible! I guess somebody sent you to check on us!"
Here's Ernie at work taking apart the trailer he just finished!
It is only after our good samaritain finished taking the coupler off the trailer that
we realize, it's too large... We're going to have to bend our old one back into
shape as much as we can, then use the internal parts of Ernie's and hope it'll hold until
we can find a new one...
Recap of the damages when we got here:
On the tent:
- Both hinges bent.
- Main frame also bent (from now on, we'll have to support the overhanging parts of the
tent).
- One wood panel damaged.
On the trailer:
- The coupler has to be replaced.
On the quads:
- 2 flats (tires could have got punctured while manoeuvring on cactus covered terrain to
put the trailer back on it's wheels).
In short, Marc spent our whole first day here fixing something here and there...
Our spot, on the beach, at Bahia de Los angeles.
Since we're having kinda grey skies and coolish temps, the majority of our time here
will be spent fixing something or preparing our next update...
Too bad, because this place is probably really nice when nature cooperates...
The first evening, we go to town for dinner. The whole village is celebrating! cars are
cruising up and down main street, there's exictement in the air!
We think:" WoW! They're really, really happy to see us!" ;)
We soon understand that, while we are celebrating our arrival here, the whole town
celebrates the arrival of...ELECTRICITY!!
Until yesterday, the village had to rely on a generator to supply the power. A
generator that was turned off at 11:30 at night...Tomorrow, the "Gobernador"
will be around to cut the red tape!
Wow! We knew they were happy to see us, but we never suspected they would go as far as
bringing in the juice for us!
Imagine the change in peoples lives. Fridges that work 24 hrs (the Doc we'll now be
able to keep penicilin), street lights, etc...
Soon, maybe, they will get telephone...(for time being, it's via satellites only. T.G.
for satellites...)
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December's coming and the first Santa Clauses appear here and there... |
One last night in B of L.A.
Polaris
Industries - Canada
Polaris Industries - USA
More often than not, it's more difficult to find our way out of town than it is not to
get lost in the desert...Besides main steet, here's what the other village steets look
like.
Between B of L.A. and San Francisquito there's a lot of...Nothingness...
...Left...
...And right...
Despite what you see on the pictures, roads are normally bad. You just never know when
or where you'll hit a monstrous hole or a huge rock in the middle of the road. We have to
stay constantly on the lookout. I can only imagine what it's like on a motorcycle...But,
motorcycles are narrow so, they can go around obstacles more easily...
The playa at San Franciquito is definitely the nicest we've seen yet!
It has cute little cabins...
...Clean restrooms, and, a rare sight, toilet paper! Even Minnie is impressed!
Speaking of Minnie, she says she thinks the place is cool...
...And especially the "all you can eat buffet"!
 
Yeah ! La playa de San
Francisquito!
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The nicest to date! |
| Bof... |
The weather is too bad to enjoy it... |
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Bad timing... |
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Today, november 30th, 2007, we have a good reason to celebrate!
It's our first solid day of rain since the beginning of the trip, 147 days ago!
The first time we have to wait out the weather.
Actually, it's more than just plain rain. It's a storm with strong winds (again) that
blow all day long...
In fact, since we left San Felipe, we only had one sunny day with no wind.
And so we spend all day in a corner of the "restaurant", a building with no
closing windows, killing time by punching on the computer... Hey! We're not complaining!
We heard that, back home, they had over a foot of snow, so...After all, with 3 sweaters
and a rain coat, we're good.
December 1st, 2007.
The weather seems to be calming down today so, we'll hit the road.
After about 1/2 hour on the road, we climb in the mountains where the storm seems to be
trapped.
Soon a fine mist with gusting winds turns into full on rain that pinche the face. In no
time, since we did'nt think necessary to put on our rain pants, our riding pants are
soaked. It's 60 deg. F. (15deg. C.)
Raining on the Baja desert...
Seems we in luck! It almost never rains here so not many people get to see that!
Welcome to El Arco.
We thought that, being in El Arco by noonish, we could find a little restaurant, and
have lunch out of the rain...
Maybe some other day...
Another step in our trip! We enter Baja California Sur (South). The last state that
we'll visit.
The Baja Sur "Welcome center".
It rained until late afternoon. As for the wind, it never died down.
Tonight, we have 2 options:
Either we put up the tent and try to sleep in the open wind, in the desert.
Or we push on and reach San Ignacio (140 miles from San Francisquito) where we hope to
find a motel. (Hopefully in better shape than today's restaurant...). Of course, that
would mean riding about 40 miles on Mexico 1 after sunset... Driving on Mexican roads at
night is not recommended but, if everything goes well, we should'nt drive more than 20
miles in the dark...
...T.B.C...
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