Marcum Memories

March 18: Guerrero Negro: The alarm was set for 5:30 am and we slowly forced ourselves to get out of bed. We got ready for the 7:15 am departure for the boats. I was able to get a nice picture of the sunrise sky. We made sure the dogs were fed and walked and then we got the official word - the harbor master said it was too windy so the whale watching for today was canceled. Instead we were taken to a sanctuary for pronghorn antelope. We are staying at the blue dot. We had a free afternoon and took a walk to find a grocery store to replenish a few items. We ate dinner made with rice, vegetables, Rotel tomatoes, salsa and topped with cheese, and baked. it was delicious and will probably never be made exactly the same again. We lost power during the evening and it was off all night.

March 17: Happy St. Patrick's Day!! And before you ask, yes, we brought our tacky St. Paddy's day shirts with us. We survived our first boondocking night quite well and traveled from Rancho Santa Ynez RV and Camping to our final destination of Guerrero Negro Baja California Sur. 8 am travel meeting then we hit the road and were on some of the worst road conditions we have seen yet. 145 miles and 5 hours. We drove through several agricultural areas growing different products. There are numerous areas that grow organic produce of many kinds and they are grown under cover as you can see from the bottom image.  Driving was stressful because of the narrow roads but we all made it. It took nearly 2 hours to park our rigs once we arrived because the park is very small and we mostly have large rigs and we have filled the campground. We had a catered dinner at the campground. This is the whale watching destination. Very high winds may cancel the activity tomorrow.

March 16: We left Posada Don Diego RV Park at about 9 am after our 8 am travel meeting. Our mileage today was 128 miles and estimated travel time was 5 hours - the reason - rough and curvy roads. We traveled though the Villages of San Quintin, El Rosario and San Agustin. and then the most amazing rock gardens. The rocks went on for miles and miles and when we stopped for the night, we were still surrounded by these rocks, One thing that is common in Mexico, military checkpoints. and today was no exception. After we landed at the first (of three) boondocking nights, we were served a delicious meal of ribs, potato salad, coleslaw and backed beans and dessert. We are most definitely spoiled on this caravan. The Ambassadors had obtained some wood to have a campfire. We didn't hang out around the fire mostly because I was exhausted from the long drive and I don't do well with the smoke coming from the fire.  

March 15: We spent a second night at the beach. It was an adequate campground with some greenery between the sites, but otherwise it was a concrete RV park. All travelers gathered at 8 am for our travel meeting - which is held to go over the day's itinerary and travel plans. We only traveled 129 miles but it took over 4 hours because the 2-lane roads are narrow and mostly with no shoulder. Once we were out of Ensenada and away from the ocean, we were in the hills and mountains. We traveled through several small towns/villages on the way - from Ensenada through the villages of Santo Tomas, San Vicente, Colonet to our destination today, Vicente Guerrero and the Posado Don Diego RV Park. We all stopped a couple of times to regroup because we are traveling as a caravan and going through these small villages, we can get caught at traffic lights or stop signs. One was a fueling stop and lunch for some. The RV park we are at tonight is very basic - dirt lots and cracking concrete patios. ...

March 15: We slept in a bit today because our planned activities started at 10:30 am when the bus picked us up for a day of wine tasting, lunch, a winery tour, more wine tasting and finally olive oil, jam and marmalade, and a little more wine tasting. Phew!! At least we didn't have to drive. Our first stop was at a winery/restaurant called Xecue. We tasted 4 wines beginning with a white and ending with a reserve red blend. Xecue's restaurant served the lunch. Before we started this tour, we were asked to make meal choices and we both chose the Fish Tacos and they were very good. We purchased a bottle of Malbec wine. We got back on the bus and were taken to our next winery. We received an in depth history of the Casa Pedro Domecq Winery. It was very interesting but I must admit he was a little hard to understand the presenter. It was an amazing place. After receiving the history and tour of the winery, we enjoyed tasting the wine produced at Domecq - 4 more. All delicious. We we...

March 13: Today was an interesting one. We woke to the sound of rain, not the light misty stuff. Enough to cause little rivers across the roads in the campground. Protreto Campground is beautiful. It offers RV spots with 50 amp power and water at the sites, with a dump station. It was the first day we traveled as a caravan. The wagonmasters lead and the tailgunners were the last rig. We left at 9 am. The border crossing was slow mostly because of the large number of RVs (all 22 of us) in line and the border agents were entering the RVs while asking questions about what we were bringing into Mexico. Our "kids" behaved during the questioning and Lucky decided to hide behind the couch the rest of the journey. At about the halfway point, we had to turn around and pick another road because a telephone pole had fallen across the (4 lane) highway in the direction we were traveling. The road we took was narrow with many potholes but very scenic. We fueled up just before heading to Cl...

March 12: Today was the official first day of our tour. We had our meet-and-greet in the aftrernoon where we shared a bit about ourselves. Then at 5 pm, we were served dinner - "walking" tacos, and mixed berry cobbler and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Tomorrow we make our way into Mexico. It rained quite a bit again today and it's expected to rain tomorrow also. Sunny and I managed to get in a few nice walks in spite of the weather.