TIJUANA TO LA PAZ - MEXICO

18th - 19th April 2011

On to La Paz, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsular. From San Diego, 40 mins by 'trolley' train to Tijuana again. Bye-bye USA. There are no customs formalities entering Mexico, just a walk through a one-way revolving gate and you are in. They probably reckon there is nothing else you can bring into Mexico that will cause a further problem. It is a very different matter getting back into the USA where a 4 hour queue for the 'law abiding' pedestrians is not unusual. Of course all the illegal elements seek more 'discreet' crossings elsewhere and play Keystone Cops with the police.
 Our 60 seat Autobus Baja California ( ABC ) coach set off at 1610hrs. We were allocated seats which were quite comfortable, spacious and reclined, sometimes even when you intended them to. There was air-conditioning and a loo on board. There were also, annoyingly, screens for watching badly dubbed films, whether you wanted to or not. When they weren't showing films there was music, which was preferable.
We were due to arrive in La Paz in 24 hours time and we had a crew of two drivers. This was going to be a long bus ride. It turned out to be rather interesting. The countryside varied between the vertiginous rocky and flat desert. Initially we went along the coast on some hairy cliff top roads to Ensenada for a 30 minute stop to exchange passengers. Then on down the flat west coast. There were various seemingly impromptu stops to drop off and pick up passengers. As it got dark we left the level going and headed off up into hills and then mountains. What interested, and slightly worried, me was the width of the road. This route was described as 'Highway One' and marked by a thick black line on my map. It had, in reality, only two lanes and was surprisingly narrow. I snuck down front to watch and saw when our bus passed a large oncoming bus or truck that there was a maximum of 4ft between vehicles! It didn't seem to faze the driver, and the road was the same width, hill and dale, for the whole 1000 miles!

Left: The drivers had to keep a steady heading...and this was on a straight flat easy bit. Imagine this on a sharp turn over a precipice! 

We seemed to be on a switchback ride through mountains for most of the night. The fact that it was pitch dark and visibility was restricted to either a steep embankment or nothing either side of the bus was probably a relief. There were few signs of habitation. Actually, since it got dark it was noticeable that Mexican towns and villages here have no street lighting and normally only one light over the front of houses. Night time, for them, means 'lights out'. I must have dozed, off and on, since they kindly stopped the film shows after 10.00pm. I woke up at one point, 1.30am I seem to remember, to find the lights on and a bloke with an M16 rifle standing next to me in the aisle. He was wearing a sandy coloured camouflage outfit with a scarf covering his face. 'Oh, dear, what is going on', I thought, or words to that effect. He wandered up and down the bus shining a torch at people, then got off. He had a buddy in an armoured vehicle outside. It transpired that this was a military check-point of which we encountered two or three more on the journey. They check buses regularly, no doubt searching for the elusive Herb Alpert and his Brass ( or his friends in the California Sur Narcotics Trading Co. Ltd ). No! Only a joke, Herb, if you read this!!
We passed through Guerrero Negro just before dawn. This place is world famous for it's Whale Watching, but otherwise looked a pretty non-descript place. The whales ( mostly Grey ) make a 5000 mile trip from the north Pacific to the Gulf of California for the winter, to breed in warm waters, then go back north for the summer to feed. They will be on their way back north right now. We crossed the peninsular from west to east here, to Santa Rosalia, and then down the middle around and through various sierras with terrifying drops and gorges.
There were one or two more brief stops sometimes, it seemed, to let people off in the middle of nowhere. At 9.00am we pulled in at an isolated roadside cafe ( probably owned by a relative of the driver ) for a 30 minute breakfast break, then onwards through Loreto which is renowned for it's sea game-fishing, and Cuidad Insurgentes. All the while, since dawn and maybe before, we had been surrounded by enormous cacti. On flat or mountainous terrain they were there in profusion. These were huge green things, about 10 to 20 feet ( or more ) high with  large spikey arms, of the sort you see in cowboy comic books. This was definitely Cactus Country with a vengeance.

Right: Our stop for breakfast....and to give you an idea of the transport. I haven't got the hang of Mexican breakfasts, desayuno, yet. Something I ate nearly blew my head off.

Left: Some of the miles and miles of cacti.... Not a good area for a parachute drop zone.

We arrived in La Paz at 1630hrs. This was by far the longest bus journey I have been on, so far, and I was most impressed by the skill and endurance of the two drivers. I must say there were a few 'buttock clenching' moments swinging around the outside of the road on serious cliff edges with traffic oncoming. But for the drivers, seemingly, never a nervous moment! One of them, George, said he did this round trip twice a week. It makes long-haul aircraft flying look a bit of a doddle in comparison!
On  arrival in sunny La Paz I had my first major disaster. I spilt coffee on my lap-top computer key-board. When I bought this expensive electronic item I was told it was very rugged and suitable for travel in arduous conditions. It was dead within 5 seconds. It is Easter so I am hoping that it might resurrect itself. No sign of life so far, though. This has rather pissed me off and I am now reliant on internet cafes. I am struggling right now to down-load some photos. It might not work. 
PS I nearly forgot to tell you; the loos on the bus were kept locked ( saved cleaning them out, I suppose ), or they were out of order. Therefore, warning: this is not a journey to be undertaken by those with weak bladders!