The final week of my northern journeying can only be described as in one word, weathering.
Getting off the CHEPE for the final time Murry and myself arrived in the somewhat quiet town of El Fuerte. Not too many highlights of this town expect perhaps of the bar we found that stayed open later than 12am, due in fact to this amazing discovery Murry stayed on while I headed to Guaymas for my ferry to Santa Rosalía. On arrival to Guaymas it was pissing down with rain, the next day said rain continued. But by midday the rain had somewhat cleared up, so I headed off to San Carlos a beach and Snowbird town about 20km north of Guaymas. The only things I could really find in San Carlos was a beach of rocks and RV’s. Supposedly there was a really great beach 8km away, but I wasn’t about to walk to that any time soon.
From Guaymas I took the overnight ferry to Santa Rosalía which main claim to fame is the architecture of the houses, as previously the town’s main income was the local French own copper mine. Now days the main income certainly is not tourists, there were definitely some around, but none were staying the night. The town itself was certainly interesting as far as the distinct differences in the French and Mexican sections of town, and the large percentage of weatherboard homes which reminded me a little of the classic Aussie homes design.
After Santa Rosalía I got to Guerro Negro where I intended to take a bus to Ensenada overnight. Fail. Turns out there were no more buses running north for the next 2 or possibly 3 days due to the rains that had been plaguing the area for the past couple of day before I had rocked up. Thus I kept myself happy by consuming cheap cane liquor for the next couple of days until it was possible to leave.
Guerro Negro has 2 main attractions, the world largest salt evaporator and from December to April it is whale breeding season and tourists can be ferried out to see these wonderful mammals at play. I chose to do neither of these things. I figured putting salt on my fish tacos was close as I was going to get to either of them. Though I did not see the ocean based whales I sighted a couple of their land dwelling cousins, I can only conclude the diets of soda and flour tortillas to be the root cause of their lack of migration to the sea.
When I finally managed to escape GN, I got an overnight bus to Ensenada which was probably a much nicer choice of end point than Tijuana. Not that I have anything against TJ it is just that it is a shit hole border town. Ensenada adventuring was slightly more unusual than the normal touristing one does while traveling. Mainly in part due to my awesome couch surfing hosts of Liz and her wonderful warm household. The house itself also doubles as a tattoo and piercing studio, but the payment system for tattoos was a little different than most. They did not take payments in cash, but in bartering or exchange for different things. For example their little dog was an exchange for a tattoo, because if all tattoos were paid for using little dogs, I could see it becoming a some what fraudulent currency. Dog theft would be rife and the world of illegal dog fighting would fall in popularity with the sudden rise of illegal dog breeding.
But I digress, I managed to eat some fish tacos, wander along the wharves, see a local art / museum, visit the oldest cantina in Ensenada (not so interesting) and sit around for a bit as one of the guys got his neck tattoo tweaked.
That night we got a bit of a camp fire going and chilled in their backyard a most awesome way to spend my final night in Mexico. The next day I bused to TJ, waited in line for about 40min, showed my B1/B2 visa and returned to the great northern lands of the USA.
End game Mexico.
Start game United States of America.
The Boss - Born in the USA
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