Frankie, Neely & Lowell are safely home in Cholla, Thursday May 14th

Our journey home from Loreto was full of acts of kindness. We have lots of stories to tell and we have to start with our journey across the Sea of Cortez from Santa Rosalia to Guaymas. This leg, of our entire Baja09 adventure, has been a concern since the ferry doesn’t officially allow dogs to travel except to ride in vehicles and we are traveling by foot. At the last minute before joining Gato Loco on leg 2 we decided to bring Neely’s “Therapy Dog” vest hoping it might help.

The journey across the sea starts with Brenda, the owner of the awesome hotel we stayed at in Santa Rosalia for two nights, kindly giving us a ride to the ferry station with Frankie in the front and Neely & I riding in the back of her truck. More on her hotel later… The ferry was cancelled on Tuesday so there’s lots passengers and trucks that have been waiting the extra day. Accessing the situation we see that we must pass through security and have our bags inspected if we get the red light. There’s also extra identification security that I check-in through. I leave Frankie and our “therapy dog” Neely standing outside in front of the terminal. Neely is playing the part perfectly. While I was gone, a tall handsome Mexican man begins talking to Frankie and Neely, saying what a beautiful dog she is. He asks if she is a children’s therapy dog and Frankie says yes. He wanted to know exactly what kind of dog she was and again says how beautiful she is. I returned from security and the discussion turns to boating and Gato Loco. He has a new dive boat in Guaymas and tells us where they dive in the Guaymas area. Very very nice man and he finally he tells us he’s the captain of our ferry. He assures us that it will be okay for Neely to go on the ferry and she can ride on the top deck. We agree to discuss boating more once the ferry is under way.

With the captain’s assurances, we relax as we pass through security. Things go very smoothly with everybody considering Neely a special dog (the vest is working). The daily fog we’ve seen the past days rolls in as we board the ferry delaying our departure until 11 AM since we can’t even see the harbor exit. Underway, as you can see, Neely and I make ourselves comfortable on the top deck both sleeping on her pad. We’re on board, but this is going to be a long day. An hour passes and we’ve cleared the fog. Winds are the typical SE at 8kts and seas are pretty flat, it looks to be a good crossing. With the stable conditions, our friendly captain pays us a visit finding Neely and I laying on her pad. He flashes a big smile and says “un minuto, I have another cabin”. He returns soon and escorts us to a private 1st class cabin with AC, flat screen TV and movies playing. It’s ours for the 9 hour crossing and we’re sure Neely’s charm was a big factor for his kindness. That’s our girl…

Talking with him more, we find his dive boat is named Baja Adventures (appropriate name) and he invites us to go out on the boat if we were going to be in Guaymas another day. What a pleasant crossing and a huge act of kindness from our captain. Mexico you’ve got to love it..

There’s more but let’s flash back to Saturday when we linked up with Sally, Marilyn and Liza, Bill’s leg 5 crew.

La Damiana B&B has become our Gato Loco headquarters inLoreto. As Lisa mentioned, they arrive early dropped stuff and headed out to see Loreto. Sally, who travels in Mexico frequently, has already met local merchants and has made some plans when they return to Loreto next week. Marilyn and Lisa are still buzzing from their travels which was a very positive experience. They’ve also had some good shopping.

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The plan was to have dinner at the B&B as a special treat for yet another Kerry Bday (#3). Dinner is not going to work at the B&B so Debra recommends a local landmark family restaurant (Caripole, just east of the Mission).

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This is an awesome restaurant. We’re the only guest and were treated like family. Kell & Mark, traveling surfers (& owner of Cobra Surf boards) joined us for the evening.

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Having reservations, they knew it was Kerry’s Bday celebration and decorated the restaurant with balloons and even baked a special cake for desert, another act of kindness.

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Right, we all say our goodbyes and thanks for a wonderful evening.

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Another story… Our on board internet expired on Saturday night. The renewal procedure given to us by TelCel is not working so when we arrived today (Saturday) I head to the TelCel office to try to solve the problem. They speak no English, so with my limited Spanish and finally some help from Sally we spent 2+ hours with the TelCel lady on the phone with support. She finally determined our internet was blocked from renewal because it had not been registered to ensure appropriate usage. The lady spent another 30 minutes to scan my documents and write a report to get it unblocked. Another huge act of kindness..

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Sunday and it’s time to say goodbye to the leg 5 crew as they head north for their first night on a near by island (see Lisa’s updates).

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We will spend another night at the B&B. Neely was completley at home as soon as we arrived even relaxing with Isabella ,the B&B dog, while we shopped and spent time at the TelCel office. Right, Debra & Gerardo (B&B owners) pose on the comfortable outside patio.

Talking with Debra & Gerardo, we find out that many of their current & recent guest are working in the field of nature conservation and at the moment are working on issues for the Loreto National Marine Park which all the local islands are in. Very interesting people who are working to keep the Loreto area as pristine as possible with huge pressures from population explosions, tourism and all the impact this has on the local eco system.

< Palapa homes in Conception Bay

Since we’re so interested in Loreto area, Debra asked her friend Juve if he would drive us to Santa Rosalia to catch the ferry in Santa Rosalia. He’s the premiere local guide for seeing the islands by land and underwater and does excursions into the mountains through-out southern Baja. Juve kindly accepted to take us north telling us story after story about the areas as we drove to San Lucas Cove just south of Santa Rosalia. Juve has his business next to La Damaina and can arrange any type of excursion you might like. He’s actually bringing his boat and dive equipment to Puerto Penasco in June for a client from central Mexico and we hope to meet with him here in Penasco. His contact info is:

Cell 613-114-7294
kumade4@hotmail.com

New river front in Mulege>

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Next stop, San Lucas Cove to visit Myron & Marilyn (M&M) friends we met last year while traveling in the area. They’ve kindly offered to let us stay with them or drive us into Santa Rosalia later in the day. The plan is to take the ferry tomorrow (Tuesday). M&M have arrived just two days earlier and have his 88 year old father and 86 year old uncle Myron, who founded their household years ago, with them . What a great family, dad and uncle Myron are very entertaining. With dad and uncle under tow, their still working to get settled so we decided to stay at a Santa Rosalia hotel. They have lots of friends in Santa Rosalia including Brenda that has a beautiful cliff side hotel overlooking the sea at the entrance to the harbor. We’re living right!! At the the ferry station, we find that the Tuesday ferry has been cancelled… Oh well, now we have to stay in this beautiful seaside location and go back to San Lucas Cove for Myron’s Bday tonight. M&M, again, kindly volunteer to come pick us up and drive us back to the hotel so we can attend the family celebration dinner.

Happy birthday Myron

Left, Myron lights rockets to celebrate his Bday

Las Casitas Hotel Santa Rosalia >

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It’s a late night ride back to Santa Rosalia , another restful night & we’re finally ready to head for the ferry. Thank you so much Myron & Marilyn for the wonderful visit and Brenda for the ride to the ferry station…

Now you have the story of our journey north and all the great people that made it so special. During our drive in Pee Wee back to Cholla yesterday we reflected on how great the Baja 09 experience has been for us. While the US press puts out one negative report after another, we travel among the most pleasant and kind people of Mexico never feeling concerned or threatened. We only wish the true Mexican story can be told. As Guillermo, our wonderful ferry boat captain, said “Amigos are Muy Importante”

Enjoy the rest of the Baja 09 story… Until the next Update..