Part of me really enjoys rolling into a new place at night. It always guarantees a surprise out the window of the hotel in the morning. San Felipe did not disappoint. For some fun history of San Felipe, check out http://sanfelipe.com.mx/about-san-felipe/history/ .
As is the usual morning routine, the kids are up at sunrise, which can often be too early for me, but in this location, it was a godsend. The sunrise over the Sea of Cortez was lovely. The Hotel El Cortez is situated directly on the beach, and was quiet and sleepy during this tranquil morning. Our room was one of the beachside bungalows, and offered us soft, sugary sand to romp around in, while the world woke up.
The Hotel El Cortez was founded in 1959 and is quite expansive. It offers traditional hotel rooms, suites, and bungalows on the beach. The restaurant has amazing food, and is surprisingly inexpensive. We enjoyed running in the sand, finding sea treasures, chatting it up with some kids that were also on holiday, all before our fantastic breakfast!
Tristan's lizard had a harrowing experience, and found himself stuck in the rafters of a palapa. Luckily, Dad was there to save the day. Whew!
Time to head out of San Felipe, down the malecon. Lots of shops, taco stands, fruiterias, and sellers of all sorts of wares. Of course, there's La Iguana, in case you are needing a table dance!
Atop the hill is the shrine to La Virgine de Guadelupe, who watches over San Felipe and the Boom Boom Room. The lighthouse, or faro, is seen just above the 3 story now defunct disco. As we travel out of the main part of the city, there are more and more expansive homes in various stages of completion. San Felipe offers many vacation rentals, as well as a large ex-patriot community. We know that the road south is paved for most of the way to Gonzaga Bay, but our map is old and shows the road y'ing off in separate directions for the airport and mexico 5 south. To make matters worse, our Garmin shows us that we are off the beaten path as well. Silly us, we decide to turn around and try a different route. Oops.
We drive for mere moments on pavement before the road turns to dirt. And rough dirt at that. It is Baja, and we are on an adventure, so we laugh and continue. Miles turn into more miles, and the pavement seems very far away. If it weren't for the coast in the far distance to our left, we would be completely lost. No worries, we continue down the lumpy, bumpy, washboard road, laughing about how we are merely pre-running for the Baja 1000. Eventually we come to a pump station for San Felipe's water, and the family that watches over it is there. We ask them how far to the paved road and they tell us about 10 kilometers. Off we go....
At about 5 km down the road, there is a well traveled side road, and a streetlight in the distance. We turn, figuring it could meet up with the highway at some point. Nope. Just another pump house for a well. We turn around, and head back the way we came. Just getting our timing right.
At about 5 more km and we find another side road, with a tiny sign that read Rancho Perebu, cervezas, jugos, cazuelas, 11 km. We take the chance and follow the road. If nothing else, at the end of this road are drinks! Woot! We drive the washboard woop-de-do road and finally see the signs of the paved highway in the distance! We survived!! Just another adventure to chalk up to needing a map.
Once we reach the pavement, the travel is much easier. Go figure! We discuss how much a trek this path must of been in the past. In order to get further south from San Felipe, you had to be really committed. Next stop, Puertocitos. We drive past several campos and small clusters of communities before we find Puertocitos, where the hot springs are located. This small community is made up of quite a few gringo ex-pats, as well as Mexican families. It is a lovely spot and we are tempted to stay overnight in one of the locals guest houses.
This is one of the many properties available in Puertocitos. Ironic that the owner has the same area code as we do! Hmmm. Could be a sign!!
On the way out of Puertocitos, there are parts of the road still under construction. At several portions, we'd get halfway unto a bridge and the construction workers would wave their hands and shout at us to turn around. It was comical and a bit disconcerting that the areas of construction weren't all that visible.
In this picture, you can see the structure of the bridge, not yet built. We started to drive across it, but it was blocked with giant mounds of soil. Thank goodness!!
We finally pull into Gonzaga Bay at, you guessed it! Sunset!!
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