Despite my deepest wishes, the fog remained when we woke in the morning. Dan was on breakfast duty so I stayed in bed blogging as he made hot chocolate, then an onion, egg, beans and cheese burrito. Partway through this process, Ismael arrived. He’d unlocked the gate and came to see if we were interested in travelling to another beach with him or if we’d like to stay another night. Dan explained that we were most likely to just surf and go, or just go, because of the weather. We said adios to Ismael and finished our breakfast. Since we didn’t have any sun to cure the solar resin, we figured it best to just head out and so we did.
There were dirt roads leading south near the beach, but we needed to stock up on supplies so we decided it best to just head back the way we came to the highway then cut back out to the coast. When we stopped for a bathroom break I found a huge stack of shells that someone had left after getting what they needed out of them. It was a nice drive that was good to do again, especially when the sun came out since we were far enough away from the marine layer. Through the farms again, we were kicking up plenty of dust until we hit the main road.
Dan drove us past our planned turn off to Erendira and continued another dozen kilometres further down the road to the town of San Vicente. This was exactly the sort of town we needed. We stopped in at the gas station first, paying nearly $4/litre for a full tank, adding a tip for the servicewoman who did everything for us. By everything, I mean she filled the tank for us. I think you have to pay extra to have your windows cleaned. It was the only thing we’d bought in Mexico so far that wasn’t cheap. Round the back of the servo, I saw a hose and had an idea to fill our big water bottles with water for showering. No one around, so Dan walked over with two empty bottles and came back with them filled. As I sat waiting, I saw an old lady pushing a cart full of vegetables, needing to take a break three times to make it to the end of the street.
We crossed back across the road to the Oxxo convenience store (fast becoming our regular go-to) and stocked up on beer, water, cigarettes and Dan saw a bottle of tequila for only 35 Pesos ($1.50) and couldn’t resist. When we were back in the car, he realised he’d bought something called Tonayán instead. To be continued…
Next, we wanted to find ourselves some fresh food to stock ourselves up for the next few days. Walking the streets, we found the lady that I’d seen pushing the cart. After walking past her, we decided to go back and see what she had to offer. She didn’t speak a lick of English, but she didn’t need to. She opened a shopping bag for us to fill. I got a bag each of onions, green beans and tomatoes. Not knowing the price, I listened hard for any familiar word when the lady tried to tell us the price. I looked at Dan for guidance and he eventually picked up on 35 Pesos ($1.50). I don’t understand why people haggle with Mexicans, how can you when everything is so cheap. We ran into trouble when the lady didn’t have the correct change, but she asked a man at the nearby shop and he sorted us out with the right money. One guy who came out also spoke perfect English so we chatted with him a bit. We walked away with a whole bag full of groceries that would feed us for at least three days.
Next stop, taco stand. We found one when we stopped to look at a buggy that was surely was involved in the Baja 500. We got chatting to the driver and co-driver sitting at the taco stand. They were very American and told us all about their racing career and some tips on where to watch the race tomorrow. They must have been pretty good, the driver had won the Baja 1000 in a previous year. I had me a birria (beef) and pescado (fish) taco while Dan just had fish. All for 18 Pesos ($1) a piece. Good food served by really nice people.
Nearly all of our errands done, we said goodbye to the racers and crossed back across the road. I went to the pollo (chicken) stand and got two cooked chickens for 200 Pesos ($10). They were splayed out on a grill and looked like they were seasoned. The pollo man spoke just enough English for me to get by, but I successfully ordered in Spanish, all by myself! When he put together my order, he didn’t just take two chickens from the grille and put them in a bag, he cut them into pieces and I saw him putting all sorts of stuff together in a bag. Upon later inspection, I would find he’d stuffed the bag with at least twenty small tortillas, onions and lime, beans and picco de gallo. Now we’d be eating like kings for a week. While I was doing that, Dan picked up some huevos (eggs) at the convenience store. Now, we were really set.
We saw more and more Baja 500 cars and support teams as we drove back along the highway, beers in hand. We took the turn off for Erendira and enjoyed the narrow paved road out to the ocean. We could see the marine layer of mist still hung over the ocean, so we soaked up as much sunlight as we could. We came upon the beach town as the road turned to dirt, noticing the wash running parallel to the road that the racers had told us about. It was a part of the racecourse and we could see the small signs roadside indicating so. Sweet! We’d found the track! We followed the road all the way to the sea, then turned onto the dirt. We were driving on the course now and all we had to do was find a camp. We drove all the way to Punta Cabras (Cabras Point) when we knew we were in the right place.
As the racers we’d met suggested, there were already a few campers at their stations, ready for the weekend, confirming that this would indeed be a choice spot to spectate. We were excited to see waves just off the cliffs by the road and so set about finding a good spot where we could (1) spectate from and (2) surf from. After much driving up and down the rocky dirt road and trying out a few different spots, we settled for the dog camp. It was the one by the beach but we’d moved on after stopping when a few dogs from the property across the road came running over and bothered us. We found that the dogs were actually pretty friendly, just scavengers, and Cleo made her presence known so they weren’t going to pick a fight with her.
Time for a surf, but Dan couldn’t resist the temptation to dig into the pollo we’d bought. It was smelling out the car and he wanted to taste it. He made himself a couple of tortillas while I picked at the chicken as I packed everything into baggies. This chicken and all the condiments would serve as our food for days. While Dan and Cleo were off to the bathroom (he’d gotten the shits from eating too much hot sauce), I fancied myself a fish so I grabbed the fishing pole and walked down to the rocks to find me a good spot to cast out. Two casts in, the hook got snagged on a rock. Dan saw my plight and came over to instruct me on how to get it out, walking the line all over the place until it came loose, which it did. Just as he handed the pole back to me, I noticed one of the scavenger dogs by the car and knew all the doors were open. He was sniffing around at the side door as we started running towards the car and when we were still down on the beach, we saw him run off with Cleo’s bag of dog food. Oh shit. Dan was in flip flops so couldn’t make chase so I went after him. He was already so far ahead of us I couldn’t see where he went but eventually I saw that he’d run across the wash from the beach and along a road into someone else’s property. I sprinted after him. As I did, I realised how important it was to get this food back. It was Cleo’s only sustenance. After I’d crossed the wash and got sight of the dog again, he dropped the food bag and ran away. Thank goodness. I walked the rest of the way to pick up the bag and I was surprised the small dog had been able to carry it in his teeth so far, it was bloody heavy! I walked back to the van where Dan had been shutting everything up ready to chase the dog by car so he stood ad ease. Now we knew to shut the van up when we left it.
On Dan’s suggestion, I went to the beach for my next round of fishing so I could avoid the rocks. Here, I found that I was real good at catching seaweed, but not much else. I was having fun anyway just trying to get my casts right because most of them were pitiful. By the time I was sick of it, Dan was on his way down to the beach, wetsuit on, surfboard in hand. He was going to try out the surf first to see if it was too gnarly for me. It wasn’t as calm as yesterday’s water, more like our first day’s surf with a lot of white water breaks to get past. Dan managed to get out but in half an hour, he only caught two and a half waves. They were big and it was hard work dropping into them. On top of that, there was a rip current and big rocks near the shore to worry about. I watched intently the whole time and met him when he came in. He didn’t like the idea of me going out since I hadn’t quite mastered the art of aiming the board and directing it where I wanted it to go. I conceded since it was getting late and cold anyway. Maybe tomorrow when the sun is out and the water looked less scary.
After Dan enjoyed a hot shower and had another shit, we cracked a couple of beers and thought it time to try the Tanayán Dan had bought. After smelling it, we weren’t sure it was drinkable and Dan gagged every time he put his nose near the bottle. I had a sip to give him some encouragement and chased it quickly with a beer. It was not a nice thing to drink. Dan had a swig and spit it straight out. Maybe we’d use it for starter fluid?
Alcoholic experiment over, we went for a walk north up the road to mingle with the other campers. Before we got very far, we were at the top of a hill near some woop-de-woops on the track and decided this would be a much better vantage point for watching the race tomorrow. Since we didn’t want anyone to nab our spot, we went back to the car and moved it to our prime location. Sitting on the roof, we had a perfect view of the road coming at us and winding away from us. Sweet.
Camp sorted, we continued our walk. While we didn’t make any friends, everyone gave us a wave. Most people were in tents with gazebos, not like us pros. It was a good hour-long stroll and we saw a few bikes and quads doing a late recon of the circuit. As we walked back, we saw a bus in the distance pulling up near our car and we scolded them, telling them to move on from our choice spot. They didn’t stay.
Back at the van, we sat on top of the roof for a while and a couple of guys in a truck pulled up asking if we’d like to buy any firewood in Spanish. We didn’t understand until they opened the back door to reveal wood stacked to the roof. We didn’t take any but we did tell him how to say firewood in English. Hopefully his sales would improve.
I cooked some leftovers for dinner and Dan had his favourite cereal since he wasn’t too hungry. Not long after that, we had our teeth brushed and were in bed. We spent the first hour or so in bed consoling Cleo because she was scared of the people setting fireworks off nearby. No matter how much we coaxed her, she would not sit in the front seat, she had to cuddle with us. What a scaredy-cat, honestly. They were only little cracks too, not loud bangs.
There was a lot of traffic going by and people setting up camp all over, but we weren’t too bothered by it, just excited for the day of racing to come.