Part 4: Punta Vibora to Bahia Maria

20110301

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The Trip

Our stay at Punta Vibora was uneventful; we saw no viboras at all (rattlesnakes).  Next morning, we got up and cooked a huge breakfast and then continued south along the coast.

The photos below are what we saw.

Dan and Ron made "mountain man omelets" with double the meat.  They were yummy, but there was so much food that we made burritos for lunch out of the leftovers.

While we were eating our yummy breakfast, these vultures were eating theirs: a dead seal that had washed ashore.

The skull of a sea creature, most likely a seal.


We skirted a number of large silt beds for fear of breaking through the crust.  Lesson one: just because it is dry on top does not mean it is dry underneath.  And once you break through, it will be a mess.

Since I was back in the pack, I was not choosing the route.  How we ended up here is a mystery but it was totally clear that this pitch was both steep and off camber.  Where Kai was when this photo was shot was the worst and we slipped sideways on our descent.  Very scary.

The off-camber nature of the trail is more apparent in the photo above.

More wet silt beds to be avoided. We went to the right along the beach.

We did a lunch stop on the beach and ate our left over breakfast.

When dry, these silt beds are dusty.  When wet, they are a vehicle trap.

We took a side route to the coast and passed some interesting stands of cactus.

The balance of the team went out to the dunes on the coast and promptly got stuck.  Kai had to air way down to get out, but he did get out.

Meanwhile, we held our position and listed to things on the radio.  We picked up a large tire on the road to "dispose" of it later.

The 1017A is a pretty good-sized vehicle.  Kathleen's head does not come to the bottom of the windshield.

Bob found some sand dollars on the beach.  Given the current exchange rate, these two would be worth about 23 sand pesos.

There were some nice crescent bays on our path, but none had anything close to shelter in the form of trees.

We traveled on the beach when we could, but were frequently thwarted by the cobblestone berms.

Oh, a gravel road.  This sucker was very, very rough and slow going.  Even with reduced air pressure, 12 mph was at the limit of my endurance.

Kai got stuck in the dunes, but was able to self-extract.

The wet sand was heavy and sticky.

We continued south to Bahia Maria.  Bahia Maria was a sand camp, but it had strong, cold winds.  And, it was foggy and overcast the next morning.

Setup for us was easy: just find a level piece of ground and raise the top.

Dan and Ron made pineapple upside down cake in the dutch oven.  The photo above shows the setup prior to pouring the batter in the dutch oven.  The cake was cooked using charcoal.

This segment was a lot of trail work.  But, the gravel road kicked our asses.  It was slow and hard.  To go faster would risk damaging the truck or the camper, so we elected to eat dust all day and be the last one to camp.  We passed some American surfer dudes that were camped down the beach from us and they came over at dusk to check out the trucks.  They were an interesting bunch.  Ah, to be young again.

Tomorrow: Mission San Francisco Borja in the center of the peninsula.


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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2011, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.