In the week I’d been in El Centro, California, I’d had to deal with the leaking tire, getting to the football game at a sports bar, and my decision to replace the toilet. Yeah, after 22 years and a couple repairs, it was time to dump the old thing. I hadn’t done anything about it until now as it was sort of working. And wasn’t leaking. Here in El Centro, I pulled it because of the weird way the flush pedal was acting. Sort of stiff like, requiring much more force to activate than usual. And when I removed it this time, it was obvious that I would not be able to repair it without a workshop. See ‘Toilet Repair‘ for the story.
Because the toilet manufacturer is a loon (Thetford), with both documents and phone techs telling me there is an ‘exact’ replacement, which was actually 6 inches taller than my old toilet, I had to delay my departure to Mexico one day while I figured out which one I really needed, ordered it and waited for that better substitute to arrive. Even that was fraught with peril as UPS delivered it to the wrong space #7. They hadn’t bothered to check the actual address of the park I was staying at. If they had, they’d have known where my spot was and not taken it to the wrong address. They got the #7 right though. I only had to walk over and grab it before someone pilfered it after I’d figured out what had happened.
I did take the time to drive to Home Depot to get a part for the toilet plumbing and on that trip I also went south towards the border to Calexico to buy pesos. There’s always exchange booths on either side of the border but I want to get mine early. That trip also gave me the opportunity to get familiar with the road to the border, parking, number of lanes, etc. While I was out, I drove around El Centro a bit just to look around. Passed through the old downtown on my way back to the RV park. Kind of neat looking…but it was deserted. Lots of closed and boarded up business.
Has the town’s entrance arch there in the distance. Many Mexican towns have that still. The reason they were invented was because of crime. The entire town would be surrounded by a wall to keep out banditos and a gate attached to that arch actually closed so the town was protected. Probably no wall was ever here at El Centro, but the pioneer townspeople liked the welcome arch so up it went. Many small Mexican towns still have the arch and remnants of the walls. Some arches are so narrow and short I won’t drive my RV through them. And villages with small arches often have such narrow streets that I’d probably get stuck.
El Centro is sitting on a nice flat desert like area and has been a major economic force for the Imperial Valley of California what with the excellent farming and weather. There are large canals bringing Colorado River water into the valley, but there are ever present pressures to use it all up before it even reaches here. It is a little hot during the summer, but the shoulder seasons and winter are all fairly mild.
Water is the major concern and as the corporate farms pump huge quantities of groundwater out of the aquifer, or take millions of gallons from the Colorado, small farms are forced to spend huge amounts to deepen their wells or buy canal water, if they can afford it. In addition, drought caused falling water levels, and lack of returning rain or river water seeping into the aquifers, means the concentration of heavy metals increases since they tend to accumulate deeper and in higher concentrations. This year might be better for them though, what with the higher than typical rains that are expected. Won’t fix the drought, but it will sure help matters. This year there are huge storms happening on the West Coast drenching Washington, Oregon, and northern California. They all need it after years of drought. It’s an especially powerful El Nino, a predicted effect of global warming. It’s interesting that the Salton Sea is a man made disaster caused back in 1910 or so as the colorado was diverted from its channel and routed to this valley. The soft soil wouldn’t contain the river and it eventually created a 100 foot high waterfall as the river was eating it’s way back to higher ground. Geologists said that unchecked, it would eventually create another Grand Canyon miles long and a mile deep. Took an act of congress and lots of money to get the Colorado back in it’s original channel. And build a working irrigation canal.
Well, enough of El Centro…it’s economically depressed and has been since the crash of ’08 but it’s starting to pick up again. Good luck to them. Meanwhile, it’s time for me to head to California…Baja. San Felipe.
So on Dec. 9th, I got up early, do most days naturally, and puttered around a bit before heading on down to Mexico. Here’s a shot of the sunrise before I left the park.
And 30 minutes after I leave the park, I’m at the border crossing. The border guard came in and spent maybe 5 minutes checking out stuff before pointing out where I get my visa. Since there weren’t any other vehicles here, they let me leave my RV right where it was and I walked over. They probably allow that even when all the lanes are full, but I don’t know. When I get to the office, there was a crowd of 15 people there. Damn. I’d arrived just after a tour group had all come in to get their visas. Had to wait 15 minutes for all of them to finish, then getting mine took maybe 5 minutes. And I’m in Mexico.
On the outskirts of Calexico, Mexico heading due south. I was using my GPS mapping program in my android tablet and had no problem negotiating through town. Four lane the entire way. 
A couple miles later and pass this large bedroom community, Mexican style. 
And then abruptly, the town ends. From the looks of this ground, it seems it would be a real challenge for any type of farm, business, or community developer doesn’t it?
And this is what the area looks like for mile after mile. It’s a 3 hour drive to San Felipe from the border so you can take your time and drive at a leisurely pace.
Quite a bit of sand in those dunes and some real curious rocks poking through it.
This is on the outskirts of San Felipe. There are several big money condo developments on either side of the highway a few miles from San Felipe but they got caught during the crash of ’08 so most of them built up rapidly, then closed, taking many an investor’s cash with them. Did see a couple ranches where there were 10’s of single family homes, most empty. 
And I arrive at Kiki’s early afternoon. The spaces aren’t very wide so the owner of the park guided me in.
There’s the nicely positioned hill that keeps the wind at bay when it’s coming from the west.
First look at the Sea of Cortez. Nice beach. Soft sand. Lots of seabirds. Not right this minute, but several times during the day they accumulate here on the shore.
That balcony is mine. Available to climb up for an ocean view or to enjoy the seabreeze. Below is a pad where I can sit at the picnic table. Also has a BBQ. These kinds of setups are old fashioned and designed for truck or car campers and tenters. It’s Mexican style narrow. Eventually, they wired everything up for 30 amp, put in some water spigots, sewer, and they have a RV park. And now they’ve installed WiFi. All the comforts. There are several of these RV parks along this stretch of road in San Felipe. And even two or three across the road. Those are all empty though. They’re not on the ocean so just aren’t getting the customers right now with the down economy.
View from my ‘loft’. Heh.
Plenty of room up here to pitch a tent too. And I’ve seen people do that in this park, at the space next to mine.
Next door is another RV park with the same set up, afa the spaces go. All the RV parks around here have the lofts. But that RV park also has big outdoor and indoor restaurants with bars. Unfortunately, they’re closed because of the economy. Darn. Would have been neat to have a nice oceanside bar right next to my RV spot. 
I wandered over to the bar and spotted these fish tails. Came from a Mexican species of shark. Don’t know why they were just sitting there. At least 3 days passed and they were still here, rotting away.
This is the bar proper. Nice huh?
That’s more of the San Felipe area on a mostly empty peninsula. There’s a little tiny community on the slope near the sea. To the right of that is more of San Felipe. I could just make out the skeletons of several high rise condos that were never finished.
Just a mile away is the Lighthouse. Guess it’s not used anymore as I’ve never seen a light coming from it at night.
The white coating is from nesting seabirds.
When the tide goes out, there’s these mud flats. It’s where most of the flies come from. It’s not bad though. I’ve had maybe 12 flies in the RV at a time. Doesn’t take long to get rid of them.
I’m in San Felipe for at least a month. They asked for $400 USD, but I only have pesos so the owner grabs his calculator and tells me $6300 pesos. That’s $386.50 based on the $16.30 pesos per dollar I’d paid for pesos the day before. I paid him $2000 pesos and I’ll go to the bank for more in the next few days. If you travel to Mexico, you’re almost always going to get a bargain if you ask the price in pesos. Not every time, but most times.
So that’s all for now. I’ve found some nice bars downtown San Felipe where I can watch NFL games and have a nice dinner, taxis are inexpensive, there are 2 ‘big enough’ grocery stores, so I might even spend 2 months here. Also, Kiki’s seems to be the most popular RV park here in RV park row. Has the most people. Most of the others only have 2-3 RVs. This one has at least 20. I don’t understand why, the park next door is nice too, has all the amenities, and they only ask $250 US per month. And their WiFi doesn’t drop out all the time like it does here. Hmmm. That’s a bargain I might look into next month.
See you next time!