There are many things I like about Mexico…the weather is certainly up there as far as preferences go, the people are very nice, the mechanics are very competent, and the costs are low. As much as 1/3 to 1/2 less than what similar items would cost in the US. Or Canada. You might have read that Mexico’s fuel price has soared recently, but even though it is more expensive, right now $3/gallon, the fact that your overall expense for a trip here is lower makes up for that. And at this moment, the exchange rate of the dollar to the peso is $18 to $1. So for every US dollar I use to pull money out of a Mexican ATM, I get nearly $18 pesos. When I first visited Mexico, it was $10/$1.
I’ve been in San Felipe on the eastern Baja California coast now for weeks and I’m pretty comfortable. It’s January and Xmas and New Years have come and gone uneventfully. Meanwhile, I’m having some of those great Mexican workers do stuff to my RV. Getting my front brake pads replaced and the rotors turned (it is time). Then getting some chipping paint repainted.
One highlight of San Felipe is the sports bars we have here in town. It costs me under $3 for a taxi downtown (including tip) and I’ve used them numerous times to go watch football. Seahawks ended up getting bashed by the Panthers in the semifinals though. It was 31 to 0 after the first half. Hawks came back to within 7 points and held the Panthers to zero points the 2nd but ran out of time. Damn. No Super Bowl this year for the Hawks. But they did play poorly the first 9 games of the season. Didn’t deserve to go back this year…if they had, it would have been sheer luck.
We did have a storm or two here in San Felipe. But the two rain storms happened only while I was sleeping, and then there was one during the day but I was busy inside and didn’t really notice until it was almost over. And then we had a wind storm or two.
Out there on the ocean, straight out from the RV park, there are several local fishing boats that just sort of anchor there for days at a time.
Here’s what the distant coast looked like for several days. Couldn’t really see much of anything there. On a clear day, there’s a whole host of stuff to look at.
Check out the wind bent tree in this photo…
Not too much wind blown sand though.
Wind was strong enough to blow the antenna out of it’s base on top of a sailboat mast here at the RV park. Weird. Turned out that Steve only tightened the collar down by hand instead of with a wrench so he screwed up.
Here’s some pics of the fascinating fishing boats that hang around this giant harbor a few days after the storms passed. That boat in the foreground is actually an undercover naval vessel (everyone knows about) that keeps an eye on the fishermen so everything is on the up and up…
One of the shrimp trawlers. They hang out here until they learn of a shrimp run, then they head out to sea trying to catch some.
The white cliff is caused by bird poop. There’s an island 18 miles off shore that’s named Bird Shit Island by the locals. The whole island is white from bird poop.
So that’s it from San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico today. Hope you visit again!