Loreto Veterinarian

Bahia El Coyote

So when we got to the Sea of Cortez just south of Mulege I finally let the dogs out.  At Bahia El Coyote, they hit the water with glee.  Willow racing for her ball, prancing into the ocean.  Ruby, ever the bulldog, hit her in the back haunches like a linebacker.  She cut her belly open 3 inches.

No taping this one up.  I can see the fat!

We rushed to Loreto and found this vet.  Actually I asked a local cop where the Vet was.  He drove me there.  It was 2pm and they were closed until 3pm.  I asked if there was another vet around.  My spanish not being that good, I put $10 in his hand.  I got a police escort to the other vet.

Dassia was awesome.  She put Willow under for only a few minutes and gave her 8 stitches.

Patas Y Pies (Legs and Feet) Clinica Veterinaria (small dog specialist)

Tel.: 13-5-02-77  Cel.: 613-114-0483

GPS

Loreto, Baja California Sur

Mexico

26° 1.212', -111° 21.032'

Turn off the HWY (1) at the paint store (COMEX)  ARCO IRIS go NE towards water.
1st right calle ALBORADA two blocks SE on the right side just past calle AURORA.

$500 pesos for the surgery plus 80 pesos for 8 painkillers...
I happily gave her $700 pesos (less than $60 CDN.)
Slowed us down but that`s OK.  We stayed at a pet friendly hotel in Loreto.

www.hotelangra.com

Hotel Angra. 670 pesos.  Super clean and secure.

On calle Benito Juarez after Ignacio Allende before Marques De Leon across from the Pemex.
GPS

Loreto, Baja California Sur

Mexico

26° 0.482', -111° 21.027'

Feliz Navidad Los Cabos Beach Video

Going back to Cabo, Cabo, Cabo, I`m going back to Cabo

Her bikini small, heals tall, she said she liked the ocean.

 actually a one piece and flip flops, but she did love the ocean.

San Jose Del Cabo Estero and Marina

Baja Markers Directives 2010

The Return to San Jose Del Cabo

1 CDN$ = 0.9830 USD$ Flirting with Parity UP 14.4%

1 CDN$ = 12.06 Pesos UP 37.73%

Litre of 87 octane = 114.9 cents/litre UP 31.46%

2006: One Canadian Dollar = .859 US$

One Canadian Dollar = 8.756 Peso$

Litre of 87 octane = 87.4 cents/litre

The Wife and I are going, for our 1st Anniversary, to the Barcelo Los Cabos San Jose Deluxe!

Go North Dark Man

My tan and I are heading home.

Packed my stuff and Willoughby
into the Explorer
and Norte we go.

Ran into Rain in Fresno California.

Its raining here in Redding California.

Its raining all the way up the I5 to
the Great White North.

I had to put socks and underwear on.

Brrrrrr...

I've travelled to Land's End,

Crossed the Salt Flats of ESSA,



watched the sun rise over
The Laguna De Liebre Oro,

seen a rainbow appear
in the mist of an exhale,

and looked into the curious eye of
a majestic Grey whale.





Today, I lived a full day.

Snorkeling

@ Santa Marie Bay

iPods Rock

At least mine does
plugged into the car audio system, slick.
8 days of uninterupted music.

Perfecto por La Baja.

Kinda anti-social, elitist,
introverted little device. Nice.

Never used one before. Intuitive interface.
Click, spin, click.
Awesome tactile sensation. SLICK.
Joe like.
Make Joe smile.

I've been using iTunes for years,
and it was as simple as plugging my new
technotoy into a USB2.0 slot on my laptop.

It was already charged, and took 1 1/2 hours
to transfer 20g of music, 2508 songs, mostly
320kb mp3, and 25 AAC files from the itunes store.
Currently, i've skimmed 438 albums out
of my 700 CD collection.
It is 2 whole bookcases of cds in my shirt pocket.

Got one video: U2's
Where the Streets Have No Name
just so i could watch one on that tiny screen.
Cool that it could do it but not
what i want or really need.

Video is a memory and battery pig...


Put all my blog photos on my iPod. Slick.
Way better than wallet photos.

The thing is tiny. Light. I could lose it.

O, Yeah, It also sounds excellent.
Loud enough to make ya deaf.
Ear buds will make you anti-social.
I prefer speakers, lotsa speakers,
and amps, too.

I prefer it as a large scale portable storage device
plugged into the car and home audio systems.
30G Digital source. Nice.

Would've got the 60G but Best Buy was sold out of'em.

Beach Rescue

Gringo Beach Services

I've rescued 2 vehicles out of the sand at Tule beach.

Arturo, a Butler @ the Palmilla resort, had been there since the day before. He had come back with a shovel, some planks and dos amigos but he was highside on a large rock.

4X4 +
a 20ft tow rope,
have come in handy,

Tied up and dragged'em out.

Two nights ago, came across

a pickup truck with a Mexican couple trying
to have a sunset picnic on the beach.
Dude had backed up into soft sand and just
sunk the back end and spun the tires deep.

Tied up and dragged'em out.

Roger said it made up for watching figure skating.

Bad Blogger

Standard issue Cabo Sunrise


Sorry, I've been getting into a rhythm of doing nothing.
No watch, no phone, no internet...
Watch the sunrise,
Swim in the pool, eat, sleep,
take the dog to the beach all afternoon,
read, eat, sleep, repeat


Buzzards have been buzzing me everyday



Saturday night I went to Todos Santos with Roger and Willow.
We went to a Reggae festival on the beach.

Beer was 15 pesos.
Roger paid for 2 beers with a 50 peso note.
His change was 5 pesos and another beer :)
Viva Mexico

Santa Marie

We went to Cabo San Lucas to swim with the Dolphins, but the aquarium was still under construction...

Playa Chileno

Tibor and Carmela under the 16ft fish scale


Willow and I are the shadows in the foreground.

I photoshopped out 2 people in the background.

Is that wrong?

Recovery

I bought Willow a new lifejacket at Costco. It's a youth jacket and she puts here head out through the arm. Not perfect, but it keeps her on top of the surf. I also found my pocketknife under the passenger seat of the truck so the possession count is back up to 100%.

I've been sleeping out on the deck and waking up at 6am to
a Cabo sunrise



Drove to a swimming beach called
Bahia Sante Marie



Absolutley beautiful beach: picture perfect.



I need some models down here... Tarryn?

Dog Can't Surf

I lost Willow's lifejacket. I put it on the roof of the truck to dry and drove off. Dough! Went back to that deserted beach two days later but no sign of it. I also lost my SUNDAWN pocketknife in San Diego... Oh, well, possessions are not important.

My Dad & Willow

Sparse Internet

Whew, been 4 days since I was hooked up.

Here's where we're stayin'

Lomas La Jolla Pool


Willow Surfin'



My parents made it down Wednesday. I waited at the wrong terminal for 3 hours. Good thing they were patient and did not leave.

Los Cabos

Zipper's Beach, San Jose Del Cabo



4032 km from Vancouver. Drive time ~ 50 hours.

Storm the Border II

There is no border stop going south into Mexico. You just pass over some south facing tire spikes, past some young soldiers with automatic weapons and your in...

This is the first beach in Mexico, had to let Willow out.


This was my 4th day driving. After days of 7,8,&9 hours in the truck i decided to make Thursday a short drive. Stopped just south of Ensenada at the Estero Beach resort.


Friday drove to Guero Negro, a military base on the 28 parallel.
This town is the closest to the grey whales mating area.
Was woken up by quite revelry @ 5:45am. Louder revelry @ 6am. Did you know that the military had a snooze alarm?
My accomodations were extremely sparse.
A bed and cold shower.
Hit the road early 7am, but lost an hour when I crossed the 28 parralel into the nountain time zone.

Saturday Willow and I had tacos in Mulege, then hit this beach just South of there at Concepcion bay.


Driving is tough in Mexico: no shoulders, on a two lane undivided highway. My strategy was to draft behind a fast local driver. Most of the time it was military humvees, kinda like Joe's personal military escort. Much less mental effort following a large truck and you know they will clear the way.

Sunday I followed a bus doing 120km/h on the 60 km/h road

Climate Change

Sacramento to San Diego

The Sun comes out



Vista Point, California




LA freeway sunset

Hydroplaning down Intersate 5 South

Eugene to Sacramento

Drive time 8 hours. Distance 750kms.

Tuesday start 7:52am

Heavy rain



California border


Finally, a hint of sun...


On the Banks of the Sacramento River,
Sacramento, California

Storm the border

Vancouver to Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Monday
Got up early and hit the road @ 4:50 am
& reached the Peace Arch border 5:40 am.
2 car line took less than 3 minutes.

Asked for my ID (passport),
Destination (Mexico),
Why I was travelling to Mexico (to learn to Surf)
and my occupation (Photographer).
I said it was my mid life crisis.
The guard looked me over, checked my passport and replied
"You're not even forty, Welcome to the USA."

Total time 1 minute.


Growing up on Vancouver Island I used to listen to Seattle radio, so I tuned into KISW for some morning banter to wake me up. It wasn't Howard Stern but close. Topics ranged from The mighty Seahawks, Martin Luther King day and some guy who died from a perforated colon.

King county was renamed 20 years ago to honour Martin Luther King Jr., stripping the honour from U.S. Vice President William Rufus Devane King for which it was originally named. He was VP when Washington became a state in 1852. Apparently he owned slaves. It is my understanding that Washington did as well. Maybe they should rename the state, too? The debate was over spending $600,000 to change the county logo from a Crown to a likeness of MLK Jr.

The dead guy died painfully from internal bleeding after paying cash to allow a horse to have sex with him.

The horse is fine and available on match.com.
(KISW's joke not mine)

Enough american culture, besides Seattle radio was fading out so I fired up a MP3 disc with 104 songs and put my right foot down.

Willow got comfortable



And we got to Eugene by 11:45 am and hit the Best Buy.
Got a 30gig Video Ipod for US$299 plus no tax.
I'll review my favourite new technotoy later,
suffice to say it rocks!

Checked into a motel across from the University
of Oregon with a Mexican restaurant next door.

Drive time 7 hours. Distance 660kms. Dinner Tacos Asado.

Walked the dog along the Willamette river and she chased a raccoon into the water. The wet little guy was pissed and hissing up a storm, clinging to some branches on the riverbank. Sorry.

Willow thought that was fun.

Markers, Directives

One Canadian Dollar = .859 US$

One Canadian Dollar = 8.756 Peso$

Saturday's rates @ The Vancouver Bullion and Currency exchange.
Actually, a tad better than my bank.

OK, Fully funded in the home currencies of my journey.
I've got back up credit cards, but I should hide those.
One of the directives of this trip is to spend cash only!

1. When cash is gone, must come home...



"Stay on target, check those corners"

2. Stop and Smell the roses... and PHOTOGRAPH'em!




A daily chore and update the blog of course.



Sunday, watching football and cleaning and packing my rig.

Bag o'clothes
Camera gear
Laptop
High Def Projector
(SuperBowl & the Olympics on the deck overlooking the Sea Of Cortez)
Expresso machine & grinder
(I know, the grinder is excessive, I could just take ground beans. ;)
Dog food, dish and dog bed
Sleeping bag and goretex shell for outdoor sleeping
rope, spare oil, fully charged back up battery, tire repair kit, spotlight,
36 litres of Fiji water, bag o' books


3. Read books.

Lonely Planet USA, Lonely Planet Baja,

Hunter: The Strange & Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson
by E. Jean Carrol
I'm fairly certain this one doesn't include the shotgun ending.

The Zen of Living & Dying by Philip Kapleau

The Craft of Modular Post and Beam by James Mitchell
This should help me with my designs for my new loft studio. :)

PADI open water diver manual
You forget everything if you don't use it. Time to brush up.

On Equilibrium by John Raulston Saul
I've taken this book to Cancun 3 times and have only read two thirds of it.
Smart,deep but hard reading for my short attention span.

OK, trucks loaded. Full tank o' gas.

1 Litre 87 octane = 87.4 cents Canadian

Ready, Set, Go. :)