Baja Car Trip Christmas - New Year 2002/2003

(click on pictures to blow up)

We took off a couple of days before 
Christmas, thundering down I5 to San 
Diego, then on to San Quintin. In Mexico, 
we were pretty soon surrounded by cacti 
of all shapes and colors  Here is Mats 
demonstrating just how big these things are!

At the end of our third day we arrived in 
Bahia de Los Angeles. We celebrated Christmas 
here - went to  Christmas eve mass 
in the small church. Wonderful service!

Thanks to many hours of driving, 
Mats got better and better on his 
gameboy.

Next day we went off-road, 
to our first (of seven!) mission: 
San Borja de Adac, 30 miles of 
desert from the next road.

We spent the night in 
San Ignacio, which has 
one of the most 
beautiful missions in Baja.

Here is a street in the 
little town, and a beautiful 
door to the mission.

We briefly stopped in Santa Rosalia, 
to check out Eiffel's "breakable" 
(Mats-speak) church. Here's a view 
of the Hotel Frances. We stayed there 
on the way back - great place.

Next mission: Mulege. 
They were preparing for a wedding, 
and the church was open.

We stayed at the Hacienda hotel. 
At the back, somebody was 
waiting to get their car fixed. Not
too concerned...

We went to the beach, 
for some gorgeous views.

From Mulege, we took the inland dirt road 
to La Purisma. We saw one other car! 
La Purisima's mission no longer exists 
(and nobody really knows where it was).

Spent the afternoon at 
La Purisima's lagoon.

Stayed at an interesting "hotel" in La Purisima (no water) - but 
Mats quickly made friends with the daughters. Here, we also 
met Lorena and Fernando from La Paz. We discovered that 
their dog's name was Matteo (Mats' spanish name) and their 
cat's name is Camilla!!

The next day, we drove over the mountains to 
San Jose de Comondu. This was really not a good road, 
but the scenery was breathtaking. Along the way we
found this cementary in the middle of nowhere.

Here is what's left of the mission of 
San Jose de Comondu - this is actually 
an auxiliary building, which now serves 
as the church. San Jose is quite charming.

Here we are on our drive through San Miguel de Comondu. 
If you look closely, you can see the driver's side 
window covered in plastic - the window disappeared 
in the door in Mulege! (I finally managed to 
get it to up again in La Paz - now it won't go down.) 

On a mission! This was number
five - San Luis Gonzaga, like San Borja
and San Javier in the middle of nowhere, 
accessibly only through desert roads.

On our way to La Paz. 
Mats had to regularly check the 
spare tire and gas (neither of 
which we ever needed!)

Fernando and Lorena had invited us
to their New Year's Eve Party in La Paz.
Mats went so sleep early.
This picture is entitled "Dos Matteos".

We stayed at the Hotel Perla
again on the malecon.
Any questions?

On the way back, we decided to
approach San Javier through from
the west. This is a good stretch of
the road.

We had to cross many, many
streambeds,like this one.
Can you see the lagoon,
and the horse? It's there, I swear!

We had left La Paz at 11,
so we made it to San Javier
just for sunset. What a magnificent place.

We spent the night in Loreto - the site of the first mission,
and the first capital of the Californias. This is where
El Camino Real starts!
Who else would we run into but our friend Jon H.
from Pacifica, here on a kajacking trip.

Driving up along Bahia Conception, we
stopped at a couple of beaches.

More beach.

The End !