Awoke to a gray morning with a marine layer and high clouds above. We drove to another breakfast place, the quite famous La Cocina de Dona Esthela (in the Michelin guide), once again off the highway on a steep dirt road. The restaurant is huge with a large parking lot. On weekends there is a long line waiting to get in, but fortunately on a Tuesday we walked right in at 8:30. The food was good but pretty standard. Chips and salsa with fresh cheese to start. Bob had Huevos Mexicana, scrambled eggs with onions and tomato, and Hil and I had corn pancakes. Mine had ricotta cheese on top with honey drizzled all over. Good but pretty sweet!
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| Corn cakes with ricotta and honey |
We returned to Casa Entrevez and checked out. After saying goodbye to the dogs we gassed up at the local Pemex and took off down the valley towards Ensenada. As the vineyards faded out, we drove through beautiful coastal sage scrub on Highway 1 until we got to the coast and passed acres of shipping containers piled high. We drove around the port, past a large cruise ship. Our route continued slowly through the city , past hotels, every type of franchised food outlet, Costco, run-down apartments, endless tiny shops selling everything imaginable. We were thinking of driving out to La Bufadora on the tip of a neck of land that juts out around the south end of Ensenada’s bay (where Jones, Brucato, and we camped 50 years ago!), but had to get away from the urban mess and headed south, finally getting back into lovely pastoral scenery.
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| Shipping containers |
We drove through Santo Tomas, the original Baja vineyard area, and stopped in the town of San Vicente, 50 miles south of Ensenada, at an OXXO, Mexico’s answer to 7-11, for Magnum ice cream bars. I was reading Baja California Land of Missions, by David Kier, and his pictures of the local mission looked considerably more complete than those of Guadalupe that we visited yesterday. David said San Vicente Ferrer Mission (#21) was located at Km 88.5. We passed it, looped around and driving back north could clearly see a sign. Off on a dirt road, past very colorful flower fields with many people picking the purple, pink and white flowers - maybe for Easter? The signage disappeared, but we finally saw the ruins above us. We found the headquarters, not manned but open at least and spent a while walking around the extensive building remains. The melting adobe has been coated to preserve it, giving the appearance of Henry Moore undulating sculpture shapes. Very beautiful especially with the lovely flower fields in sight nearby.
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| El Camino Real (the royal road) marker |
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| Flower field below Mission |
Ten miles further south Hil turned off on the road to the National Park of Sierra San Pedro Martir where the National Observatory is located. We started seeing amazing displays of cactus, not that there were any turnoffs so we could stop! Beautiful farmland and more cacti, and reached the Rancho Meling which has been here for years as a working cattle ranch and resort in the middle of nowhere! We were greeted by several dogs, and wandered around and found our rooms (there are only ten), and finally found someone to check us in. The room is very basic, NO electrical plugs, generator on for a few hours a day, but now with wifi and a pleasant stone porch with benches. I got a Tecate and settled down to write.
At 7 we went into dinner: a large room with three long tables with benches; our places were set up at one table. and those of the other two groups at the other ones. We had pre-ordered dinner and plates of cheese and ham-stuffed chicken breast with veggies were brought in. Quite good, but that was it! No salad or dessert, so off to bed.
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| Huge pot of beans- for every meal! |
The quaint kerosene lamps outside our room are electrified (battery powered?) and on all night, shining through our thin curtains, but we slept well!
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