{"id":725,"date":"2008-03-30T11:11:52","date_gmt":"2008-03-30T18:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/?p=725"},"modified":"2008-04-13T15:07:56","modified_gmt":"2008-04-13T22:07:56","slug":"notes-from-baja-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/notes-from-baja-1\/","title":{"rendered":"notes from baja &#8211; east cape"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 13 &#8211; March 20, 2008 Baja California Sur<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Santiago, on the Tropic of Cancer. Palomar restaurant, Canadian couple from the Okanogan. Man was very negative about Canada&#8217;s &#8220;communism,&#8221; inflaming Sam. They were insular people, couldn&#8217;t really recommend any place to travel, and were not impressed that I had been to the Okanogan. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Sierra de la Laguna, into the mountains. Wild dry river valley, rocky and filled with the calls of mourning doves. <\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/p1100557.JPG' alt='Sierra de la Laguna' \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Los Barriles. Disoriented coming into town, so thirsty, not noticing well. I&#8217;m convinced Hotel Los Barriles is different from Los Barriles Hotel. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Sign at the pool: &#8220;Don&#8217;t sit on the infinity.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/p1100628.JPG' alt='hotel pool' \/><br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Cafe Caleb, a well-informed woman from Alaska. Topics of conversation:<br \/>\nsmall towns<br \/>\nscorpions<br \/>\ntarantulas<br \/>\nhurricanes (John)<br \/>\npetting whales<br \/>\ncapturing a drug lord at the hot dog stand<br \/>\nfruit empanadas<br \/>\nMulege (lush)<br \/>\nLa Paz &#8211; big city<br \/>\nspraying the house for bugs<br \/>\nfear of American men in Cabo<br \/>\nMexicans are nice people, friendly<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>San Bartolo, stop at Dulceria. I examine all the strange foods in plastic bags, some unidentifiable. A bag that looks like it&#8217;s filled with dried hay or manure? <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio, a beautiful pink church, a vacant plaza. Sam picks an orange from a tree outside the church. I sample it &#8211; peel is full of aromatic oils, but flesh is too tart, bitter. I toss it in the bushes. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>El Triunfo, piano museum. Nicolas plays Moonlight Sonata, looks for his Chopin. Animated for a wax figure, wearing a brown three piece suit in the hot sun. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Little taqueria on the main street. I tried to get a bean and cheese burrito, but all I could get was beans, cheese, and a chicken burrito. No bebidas until woman gives little girl money to go get us a Coke and a Sprite across the street at the tienda. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>La Paz &#8211; Hotel Gardenias is now Hotel Bugambilias. Strange treats in the lobby &#8211; chocolate and chili?<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>La Paz &#8211; up and out of the hotel at dawn, on the road to Tecolote and the Islands. Cliffs outside of town dripping rock, playas empty of people, cloudy with a sensation of sunrise in the hills behind us. Wind and drama. Beach very quiet in early windy sunlight. <\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/p1100815.JPG' alt='dripping rock' \/><\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/p1100790.JPG' alt='dawn Tecolote' \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Prettiest beach: Playa Balandra<\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/p1100804.JPG' alt='playa balandra' \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p>Guidebook says Gas is available in El Cien, but we see no gas for sale. At Las Pocitas, we ask some mechanics about gasolina and they direct us to &#8220;casa azul,&#8221; where a woman sells us a few liters of &#8220;barrel gas.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/p1100895.JPG' alt='p1100895.JPG' \/><\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/p1100896.JPG' alt='p1100896.JPG' \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 13 &#8211; March 20, 2008 Baja California Sur \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Santiago, on the Tropic of Cancer. Palomar restaurant, Canadian couple from the Okanogan. Man was very negative about Canada&#8217;s &#8220;communism,&#8221; inflaming Sam. They were&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}