Ramblings of the travelling nature

Having being granted another long weekend I decided to head south and check out Mexico.
Setting off from San Diego, me & one of the boats stewardess (Helen) made our way to the US/Mexico border and crossed over to Tijuana where we picked up our hire car for a 3 day adventure.

The plan was to drive south till we hit the town of Ensenada where we would stay the night before heading west across the Baja Peninsular to San Filipe & then eventually driving back up through Mexacali and Tecate and back to the border; well that was the plan. Nothing too exciting on the way just see what happens and go with the flow kinda style, but something in my gut told me that this was going to be an adventure even if we were only there for three days.

We picked up our hire car at the airport and while Helen was wishing for an old VW Beetle I was just wanting some manual el cheapo car that didn't scream 'Tourists!' to every passer-by. We ended up with a 2006 Toyota Tsuru which although produced in 2006 honestly looked like something from the late 90s.
Off we went heading south down through some serious fog bound for Ensenada, as it's within a couple of hours from the border I imagined it would be full of American tourists but it actually wasn't; just a few drunken college kids at lunch time and that was it, not even at the Street/Dance/Bar Festival that was going on that night. Bonus!

With thumping hangovers we started early as we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us across the peninsular to San Filipe where it's not only the home of some of the biggest tides in the world but also those massive giant cactus.
Arriving around 1pm to the park entrance of "The Land of the Giants" we collected our map from the lone man in his shack and started to make our way through the park. I don't think I realized just how big these things were, absolutely massive with some above the 10 meter mark and thousand of years old.
As we passed a sign stating '4WDs only past this point' we thought we should be alright and could see that the bigger cactus were deeper in the park, so there was no way we were going to turn around. As the path turned into a sandy bumpy trail Helen insisted that I should be driving as it was jut too much fun for one person! So I take the wheel and continue driving and as my off road driving skill range from low to non-existent I really had no idea but found that just planting my foot to the floor seemed to have positive results even if my passenger was clutching the dashboard and letting out muffled squeals as we gracefully flew over the dips.
As on the map there seemed to be a tiny but steep little mountain in the middle of the whole lot which you are meant to drive around......somehow, but ended up on a trail going right up the thing! In what was not my brightest moment up we went; pedal to the metal, rattling round like clueless rally drivers. I did have second thoughts half way up but god we were committed now. Still hammering up the mountain loosing traction and who knows what else we reached the top and after a few jarring thumps and ear peacing scrapes were brought to a holt. Oh shit!
Personally I was more worried about the front spoiler being all banged up as that's something not easily fixed or hidden, and what might have being a small stroke of luck it was fine except for that oil leak steadily pissing out the bottom. I didn't really see it as a big problem, just get back to the shack get some Mexican bush mechanic out and stick something in the hole. Fixed!

Well it didn't quite go like that as we never made it back to the shack, well at least not with our car. Seems like I got into a spot of bother on the way back and managed to get suck in the sand......two front wheels 3/4 buried. Perhaps it was the lack of water as my first dillusional thought was "Well at least we've plugged the hole", no no it's sand you idiot. Well now it's serious; here we are stranded in the desert atleast a few kilometers from the main road with half a bottle of water for the two of us and in searing temperatures. The decision was made to start walking back to the entrance to get help, a tow and a mechanic. Trying to keep the thoughts of scorpions and rattlesnakes out of my head and not daring to mention it to Helen as she's English and most probably think snakes go hunting for humans, anyway after what must have been 2 hours of walking through the sand we finally reached the shack and after Helen hosed off and turned back to her normal colour we explained in broken Spanish the problem. So he left us his gun to play with and went off to get his boss the ranch owner.

Well I'm going to summarize now as its going to take way to long to explain it all......
- Ranch Man came (really nice bloke), hauled our car out of the sand with the look of "another bloody tourist stuck"
- Back at the shack; problem found. Transmission sump plate torn open with multiple scrapings and gasket buggered!
- Ranch Man drives us round for 2 hours with one oily removed sump plate to find a welder/mechanic. No luck but nice tour of the town though.
- Buy steak for Ranch Man & he points us in the right direction for the next morning.
- Spend the night in San Filipe. In the morning try finding a mechanic. No luck; no one can do it or just don't understand.
- Find a mechanic. Fixes plate. Sends friend with us to reattach
- Glue plate on, fill with oil. Fuck there's another hole. Seal newly found hole and repeat.
- Pay everyone and finally head off.

With the car practically fixed but still dripping oil we load up on bottles of transmission fluid. to hopefully last the distance. The drve to Tijuana should take around 5 hours and with it being 3pm and having to return the car by 9pm as the rental shop closes and needed to get back to America and be ready for work first thing the next morning. It was going to be tight and there's no way we could fit a breakdown in.

Well we made it after crossing though another baron desert and one of the most spectular mountain highways I've ever driven on before getting back to Tijuana at 8:50pm.
Now do we tell the rental company or not? The decision was split and was left up to me. After settling the bill I casually mentioned that the car had all of a sudden started leaking oil and we had to keep filling it up. possible refund? I don't think he understood........perfect!

Check out the pics here >>>
http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4986184_u2VBc/1/298906581_euYEa