ODO: 304,519
We decide to have a short day on the road after leaving our favorite beach. Time to head into La Paz and pay someone to feed us for the evening! As we drove into town we noticed flashing lights in our rearview mirror, what did we do? Turns out we ran a flashing green light….allegedly. After 5 minutes of spirited conversation (in Spanish! One of us is getting really good at Spanish) with one of La Paz’s finest, we were free to go with a warning. So, word to the wise, always stop at a green light in the town famous for nobody stopping at stop signs!
Resupplied with groceries and full bellies meant it was time to find camp. As we headed to a nearby beach we underestimated our overall height. This is our first trip with anything on the roof, it’s easy to forget stuff is up there until you hear the loud bang of kayaks hitting metal, and fiberglass buckling. This had already been a long night, so surveying the damage would need to be a morning activity. From what we could see in the dark, it looked like the board had snapped in the middle and the nose was destroyed. KoKo was pretty sad about all of this. We had brought her board all this way, and she was so excited to surf her way through Baja without having to rent boards everywhere we went.
Neither one of us were ready to survey the roof damage in the morning, so we focused on other tasks, like finding a replacement for a newly discovered blown front brake line (bad things come in 3’s right? This should be the last thing?). Due to the custom nature of the front end of our truck, we couldn’t just walk into an AutoZone and grab a new one. Luckily Shaffer’s Offroad was available for some quick troubleshooting on parts that might work and be available locally. After a little running around town, we were able to buy a suitable replacement. Now we just had to figure out how to install it…
More luck! We were able to find a friendly tire shop that let us use one of their bays, a jack, and some tools. We swapped out the brake line, and were back on the road in less than 2 hours. Time to head for the mountains, with a quick stop for pizza.
In the mountains we found an oasis, complete with waterfall and swimming holes. After setting up camp, a quick 10 minute hike took us to the lower pools, and an additional few minutes took us to the upper pools. The river was cold and full of tiny fish, and a handful of other tourists. The campground was lush (how deserts can be lush, I don’t understand) and full of flowers, goats and a cranky donkey.
In the morning it was time to find a new beach. After touring every beach north and south of Cerritos, we found the almost perfect spot. Uncrowded, white sand, and so many whales swimming by all day long. Being close to town, we decided to try a recommendation from our Canadian friends, and it did not disappoint. Shaka’s had the best pork belly tacos and gigantic guacamole. The local gringos were extremely friendly (maybe too friendly?) and there was a Nirvana cover band playing that killed it.
After a couple of good days, it was time to check on the state of the roof. That’s right, we’d been driving around with no idea how the roof rack, kayaks or surfboard were doing for days. It turns out the kayaks were completely fine, just a few scrapes. The roof rack was also ok, just some minor tweaking. The surfboard however didn’t hold up as well. The nose was missing a large chunk, and one of the rails was crushed, but it wasn’t broken in the middle like it appeared to be. Shaffer’s Offroad to the rescue again! A customer of theirs recommended Pescadero Surf Shop to us, and we were about to drop off the board for repair at an extremely reasonably price. We’ll know how it went in 4-5 days, fingers crossed!
