Baja Travel Journal – A rough start to Catavina

It’s a good thing that we had a nice rest in the wine country because you can see we had a bit of an adventure as we began the Baja half of our journey. 

Another bit of serendipity was that our tire monitor showed low pressure as we were driving through Ensenada. Just across the street was a transport truck repair shop. We parked at the curb and asked for help. We before we knew it, everything was handled. A gentleman at the truck shop called a friend who had a tow truck. The tow truck friend whipped off our tire and patched it right there in the street! The whole process from monitor notification to being back on the road took about an hour.

What was I doing while all this was going on – knitting my socks, of course? I wanted Bob to take a photo of me knitting as I stood by the car but he seemed a bit distracted. 

The rest of the day was very easy. The road from Ensenada to Catavina (Mexico Hwy 1) is two-lane but there isn’t much traffic and the truckers are very polite. If the road is clear, they turn on their left hand turn signal so you know it is safe to pass. The driving is not particularly challenging so we were able to enjoy listening to an audio book. When I wasn’t driving, I was knitting. Xena was in her comfortable travel bag the belts onto any car seat.

The hotel in Catavina is run by the Mexican government. It was simple but very clean and the restaurant was just fine. The scenery as we drove as got me wanting to buy an Idiot’s Guide to Geology. Huge, rounded boulders, tall mesas, flat desert spaces. Fascinating and particularly lovely when the morning light moves across the landscape.

Because we made such good progress on the drive to Catavina, we decided to hit the road early and drive all the way to Loredo. That meant we could get home by the following day. Sorry, I don’t have any photos because we were so focused on getting home that we didn’t make any tourist stops. Bob isn’t a real road-trip kind of guy so I don’t think he would have been interested in stoppin anyway.

We got to the house two days before our friend’s wedding festivities started. Four night of activities including the evening wedding. Whew! Those were two busy weeks! I’m ready to begin to play with the fiber stash I packed into every crevice of the car.