Tim Gilberg Surf Trip
Todos Santos, which is noted as a sleepy artist colony and fishing town, sure makes a lot of noise at night!
It seemed as if every barking dog (The Mexican dogs really know how to party at night), street sweeper, and building construction was going full steam all night long. There was also a continuous stream of semi trucks downshifting as they drove by; all freight travels through Todos Santos.

We ate breakfast in the dining area of the Hotel California. Fresh flour tortillas, eggs and chorizo, along with fresh squeezed orange juice accompanied by the usual swarm of flies. I am known as a quick eater, so the flies didn't get much love from me.

Ron purchased a Baja Surf Guide which notated various surf breaks along with basic directions. Our destination was Las Palmas. We drove back South along Highway 19 for about 18 miles. Ron spotted the turnoff to the dirt road and we swung the minivan onto it. After driving about a mile and a half on the dusty road it sloped down and there were numerous ruts and potholes that looked ugly. Many of them were filled with water so we pulled the Van to a stop to take a look.

We got out.
It looked like an Oasis ahead with lush gigantic palm trees. Everything was green and tropical; quite a contrast to the barren desert landscape a few feet behind us. The reason being that there is a freshwater stream flowing under this section of land, which allows plant life to flourish.

After closer inspection of the water-filled ruts we, of course, decided it would be a bad idea to proceed......just kidding....why on earth would two surfers do something that made sense on only the second day of our trip?
We had a minivan that had about 6 inches of clearance. Ron races Baja motorcycles so I let him do the honors of navigating the minivan down the first set of obstacles.
With clunking, scraping, mud flying and tires spinning he made it through. Hmmmm, that was harder than I thought, and there was another sloping rut-filled mud pit ahead. We decided not to take any more chances and turned around. Sorry, that was also a joke! If you do something stupid maybe another stupid move will make it into a positive.

He drove the minivan expertly through the maze of mud and muck.
We did it! We made it to the bottom. We high-fived and drove about 20 yards where there was a barb wire fence filled with Mexican signs. We got out. It wasn't locked, just tied, so Ron untied the fence and we thought it would allow us to drive to the beach. Unfortunately, trees blocked the path a mere 10 yards ahead.

We pulled the minivan up and started to unload our surfboards when a redfaced, angry Mexican in mud boots started cursing at us in Spanish. Uh, OH, Part Two tomorrow!