To The Finish Line (Day Ten)
Catavina was every bit as amazing in the morning light. We explored the camping area a bit, then headed just back to the entrance, where there was a nice pathway that had signs giving information about the Colima tribe that once lived in the area. As we climbed up the hill we came upon an area of easily accessible caves with some really amazing petroglyphs. We had a long drive ahead of us, but we were so glad we took the time to see all of that.
About an hour north of Catavina we ducked off the paved road to visit La Lobera – a dramatic blowhole on the Pacific coast that is home to a fisherman’s union hall and a vibrant colony of seals. Oh, and an old limo. We’re thinking it’s been there a while because the road into the place was a fair challenge for even a well-built 4×4.
Much of the rest of the day was eaten up by motoring northward. Our end goal was the Bajamar resort area north of Ensenada. It was all highway to get there, through some really quite beautiful mountains, canyons, and cliffs with ocean views. We hope to return someday to spend more time in this northwestern section of Baja California and explore it a little more slowly.
The closer we got to Ensenada, the more traffic there was. This was a little hard to take, given the stunning, remote areas we’d been in for days. It took a little mental shifting to remind ourselves that civilization was still a thing. We didn’t really stop for anything but a quick lunch and fuel, as we were trying to make it to Bajamar in time for the closing Zoom ceremony. We had something of an idea that maybe there would be some small gatherings to participate in the Zoom call and we wanted to close out the event with some of the people we’d met.
As the sun went down, we finally got to the entrance of Bajamar. It’s a large, gated community area comprised of houses, timeshare properties, golf courses, and a hotel and restaurant complex. We made our way to the hotel and found out upon checking in that we had almost no time to clean up and get to the restaurant before they stopped serving food. Festive finish line atmosphere it was not, but such is life in pandemic days. We checked into our rooms, grabbed some very welcome showers, and got to the restaurant in time to get a refreshingly delicious dinner and a couple great margaritas. There were a few rally folks left in the bar, but in the end of the day, we grabbed beers from our truck fridges and went to one of our two rooms to fire up the Zoom call.
Honestly, the finish line ceremony was as good as it could have been, given all the disruption to what was originally planned. Obviously, no one could have predicted all the changes that were to come to this event. Was it what we expected? No. Are we disappointed by that? Absolutely not! Part of being human is learning to roll with change, and put simply, if we hadn’t signed up for this event we probably would have never taken an epic, amazing, ten day trip around the entire Baja California peninsula….and look at all the adventure we would have missed. It was so…very…worth it.
There is a Day Eleven and even a Day Twelve, but we’re gonna end this tale here. Suffice it to say our trip back over the border was pleasant, safe, and non-eventful, and we got home safely.
And we cannot wait to go back!