Baja Bound Blog

We woke up Thursday morning with a cold wind howling across Gonzaga Bay. The front that had been moving down the west coast all week was heading south and showed no signs of letting up. We drank coffee as the sun did its best to warm things up. The photos don’t do justice to just how blustery the day was, but it was a beautiful morning nonetheless! Today our plan was to get to San Ignacio as soon as we could, and then determine the best route into San Juanico where our race pit would be set up. Our planned travel route was to head south out of Gonzaga, through Coco’s Corner and back out to Highway 1 at Chapala, then south through Guerrero Negro and on to San Ignacio.

Morning low tide on Gonzaga Bay

The sign for Alfonsinas on the way out of town

The long road ahead of us

Cocos coche

Geoff from Baja Bound Mexican Insurance with Coco

Doug signs the guestbook

Coco’s beer can banner

One of the many historical artifacts at Coco’s Corner

The caravan continues south

Niños at Chapala Junction…although Mexican insurance was the furthest thing from their mind, they loved the stickers! The burritos from the restaurant here were also amazing!

The mission at San Ignacio

Bill from Mag 7 discusses logistics with Hannibal from the medical team in San Ignacio

Mag 7 and the San Ignacio medical team pose for a photo opportunity

Based upon suggestions from a number of locals in San Ignacio, we opted to take the north road to San Juanico. We had heard the road was good for the most part, with only a few rough spots, and it was definitely the quickest, but not easiest road in. Our biggest concern was the large trailer Bill was hauling as it was loaded down with all of the pit gear including about 350 gallons of racing fuel, so it was HEAVY!

The coast road near Laguna San Ignacio

Great desert scenery between San Ignacio and San Juanico

We were chasing daylight and only had about 30 miles left to get to San Juanico when the unthinkable happened. Bill radioed to us saying the he hit a rock pretty hard and the trailer had a flat tire. Unfortunately when the tire came off Bill saw that the leaf spring had snapped in half as well. A short time later Bill had rigged a piece of firewood in place of the leaf spring and we were moving again, but at a much slower pace. We drove for a bit longer until we came upon a particularly silty bed that looked problematic. Instead of risking getting vehicles stuck in the dark, we decided to set up camp for the night and finish the drive in the morning.

Out with the leaf spring and in with the wood spring!