Tijuana to La Paz March 10, 2007

Baja Road Report Tijuana to La Paz March 10, 2007

Looking north over the quiet little town of Santa Rosalia March 10, 2007 TJ to La Paz Robert Veteran Baja Driver The transpeninsular highway has never been in better shape! I crossed the border at San Ysidro in the predawn hours and was waved through Customs, despite having tripped a red light. Traffic was light until I was on the south side of Ensenada – it must have been Friday rush hour! From Ensenada to Colnet, truck traffic kept me below the posted limits most of the way. It is incredible how much areas like San Quentin and Colnet have grown! Need Mexican Auto Insurance? Click here for an instant quote or print your policy online NOW! The military check point north of El Rosario was already busy at 11AM, with about 15 cars waiting for northbound Santa Rosita, south of Ensenada has nearly doubled in size in the last few years. inspection. This was the only checkpoint that even bothered to open the rear hatch of my car and take a cursorily look through my belongings. Northbound travelers seemed to be getting a pretty good going over through. The trip through the high desert was lovely, very green and the Boojums are in great spring form. Watch for the speed trap in Catavina. Even the Semi's were going through the area at a crawl. There is the reoccurring pot hole in the south bound lane in the vado on the south side of Catavina. There was virtually nothing to report the rest of the the first day, in Baja California. we crossed into Baja Sur around sunset and stayed in Guerreo Negro. At the immigration Station we were asked for our travel papers but the car was neither searched or sprayed. A Columbia Exports truck winds it's way up the steep grade south of Ensenada We left about 9AM, after the fog lifted in Guerreo Negro and made good time on the long straight-aways toward San Ignacio. There were some rough spots in the road for the fist 80 miles, but nothing drastic. In San Ignacio a truck carrying chicken crates had lost part of it's load right at the main intersection where you turn off Hwy one to go to town. There were a few chickens running about, but there didn't seem to be enough to have filled the cages dumped in the road. Perhaps Chicken was on the menu at several additional homes in S. I. that night! As we got closer to Santa Rosalia there were still some warning markers for hurricane road damage. It seemed that most of them were false alarms, as any damage we saw and already been repaired. A bridge is under construction at the canyon north of Cuesta del Infierno Just north of Cuesta del Infierno, (the long steep hill, just north of Santa Rosalia) there is a dramatic vado that the highway has wound through for years. There are always a few wrecked cars at the bottom, those that failed to negotiate the sharp curves and drop-offs of this road hazard. Now they are building a bridge across it that will make the roadway flat and straight from one side of the canyon to the other. Having driven this road for years, I think it will take away some of the charm though. Mulege still showed debris lining the riverbed, but nothing like we had expected. South bound at Cuesta del Infierno homeward bound travelers get their reassuring first glimpses of the Sea of Cortez Closer to Loreto there was more evidence of road repairs and just one dip about 2km south of Loreto that rattled my teeth a little. Could be much worse pulling a trailer. Just north of the CD Insergents intersection they are rebuilding a bridge. It's a short detour that slows you down to a crawl for a few hundred yards. It was clear sailing from there to La Paz, with the exception of the traditional road damage near Santa Rita. One vado made the car bottom out at 50mph - Ooops! In the entire trip we saw 1 Federal Hwy patrol car and one Green Angel (Hwy rescue) which is fewer than I have EVER seen. Looking north along the main boulevard in CD Constitucion We saw quite a few US license plates driving south and met some great people at our rest stops. Truck traffic seemed light, but our second day was a Saturday. We had just one run in with a small caravan of RV'ers headed south. They seemed to feel it was an affront to their manhood to be passed, despite the fact they could barely maintain 40mph on some of the grades. Please guys it has nothing to do with size - it's how fast you can drag it! Overall, it was probably one of the smoothest trips I have made in 8 years. Our total 'on the road time' was 22hrs and 15 minutes, from the border to our home in La Paz.   Happy (and safe) Trails all!

 

 

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