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crazyvwvanman
Samba Member
Joined: January 28, 2008
Posts: 9923
Location: Orbiting San Diego
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 Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:30 pm Post subject: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! (March 2017) |
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Just got home from another great Baja trip. This time we had 6 Vanagons and a Eurovan all joining up in San Diego from Alberta, Washington, Arizona, and California. We had aircooled, diesel, wbx, Subaru, including 3 Syncros. Many of us had never met before and I think we all parted as friends after a great time together.
Every year thousands of grey whales travel from near Alaska down to Baja to give birth and make new whales Jan-April. For some years now I have been taking groups of VW vans down there for a week of camping fun including a visit to the whales.
Here is a short video compilation of what we did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is5uFmcDOzA
Fun times!
This below is a photo of sunrise at one of our camps.
Mark |
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ThankYouJerry
Samba Member
Joined: September 01, 2012
Posts: 2271
Location: Shakedown Street
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| Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:54 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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Thanks for sharing. Great video! What a good time it looks like you all had. Cheers!
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1990 Multivan - "Ohana"
1.8T, Auto w/3.27 R&P + Peloquin TBD |
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WLD*WSTY
Samba Member
Joined: November 04, 2009
Posts: 438
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:57 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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Wow, Mark, just-wow! The scenery, the ocean, the whale, even the coyote! Gotta get down there sometime...
Thanks for sharing!
_________________
'82 SyncroWesty, the first ever conversion.'06 Subaru 2.5L |
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kryptkat
Samba Member
Joined: November 08, 2008
Posts: 236
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| Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:57 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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| Good stuff Mark. Wish we were there. One of these days we're going to join you. |
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GWTWTLW
Samba Member
Joined: April 22, 2008
Posts: 2174
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 12:38 am Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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Wow! That's awesome! I'd love to do that some year. Baja in a van has definitely been on my bucket list for a while.
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89 Syncro Westy - GW 2.5, now with a double knob job
@gwtwtlw |
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dobryan
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Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16503
Location: Brookeville, MD
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crazyvwvanman
Samba Member
Joined: January 28, 2008
Posts: 9923
Location: Orbiting San Diego
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| Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 5:19 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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You are welcome Larry. The whale in the video is a baby and the huge mother was right there too, bigger than the boat. The mothers sometimes push their shy babies over to the boats so the people in the boats can reach out and touch them and that happened to us a few times this trip. Some of the mothers want to be touched as well. Seems strange for wild animals to act this way. Most of the whales just go about their business but some clearly enjoy us as much as we enjoy them.
We kayak fished in the late afternoons and caught enough for dinner no problem. The scraps went into the water and the next morning a coyote came at dawn to try to get them. It waded into the water 50 feet from us and when it couldn't quite reach them it waited nearby for the tide to go out and then it came back to grab them.
We drove about 1300 miles in Mexico. No big van problems. One van hit a bad bump at a wash and broke a shock but kept on. Another had a noise come and go that I think was a worn CV but not sure. One of the wbx vans would occasionally stumble but not often enough to be a real problem. Everywhere we went people wanted to talk about our vans. When we were stopped at gas stations other cars would pull over and take photos of us. VW vans are cool, even to Mexicans.
Mark
| WLD*WSTY wrote: |
Wow, Mark, just-wow! The scenery, the ocean, the whale, even the coyote! Gotta get down there sometime...
Thanks for sharing! |
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joetiger 
Samba Member
Joined: January 27, 2005
Posts: 5078
Location: denver
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:26 am Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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| dobryan wrote: |
Thanks!
One of these days....... |
Same here. Gotta do this.
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Joe T.
'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32
"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron
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Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present
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photogdave
Samba Member
Joined: April 05, 2004
Posts: 3052
Location: Vancouver Island, B.C.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:46 am Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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| GWTWTLW wrote: |
| Wow! That's awesome! I'd love to do that some year. Baja in a van has definitely been on my bucket list for a while. |
Just ordered my Baja Almanac to start the planning with.
I'll wave and honk as I drive past your house on the way down! 
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89 Syncro GL Westfalia 2.1 WBX/WBXaustSS
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blackglasspirate
Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2006
Posts: 1612
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 11:21 am Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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This is awesome. I wanted to meet up with you guys but we'll miss you by a few weeks. We are getting reading to head that way and meet some friends on their way back up from down south. Any recommendations on places to go/see? We are driving down to La Paz and then working our way back up.
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furrylittleotter
Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2008
Posts: 1506
Location: West Seattle
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:06 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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| crazyvwvanman wrote: |
VW vans are cool, even to Mexicans.
Mark
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 awesome another successful trip! Still grateful for my trip down with you guys years back.
Neil2 |
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MidwestDrifter
Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2012
Posts: 769
Location: Kicking Around Australia
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:14 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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A few weeks in Baja is a must for any Vanagon, (Or just van-life) enthusiast. A truly Unique place. I strongly recommend.
It might even convince a few Nomads to make the great southerly trek. 
Next time you guys make a Baja run I might tag along in my new rig.  I know this great fish taco stand...
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2004 Dodge/Mercedes Sprinter (Custom Camper)
2000 Jetta TDI
1982 Diesel Westy W/ ABA I4 hybrid (Sold)
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My Current Build | http://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41215 |
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16CVs
Samba Member
Joined: February 22, 2004
Posts: 4024
Location: Redwood City, California
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 7:45 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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My wife and I were one of the 7 vans. I want to go back again and spend more time there.
The roads are great until they turn in to dirt or washboard. The people are great and the sites are amazing.
Asides from breaking a front shock on the first leg of the trip, everything worked well.
Thanks to CrazyVwman for organizing the trip and knowing when to stop and where to go.
On the drive to see the whales we stopped in a picturesque town which looked like something from a movie.
I will try and post a few of my photos later.
Stacy
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1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
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SyncroPedro
Samba Member
Joined: June 08, 2013
Posts: 61
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:06 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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Great video and it looked like a great trip! As someone else said, the Mexico coast in a van has been on my bucket list for a long time. I need to make it happen...
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Satch
Samba Member
Joined: June 10, 2015
Posts: 53
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:32 pm Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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Glad everyone enjoyed the trip. I was jealous hearing you all talk about going on the trip during the last SD van meet up. Maybe next year...
Great video! Go Buttercup... Air-cooled for life! |
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crazyvwvanman
Samba Member
Joined: January 28, 2008
Posts: 9923
Location: Orbiting San Diego
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:02 am Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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It is whale season again in Baja!!! I'm going again myself in March. Last year we had 7 vans. Not sure how many this time yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is5uFmcDOzA
Mark |
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0to60in6min
Samba Member
Joined: November 27, 2006
Posts: 3416
Location: OR & CA (Oregon/California)
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 11:19 am Post subject: Re: 7 vans in Baja 7 days, friendly whales too! |
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We went with Mark for the 2013 whale trip... it was great... due to time constraint we missed the one in 2016 but we went by ourselves...
2013
Mark's van in front of caravan
the morning after roadside camping due to rain
bonfire at La Gringa
camping at La Gringa
2016
a storm caught us by surprise
a fellow and wife on their way to La Paz
a very nice fully restored Syncro on their way to La Paz too..
our vans at beach camping
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