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Tobias Duncan
Samba Member
Joined: January 15, 2013
Posts: 1391
Location: Taos NM
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 Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:53 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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| Alas I succumbed to family pressure and came home earlier in the week. Still kicking myself. I could have stocked up on supplies as spent a month or more on one of my remote beach campsites where I rarely see a soul. |
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jimf909 
Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014
Posts: 7473
Location: WA/ID
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| Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 11:02 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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It seems a quiet baja beach would be a nice place to wait this out 'til mid-May or so. And by mid-May, I might mean mid-May 2021.
Enjoy your travels!
_________________
- Jim
| Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
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Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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16CVs
Samba Member
Joined: February 22, 2004
Posts: 4026
Location: Redwood City, California
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:07 am Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Coming over the border was no issue. A great time was had by myself and passenger. Mexico had some great scenery and the nicest people you will ever meet. Er
This is my third trip to Baja and for sure not my last. It was cut a little short because of some health issue, but it値l blow over.
Stacy
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread. |
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Love My Westy
Samba Member
Joined: August 08, 2007
Posts: 1839
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:50 am Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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| 16CVs wrote: |
Coming over the border was no issue. A great time was had by myself and passenger. Mexico had some great scenery and the nicest people you will ever meet. Er
This is my third trip to Baja and for sure not my last. It was cut a little short because of some health issue, but it値l blow over.
Stacy |
Did you come back with the rest of the group? There are no posts from dobryan since March 15. |
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16CVs
Samba Member
Joined: February 22, 2004
Posts: 4026
Location: Redwood City, California
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:37 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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He痴 back in the states. I知 sure he値l post soon enough.
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread. |
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jimf909
Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014
Posts: 7473
Location: WA/ID
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 1:07 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Did y'all cut the trip short or did the timing go as planned?
Baja is still on my to-do list. Thanks for the inspiration.
_________________
- Jim
| Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
|
Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:50 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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We came home one day early. Yesterday we planned to camp at El Pabillon like on the way down but 4 of the 5 busses decided to just keep driving to the border. We crossed at about 10:30pm.
The border closing is for non US. citizens so we could have come back today but why take the chance.
I値l post pics and comments soon. Busy cleaning the bus and getting it ready for a potential long storage out here. Fortunately Bob of our group (psychedelic paint job) has a great yard for storage.
I fly home to MD tomorrow.
What a fantastic trip!
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson
MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646
Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371
The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794 |
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Love My Westy
Samba Member
Joined: August 08, 2007
Posts: 1839
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:39 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Great to see you back. I'm glad you had a good time.  |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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crazyvwvanman
Samba Member
Joined: January 28, 2008
Posts: 9937
Location: Orbiting San Diego
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| Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 5:29 am Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Family back hope were pretty nervous about our being down there at all, with everything going on.
After a few days without any we got back into cell phone coverage at the same time Fri that the pending "border closing" news hit hard.
While I was confident that we could get home either way the pressure from home to just make a run for the border became insurmountable.
It is too bad that we missed our last night together and at a beach camp with hot showers to boot.
My 2.1 waterpump quit on day 5 after making noises for a couple days.
I carry a new one in all my vans so 16CVs and I swapped it in a few hours while camped at a beach.
Thanks again for the help and the tow Stacy.
And thanks to everyone for a great trip!
Mark
| jimf909 wrote: |
Did y'all cut the trip short or did the timing go as planned?
Baja is still on my to-do list. Thanks for the inspiration. |
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Vanagon Nut
Samba Member
Joined: February 08, 2008
Posts: 10379
Location: Sunshine Coast B.C.
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| Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:55 am Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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| crazyvwvanman wrote: |
My 2.1 waterpump quit ..... 16CVs and I swapped it in a few hours while camped at a beach.
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I say that's good times right there!
Glad things worked out.
Neil.
_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15ｺ ABA
1988 West DIY 50ｺ ABA
VE7TBN |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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| Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:39 am Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Day 2
We left El Pabillon and headed toward San Ignacio with our destination of the Kuyima encampment on the San Ignacio lagoon.
http://www.kuyima.com/whales/
The roads are in excellent condition.
Rest break among the rocks and cactus.
We fueled up at El Rosario since there was no gas stations for the next 210 miles. If you ran low your were dependent on buying gas from a street vendor with plastic jugs on the side of the road.
The next gas station did have good tamales.
Entering Baja South. Butterfly guts on windshield were a constant companion.
San Ignacio has a beautiful very old cathedral.
After leaving San Ignacio the final 10 miles to the lagoon shore is a sand and gravel mess. The 'road' is just above the high tide level and floods out often. It was washed out 2 days before we arrived and repaired but still had many areas of unknown depth water. We finally were lead in by a member of the Kuyima staff who was warned we may be floundering out on the salt flats some where.
The Kuyima compound is very well done. We were camped right on a small bluff overlooking the lagoon. They have an excellent small restaurant with very reasonable food and drink prices.
Our whale watching boat leaves at 9am tomorrow.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson
MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646
Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371
The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794
Last edited by dobryan on Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:23 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Day 3:
The San Ignacio lagoon is a grey whale calving ground and hundreds of whales make the trip each winter to calve in the lagoon. The shallow depths keep the Orcas out of the lagoon and the grey whale calves are safe. (at least until they have to leave to swim back north).
As a UNESCO site the access onto the lagoon is very restricted and only 16 small boats can be there at any time. Our boat was about a 20 footer with benches for a max of 12 people. We traveled at speed about 15 minutes along the shore area to get to the area of the lagoon where boats are allowed.
The calves are very playful with the boats and swim along and under with ease. Momma sometimes does as well. After a while momma will cut between her baby and the boat and that is enough playing for the time being. Everywhere we looked there were whales breaching, it was an awe inspiring site.
My friend Joe and I were fortunate enough to briefly touch a baby as it came alongside. A moment I will never forget. 
Our walk back to shore from the tour (about 1.5 hours in the whale area.)
I would highly recommend this organization for future travelers.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson
MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646
Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371
The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794 |
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Vanagon Nut
Samba Member
Joined: February 08, 2008
Posts: 10379
Location: Sunshine Coast B.C.
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| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:27 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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I've done this tour. Thanks for the pics. Brings back some great memories!
Neil.
_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15ｺ ABA
1988 West DIY 50ｺ ABA
VE7TBN |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:41 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Day 5 and 6:
The morning started out nice and Mark and Joe decided to try fishing. Apparently a can't miss catching fish spot. Mark shows off the catch...
Then a front blew through with rain and high winds so all we could do was hunker down and go into town for dinner.
On the way back from dinner Mark's water pump on his 2.1 wbx crapped out (it had been making noise the last 2 days) but like a good Vanagon owner he had a replacement and the tools to fix it. He did get an ignominious tow the last mile into camp from 16CVs.
The last morning was beautiful and Mark and Stacy make short work of the water pump (2 hours) and all was well.
Fishing from the shore still yielded nothing so we were left with the option of begging fish from the small fishing boat outfit along the shore. They also had not done well but were gracious to give us enough for us to make an awesome fish taco dinner with Rich being the lead chef.
Stacy relaxing in the sun not knowing what he would wake up to tomorrow...
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson
MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646
Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371
The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794 |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:55 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Day 7:
Another beautiful morning and we packed up to head north. The plan is to go back to El Pabillon for the night and then into the USA tomorrow.
Rich had a minor sand incident trying to leave and Stacy towed him out.
But when Stacy was maneuvering into place he heard a pop from the right front.
The outer CV joint cage had broken into two pieces (which was some what fortunate) and the axle was wobbling around. Obviously not going anywhere like that.
Stacy was able to remove the inner axle CV connection to the diff and because the CV was in pieces he could pull the axle off the outer stub axle by only removing the sway bar drop link to get clearance. 30 minutes later all was well.
When we finally got back to El Rosario and cell coverage we learned off the concern of our family members about the impending border closure that night at midnight so we decided to make a run for the border.
We made the crossing about 10:30pm. (after wandering 15 very frustrating minutes within a mile of the border trying to find the elusive poorly labeled correct access road)
We had previously adorned the back hatch of Bob's bus with a petrified trigger fish and he proudly crossed the border with it.
I spent all day Saturday cleaning the bus and getting it ready for long term storage at Bob's. Who knows when I'll be able to fly back out to retrieve it?
Joe and I flew home Sunday on Southwest from a deserted San Diego airport into an equally deserted Baltimore Washington International (BWI). The next day many SWA flights were cancelled.
What the best dressed airline passenger wears these days. (But there were only about 40 people on a 175 passenger plane.)
I can't wait to come back out and spend more time exploring southern Baja. I'll definitely look at flying my wife right into the small airport at the San Igancio lagoon so she can join the fun.
Thank you so much to crazyvwvanman for leading us on this trip and to all my new friends who made the trip so special.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson
MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646
Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371
The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794 |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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crazyvwvanman
Samba Member
Joined: January 28, 2008
Posts: 9937
Location: Orbiting San Diego
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| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:02 pm Post subject: Re: Baja 2020 -- 5 Vanagons, 8 days |
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Yes, the increasing noise of the dying water pump had me pretty sure I wouldn't be making it all the way home without fixing it, though my fingers were crossed.
At least it's last gasp occurred on a quiet side road heading back to our camp spot rather than on the main Baja highway where long stretches have nowhere to pull off.
That spare pump had lived under the back seat for 10+ years. In the box with the new pump was a self modified 6mm allen wrench, without which the job is much more difficult. Also a set of the small oil cooler hoses that can be a problem during the pump job, as well as possible failure points all on their own.
Mark
| dobryan wrote: |
.....
On the way back from dinner Mark's water pump on his 2.1 wbx crapped out (it had been making noise the last 2 days) but like a good Vanagon owner he had a replacement and the tools to fix it. He did get an ignominious tow the last mile into camp from 16CVs.....
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16505
Location: Brookeville, MD
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