Travel-Trotter

By Julian

In Bahia Conception, we stayed at a beach called El Requison.

We drove up in the RV, then I quickly went outside to see the new bench. Well I was playing in the sand my dad came back and said we were digging for clams!!

I was super Excited I’ve never done for clams before so I ran across the beach to where mom was. Then I thought an old lady that found like 20 of the clans I was so excited to get started!! So the first thing I did was go right next to mom and search for clams by digging in the sand. So then I didn’t find any for 10 minutes, so I went to where dad was dad said this was the jackpot area I did for a little while but I got kind of impatient so I went to where mom was Then I saw a big clam!! So I decided to dig for more I found a lot of baby clams that we couldn’t keep because they were Tiny. So I went back over to where dad was and I found like three big clams so I was excited I dug for a little while longer and I eventually found one more clam. But then Caroline and Mimi came rushing over they said there are so many clams!!! So I hurried over And just like they said I found like 10 clams in the first five seconds.

Dad cooked the clams for dinner. We didn’t really like them but he did. We had so many we couldn’t cook them all so we shared some with other campers nearby.

We moved the second night to a beach close by called Playa La Perla. It was so cute and we were the only campers there. We set up our cabana like a little house.

Loreto is probably a quarter of the way up the peninsula on the Sea of Cortez and normally is a pretty touristy location with beautiful sea views and like many other towns in Baja had it’s origin as a mission town.  It also has a marine park off it’s shores consisting of 4 islands.  We were lucky enough to take a boat ride around one of them, Isle de Coronado, it was one of the most amazing marine boat tours we have ever taken.  The boat was easy to procure just walking down to the harbor we had boat captains offering rides.  We started at 10am not expecting too much, after a 40 minute boat ride we approached Coronado and saw a turtle then another then some stingrays and then more sting rays.  The stingrays are known for jumping out of the water in the area but it is the wrong time of year for this behavior. They seemed to be all over the place in the azure blue shallows.  We spied some dolphins off in the distance and headed that direction and all of a sudden they were all over the place hundreds of dolphins jumping out of the water and playing in the wake of the boat.  The kids were screaming with joy and just couldn’t believe it.  After a half an hour playing with the dolphins we headed around the island and observed some sea lions. 

We were flabbergasted with the abundance with the marine life and then our boat driver turned to us and said do you want to go see a blue whale??  We were like sure, but I thought to myself something got lost in translation, maybe a gray whale.  We headed out to see where another boat was sitting idle and waited for the whale…   All of a sudden there is this huge loud whooooshhh of air and we see this massive whale surface, it was enormous!  We puttered the boat over and stayed about 1000 feet away and watched the whale surface and breath 8-9 times and then dove, showing it’s tale.  We sat in rapt attention for probably 40 minutes as the creature dove and surfaced several times, likely feeding on krill.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen on the ocean, we were in the presence of the largest species to ever exist on the earth!  After our encounter we saw a blue footed boobie and hung out on a small beach for an hour or so before heading back to Loreto. We had more ceviche strolled along the malecon and walked to the mission but basically couldn’t stop talking about the blue whale.

By Julian

While we were staying in Todos Santos, our friends invited us with them to volunteer at a dog rescue.

The RV stopped, I realized we were here. We got out of the RV and walked about two blocks. Then I saw them PUPPIES!!!!!! They were so cute. All of the kids started putting their hands through the fence through the fence and patting them. Then we listened to all of the rules. After we listened to the rules we went into the double gate because if the puppies were to go out they probably wouldn’t be able to catch them!

Then they opened the door! But we saw the big dogs first because the door to the puppies was inside where the Adult dogs are. We pet adult dogs for a little while then Caroline ( my sister ) volunteered to pick up The dog poop and then we went into puppy area!

I was so excited. Caroline asked Brynn ( our guide/friend ) Is the puppies have names she told us she had forgotten them so we could call them what ever want! I picked up the one that had licked me on the arm it was a beautiful white dog so I would call her cupcake! Cupcake was so cute! Then Brynn told us that we were going to hold up signs for donors with puppies and take a picture. The first few were my friend Ezra and Caroline then it was me And Ezra Then it was Soren ( my friend) And Mimi (my sister ). so we took a lot of photos they were super cool. We were donors too so I made a sign for us!

So a lot later we were almost finally done with the photos there was only A few left. Then we realized all of the puppies were asleep in their bed so cute! So we took the last pictures with the puppies in their bed asleep

When it was time to play with the big dogs for a little while So I mostly played with this one dog Lucy, Lucy was the owner of the dog shelter dog she was really cute! When I played with the other dogs for a little while one was a golden retriever but I don’t know the other one it was a beautiful black dog but I New it was not a chocolate lab because it had a really long Snout. Then we went out of the dog Shelter and we walked back to the RV because our friends place was on the way me and Ezra had a chat about books (Harry Potter).

by Mirabelle

Our story begins on a beach, the 30th of January, and the sun was going down so it was the perfect time for baby turtles to swim into the ocean. It had to be this time because baby turtles can damage or even lose their eyesight from the sun. When it was sunset, our friends (and volunteers) came out of the turtle greenhouse. The greenhouse was to keep the temperature just right so that the turtles were 50% male 50% female, because the temperature of the sand determines the gender of the turtles, but I’m getting off topic. When our friends came out they had baskets of baby turtles! Wow, they were so cute we all immediately crowded around the fence they were in front of, as the volunteers gave a talk about how we were not allowed to touch the turtle because the oils on our hands are dangerous to them.

When the sun was going down we were allowed in the greenhouse so we could “adopt a nest” (which is donating to the organization so we could help a nest). We ended up picking nest 212 of Green Ridley Turtles, by the time we finished adopting our turtles it was almost time to let the babies go. As we were about to head down the beach I got handed the bucket of three baby turtles! They were so cute when I brought them to the water to go in the ocean and hopefully live a good life and come to the beach once again to lay their eggs. As the turtles inched their way to the ocean the waves kept pushing them back up the beach, we cheered them on anyway. We named them Ricky, Thunder, and Ranch. Ranch is the first to finally get swept out to sea but everyone else was not far behind. Once all the turtles were in the ocean we headed back into the RV, and then to bed. This was an amazing experience that I definitely loved and would recommend to anyone.

holding newborn turtles

turtle release at sunset

We arrived in San Jose del Cabo the sleepy brother to Cabo San Lucas on a Monday afternoon and checked into our Airbnb a lovely 4 bedroom house a block and a half off the beach. We had paid for the pool to be heated and it was quite amazing. I think the first couple days we did nothing but pool time and beach time, it was good to be away from each other in a way you can’t in the RV. It was good for Maddy to catch up on work after being out of cell range for a few days.

The two towns on the very end of the Baja Peninsula are collectively known as Los Cabos or the Cape and were by far the most populated areas that we stayed near. Normally these towns would be bustling with activity and tourist but these are not normal times. We stayed away from activities with lots of people which meant lots of beach walks especially at sunset. Quite amazingly there were very few people on the beach which makes for great sunset photos.  About 3-4 days into our stay we decided we could all use more time at the house and extended to a week and a half. Below is a description of most of our activities:

We took a day trip to Cabo San Lucas by car to take a boat ride out to what’s known as the Arch located at the furthest point on the Baja Peninsula also known as lands end. 

We did horseback ride on the beach one day, was quite lovely but we all had sore butts.

One night we went to the art festival in the downtown area of San Jose del Cabo.  We wandered around and looked at art and got street food near the mission until we were convinced by the kids to eat Italian food at an outdoor restaurant.

We also had new friends over that were volunteering in Todos Santos to our pool one day. We had some lovely beach days and the kids played in the surf until someone told us it was dangerous at low tide due to riptides. Once of the days I took Julie to the beach and we spotted a whale in the surf, literally 10 feet off the shore. We were amazed that we saw a whale that close in (sorry no picture).

We have reached our furthest destination on the Baja Peninsula so seems like a perfect time to do a map update. It’s time to play escape from Baja!

We arrived in Cabo Pulmo after several days in the windy towns of La Ventana and Los Barriles.  We were warned that the last 10 kilometers to the town were unpaved and a bit rough but we had no problems just went very slow.  Cabo Pulmo is a Mexican National Marine park that encompasses a coral reef off the coast and is known as the best diving in Baja, so naturally we were drawn there to dive.  The Cabo Pulmo reef is the most northern reef in the Eastern Pacific and is an example of an overfished spot that was restored and preserved. We chose to stay on the south side of town at the Cabo Pulmo park, it was a boondocking spot with a ton of fun rocks to climb around on for the kids.  There was snorkeling near the shore but the water was too rough.

The next morning we went diving, happily the waters were not too rough and we got two nice dives in.  The first was a reef dive, with lots of fish and we saw a huge leatherback turtle!  Our second dive was on a ship wreak that is frequented by bull sharks, we love sharks so we jumped at the chance.  Unfortunately I busted my GoPro case last year so I wasn’t able to take it diving.

Apres diving we went and got fish tacos and ceviche then found another beach to boondock at.  I was able to find a place with a tv and caught the Packers game in a well ventilated space.   The kids played around on the beach coming up with a way of surfing down the rocks.

By Julian

La Ventana is a beautiful beach, and they have a lot of kite surfers there. They go there because the wind is perfect for kite surfing. The kite surfers are very skilled and talented. They were flipping a lot. They would go in the air and doing cool flips.

The people who we talked to in the campground were very nice too. Some of them come and stay here for many months just to kite surf every day. It was very warm and windy when we were there. The wind starts every afternoon, which is when the kite surfers go out. Someday I would like to kitesurf, but for now I like to watch them.

By Maddy

Well after a while on the road we were all feeling like we could use a little space and break from the tight quarters (and maybe from each other a bit!) So we booked an Airbnb in La Paz for 4 days. It was a great decision and we loved the place we stayed which was super unique and Gaudi inspire architecture. The whole house was all round and curvy and white with great windows and art all around. We loved it! The master bathroom didn’t have a door, which was a bummer but it did have insane views of the city and the sea.

The house had a pool which was a bit too cold for us, and the hot tub wasn’t working which was too bad. But we still spent a lot of time hanging outside.

We also got the chance to catch up on work and have the kids do some blogging and math and such.

I enjoyed running on the malecon (beachfront walkway) though I did have to wear a mask as there were some other people around, which always makes it hard to breathe!

by Caroline

When we were in La Paz we went on a boat to go see whale sharks. We learned that the whale shark is the world’s largest shark although there are larger whales in the oceans this is the biggest fish. First we rented wet suits because the water in the Sea of Cortez is very cold. Then we took a boat to go see the sharks in a protected cove near the harbor of La Paz. Once we got to the protected area we spotted a shark in the water. Everyone else went into the water but I chickened out because I was too scared. The next time I got in I had to swim really hard to get close enough to see the shark, the water was freezing was not the very clear but we were able to see it because the whale shark was huge. The shark was gray and had white dots, there were only juvenile sharks in the area that were probably 15-20 feet long. A full grown whale shark can get to between 30-60 feet!!! Did you know that their eyes are the size of ping pong balls.

At first, I was so terrified that I wanted to go back to the boat. I also thought we were too close to it so I thought we were going to get hit by its tale. After a bit, I got used to the big shark. At the end my parents went into the water again to see a whale shark that was eating, and I could see it from the boat which was really cool. usually you should not swim with sharks when they are eating because they could eat you! but whale sharks only eat tiny plankton, also they have filters in their throat that filter out anything bigger than that. After we finished we ate sandwiches, and they were really good. On the way back it was windy and cold. This was super cool to do and I would totally recommend it.