The Traveling Widower

Tag: travel

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  • The Long Way Down – Baja Part II

    February 23, 2026

    A whale skeleton displayed outdoors, surrounded by a wooden fence, with a building visible in the background under a clear blue sky.
    Grey Whale Skeleton outside the Whale Watch Visitor Center

    I’ve only been to Mexico two times – the first time was when Jan and I did our first international trip (we did live in Texas for a while….that’s sort of another country) and it was quite an experience. Puerto Vallarta, in 1982. Another strange story to tell some other time. Traveling there by plane was pretty simple. We did not even need a passport. This time of course, a passport was required, and driving requires going through Mexican customs, which I had heard could be a harrowing experience

    A soldier in camouflage uniform and a helmet stands outside a building, holding a military rifle.

    Our group was spread into two vans, and we drove off together for the short trip to the border from the hotel. Thankfully, It was a quick and uneventful experience – there were a few armed soldiers standing around, but all we had to do was have our luggage x-rayed and our passports stamped, and off we went. No different than what they do in any international or domestic airport.

    We then headed off to Ensenada, driving along on a really nice highway through parts of Tijuana, and then along the beautiful coast. It was interesting seeing “The Wall”, and then the strange mix of beautiful expensive housing interspersed with more ramshackle types of dwellings close by. I wish I could have taken a few pictures – there was one house we passed that looked like it was made of stacked plywood, three stories high, and had a nice table with chairs up on the very small roof. No railings. Great view, just make sure you don’t lean back.

    Welcome sign to Ensenada in Spanish, with palm trees and a clear blue sky in the background.

    It was a short ride to Ensenada, maybe an hour – really pretty along the coast, and then into the city. The airport is, well, not much of an airport. It’s a military base, with a very small terminal that services a puddle-jumper airline, ASG, that flies to all the small villages in Baja. This was not quite LAX – no conveyer belts, no kiosks, no lounges, restaurants, bars, or anything else. Just a shack with a 100 year old scale to weigh your baggage, and a small terminal with seating and bathrooms that had not been cleaned in a few weeks. 

    Passengers waiting outside a small metal building labeled "Aerotransport ASG Guerrero" with luggage and backpacks, surrounded by trees.
    Check-in line. No kiosks, no conveyer belts
    View of a military airbase building with blue accents and large windows, featuring an airplane wing in the foreground, under a clear blue sky.
    Ensenada Airport Terminal

    We had been assigned two planes, one a single engine Caravan which can carry 12 or so passengers  – this was the regularly scheduled plane and carried some locals who were returning to Isla Cedros with their purchases from Costco. Either that or snacks for the flight. Myself, and five others, were on a small two-engine plane, chartered specifically for our group. I think it was a Cessna 402, not that it matters. It flew and landed. That’s all that counted for me.

    A small aircraft with a black and white design parked on an airport tarmac, with a control tower and green fields in the background.

    I have not flown on a small plane since graduate school, over fifty years ago – I recall one of the students kissing the ground after we landed. I seemed to have blanked the rest of that trip from memory (something to do with geoanticlines) but still have a fear of flying in anything smaller than a 737. But, it was the only fast way to Guerrero Negro, so I said a few prayers, and boarded the plane. Luckily, I got the seat by the very narrow entry hatch – sort of like having the emergency exit row in a regular plane – extra leg room. Once we were all settled in, the pilot fired up the two engines, and we headed down the runway. I decided to capture the moment on my phone 

    It was an exciting take off, banking quickly over the beach and out over the ocean. The view was quite nice – I quickly forgot why I was so afraid of the flight, and settled in (there was no seat back) to enjoy the view of the Baja coast as we headed south. I think everyone was waiting for the food and drink service to begin. Now where was the flight attendant?

    Interior view of a small plane with four passengers seated and engaged in conversation, showing the cockpit area in the front.
    Seating was cozy…I was in First Class. I blurred the faces.

    The flight went by fast (it was a faster plane than the Caravan) – after about 2 hours, we turned inland over the lagoon – really interesting views of the wind-swept dunes. The area surrounding the town of Guerrero Negro was pretty much desolate – I thought that the cavern I visited last year in the Mojave Desert was the middle of nowhere. This would be the end of the road to nowhere

    Aerial view of a small town surrounded by vast desert land, with a wing of an aircraft in the foreground.
    Aerial view of a sandy landscape meeting the ocean, featuring textured sand patterns with a clear blue sky above and distant land on the horizon.
    Aerial view of a small desert town featuring distinct buildings and a large Mexican flag, surrounded by sparse landscape.

    The airport was about what you would expect for a small town in a remote location – a runway (sort of paved), a small hanger, a couple of outhouses, and a small cafe. More than what Ensenada had. 

    A person wearing colorful leggings boards a small airplane using a stairway, while another individual in an orange vest stands nearby on the tarmac under a blue sky.
    A person walking towards a small aircraft with the tail visible, parked at an airport. In the background, there are people near a cafeteria and some trees under a blue sky.
    A wide view of a parking area with several vehicles, including cars and a large military truck. In the background, there is a white and blue building, and people are gathered near it under a clear blue sky.

    The van from the whale camp was waiting for us – the staff loaded up our luggage on top, and we managed to cram everyone in. I drew the short straw, and had to hang half on the edge of one seat. Not exactly comfortable for a long drive on unpaved roads leading through the salt ponds down to the beach. Ouch. I guess I should mention something about the salt ponds. The main source of income and employment for this town is salt production – there are large evaporation ponds along the edge of the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, and the dried salt is scraped up and processed locally, for distribution around the world. It’s a big business – the largest industrial sea salt operation in the world. Really. 

    The road eventually reached the whale watch visitor center (more on that later), and we continued down the road, passing the rental camping spots, each of which had a porta-potty and a thatched roof, open sided hut. And each had some sort of recreational camping vehicle with the owners sitting in beach chairs, adult beverages in hand. Very strange. They all drive down here to see the whales, and watch the sunsets I guess. They all looked pretty relaxed. I was half expecting to see all these folks wearing tie-dyed t-shirts, dancing to Grateful Dead music.

    Finally, after another mile of driving, we reached the whale camp. What an amazing setup. The owner, Keith Jones, has been doing this for 30 years – extending and improving the camp along the way. There are a variety of “cabins”, each made of plywood and tarps, some located along the edge of the beach, others scattered along the trail leading up to the communal dining/kitchen structure. There are porta-potties in a few places, open washing areas (hands, brushing teeth), a couple of communal showers, and paths marked with solar lights. There were also a few larger lights, powered by generators. The amazing thing about the camp is that it has to be torn down after the whale season is over – every structure is disassembled, and stored away locally until the next season. That’s a lot of work. Each cabin is on the primitive side – two very comfortable beds, a small table, and a very small electric heater (only for a few hours in the AM and PM). I upgraded to a cabin + shower – it looked like a Tuff Shed with another plywood shed added to it. Primitive but functional and surprisingly comfortable. My wife would never have done this, but I’m OK with roughing it once in a while. 

    An orange-colored cabin with a brown door, situated on sandy terrain under a clear blue sky.
    My cabin – the add-on section is the shower room. The path on the left leads up to the dining building.

    Here are a few photos of the camp

    A campsite with several colorful tents and cabins facing a serene body of water during sunset.
    A group of people gathered in a sandy area near beige dome-shaped tents under a clear blue sky.
    A pathway illuminated by lamps in a secluded outdoor area at night, with a distant building and starry sky.
    Row of pink dome-shaped cabins on a sandy beach with a clear blue sky.
    View from the beach

    After the van was unloaded, we met the camp staff and had a brief orientation – we then wandered off to our assigned cabins, and then made our way up to the dining building. This was another pop-up structure – lots of tables and basic seating (plastic or folding chairs), a bunch of games, books on whales and Baja geology and most important of all, a really nice bar – the woman doing the bartending made excellent margaritas. I was supposed to avoid alcohol for a while, but what the heck. It was a long trip. The staff was wonderful, and it was a really interesting group – mostly from California, but a few who traveled a long way to get here. All really nice, very friendly and a lot of fun. Things were looking up for the trip after the almost disastrous beginning for me. My heart seemed to be behaving normally – I had been checking my pulse (on the watch) regularly during the trip, and the BPM was pretty much normal most of the time.

    After dinner, everyone wandered off to their huts – the staff placed small, rechargeable lamps in every cabin, along with a camping toilet – very important for those of us who make a regular trip to the bathroom at 3 in the morning. Once the generators go off at night, the place is absolutely silent. Falling asleep was not a problem.

    Oh…and of course there were beautiful sunsets there.

    A serene sunset over a calm body of water, with silhouettes of distant mountains in the background.

    Breakfast was at 6:30, and we were leaving for the boats at 7:30 sharp – I had all the camera gear and my clothing ready to go. It was a long, very strange trip, but I was finally going to see the whales up close and personal. 

  • Baja and the Grey Whales – A Really Bad Start

    A person's feet in sneakers visible on a hospital stretcher, with medical equipment and staff in the background.

    Feb 21, 2026

    Note – I wrote most of this on February 22nd, and completed it on the 26th – much has happened in between. This is Part 1 of the Baja trip blog…sorry, you will have to wait for the rest of the story since I’m still working my way back home.

    I left for the first of my major 2026 trips on a beautiful Saturday morning, with high hopes for this long awaited trip. My plan was to drive down I-5 to Valencia (North of LA) on the 21st and stay at a nice hotel, then drive on Sunday to the hotel in San Diego where a van from Baja Jones will pick the group up on the 23rd, and travel to the airport in Ensenada. Great plan. It did not work out quite the way I expected it to. Read on.

    I drove down to Valencia on Saturday since driving all the way to San Diego in one trip is much further than I like to go in one day. I find it difficult now to drive one distance by myself – I miss my co-pilot. It was about a 5.5 hour drive, and I made it in time for happy hour at the hotel. I had a nice dinner at the bar, and two small glasses of beer, and headed back to my room. All good so far. When I was getting ready for bed, I got really dizzy and my heart was pounding. Not good. My heart beat was way over 100, and remained high. I was absolutely panicked and had no idea what to do – I tried to relax, but that did not help, so I eventually called 911. I do have heart related issues – these were classic symptoms of a tachycardia event, so I knew that I needed to have a physician check me out. An ambulance ride was not high on my list for this trip but I had no choice. There is nothing quite like being carted out on a gurney through a hotel lobby to an ambulance. 

    A long story short – they checked me out thoroughly at the ER –  my EKG’s, X-Ray and blood tests were all normal, so there were no indications that I had a heart attack. Always good news. My blood pressure was high, but not at a dangerous level and it had been elevated of late. The doctor said it was probably due to long and short-term stress and dehydration from the drive, and the alcohol and caffeine did not help either.  He recommended that I see my cardiologist soon, and also said I could go ahead with the trip.  

    The best part of this incident is that I got to experience the joy of being all alone in the ER. This facility had most of the patients on beds stationed along the walls and I was lucky enough to be where the police gathered with prisoners who needed medical attention. I got to listen to all the “Bro” talk from the officers, and the endless chatter from the handcuffed detainees. I was not about to tell the police to be quiet, but some poor patient, who was in incredible pain from a passing kidney stone screamed out “Shut Up”. That worked for a while. I’ve heard that passing a stone is the male equivalent of giving birth. I hope never to have that experience. 

    Now I understand why Jan hated going to the hospital,  but at least she had me by her side each time. Having support from a family member or friend really helps while you are lying there, waiting for hours for test results. She was always there for me whenever I did something stupid (rock climbing accident, bicycle accidents, etc.) This was my first time experiencing the ER solo. It sucks.

     I was eventually discharged and made it back to the hotel via UBER around 4:00AM. I was in no rush to leave the next day, so I managed to get a few hours of sleep. I considered briefly just heading home the next morning, but decided that I just needed to relax and stop worrying about the trip ahead. I really did want to see the whales. So, I headed off to San Diego later in the morning – just a 2-3 hour trip, depending on LA traffic. 

    Shortly after I arrived at the hotel, I checked my mail and found some additional, untimely bad news. I had read about the killing of a Mexican cartel lord in the news feeds, and the reprisal gang violence which had spread across Mexico. The owner of Baja Jones (Keith Jones) had sent out an e-mail providing some detail on the impact of our trip, and also included a copy of the State Department warning for a bunch of the Mexican states impacted by the violence. The two Baja states were listed at levels 2 and 3, with the latter suggesting to reconsider travel. Hmmm. 

    U.S. Embassy advisory for U.S. citizens in Mexico regarding safety measures due to security operations in specific states.

    I spent some time reading through the news reports, and to me at least, it appeared that all the violence was centered in the mainland states, not in either of the Baja states. But, there is still risk in going, possibly of being stranded in Mexico for a while. Keith had contacted his transportation companies, and there were no reported incidents in the places we travel through so for now, the trip was still on. One more thing to worry about, and stress was something I was trying to avoid. I had bought some calming gummies (no THC) on the way down and started popping those early on. After thinking this over for a few minutes (I did not have a lot of time, the vans were taking off at 7:00AM), I decided that if we could make it the airport without incident, we would be OK. Guerrero Negro was in an extremely remote part of Baja – not exactly a hot spot for tourism or the drug trade. So, I packed up my duffel bag, checked my pulse (almost normal), put a handful of gummies in my pocket, and headed down to the lobby. The two vans were in the parking lot – time to leave for Ensenada and start the adventure.