Baja Trip - Page 2

deminimis · 01-20-2009, 04:33 PM

Geoff,

I really want you to go with us when we do our off-road Baja thing in mid-Oct. A far cry from a solo outting, but its Baja, so its cool. Hopefully Scatter and some more miscreants from here can make it too.

sdwindansea · 01-20-2009, 05:12 PM

Geoff, everytime I've been to that area it has been for surfing. If you want to know anything about specific spots, send me a PM and I'll gladly tell you.

EMrider · 01-20-2009, 06:11 PM

Outstanding trip report and pics. Many thanks.
Rob

geoffff · 01-21-2009, 01:57 AM

Oh, and a Sportsmobile-related tidbit I didn't relate on the website:

All over Baja they have these military inspection points where young army guys with big guns are paid to man roadblocks where all cars are stopped and "searched" for drugs. I hit at least 5 of these -- some way out there far from pavement. Anyway, the process always went friendly & smoothly, but the thing is the army guys always seem to only go through the motions of searching for drugs. Yeah, they always want me to open the back door, and they poke about a bit, and they often knock on various surfaces to see if they sound like there's some kind of hidden compartment behind them. The thing is, I happened to have a piece of cardboard in the back of the Sportsmobile over the underfloor storage compartment, and they never looked under the cardboard and found it! I could've been smuggling vast amounts of whatever in there!

**daveb** · 01-21-2009, 10:59 AM

Great write up Geoff. You have a killer web site.
Dave

deminimis · 01-21-2009, 11:42 AM

Checkpoints:

When down there last year pulling my buggy, they waved us through every time (buggy= rock star for some reason). This trip, we were searched every time and we hit a lot of checkpoints. To call it a "search" is insulting to "searches". No more than a glance. They never opened a cabinet, drawer, nada. Never had to open the rear doors as would direct them to the side doors (a lot of stuff would have fallen out if the rear doors were opened). At most, they would look at the stuff in my driver's door pocket. Easy peasy, but very ineffective.

Veg Hed · 01-21-2009, 02:17 PM

That's it...All this talk about the Baja lately makes me feel like I'm missing out. So I gotta get down there... Who can recommend a good Baja map?

Greg In Austin · 01-21-2009, 02:58 PM

I think there was a whole thread on Baja Maps not long ago.....

deminimis · 01-21-2009, 03:27 PM

The AAA map is good. Scatter was good enough to give me one as the one I ordered had not arrived yet. My new AAA map has since arrived. PM me an address and I'll pass Scatter's good will on to you. Also, like I mentioned elsewhere, a Lowrance Baja 540c and the PCI Baja chip are fantastic, but not cheap (approx $400 for both items).

scatter · 01-21-2009, 04:46 PM

The best printed maps going are the Baja Almanac. The older ones are north and south Baja seperate. The newer one has the whole peninsula in. Problem is, it's out of print. If you can find one, BUY IT.
As deminimis said, the AAA map is not bad and the Lowrance GPS with the PCI chip is super. Can't have too many maps.