Baja: Round Two
March 2005
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This post covers the events from February 12th to February 23rd 2005. We decided to head back to Santa Rosalillita to basically pick up where we left off with our travels. It rained for the first two days so Sarah and I spent the days drinking coffee in the van and reading. After a couple rainy days after we arrived at Rosalillita but then the weather got really good and the waves did the same. We decided to settle into camp a bit and as a part of the process dug a couple of holes to level the van out as best we could. Somewhere in the process of repositioning the van, Eric noticed the accelerator pedal sporadically ceasing to function. Immediately following this strange behavior, we witnessed the first illumination of the “Service Engine” light either of us had ever seen since owning the van. Our hearts sank and Eric seemed to think this was all some crazy coincidence since he had just completed the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”.
With our best troubleshooting hats on, we both started ruling out different things and homing in on what we thought the problem might be. Just as quickly as the problem had mysteriously appeared, things seemed to suddenly go back to normal, with the exception of the “Service Engine” light. We formulated a plan to head into Guerrero Negro to make some phone calls and get on the internet if need be to search for clues and answers. Luckily the surf was great and took our minds off the worries of the van while we enjoyed some great sessions. While we ate lunch on Valentine’s Day Sarah’s eyes suddenly became fixed on the beach as she wondered out loud what it was that had emerged on the beach in front of us. Much to our surprise, the strange forms were about 60 LARGE squid thrashing and rolling in the surf. When we say big we mean about 6 feet in length and 50 to 80 pounds in weight. Sarah thought the best thing to do was to try to help the struggling creatures out to sea one by one, both because of our tree hugger natures and because we didn’t know how long we would be stuck at the spot and those suckers would start to stink like heck in a couple of days. All in all, we saved about 40 of them but couldn’t save some of them before for the seagulls had their way with the soft, fleshy parts of the squid. It was amazing to see how quickly a group of gulls could tear into an unlucky squid lying helpless on the shore. It wasn’t the most romantic day but somehow fit the strange vibe that had settled upon us. If truth be told, we had actually lost track of the days and didn’t even realize it was Valentine’s Day until two days later when we sat eating in a restaurant and someone was talking about the beautiful vase of flowers her husband had given her for Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day will forever be known to us as “El Dia de Los Calamares.”
We decided that before things got stranger, we should head to a decent sized town to see if we could find anything out about the van. We had no problems pulling out of our camp spot and were cruising along just fine until, within about five miles of the main highway (Mex 1), the gas pedal stopped working again. We pulled to the side of the road and began troubleshooting once more. While we were there, a couple of super nice and helpful locals came upon us and tried their best to help out. One gentleman in particular mentioned “es muy dificil porque es una problema con electrico”. A few minutes later, a white minivan with boards on the roof and Colorado plates pulled up on their way out to the coast searching for surf. Aaron jumped out and started asking us questions, finally calling to his friend Jeremy “J, could you get my tools?” A half hour later, we had the fuel filter dismantled and were checking it out. It appeared to be in good health. By the time we got things reassembled and tested, everything worked fine again. We thanked Aaron and Jeremy and headed down the road on pins and needles. At that point we had decided to try to make it to Ensenada but agreed that it would be much safer if we could find someone to follow us in case we lost the gas pedal again and needed help pulling off the road. Our local friend from Rosalillita happened to pull up and was heading to Ensenada with his family and offered to help us out. The following day and a half drive back to San Diego was filled with questions about the van and thoughts of gratitude for the kind strangers who had helped us.
Upon arriving in San Diego on February 16th we found a great Ford dealership right near Mission Bay called Mossy Ford. The guys in the service department were super cool and very helpful, especially compared to the treatment we received at the first Ford dealership we pulled into, Perry Ford. Needing to find a place to camp, Eric remembered a nearby “campground” on Mission bay that his family had stayed at when he was younger. We got a spot at Campland on the Bay and sat down for a beer and a sigh of relief to have made it back to a place where we could get the van fixed. The guys at Mossy Ford fixed the van in a matter of two hours the next day and explained that the problem was a faulty accelerator chip which required a new accelerator assembly, all covered under warranty. We took the opportunity to stock up on some crucial spare parts, including steering fluid, break fluid, main belt, oil filter, fuel filter, air filters, spare fuses and oil. We added to our new supplies a Hanes manual for our engine and some recommended tools. We spent a couple more nights in San Diego and experienced some strange weather and the luxuries of Campland with its pools, hot showers, general store and high speed wireless internet access. Despite the comforts, we longed to be back in Baja and decided to again try to pick up were we left off and return to Santa Rosalillita. We woke up early the next day, February 19th, crossed the border and made it back to our camp spot as darkness fell. We both felt that despite the inconvenience of our car troubles we had learned lots about our van, met some really nice people and felt better prepared for potential future problems. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures worth posting during this leg as we were pretty busy with either squid or the van.
Once we got back to Rosalillita we met two really nice German couples who were traveling the world in Unimogs (check out the pictures to see vehicles that make the van look wimpy). We got a couple of great surf days in and headed out to El Cardon.