No one who knows us, or follows us, will be surprised to hear that we did NOT head north through Arizona and Utah National Parks as planned but instead road tripped California to find our way back to Oregon. Ever flexible, when the mild winter turned into a raging spring, our thoughts turned to warmer temps. When Dave & Anne and presumably Max, our road-tripping partners, expressed a desire for warmer and sunnier the original plan was scrapped and we began to route west.
As we sit on the Colorado River in southern California it is time, once again, to reflect on another winter on the Baja. This year brought an entirely new adventure because of our first caravan trip with Baja Amigos.
The last month has been a blur of activity for our little family and if the Blue Zones theory on social interaction= overall health we should surely be some of the healthiest folks on the planet!
Those words, from one of my favorite songs, is an apt description of much of our life and wanderings. A season ending in Baja transforms into a season beginning at camp. Now, as the leaves begin a color kaleidoscope transformation all their own, our seasons will soon recycle and renew as well.
It’s official. The time has come to say goodbye to Tequila, our much-loved truck camper. As reported last fall, when we made a commitment to Camp CDA for the next few years we decided to move into trailer life with Taco, our Lance travel trailer. Tequila spent the winter cozy and safe undercover in town but now has once again emerged in order to move onto a new home.
Joshua Tree National Park is a treasure. From our first visit two years ago the memories of the spectacular scenery has stayed with us. As the plan for our route north diverged, as they tend to do, the parks of Utah were not to be this time around but that didn’t mean we were going to miss out on Joshua Tree.
We crossed the border recently~ a 3-hour soul-crushing grind before arriving back in the good old USA in what was our longest, and yet least invasive border crossing in over two years. Los Barrile’s winter entered the history books. As always, it was incredibly bittersweet.
Food. As self-professed foodies, I admit that often our breakfast conversation centers around what to have for dinner that night. And, as much as I love to cook, eating out in Mexico is always a joy. $1 street tacos and amazingly fresh seafood are always at the top of our list. One thing we don’t love so much about Los Barriles is the lack of the less expensive options. Keep in mind~ this is coming from full-time RV’ers living on a limited budget. For anyone on holiday here you’ll think you’re getting a grand bargain anytime you venture out. And so, although inexpensive by US standards, many of the restaurants here are above what we prefer to spend on our budget so it does color our reviews. But hey, our blog, our opinion right?!
Having said that, we couldn’t NOT take advantage of all of the local goodness so we made a point of eating out once or twice a week, and at a different restaurant each time to try as many as we can during our time here. Somehow, in three months in town, we still didn’t manage to come close to trying all available options. What can I say, there are a LOT of restaurants in Los Barriles.
Without further ado~ here is what we did try.
Last week raced by in a blur of activity. Dave & Anne, two of our VERY favorite peeps and our most frequent visitors arrived in Baja. Although they visit the fancy resorts of Cabo often, this was their first trip to Los Barriles and the week was packed with a variety of activities highlighted by wine and waterfalls.
For the last three winters, we have driven past, through really, the tiny town of El Triunfo nearly a dozen times. We have stopped exactly once and that was only to buy a bag of veggies from the ladies on the street corner and snap a quick photo of their church. We always said, “we’ll stop next time”. Well, next time finally happened as we headed there for our Photo Field Trip of the week.
