After finally crossing the border, day 1 in Mexico can only be described as amazing. Jacqui and I started our day extremely early, waking at 5am to drive from San Marcos to the Tijuana border. Best way to describe the crossing….. shockingly easy while still being utterly confusing.

Immediately at the border crossing station our poor Spanish skills were making things difficult. But nonetheless, a couple back and forth trips between the bank and the immigration office and we’d successfully gotten our Visas. Then it was through the gate. Well, kind of. We were instantly signaled with the red light… the red light that means, we’re getting searched! I was dreading this part. I figured we’d have to dig through everything, even the roof box, a task that could easily take hours. But, the very official lady looked at us, casually strolled through the Dolphin, half-heartedly opened a few cabinets, then stepped out and said we we’re fine to go. This of course required a ‘we’ve-made-it-into-the-country’ high five between Jacqui and I, and we were off.

The Dolphin was instantly put to the test since the steep climbing did not wait for us to catch our breath to begin. These roads are the type I dream of driving on with my old BMW, Sonia. Climbing, descending, curves, bends, danger, cliffs, and glassy smooth roads. Regardless, even in our 6000lb Dolphin I was having fun, and enjoying Jacqui’s fear-whimpering.

However, the smooth roads were not to continue. After finishing the majority of hills, the flats and valleys were full of washed out roads. It seemed like every few miles we were again detoured onto a parallel dirt road. But the Dolphin trekked on and we finally reached El Rosario, our driving goal for the night.

Or at least that’s what I thought. When you travel with Jacqui you’re are bound to end up driving down a road you shouldn’t. She got it in her head we needed to drive 4 more miles to Punta Baja. Well, 4 miles really isn’t that far, and shouldn’t take long to drive. Unless, that is, you’re driving down a pot-hole-infested, lumpy, mountain dirt road in a vehicle that handles a little less well than a giant loaf of bread. But we made it, and I am unbelievably happy that we did.

At the end of this road the scenery opened up and we found ourselves nearly surrounded by beautiful ocean. You could hardly call this a town, maybe it could pass as a village. Dozens of scattered fishing boats just sitting on the ground, a few small, hand built homes, a few others that have been abandoned, and nestled around them some small RV’s and trailers that clearly hadn’t moved in years. We instantly knew this is where we were going to spend the night.

So Punta Baja is where we concluded our first evening. We found a very nice fisherman named Don Chuy that we wanted to buy some fish from for dinner. Jacqui and I, having basically no Spanish skills, were finally able to muster together “Tengo pesos. Tiene pescado.”(I have Pesos. You have fish.) The man chuckled, brought us some freshly fileted fish he had caught that day, and refused any money.

Beaches, sunsets, puppies running amuck trying to make us fall in love with them, and fresh fish from unbelievably friendly people. Buenas noches dia uno.