Friday, February 22, 2013

Back to Baja, day 6

We finally had a chance to play tourist today. Up early, we decided to head back to a little mexican restaurant that we had lunch at the other day. We had noticed several landscape trucks parked in front while driving by on a previous morning. That led us to believe that the food would be good. It was. Chorizo and scrambled eggs is a great way to start the day. From there, we hit Highway 111 heading south toward the Sultan Sea.

The goal was to drive around it just to explore the area. The GPS was programmed for Niland, CA, just a short way down the east side of the sea. We took the "Old Highway 111" which took us through all of the old towns that had thrived when all thr traffic had to pass through.

Plenty of commerce still appears to take place, but signs were there that many tourist attractions were no longer viable. We also pass by hugh fields of Date Palm trees. It appears to be a sizable farming industry in the area. Further on we happened to merge with 6 other bikes heading in the same direction. They turned off at a road labeled "Hot Mineral Spa Road". We kept on going the remaining 16 miles to Niland.

Peter had heard that Talipa fish were farmed in the area and upon stopping in Niland we learned that it takes place at the Hot Mineral Spa Road, 16 miles earlier. Oh well, something to go and see the next time we are in the area. Next stop was Brawley, CA at the south end of the Sultan Sea. We were told of Ramey`s Meats in town that was a must see. Nice place with friendly people. We thought we would cook in tonight so a couple of steaks were in order. We were traveling on however so purchasing them now would have been a problem. Our route back would again take us through Brawley so we would (and did) make our purchase later.

Calexico was our next stop. This is right on the Mexican boarder across from Mexicali. Since we were in the area, why not walk across the boarder and take a look at the town. Walking into Mexico was easy; just walk in. We did notice, however, a mile long line of people waiting to walk across into the US. Verbalizing or concern that out 2 hour parking limit would expire long before we could return, a helpful bypasser informed us that "old people" could head to the front of the line. Fealing great now, we walked on...

Mexicali reminded me of the stories you heard about Tijuana many years ago. Lots there for the drunk sailor. Apparently, many touriests also go there for medical and dental procedures as well as their prescription drugs. There were a number of establishments providing those needs. We decided to stick with having a quick beer and purchasing a bottle of liquor to take back across the line.

It was difficult to find a bar without dancers to entertain the sailers. We finally found a place that seemed to lack entertainment and went in. We ordered a small beer each that happened to be an entire 940 ml!  One was plenty.

It was more difficult to find a liquor store than we thought it would be. We had asked a number of people after failing to see signage. Most people didn`t want to understand our butchered spanish and failed to understand english. Finally Juan happened to hear us askng questions an stepped in to help. Not only did he personally take us to a liquor store but also helped us "old folks" to the front of the return to the US line where we found the SENTRI line (the Mexican equivalent to NEXUS). Juan was rewarded nicely for his tour guiding and his efforts left us with plenty of time on the parking meter.

We headed back on the west side of the Sultan Sea. We took a short detour to see some of what used to be a thriving vacation area. Back home we cooked up our Brewley steaks and had a fantastic dinner to cap off a very nice day.


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