Baja Mexico in my 8 year old RV-6A

Subject: Mexico RV6A Trip

Hello Everyone
4/5/08 Sat. We departed Imperial around 9:30 am and flew direct to Mexicali International airport - a 13 minute flight. We cleared customs & Immigrations in about 45 minutes but had to wait for fuel so grabbed a late breakfast. Two

hours later we got fuel. Seems like general aviation comes last as the guy had to fuel two Passenger Jets first.
We departed Mexicali around 12:20 pm and headed south. we were going to stop at some places along the way but with such a late start we decided to head direct for Mulege. We climbed to 9500 ft and had a good tail wind. We'll make some stops on the way back home. We arrived at Mulege 2 hrs and 20 minutes later at 2:40 pm. There were large black Frigate birds circling the area in front of the hotel. We landed on the dirt strip next to the ocean, parked the plane, left everything in it, and went straight by the roasting pig on a spit to the office to get our room and Pig Roast/free margarita tickets. We met a pilot and wife from Orange County there in the pool bar area next to the restaurant and learned much about flying into the area. We had a fine time talking to people and later eating the all-you-can-eat pig roast. Before dinner, I took a walk along the river by myself. I saw someone coming towards me and as I kept walking, watched the person stumbling and teetering. When she tried to pick up something, she fell head over heals and lay still in the middle of the dirt road. There was a car coming the other way that stopped and talked to her when I walked up. I asked what was going on. The guy in the van said she had been drinking all day in the Jungle Jim bar and was completely drunk. I asked if he would take her home, but he said he wanted nothing to do with her and drove off. I picked her up and helped her walk back to her B & B, Casa Granada, about 3/4 of a mile back down the road. She thanked me and I left. I think there is a lot of alcoholism in Mexico. Wonder what an impression the Mexicans have of us Americanos.
4/6/08 Sun. I tried for hours to get my computer to work at Serenidad Hotel where they have wireless internet, but the signal was too weak. I'll have to send this later. Today Joan & I walked into the small town of Mulege,and walked around town. Many places were closed due to it being Sunday. We had an early lunch and bought a few things and got a taxi back to the hotel. The driver showed us pictures of the flood from the hurricane of Sept. '06 I tried again for a while to get this computer to work on the Serenidad's Wifi but to no avail. Another pilot told me that he had the same type of computer that I have (Dell) and couldn't get his to work either. Joan and I took another walk to the beach which was close by. We saw evidence of the damage from the hurricane, abandoned buildings and flotsam on the flood plain. Also saw buzzards, a pelican, and an Egret. Joan picked up some shells and some plastic cups and can trash, including a plastic bag to carry it all back in. The sea of Cortez is just beautiful, crystal clear. Returning to the hotel we saw a group of dirt bike riders who had just arrived covered in - dirt. I enjoy talking to pilots (prejudiced I guess). We got a recommendation for a lobster restaurant in town but saw that they don't open until 7:30 pm (and maybe are closed on Sun.?) We ate a fish dinner on the patio at the hotel and early to bed. The taxi drive told us the time changed to one hour later here just today.
We will start back tomorrow and perhaps stay overnight at Bahia De Los Angeles. More later.
Don

Baja Mexico more

4/7/08 Mon.
Ate a late breakfast at the Serenidad Hotel. Departed 10:00 am and flew along the East coast of Baja at 500 ft taking in the beautiful coast line. In a lot of places you could see through deep water to the sandy bottom. The colors were light blue to dark blue on the horizon, turquoise by the shore and many other colors in between. We passed a lot of tiny fishing boats, a couple of kayaks, and some shrimp trawlers.The birds all stayed real low, didn't see any at 500 ft. Passed some real remote houses, like castles almost, along the way. There were lots of little fishing camps with their pongas on the beach. After about an hour of slow and low flying we landed at San Francisquito, a primitive remote fishing and camping area that has little palapas, buildings with palm frond roofs and concrete walls. On the inside were cots with a mattress and blankets. The toilets were nearby to the palapas. The best part about this place is the beauty, and quiet. Nice white sand beach, turquoise water with sanddollars every where. There was a Mexican couple there in the primitive restaurant to fix visitors a fish lunch or dinner. We walked around for about 45 minutes, only saw one guy reading on the beach, and some camp gear outside a palapa, then departed for Bahia De Los Angeles.
We were told to buzz the town at 500 ft and then head straight for the airport and that would bring a taxi. I had just finished tying down when up drove the taxi. Six dollars American for the ride to the center of town (not much of a town) I had been here in 1972 with a trailer boat and stayed for a month. The Taxi diver took us to the Casa Del Sol Hotel ($65.) It is a nice clean place and the people are friendly. We talked to 2 German couples from Stuttgart who rented a car and drove from Tiajuana to Loreto and are on the way back T.J. now. Not much English spoken here in Bay of L.A. It is good to see the place with a different perspective, airstrip relocted from center of town - ithas really changed. In '72 there was only one place, Papa Diaz Place, but Papa Diaz died many years ago and I didn't recognize much. Papa Diaz place was difficult for me to find. Looks like it is mostly geared to the fishing industry here, and sport fishing for tourists. We walked around town to look for the Internet cafe and found it at a local Tienda (store) $2.50 per hour.
We plan on leaving tomorrow and heading for Oxnard with a stop at Alfasinas, Calexico, and then home to Oxnard.
Talk to you later
Don

Made it home safely. Just like I planned we flew to Alfonsinas at Gonzaga Bay. In Mexico no one is in a hurry to do anything. After a long breakfast (coffee tea, banana, and toast) we finally paid the hotel bill (had to wait until the owner got up). We asked the owner to call us a taxi but her phone was out of order. We had to walk about 1/2 block to the market where we were directed across the street to the taxi business. The lady there - at a hotel - had the taco stand where Don ate the day before. We had just walked back when she drove up. She is quite the businesswoman with the 3 that we discovered, even drives the taxi van, and probly has more. The wind was really howling 25 to 30 knots. We thought the wind was going to be straight down the runway but nooooooo. 90 degrees out of the northwest. Joan and I got in the plane and taxied up and down the runway looking for a crosswind runway. I had thought I had seen one when I landed but couldn't find it. When I first started taxiing an army guard though it was funny that he ducked around a post at his guardhouse and aimed his rifle at us Ha Ha I could see him laughing. Then he got distracted doing something else and ignored us. I waited for a lull and gave it full power. We rolled straight and I was able to get about 20 feet in the air before we weathervaned into the wind. I told Joan, that wasn't too bad and she agreed. It was very turbulent up to about 3000 ft. I could see the water smooth as glass below the cliffs so I went down to about 500 ft above the water and I couldn't believe it was calm and we had a tail wind.
I didn't know if I could land at Alfonsinas (Gonzaga Bay) but decided to have a look-see. When we got there the wind was light out of the northwest. I circled the hotel and runway at 500 ft.looking at the condition of the runway. The clay looked wet to me. A guy came in on the radio and said they had high tides last night and it would be a while before it would be dry. I landed at nearby Rancho Grande runway, gravel, away from the tides.
I had read where you could taxi right up to the Pemex gas station pumps and get gas. I taxied to the West end of the runway and went over to the gas station and got permission to taxi up to the pump to get gas. They said to remove the cement stakes from the end of the runway so I did and taxied right up to the pump.
After fueling we parked the airplane on the East end of the strip and walked to Alfonsinas. We had lunch and talked to some local residents, pilots both. We had a good conversation and learned a lot about the area. Afterward one of the guys paid for our lunch and gave us a ride back to the airplane. He lives in Yucca Valley part of the year. Alfonsina's is a small community of 74 houses right on the beach all with a pad for an airplane and the airstrip just behind the houses. We only saw about 4 planes there. One big 206 was stolen a few months ago in the middle of the night from a guy's pad - pushed down to the big gravel runway away from the houses, and all safety locks were cut. The big planes capable of hauling large loads are the only ones stolen. They caught a few of the thieves, have found the plane, and are in the process of getting the plane back through the Mexican beauracracy.
The satellite phones were out of order at Alfonsinas so we just took off without making a call to customs for the 1-hour notification. At 10,000 feet over San Felipe I was able to contact San Diego radio and file a flight plan and had them notify customs.
I had to fly really slow about 100 knots to make the 1-hour notification time. Everything worked out fine and we cleared customs without a hitch. We flew at 10500 feet on the way back to top the broken layer beneath us. Flight following was good with no vectoring, just some altitude restrictions when letting down over Van Nuys going into Oxnard. We landed at 5:10 pm and met a new neighbor putting his plane away who wants to know all about flying to Baja.
It was another wonderful 5-day trip and I am glad I got to show Joan the area and revisit the places that I used to go when I was a young guy on my boat, motorcycle and truck. I tell Joan I'm still just a big kid and like some of the same things only slower. We want to go back and look at some other places that we didn't have time for. Until next time,
Hasta Manana. Don & Joan
Here are the pictures from the trip http://picasaweb.google.com/Crazyforflying

Thanks for the great report and photos, Don!

I had some very similar experiences at Muleje, including seeing a drunk girl on the road near the river! Maybe she's a regular.

For anyone considering visiting that quaint seaside town, I highly recommend not drinking the blue Tequila at Jungle Jim's. It's poison to Gringos. Really. (Long story. )

Glad to hear that RVs are making the trip to Baja with increasing regularity. I'd had some reservations about doing so in the past, but it seems more and more of them are showing up down there.

Re: Baja Trip Report

Nice report, Thanks Don
Someday I would like to fly down to Cabo.

Enjoyed the writeup

When I lived in Orange County we used to fly into Baja and mainland Mexico quite a bit until it seemed that things were getting a bit strained. I believe our last trip to Mulege was in 1993. Has Don Johnson or his family gotten the Serenidad back? The wireless capability surprised me, there used to be no television, no phones, no radio, just blessed peace and quiet. Did the stolen Cessna 206 belong to Doug Bowles?

We made one trip to Cabo San Lucas and stayed at the Finisterra Overlooking the Pacific but the Sea of Cortez is right around the point to the left of the hotel. It has been a lot of years ago and I landed at the airport on the hill which I understand is now closed. Even though we have been to Spain and visited the big bull ring in Seville, the only bull fight I have seen was in the small ring at Cabo. It was a wonderful place to visit. It can get a little scary when you fly down from LA and sense that something is wrong when you can't see the air.

Bob Axsom

Mexico

Hi Bob
Glad you liked the report. I talked to Don Johnson when I was there. Yes he has the place back. I here that the has to pay bribes to the locals to keep them out. Don also had heart bypass surgery recently the Baja bush pilots flew him to San Diego for the operation. They had TV but not in the rooms. Joan and I watch movies on my laptop. No I don't know who the 206 belonged to. Some of the locals told us about it at Alfonsina's. I just read on the Baja Bushpilots website another one was just stolen at gunpoint at muleje just yesterday. I don't think the thieves are looking for little airplanes like the RV's they want large hauling capacity
Don

Great report!

I've flown to Alfonsinas several times. THe first time we went we made the mistake of stopping at Mexicali and experienced the same long delays. Every other time we've stopped at San Felipe - its a much quicker turnaround.

We've always cleared customs at Calexico and it has been a smooth process (excellent restaurant with world class Huevos Rancheros - yum!). We usually pre-file our return on our outbound and when we call San Diego Radio to open up our flight plan, they can walk down the hall and give customs a heads up that we're coming earlier and ammend our arrival time.