When the sad time came to move on from San Juanico, we were evaluating which route we wanted to take out of town. There are a few different ways in and out of the area, with only one being easy (easy meaning: only a small amount of washboard). The only problem with this “easy” route is that we wanted to check out a town called Mulegé which is directly to the east on the Sea of Cortez coast. If we took the “easy” way out we would have to drive south, west and then backtrack north a few hundred miles. Given our dislike of backtracking this wasn’t something we really wanted to do. Luckily we met Esteban (or Steven), but meeting him merits a little side story, so here it goes:

We were driving around town trying to find fresh shrimp for dinner, we were getting ready to stop at a little store to ask where we could find some when we see a guy in a quad coming at us.  He stops and says: “Is that a diesel Landcruiser? How much do you wnat for it?” This was Esteban, a “local” for all intents and purposes even though he is a gringo.  We got to talking about the truck and after a few minutes Luis asked him if he knew where we could find fresh shrimp, he just said: “Follow me” and he sped off in his quad.  We could barely keep up with him and as we thought we might loose him he pulled into a driveway, this turned out to be the driveway to his home and what a beautiful home it is!  He has beautiful xeriscaping intermingled with native species, lime and plumerias, a wonderful outdoor living area with a king bed and local leather and wood seating and ab indoor shower that made us want to move in.  Esteban and Donna Donna have been calling San Juanico home for some time and it shows. They invited us into their home and we hung out for quite a while, we had a wonderful time visiting with them and they were kind enough to give us enough fresh shrimp to feed ourselves like royalty.

Now back to our regularly scheduled drive plans: We mention our route dilemma to Esteban and he suggested we take a road that is not even on our map, the road cuts directly east into Mulegé, our kind of route. He assured us that the road is pretty nasty, but we would have no problems with our trusty Landcruiser and it might be a fun adventure. We were pretty sold on the idea, but decided to ask around just in case.  The locals in town always gave us the same response “Don’t go that way.” It would with Luis asking about the road, the response would be, “no, that road is really bad, really ugly. There is only two ways out, the way in from San Ignacio (from the north) or the road to the south”. Luis would dig deeper, “well there is a road there right?” “Well, yes there is a road, but it is really bad, really ugly, I don’t recommend it”. Luis would point to the Landcruiser, “we have 4×4, do you think we can make it?” “Oh, you have 4×4, well then yes you can make it, people make it in 2 wheel drive. Yes it is passable, just very ugly.” With these words of encouragement (or was it warning), we were sitting at the gas station making our final decision, when the decision was made by Esteven who pulled up at the station behind us.  He made some excellent points: The road does in fact exist, (he has taken it a few times), and it is a beautiful stretch of road. If you don’t go, you don’t know. You can make an adventure of it and there are ranchos located every few miles along the road, so if you get lost you can ask for directions and if it takes you more than a day, you can camp out there and nobody will bug you. Armed with his words of encouragement and an eight pack or ochito (yes they make 8-packs of Tecate in Mexico…it really is a beautiful thing!), we set off to find the “ugly” road. We found the turn off and started down it, within a half mile the road completely disappeared into an arroyo and there was no sign of a road coming out the other side. We turned around and tried to figure out what to do. We had mentally prepared ourselves for this little adventure and didn’t want to abandon it so easily, but we couldn’t find any trace of where the road went. Luckily we found a rancher near by and after the same exchange described above, he pointed us on the way. It turns out that because of hurricane Jimena, the arroyo and the road had been completely washed out and melded into one. We ended up finding the “new road” and drove it all the way to Mulege, but it was definitely an adventure. In fact the whole time we were driving we couldn’t believe that anyone could call this a road! The “road” basically followed the river bed and crossed back and forth across the river at least a dozen times. We bumped along at an average cruising speed of 5 mph over river rocks, through the water, up the bank and through sand, back into the river bed and across the river, and so on for 7 hours. Esteban was right, it was a beautiful drive, with wonderful people living arduous lifestyles, big rock cliffs, green vegetation along the river bed, and dry desert cactus up above. It was a great opportunity to get off the beaten path and see a part of the Baja that many don’t get to see. If you have a sturdy vehicle with good clearance we highly recommend this road.

Scorpion Bay to Mulegé "road"

We pulled into Mulege in the late afternoon. After the drive through the “ugly” road, we knew that this area was hit pretty bad by Jimena, but Mulegé definitely got the brunt of it. Houses all along the river were completely destroyed and on the ones still standing, the high water mark was unbelievable.

After so long camping without any amenities, we decided to splurge for some electricity and a hot shower (by splurge we mean less than $15), so we found an RV park/Hotel right on the river, the Hotel Cuesta Real hosted by the wonderful Sandra and her Husband Pepe. They had suffered some damage in the hurricane, but had been hard at work, and the place looked pretty good. We found a small community of expats that live semi-permanently in the park here and were instantly welcomed into their community. One night we were invited for a delicious community dinner with fresh yellowtail caught that morning served as sushi and yellowtail-shrimp bouillabaisse that was to die for.

Fresh yellowtail sashimi, no sake but plenty of Tecate

Sandra's Yellow tail and shrimp bouillabaise. Sandra is quite the cook!

It was great hanging out with the folks in Mulegé, all of them from different places and different backgrounds, but they have come together in Mulegé to form a quaint and interesting family of sorts. After a few days we parted ways, but we enjoyed our time hanging out with some cool people in a beautiful town that is strong, proud and fighting hard to rebuild this wonderful area.