Tag Archives: Los Algodones

ATVing & Los Algodones, Baja Mexico (Winterhaven, CA)

On Tuesday morning, we jumped on the ATV to check out some of the trails behind our campsite.  Stilla carried our dog, Coach along for the ride.

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We ran into a lot of “dead end” trails:

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At one point, we rode down through the “wash” below our camp site.  You can see our Coach on the hilltop.

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The Urban Escape Vehicle is 2nd from the left.

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We found a lot of hidden campsites… some occupied, some not.

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We even found a Pet Cemetery.  We stopped to look around and pay our respects.  It was rather unexpected to find this as we were riding along one of the more improved roads.  Some folks put a lot of work into their pets’ final resting place.

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There were even a couple gravesites marked “Unknown” that some caring folks took the time and effort to do.  I thought that was nice.

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One of the trails we followed ended abruptly at a cliff-edge overlooking the canal.

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After backtracking a ways… we got on a trail that went as far as the border which you can see in the pictures below.  The parking lot is the one we paid our $6 to park in when we visited Los Algodones last Saturday.

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We had worked up an appetite, so we decided to spend the afternoon on another trip into Los Algodones, Mexico for a late lunch.  We left little Coach in the big Coach with some windows and vents open for cool air circulation, and took the Silverado to the $6 dollar parking lot, which is just a couple minutes down the road from our campsite.

It wasn’t long before we were sitting in the shade at one of the restaurants in Los Algodones, Mexico.

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I took pictures of the menu in case any of you “blog-readers” want to place an order for delivery… might take a while tho 🙂

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I ordered a Pacifico beer with my meal expecting to get a normal size one… this guy was huge, but it was OK, Stilla helped me finish it.

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Stilla ordered one of the combo plates – burrito, enchilada, and tostada.

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Stilla also ordered the tortilla soup that we shared.

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I had the fish tacos, they were delicious.  I’m becoming a fan of these.

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After, lunch we ran the gauntlet of vendors again… I couldn’t count the number of times we heard; “look here – almost free”.

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I was thinking of Cheryl and my brother Steve when I saw this horse sculpture:

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I was thinking of myself when I took a picture of these neat stained glass items:

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When we had enough of the vendors and peddler’s, we headed back to the border crossing, which to our surprise and amazement, had a line that stretched for blocks… it wasn’t at all like this last Saturday!  We walked right out as quickly as we walked in the last time we were here.  We overheard some folks say that they hadn’t seen it this busy since 2008… it was like some sort of weird star alignment and everyone decided to come visit at once on this Tuesday.

Here’s a picture of the front of the line.  The border crossing building  is at the end of this covered walkway and to the right where there is still more covered walkway up to the checkpoint.

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Here’s a picture of the middle of the line.  You can see more vendors and peddlers trying to get everyone’s last dollar up to the last minute.

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And here’s a picture of the end of the line… way back in the distance is the end of the line.  As you can probably tell from these pictures… Stilla and I sat at the outside bar section of one of the restaurants, took pictures, and waited until the line became more reasonable.  We sat there for almost two hours while we nursed a margarita.  Sometimes, you just have to do, what you got to do 🙂

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It was almost dusk again by the time we got back to little Coach.  He was just fine again.  What a good guard dog.  Sadly, we missed “Happy Hour” with our neighbors today since it took so long to get back out of Mexico.

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And that’s all for now… it’s late morning on Wednesday as I finish up this journal entry.  We’ll probably hang around the Coach today and maybe go check out the casino at some point later this evening.

Stay tuned…

 

Moving Day Monday (Winterhaven, CA)

On Monday we decided to head over to the Quechan Casino Resort. It is located on the south side of Interstate 8, about 8 miles west of Yuma and 2 miles north of Los Algodones, Mexico.  This is the place we reconnoitered last Saturday when we visited Los Algodones for the first time.

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View of the Quechan Casino after exiting I-8

We settled on a boondocking spot just south of the main RV parking lot at the casino.  The spots here are more open than at the casino and we backed up to a dry river bed, aka “wash”, that is about 20 feet below the back of the Coach.

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I wonder if I can take the ATV down this embankment into the wash?  Hmmm?

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Before we headed over here in the early afternoon, I spent a little time getting some more waxing done on the Coach, which as I mentioned before, is a multi-day chore.  It’s best to tackle a little at a time until I get it done… and then when I’m finally finished… it’s probably time to start again, right?

We said our goodbyes to our friends from the Alpine Coach group.  They are going to stay at the Cocopah Casino for a while longer.  And then we followed their advice, and found the Union 76 service station that allowed us to dump and take on water.

When we arrived here and picked out a spot, we had just backed in and started to put down the pads to keep the jacks from sinking into the sand, when the neighbor came over and introduced himself and his wife.  They invited us to come over for “Happy Hour” – they (and other’s) were grilling up some shrimp and had made some jalapeño poppers stuffed with smoked salmon to share.

It’s amazing the number of nice people you meet out here RVing 🙂  After we extended the jacks, put the slides out, and staked down the patio mat, we pulled our chairs over and enjoyed an hour or two with our new “neighbors”.

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After “Happy Hour” we fell back into our usual routine – Stilla had made a stew earlier, so we had dinner and then watched TV.  And also, as usual when boondocking, we ran the generator for an hour or so to top off the batteries for the night.

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Stay tuned…  I wonder what we’ll do tomorrow?

BTW – Have I ever mentioned that Monday is my new “favorite” day of the week now?  Since I retired – when I wake up on a Monday morning and realize I don’t have to go in to work – I feel good.  Life is good 🙂

 

 

Los Algodones, Baja Mexico (Yuma, AZ)

After enjoying some time at the casino and its’ buffet on Friday, we woke up Saturday to a parking lot full of cars and activity.  There was a marathon going on and the Casino was the Start/Finish line.  Runners were doing a 26 mile route.  Here’s a picture of the main entrance from the day before.  Today, it was cordoned off and full of EZ-Up tents and tables, banners, grandstands, etc.,

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We watched some of the activities and then wandered over to talk with our Alpine Coach friends.  We got the scoop on visiting Los Algodones Baja Mexico from them.  They had visited several times.  Be sure to click on the name above for some interesting information on this place from Wikipedia.

It was a little less than 20 miles from the casino where we’re parked.  Of course, we took the Silverado with the ATV still loaded on the back.  Here’s a picture of the border crossing into Los Algodones, taken just before we saw the signs that said “No Pictures”:

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And here’s a picture I swiped from the Wikipedia website of the border crossing.

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It’s been many years since we visited Mexico.  The last time was in Laredo Texas where we crossed into Nuevo Laredo, back in the early ’90s.

We parked the Silverado in the huge parking lot before the crossing and paid our $6 parking fee.  Then we simply walked through the fence and around the entrance building into Mexico.  Voila! Here we are… didn’t have to show anything or talk to anyone.  Makes you wonder how many people forget their passports and then can’t get back in, eh?

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We wandered through the crowded sidewalks while trying to avoid most of the vendors attempts to get us to look at their “stuff”.  It almost became annoying at times… you couldn’t just look at anything without getting pressured to buy it… and every “no thanks, just looking” was followed up with a lower price offer or the item was pressed into your hands.

We hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so we followed the tip we got from our fellow Alpine Coach friends, and found one of the Taco restaurants.

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The tacos were delicious.  I tried one of each; a shrimp, a fish, and a beef taco.  Stilla had the Chili Relleno.  And the margarita was great.  So were the prices 🙂

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After lunch, I couldn’t say no to a $2 shoe-shine.  Especially since the guy followed us for a block.

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Here’s Stilla checking out some wares.  Notice the vendors in the background waiting along the sidewalk to “pounce” on you as you pass by.  Just kidding, of course.  All the vendors were very friendly, but persistent.  One guy called his store the “Mexican WalMart”.

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We even broke down and bought some of the cute kid’s little bobble-head toys.  Many of the children there were selling trinkets of some sort or another.  They’ve got their marketing technique down.  We couldn’t resist.

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Now where are we going to put these in the Coach?  Oh well, maybe we can gift them…

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Here’s a few more pictures of some of the items for sale along the sidewalks and alleyways of Los Algodones:

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We made it out of there with a few shirts, a new hat for Stilla, some sleepwear, and I couldn’t say no to a $20 silver & turquoise Harley-Davidson belt buckle.  And, oh yeah – a shoe-shine.

We found another open-air restaurant/bar of sorts, complete with tiki hut and palm trees, to enjoy some more refreshments.

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We walked back through the border crossing without incident, luckily Stilla remembered her “green card” 🙂

On the way back to the Cocopah Casino where we parked the Coach, we stopped to check out the Quechan Casino that is located at the Interstate 8 exit to Los Algodones.  It’s just a few miles up the road from the border.  We noticed a huge amount of RV’s either parked in their lot or surrounding area(s).  And it looked like there were lots of ATV trails in and around the parking area(s).  We drove through the Casino RV parking area to check it out.  We were flagged down by a group of people sitting outside their RVs enjoying adult beverages.  They noticed our Colorado license plate.  They were also from Colorado and invited us to come park near them if we decided to bring the Coach over.  Hmmm, we might just have to do that…

We had tentatively reserved a spot at the Military Fam-Camp in Yuma Proving Grounds for a week beginning on 1 February, but that still left us an open week before we go back North to Lake Havasu for the Fireworks Rally on the 11th.  So we might just revise our near-term plan and stay South for a while longer.  Stay tuned…