In the beginning...

It's been less than a week since I left San Diego and though it took a couple of days to shake off the stress of preparing for this adventure, I've slipped easily into the traveller's schedule. Which is of course - no schedule at all.

Monday afternoon Mirko and I crossed the border into Mexico with our fingers crossed - a little anxious that we may not have the right documents, enough money, a reliable car, or enough luck on our side. So far we have been very fortunate. A few hours south of the states we found a cheap campsite for the first night. Worried about missing daylight to set up camp we forgot to stop and eat and since there was nothing nearby we had a hearty meal of tuna, canned corn, and cashews.

The next day we woke up with the sun and set off on a long, hot day of driving. Most of Baja is brown - brown trees, brown roads, brown mountains, and even brown skies. After seven hours of brown and frightening winding roads, the turquoise of the bay at Bahia de Los Angelos was shocking and beautiful. After arriving in town and asking a few locals for directions we found Mirko's friend Mauro. Being a seasoned traveller himself, Mauro and his family made us dinner and took us to a hostel that he is in the process of building to let us stay for the night. Even unfinished it was a gorgeous place to stay with a view of the bay and the whole town (and all 1,500 people who live there). It may have had a hole for a toilet and cold showers, but they were showers nonetheless and the best night's sleep I've had so far.

Making our way south again, through more brown nothing and across the border of north and south Baja we made it to Loreto at dusk and set up camp at an RV park. While setting up we were invited to a party across the street by Marc, a friendly Canadian celebrating his birthday. His friends and family welcomed us warmly (thanks Roch!) and we had a great time. There was cake, guitars, and some amazing home cooked Mexican food - made with cactus! An older Mexican gentleman at the party told me that we couldn´t miss the sunrise, so we went to bed early.

The sunrise was well worth the early morning wake up and it was exactly how the gentleman the night before had told me it would be - "the water is silver, the mountains are black, and the sun is gold". The perfect way to start a day. We didn't have to drive quite as long to reach our destination this time and arrived in Todos Santos in the early afternoon. Mirko has spent a good amount of time here in the last five years or so and knows many people in town. The scenery changed a little the further south we got - still a lot of cactus and dirt but there is green, blue, and many beautiful flowers here also. We are staying with Franco (a Mexican/Italian friend of Mirko's) who treated us to a nice dinner last night. This morning we slept in (until 8am!) then I joined Franco at his yoga class, after some tacos and a siesta in the hammock I finally found a computer with internet access (very slow internet access) by the bay windows where all I can see is the ocean and a few palm trees.

All in all it's been a good reminder that a simple life lived on pennies a day is sometimes the best kind of life.