Meeting the Baja Racers Thursday 11/11

As we were waiting to leave our location this morning at the Hotel parking lot, Jim went for a stroll and met the group we had seen the night before in the restaurant.  They were a relaxed but a bit road weary looking. Turned out they were the team that has won the Baja 400 and 500 and now have their sights set on the 1000. They had just finished their pre run of the 1000 mile course that day and were headed back to the start to begin the race on the 15th. They had team support vehicles and had about 8-10 people in their caravan.  

 As we left about 8:30, the fog had cleared and the Baja racers were on the road already. We left we saw a huge farming operation called Tres Pinos. The grow dwarf apple trees under plastic greenhouses, miles and miles of them. There are also vegetables and strawberries, all protected by the wind by plastic fences. There was more prosperity in this area with more homes that looked pretty substantial. We are amazed at the use and reuse of materials. Old pallets are used from everything you can think of. Fences, gates, long fences to protect crops from the ocean wind. We are still on the Pacific Ocean side of Baja and in the Northern Baja area. Discoll Berries also has a large footprint in this area with green houses similar to the Salinas area. 

As we traveled during the day Thursday, we went through the Valle del Cirios or Boogum cactus reserve. This strange cactus or tree grows only in Baja and was named after the trees in the Dr. Seuss books. They are odd looking as they grow straight up and then branch in a few small branches with odd leaves on the top. They have green sticking out from the main stock that look like fuzz from a distance. 

This was our stop on Thursday night near the "Restaurant" owned by Mexican woman who has been there since before the 70's and has hosted a President at her restaurant and also fed the 1000 Baja Racers who used to camp here and drink beer and eat at her place in the 70's through the late 90's when the Race was moved on to the Highway stretch for 60 miles with a police escort in later years. The "restaurant" is a room with a roof made of palm fronds and is no bigger that about 20 by 15. Here home is near by with a corral made of pallets. Cattle and horses roam the flat now where the Racers used to park. That night she cooked us an enchilada and taco dinner with beans and rice for $5.00 American dollars each. We met a couple who live in house they built into the mountain nearby who are in their late 80's and still going. He was in Baja for the beginning of the Baja races and now the live here and summer in New Mexico. He still prides himself on the welding skills that got a lot of racers back on the road. As a last bit of color, until a few years ago the restaurant featured a very large Brahma bull who liked to rest in the shade at the front of the restaurant. People just had to walk around him as he was not moving, we were told.