Author Topic: Baja mordida advice  (Read 10328 times)

wrybread

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #15 on: November 25, 2015, 04:20:49 PM »
>  She failed the Baja test but I married her anyway

That's such a hard test for a girlfriend to pass, especially if she doesn't surf. Hanging out on a dusty point in a tent or camper every day for hours after the wind comes up just isn't for everyone. But agreed, definitely not a deal breaker. Best to just check out for a while and go feral for a week or two.

And don't believe the hype, Baja is still super safe, at all the marquee spots anyway. Just get south of Ensenada and if you're feeling uneasy camp in the premiere spots and avoid driving after dark. My biggest fear in Baja these days is from all the real estate types who've infested the place from LA.


hbsteve

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #16 on: November 25, 2015, 05:10:55 PM »
The worst experience I ever had was coming back thru the border at Tijuana on a Sunday afternoon. It was in the late 60's.  I was driving a VW Bus, with the curtains totally open, and my sunglasses off.  I was very polite and respectful.
The agent asked to take a quick look inside.  I said sure.  He went around to the passenger side, opened my glove box,
took out my camera and thru it on the floor.  When I began to speak, he told me to be quiet, or he would have my van torn apart, taking the door panels off etc., looking for drugs and I could spend the rest of the day putting it back together.
I shut up.
He must have had a very bad night at home.

magentawave

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #17 on: November 25, 2015, 05:40:36 PM »
He said "I like America, but its too complicated. In Mexico, there's nothing 200 pesos won't fix."

Yup, gotta love it!
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magentawave

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #18 on: November 25, 2015, 05:41:52 PM »

Are those cold looking grey stills of you surfing San Quentin area?
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Biggreen

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #19 on: November 25, 2015, 05:45:29 PM »
He said "I like America, but its too complicated. In Mexico, there's nothing 200 pesos won't fix."

Yup, gotta love it!

When we were headed down for Y2K a buddy was all worried that if things went to hell we'd be screwed. I looked at him and said, "there's no infrastructure to go awry. We're gonna be in the safest place we can be for the new millennium."

wrybread

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #20 on: November 25, 2015, 10:20:30 PM »
The worst corrupt cop experience I've had in Mexico was in the late 90s, stopping in Tijuana for some stupid reason at the start of a trip to Guatemala. We left our loaded gringo van alone while we got a bite to eat. Because, you know, our newly installed car alarm would protect us.

We got back after like 20 minutes and that ridiculous little car alarm was going off and our van had been ransacked. Oh well, we knew we deserved it, so we surveyed the damage. A couple of missing cameras and of course the stereo was gone... But they didn't get the stereo face plate! Just as we were laughing about that fact a cop car pulled up and, to our surprise, told us to line up outside the van and put our hands up. We told them that it was our van but it was like they didn't believe us or understand and they started to frisk us. When they got to me I said in my shitty spanglish "hey this is my van and I can prove it." So I showed him where the stereo face plate was hidden. He got a smile on his face and stopped wanting to frisk me. I thought the change was from him knowing it was our van but, as it turns out, he took the damn face plate!

So it was the frickin cops who ransacked our van.

Anyway, that's Tijuana and, to be honest, I don't blame them. We were such gringos, and that van might as well been from outer space.

Other than that, all the bribes I've had to give were from me doing something wrong. A classic for me was passing through the Baja Nor / Sur border at Guerro Negro without my passport. I'd been through a bunch of times before with just a driver's license, but because America had been clamping down on immigration they were doing the same and were now requiring Americans to show their passports. It was nighttime and the guy told me to get out of my car and follow him. We got to a back room and he said "you can either get a hotel here for the night and go to the police station in the morning, or you can give me 200 pesos now and I'll take care of everything for you." Done!


goodfornothin

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #21 on: November 26, 2015, 12:06:03 AM »
My partners and I built a 50,000 Sq ft  factory to make foam blanks.  We lived in baja Malibu for almost two years and the factory was next to home depot and Costco downtown TJ. 

We drove to work one fine morning to find our maquiladora had been playing with the wrong boys.  We had no idea,,the dudes with guns didn't give a shit. So we moved a lot of molds really fast. Interesting times. 

Anyways,,I've got stories.  I got pulled over every morning by the same dam guy.  One morning g ran out of shit to say so he just charged me 20$ for wearing sun glasses, but you have sun glasses on? Yeah well, I'm hungry.  Si, bueno.

How about when I got pushed over a curb by a crazy motorcylcle cop. He basically rammed his motorcycle into my truck so I would hit a tree branch.  I get out and am kinda aggressive with the guy.  I accidentally called him a fucking shit pig,,,I meant to say something else in spanglish but it came out all wrong,,he started busting up and asked what a fucking shit pig was?   Lucky he spoke better english than my spanish.  So I apologize and ask him what was I doing that was so dangerous you felt the need to ram me? He says I ran a red light and almost hit a kid.  I politely said there are no such lights for miles and miles,,he smiles, true senor,,but that's not of concern now.  So I'm like cool,,see you later,,thanks for the giant dent.   Nope.  I'm detained for breaking a branch off a sacred tree of TJ.  Ok dude,,here's 20$ for the tree, 20$ for calling you a goofy name, and 20$ for a fat carnitas...nope.  he says he's calling the cities top arborist to count the rings. And it's 20$ per ancient ring.  I was looking at 1000$ easy, just from a tertiary view of said branch.   Ok new angle,,I told him to just take me downtown and I'll face the judge on this one.  They don't like that.  So he says we should follow him to headquarters.  Ok, he leads around a crazy Mr toads wild ride and forces me to stop in front of a fire hydrant.  He signals me to get out of car and that we are to meet his supervisor.  Fine,,maybe I'll get this thing down to a 100$ and go surf.  Nope,,the supervisor gets out of bronco, and starts in on me about fire hydrant.  I fucking lost it.  Both the cops started laughing and said they just wanted to see how far they could go with me.  I ended up loosing 200$, a dent in my truck, and I missed an entire tide switch,,and BM'S was going off,,

We went through that shit every single day.  But don't feel bad.  We had 50 employees.  All locals. If they had a nice car, or nicesh.  It didn't matter, they got shook down as much as us.  Actually when the cops got their guns taken away from them a few years back,,,that was like heaven on earth in tj.  Seriously, it plain felt safer and it was a lot cheaper.  Hahaha

bajasurf

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #22 on: November 27, 2015, 07:48:30 AM »
I hit a cow at night out of Guerro Negro on the way to San Lucas cove just south of Santa Rosalia.   It was around midnight on Thanksgivings day 1993. 

The cow destroyed the front of my suburban.  The grill, both fenders, radiator, everything smashed and falling off.  After I hit the cow some Mexicans came by in a truck and started cutting up the cow.  After about a hour, some gringos going south pulled my truck out of the ditch ( my boat was still attached to truck and in the road).  Anyway, they pulled me to a safe turnout and I took off with them and left my nephew to watch the truck ( you never saw someone as afraid as he was that night)  I got a tow the next day to a junk yard and the mechanic took off everything in the front of the truck ( fenders, grills everything.  He then jimmied a junkyard radiator to fit the hoses and wired on a headlight on to the radiator.  That and the motor was all that was up front.  So we did the only sane thing and continued on to SL cove. We ended up fishing for two weeks, it was  great trip.

While we were there, we met two cool California guys that loved to fish.. We became good friends, so when it was time for us to leave they were worried about us in the Mad Max rigged suburban, so they suggested we travel together.  Come nighttime, my headlight was shooting up in the hills and we couldn't get it to stay on the road.  The guys decide they would drive right behind me with their high beams so I could see where we were going..

Late at night a federal cop pulls us over.  My Spanish is local, so I told him my sob story and let him know we were out of funds, and only had enough cash to get back to the US.  He said okay and let us go.  Now he walks back to my friends and says that they owe the fine of $200 for my truck not being street safe.  They ended up paying the fine. Man we had some beers and laughed about that all night long.  Crazy. 

We made to back to the boarder and I got my truck fixed.  After that, I called the Suburban "Betsy" as a tribute to the cow, and I used her for many more years in Baja, but none like that Thanksgiving trip. 

I gave her to a young kid who worked on my home in Cabo.  He needed her more than I did and I still see her around from time to time.

magentawave

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #23 on: November 27, 2015, 12:06:07 PM »
...stopping in Tijuana for some stupid reason at the start of a trip to Guatemala. We left our loaded gringo van alone while we got a bite to eat.

You learned and probably never did that again. My objective is to always get through TJ as quickly as possible with no stops. I don't relax until I'm and driving up that steep hill that heads towards the coast.
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TallDude

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2015, 10:04:54 PM »
...stopping in Tijuana for some stupid reason at the start of a trip to Guatemala. We left our loaded gringo van alone while we got a bite to eat.

You learned and probably never did that again. My objective is to always get through TJ as quickly as possible with no stops. I don't relax until I'm and driving up that steep hill that heads towards the coast.
When I was a kid, my dad who was a builder would buy doors, lights, and custom iron work from a few places in TJ. He still gets all his dental work done there. My little brother and I would wonder around TJ looking in little shops, buying candy and fire crackers. There was a slaughter house across the street from the iron guy. The blood just poured out of the place and ran down the gutter. I remember looking off to the south as you head up the steep hill towards the coast at all the cardboard houses. It was a reality check for us little OC kids to know that people and families actually live like that.
I know what you mean about that big hill. You grip the steering wheel a little tighter and drive like your life depends on it from the border to that hill.
It's not overhead to me!
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FeralInBaja

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2015, 07:24:34 AM »
...stopping in Tijuana for some stupid reason at the start of a trip to Guatemala. We left our loaded gringo van alone while we got a bite to eat.

You learned and probably never did that again. My objective is to always get through TJ as quickly as possible with no stops. I don't relax until I'm and driving up that steep hill that heads towards the coast.
When I was a kid, my dad who was a builder would buy doors, lights, and custom iron work from a few places in TJ. He still gets all his dental work done there. My little brother and I would wonder around TJ looking in little shops, buying candy and fire crackers. There was a slaughter house across the street from the iron guy. The blood just poured out of the place and ran down the gutter. I remember looking off to the south as you head up the steep hill towards the coast at all the cardboard houses. It was a reality check for us little OC kids to know that people and families actually live like that.
I know what you mean about that big hill. You grip the steering wheel a little tighter and drive like your life depends on it from the border to that hill.
I gotta say, one of the many things you're missing if you skip Tijuana is the Sobreruedas! Outdoor swap-meet/flea markets that really do rule. Killer food, crazy amounts of eye-candy if you're still into that (sometimes it's so heavy, even an old guy like me gets knocked over) and every thing in the world for sale cheap. I got my "Lost..." Longboard  skateboard like new with decent trucks and wheels for $500 pesos ($32 dollars) and made a friend that turned out to be long-lasting. I took my buddy who is an incredible musician first, great guy second, and thirdly, blind, to one and he said: "My God, the sounds! The smells! Now I'm in Mexico!!!" Yeah, security, where to stash your stuff is paramount, but with a plan, Tijuana is incredible. And you can walk down the street drinking a beer without the black helicopters swarming on you. Or ride a Quad down Calzada Technologico (Main North-Central drag with UABC and the Airport nearby) right in front of the police and they don't care. Monday in La Libertad, Tuesday Mesa de Otay behind Sorianas, Wed. Ampliacion Guaycura, Thurs. Infonavit  Presidentes, Fri. small but one of my favorites in Buena Vista, Sat. Mesa de Otay other side of Calz. Tech. in front of Parque Reforma, Sun. Mesa de Otay by Parque Amistad past the airport. There's 2 GREAT ones in Rosarito if you want to get your feet wet without the gnarliness (If I still live here, I have a small garage and no car, so zoners could stick a car in there for the afternoon or overnight if needs be...) Sun. and Mon. in Rosarito, but Tijuana is really cool if you get in the groove. I'm really over the excessive regulation in the U.S., so I'd rather deal with occasional mordida and gnarliness than the invisible straight-jacket of one billion regulations and laws. I never had to stash my car, if someone's traveling through and really wanted to hit up the Sobreruedas, I'd call up my church bro in Otay and arrange a cool car stash with some church family, at the church, or with one of the college-girl English students.
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TallDude

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It's not overhead to me!
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eastbound

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #27 on: December 01, 2015, 04:44:05 AM »
scary TD--feral, sounds like the church is a place of safety and sanity, tho you seem to get by without serious threat.
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LB Surper

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #28 on: December 01, 2015, 06:36:58 AM »
Tragic story about the Aussies. I guess nothing is off limits in Sinaloa region..not even harmless surfers who just want to enjoy the beach. Unbelievable!
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wrybread

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Re: Baja mordida advice
« Reply #29 on: December 01, 2015, 07:08:01 PM »
> really over the excessive regulation in the u.s.

Amen to that. And agreed that Tijuana can be a great pitstop. I've driven loaded gringo vans all through mainland Mexico and always have the same strategy in cities: find a small well protected and staffed paid parking lot, way off the street. That's always worked for me. And if you're sleeping in your van it doubles as a hotel room.

 


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