Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

We drove just over 3000 miles. This on a peninsular that’s only 900 miles long. Side trips, loads of them, are the difference. Fuel ‘economy’ was a smidgeon under 15 mpg, which in fact is remarkably good for this vehicle, in our experience. The average cost per gallon in Mexico turned out to be US$3.65 and that’s for Magna (87 octane). We had no issues with anyone trying to ‘cheat’ us in any way on gas (or any other transaction, for that matter).

Money and exchange rates. We can’t prove it, but it seemed that paying in US$ got us a worse exchange rate than getting pesos from the ATM at a bank and paying in local currency. The bank with the ATM and our credit union in the USA take a bite out of the ATM transaction, but even so it seemed to be in our favor.

Despite the fact that we’ve done the same Spanish language classes (level 1 & 2) three times at our local adult education scheme, we still were absolutely hopeless with the lingo. It began to start ‘coming back’ to us after the second week, but really slowly. The only excuse we have is that we are old. Despite this, we always managed to figure out with the Spanish-only speakers what it was they wanted/we wanted, because they really try to work with you.

There are Walmarts in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito and Ensenada. OK, but who knew there is a Walmart Supercenter in La Paz. Plus, the Bodega Aurrera chain is owned by Walmart (and has Walmart WiFi).

We took enough clothes for 7 days. We found that laundromats are widely available, and ‘servicio’ (service washes) are frequently available and cheap. B broke out with livid rashes on her face and hands, which could be due to whatever laundry chemicals that had been used on our service washes/hotel bedding. Next time, we’ll be sure to use our own low allergy laundry liquid, and try and avoid hotels (or, bring our own pillowcase since B’s rash wasn’t all over).

Sirius/XM Radio works just fine. Except, in our case when you get as far south as La Paz, and then it’s just useless. The ‘techie’ in me thinks that the satellite signal is ‘focussed’ on the USA, and you just run out of ‘edge’ signal, that far south.

Wifi/Cellular data is ubiquitous. Where people are ubiquitous. Otherwise, it’s non-existent. That seems reasonable. We got an AT&T pre-paid SIM for one of our phones, and we were able to roam on TELMEX almost everywhere in the towns and cities along Mex 1. It was mostly HSPA, except in La Paz, where we had LTE. We got nothing in Bahia de  Los Angeles. Most hotels had some form of WiFi. On average, the WiFi wasn’t too bad, sometimes exceptional, sometimes, just useless. Even Rancho Meling had WiFi, sort of.

Google Maps vs Garmin. For ever, we have found that Google Maps is a great way to run your phone’s battery down, without offering much more than Garmin GPS does. And Garmin, because it’s satellite based, is available everywhere, unlike the cellular data based Google Maps. This changes in Baja. The actual maps are pretty much like for like, but what Google Maps knows about restaurants and places to visit, and so on and so on, way outstrips the limited information that Garmin has in its database.

Finally, we rediscovered that the people in Baja California are honest, hard-working and charming. I’m certain that there are bad apples, but we didn’t encounter a single one.