From La Ventana we made the short drive to Los Barriles. In the end, we’re not really sure why. This place is just not our scene. It’s a kiteboarding mecca, which means lots and lots of two things: wind, and gringos. I’m probably being supercilious, but for me, any town in which everything is quoted in US dollars—from the camping, to the restaurants, to the grocery store—is not a town I can get onboard with. So whatever, for some people this is the ideal scene, for us, not so much.
I think kite boarding looks like a lot of fun. Problem for me is that I can’t imagine ever searching out a windy beach. Windy beaches suck. It was howling a good twenty plus knots this day. It was painful just watching the beginners get slapped down like rag dolls.
This morning a guy came up to us outside the bus and said, “This is going to sound weird, but I see you have a classic rig, which I assume means you know how to work on it—any chance you could help me with some electrical trouble? Our 12v hasn’t worked for two days.”
I hate electrical. I always have. So I doubt I could help.
“Sure, he’ll come over and take a look as soon as we get back from breakfast.” Ali told him.
I grabbed the multimeter and headed over. He gave me the rundown of the problems, which sounded like an old dead battery to me. I had him open up the house battery and it was bone dry. Hey, maybe I was right here.
He had a new starter battery, so I had him hook that up. Just as he was finishing I noticed something that looked off. All the wiring was black. Obviously someone had done some rewiring themselves and hadn’t bothered with colors. The odd thing I noticed was that the wire coming off the negative post was a bundle, while the wire coming off the positive post was all alone. I tracked that wire and found it was bolted to the frame. That was most definitely not a positive wire. He had the wiring backwards.
We switched it around and, like magic, everything popped back on. His wife had been standing nearby the whole time and knew exactly what he had done, but he explained anyway, “You see honey, the problem was all very technical. There were breakers, and wires, and connectors, and stuff. You wouldn’t understand all the intricacies.” They both got a good, much relieved, laugh.
She said, “It’s a funny story.”
To which he replied, “Which nobody will ever hear.”
After a couple of days in Barriles we headed for Los Frailes. It took us about ninety minutes to cover eleven miles worth of dirt road. The washboards seriously never let up.
Los Frailes is a semi-famous camp spot in these parts. Famous both because it’s a pretty bay, and because it’s free camping. Of course, with free camping come the lifers. There are actual communities of RVers out here, spending six months or more without spending a dime.
When we first arrived we drove around a bit trying to find a space without ending up in soft sand. As we idled and looked around Ali said, “It smells like pee.”
It did, but that’s all we thought about it.
After we finally found a spot and got situated we both crinkled our noses and said, “It smells like crap.”
It didn’t take long to discover that someone had emptied the entirety of their black water tank in a nearby clump of bushes (maybe twenty yards from the well). And this is how we discovered the dirty little secret of life out here in Los Frailes—over an hour in any direction from any sort of dump out facilities. Yuck.
Despite having taken a long time to get situated we were forced to move again.
9 Comments on “Los Barriles”
What a ballerina that Ouest! I love that part of Baja. Spent time camping near Cabo Pulmo, met some beekeepers who took me along to collect honey from their bees who lived in a cave. They used gasoline to alleviate bee stings – they didn’t get stung, just me. In fact, they worked without shirts on so bees wouldn’t be trapped in the cloth.
I’ve often wondered about all the long-term boondockers I see. The question of dumping their holding tanks generally seems to be sort of ignored. Nasty. Same goes for long-term anchorers but I already know what’s going on there.
You would think they would dig a hole to dump the sewage into, but noooo, either too lazy or too stupid to do so.
You know, it’s disgusting that some of those folks that park it for months can’t seem to figure out at least a simple septic system… it’s sand, for goodness sake!
Get on the university of google….. it ain’t rocket science.
I do love the wiring in reverse polarity story… I see wiring here in Mexico that, at times, makes me stand back and marvel.
There are, as you know, some beautiful spots there. desfruten!
Merry Christmas, Bumfuzzles all !
Great stories and glad to see some familiar Baja scenes. Merry Christmas Bums!
– Katie and Mark
Looks like a good place to leave a copy of the Humanure Handbook. My current build has a place for a dry toilet but I haven’t solved the raw land needed for a compost bin or two. I wish they were as common as a recycle bin. Joseph Jenkins has the biodegradable plastic bags that makes the transfer neat and odor free. At first it feels a little clumsy but it really is crazy to use precious drinking water to move our waste and then chlorinate the hell out it before we release into our streams before we harvest it and chlorinate it again to make it safe to drink. (this message paid for by the follow the movement society)
Pat,
Did I tell you the story about my friend’s 1962 3.8S E-Type and what happened when I connected the earth cable to the negative battery post
http://barrysjags.com/tips-tricks/negative-or-positive-polarity-avoid-smoking-your-generator/? If not, I won’t 🙁
that absolutely sucks.
We were over on the beach, by Bernie (- is he still there? Crusty awesome guy). We have 4×4 so never had that softsand issue, we just went right over to the sand and beach, away from everyone.
I just heard all about the damage at Los Frailes from the hurricane and how the sand is even different now – and the enormous cleaning party that happened, the fishing village being wiped out, trees dying because of the salt, etc… so sad.