BajaXL Day 1 - Tecate to Diablo Canyon
So I guess it is time to actually make our way into Mexico. No more talking about “racing” in Baja, we have to go do the thing.
Starting Line
To start things off of course we are late to the party. Almost everyone else had already taken off. No worries, we are here to have fun and finish not win.
#passedbyamiata
First stop is strolling across the border, not sure what the big fuss is about. When entering they really don’t check too much unless you’re a shiny Dodge Ram with expensive looking stuff. Keith and I rolled through with our Crown Vic and Miata without any checks. Chad and Trevor enjoyed the fun border search upon entering México.
Welcome to México
Enter our amazing linguistic abilities
Prior to crossing the border I made sure to have Google Translate downloaded for offline mode. This was a key tool, that we were able to quickly test out. Other than relying on hand gestures we utilized lots of “como se dice”, “hola”, “buenos dias” and of course “donde banos”.
Overall the fear of going to another place that you don’t fully understand the language shouldn’t be a barrier for travel. Everyone is a human and understands general needs. It just may take a bit longer to figure something out.
Being polite is crucial, especially when the other person is an armed military guard or police officer
Enter one of our first interactions. We (Chad) found us a parking spot so they could go and finish up their FMM (temporary visa). Approximately 5 minutes after they walked away we were spotted by a local cop. The parking spot was apparently restricted for teachers or something. First parts of the conversation revolved around going into headquarters at MexiCali…this wasn’t a realistic requirement as it is ~100 miles away. Clearly he was attempting to scare us into getting extra $$. After being told we would be taken to the local station which was never named, we eventually were told $1800 MX or roughly $100 USD per car.
That number wasn’t going to change based on our negotiation abilities. However we did end up getting the okay to head over to the bank and pull out pesos for the group. Upon return Chad, Keith and Julianne were back and talking with the cop. The situation ended with $5400 MX in his clipboard and no tickets. Hope he enjoys a nice dinner on us!
….oh and Trevor didn’t have a passport….
Getting out of Tecate!
We needed to make some miles after playing pay off the cop and getting groceries.
Taco Time
First stop outside of town was priority #1. Roadside tacos. Trust us, when you find a hole in wall or tiny joint off side of road…hit the brakes…turn around and order some food. Health codes are non existent, but the food will be great and so will the salsa. This was our first time and we left with some spicy stomachs and bag full of their fresh local tortillas!
Continuing our trek towards Mexicali
Quick stop on the gorgeous toll road east through boulder land. In the far distance you can even see the ‘massive wall’ protecting the US… Gives an interesting perspective on its purpose and usefulness or more correctly insanity.
La Cuesta
At the bottom of that amazing winding road we found a huge truck stop with a giant sun dial. This would be our last stop for fuel and a real bathroom for the day. We will be turning south into the sand in a few more kilometers.
Empty your bladders and fill the tanks!
Finally hitting sand
Turning off the highway to enjoy soft plush sand, or well I hoped with the new suspension setup…
Stopped to air down a bit and made a new friend for the trip. A pair of guys in their Tacoma, I’m terrible with names but think it was Tom and Steve. We looked forward to many high speed miles ahead after paying the 100 peso fee to access the area during local racing event.
I started by running 24-25 psi, with my stock wheels and limited side wall I knew there wasn’t going to be much allowed flex before pinching. I’m sure it was conservative, but blowing out a tire or two on the first stretch of sand wasn’t going to be a good start for 10 days. Even if I have two full spares (thanks Chad for carrying them!).
I didn’t want to ruin tires like Chad did 10 minutes later….lol
Beer time!
Also time for a bit of hooning while they finished changing the tire….
Moving on carefully for awhile we started to get comfortable with the cars and carried on while only getting mildly lost once or twice on the way to camp. In short the new suspension is awesome and just ate up all the bumps and dips while bombing along at 50+ mph. Dips and other things just came and went with little bottoming out. If you don’t have a lifted Miata… you need one and need to take it to baja.
Everyone made it to camp after dark, there were many miles of slow going right before getting there. Somewhat of a maze with small rocks aka boulders to a Miata and bushes everywhere. This last section was likely fun in a trophy truck, but for us just became tiring.
Set up camp while using our 5150 whip light to provide camp ambience.
We just had to look under the hood and see how much dirt had gathered after the first full day of Baja. Turned out to be a lot…including in the airbox. I opened it up and shook out the filter. Trying to protect the engine as best a possible while using the stock air intake and filter. I do have a second clean filter if this one gets too bad. In case you are curious the valve cover is black just like the air box…
One feature of the dust…it acts as an oil leak stop. Hehe. Poor little car.
Good evening Baja, you haven’t broken this little Miata yet!
