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NEWS ARTICES - SAN FELIPE, MEXICO
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Fiesta del Mar & Memorial Day - May 28 - 31
By: Dulce
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For most Americans, the May 28 - 31 weekend marks the Memorial Day holiday. However, here in San Felipe, it was also the same weekend as the Fiesta del Mar.
For the Fiesta, a stage and tents were erected on the Malecon for the festivities. Because it cost money to enter the party, we chose to go to the Beachcomber and watch the singers and dancers from the top deck. We were the only people there for about the first 30 minutes before a few other people joined us. The service at Beachcomber was great as the bartender, Roberto, made the extra effort to come upstairs to see if we needed new beers. They also did not raise the prices as so many other places did over the weekend.
I was surprised not to see more Americans coming down for the weekend. Perhaps the road issues and the border wait times going back to the USA are discouraging people (for this reason, I chose to obtain a SENTRI pass).
The town was filled with Mexicans for the Fiesta, so at least the businesses could earn some money. Street vendors from all over suddenly appeared as well, competing with local vendors for sales, which is unfortunate.
Date Posted: 2010-06-02 13:11:04 |
Trip to Puertocitos and South
By: Dulce
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On Wednesday, May 26, 2010, we finally decided to drive south to Puertocitos. The road has been improved to Puertocitos and a bit south for some time, but on every trip to San Felipe, we seem to never find the motivation to leave town to check everything out.
Not this time.
We hopped onto highway 5 south, turned left where the airport road entrance is, and headed to Puertocitos.
As you probably know, there are some harrowing dips on the way down. Specifically, around km 17 (before Percebu) we found white painted dots on the road with the wording "OH" - "SH*T" - "DIP". No joke. That is one heck of a dip. The closer to Puertocitos we got, the more there seemed to be dips.
We had been told that Cow Patty's has the most amazing hot dogs, so we stopped there to get some. However, to our dismay, it was closed. We were told that the summer hours would be sporadic since most people go home around this time to escape the heat. Fortunately, the restrooms were open, so we could take a bio-break.
We continued south and saw the gates at Puertocitos. We had heard stories of a woman who guards the gate and demands $5 to enter the town and were relieved to see she was not there. We drove into town and past a mini-mart and a gas station. Our friend pointed out places that he fondly remembered from his childhood as he had spent alot of time there at his father's friends house on what they used to call "Booze Lane". It looked like the sign was still there, but it was faded.
We parked and walked onto the beach where the town's cove is and our friend explained how the cove sometimes completely empties when the tide goes out. Other than four Americans, there was no one else on the beach.
We decided to head south to see how the rest of the new road was. The views were absolutely amazing as we continued to drive and there were a few areas where there were areas we could pull over and take photos.
We were traveling happily along when we were all squinting at what appeared to be a strange mass in our path. We slammed on the breaks and pulled off the road just in time to realize it was a giant pile of gravel in the road. Apparently, the road ends just south of the gravel. There were no signs, no orange cones, and no warning at all, so we were lucky to have seen the gravel. We found some orange cones on the side of the road, so we pushed them into the gravel hoping that other travelers would have more warning than we did.
We turned around and headed back north, stopping at the Cow Patty again in hopes that it was open. It wasn't, but we met a local and told him about our gravel experience. He said that the week before a car had driven right off the road where it ends, so they put the gravel there to stop people from doing that. Honestly, I don't think that was the best solution.
Date Posted: 2010-06-02 12:43:17 |
Trip to Mike's Sky Ranch
By: Dulce
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On May 25, 2010, I finally had the opportunity to visit Mike's Sky Ranch. We packed sandwiches from Sundance Deli and took 5 north from San Felipe to 3 toward's Ensenada. At the military checkpoint, they seemed unfamiliar with Mike's when we told them where we were going, but we had no problems getting through.
The road was good and at San Matais we turned left onto the dirt "highway" toward's Mike's. We were in an older model Ford 4 wheel drive truck with off road tires and averaged about 5 to 10 miles per hour for two and a half hours. We followed the SCORE signs until we saw a sign pointing us left to Mike's at a fork in the road. During that time, we only saw a couple people, who lived in the ranchos along the way. We also saw a few cows and horses. The creeks had very little water in them, so we had no problems crossing them.
At the entrance of Mike's, we found the military camping out. We were the only people there and it was about 10 degrees cooler than in San Felipe with a nice breeze. We enjoyed our sandwiches with some beer we bought from the restaurant by the pool. There were two friendly dogs and they hung out with us (napped) while we ate. We peeked into the hotel windows and all rooms appeared to be nice and cozy with their own bathrooms.
On the way back down the mountain, we encountered two military guys and stopped to answer their questions. We also gave them some of our cold water and they seemed appreciative. We had only continued another half mile before we encountered two military Hummers coming uphill towards us. We pulled over to let them pass, but they stopped, so we thought they wanted to ask us questions again. It turned out that their tire was flat and they asked us if we had a compressor. I think they expected something a little more robust than the tiny air compressor we produced and plugged into our truck's cigarette lighter. Nevertheless, we began putting air into their massive tire. Unfortunately, the tire was not inflating, so we began to investigate and discovered a hole in the tire. One of the military personnell spoke very good English and helped translate for us (with our limited Spanish) the need to plug or replace the tire. They made the decision to continue on with the flat tire and we went back on our way. They asked us for some water, but we told them we had already given it to the men up the road.
It only took us two hours to return to highway 3 and head back to San Felipe. At the military checkpoint on 3, one of the guys spoke very good English so we asked him where learned it. It turned out he had lived in Florida for 10 years before joining the Mexican army. You just never know who you are going to meet.
Overall, if you are looking for something to do, I recommend this trip, but ensure you have the right vehicle with the right tires with plenty of clearance to get over rough terraine and don't expect to go very fast. Also, be sure you have plenty of food, water, a spare tire, a compressor, and an emergency kit. We could not get cellular service, so a walkie talkie might not be a bad idea either. The whole trip took us almost 8 hours roundtrip. If we do it again, I think we will drive up one day, stay the night for one or more days, and then come back.
Date Posted: 2010-06-02 11:55:10 |
$25,000 Raised to Fight Cancer
By: Freda & Michele
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$25,000 was raised at the 3rd Annual Caminata Contra el Cancer (Walk against Cancer), which occurred on March 21, 2009. This funding will provide cancer testing and education to local San Felipe residents who would not otherwise receive these benefits.
The walk began at the Arches, the entrance to San Felipe, and ended about 2 miles east at the Sea of Cortez. For more information on this event, go to www.sfcancerwalk.org. For photos, see Walk Photos
The organization now has its own Mammogram machine, so they will be able to help even more in the months and years ahead.
Watch for at least two more San Felipe Cancer Walk Fund Raisers this year.
Date Posted: 2009-04-06 19:16:22 |
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