Baja Sur – part two

After just over three weeks in Mulege (as I painstakingly covered in Part One), we packed up all of our belongings to relocate ourselves to a tiny town called San Bruno. Yes, we were relieved to be leaving the generator-dependent lifestyle but were also sad to say goodbye to the breathtaking view and immediate access to the Bay of Concepción. It took a few trips and within a day or so we had successfully relocated ourselves.

At this point, both of us were in the middle of what would turn out to be a 2-week stomach bug. Once we were settled, we took our first course of antibiotics. While this gave us a reprieve for a day or two, the bug returned. We consulted with our doctors at home and took a stronger course of meds, Cipro, which finally did the trick (despite a fairly violent reaction I had to the meds).

Unfortunately, our luck, or lack thereof, continued. This Airbnb was by far the worst we’ve ever stayed at.

The place was pretty filthy — dishes were put away with food encrusted on them, there were crumbs all over the sofas, one sofa smelled of wet dog, and wasps had started building homes above the entrance to the unit. The apartment appeared as if no one had cared for it in a while as evidenced by the broken drawers, an unusable chair due to a broken leg, a shower that barely produced water and never reached a temp higher than frigid, and the state of basically every appliance (like the toaster that only toasted one side of the bread) and the washing machine that had to be manually advanced through each stage. The host was also the most uninvested I’d ever encountered. She was in California the entire time and relied on a neighbour, Carlos, to manage the unit. Carlos was nice and tried to help when he could — however, he spoke very little English and our Spanish didn’t cover things like “the washing machine gets stuck on the fill cycle.”

Things took a turn south when one of our cats, Lincoln, got poisoned. The unit is listed as pet-friendly and the host knew we had cats. Yet, despite this, their exterminator laid out about a dozen highly toxic pellets of rat poison (so toxic that the poison is illegal in the US). Lincoln found one, plopped it in his water bowl, and began drinking. He immediately began vomiting and we frantically tried to get a hold of a vet which proved challenging as it was late on a Saturday night. We carefully monitored him, read up on Flocoumafen, and tried to not panic. The next morning I messaged the host to let her know. She had us connect with Carlos who drove with us to a friend of his who is a vet and a pastor. After 45 minutes we arrived at the vet’s house and he was in the middle of leading his congregation. He came over to our car, injected Lincoln with Vitamin K and handed us the syringe, instructing us to inject him for the next few days. We drove back to San Bruno while Carlos proceeded to proselytize Christianity, in Spanish, to Richard. Apparently, our bad luck had been due to us not asking Jesus for the things we needed.

After doing more research and connecting with our vet on Monday, we learned Lincoln would need 30 days of Vitamin K therapy to counteract the anticoagulant. I spent the next week tracking down Vitamin K from local vets and pharmacies, learning to inject our cat, and monitoring him for signs of internal bleeding. Luckily, Lincoln came out of this okay and we have completed the Vitamin K administration (upon arrival in Portland a few weeks later).

We had about a week without any incidents and were able to explore the area a bit. Richard and I started jogging again, found a couple of fantastic restaurants (Tacos y Tortas Los Compadres, Palapa la Abuela), made several visits to an outstanding bakery, and took a few trips to Mulege to go kayaking and snorkelling. We even took a special excursion to Loreto for a date night.

While our uneventful week was lovely, it did not last long. I previously brought to the host’s attention that the shared washer would get stuck on the fill and the rinse cycles causing continuous water to pour into the machine unless one manually moved the dial to the next cycle. She attributed this to a dirty filter, which it was not, and we were told it was fixed, which it was not. I continued to bring this to her attention and ceased to even get a response from the host. On this Saturday eve, the guest in the other unit had started his laundry and walked away for hours, we are guessing, and the machine was left to run constantly. The water pump then burnt out and there was no running water in the building. Given the lack of attention paid by the host, we had a feeling this would not be addressed promptly. It ended up taking several conversations with Airbnb and about 24 hours to get the pump replaced. This was our last straw and we made plans to head north on Monday for the US.

The past couple of posts are fairly negative and, for that, I apologize. While I am a discerning person, I actively try to find the positive in situations, not dwell on things that cannot be changed and look for lessons to be learned.

Our experience in Baja Sur was interspersed with some bright spots — the scenery was remarkable, everyone was incredibly friendly, welcoming, and helpful (with the exception of the Airbnb host), we had the best tacos of our lives, and the laidback atmosphere was very appreciated. We spent several afternoons sipping Pacificos and devouring veggie tostadas on the beach of Santispac staring out into the beautiful bay. In these moments, everything else in the world melted away and contentment flooded over us.

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I am grateful for the time we got in this beautiful part of the world, for how well Richard and I acted as a team, and, honestly, for the ability and privilege, we had to be able to leave when it became too much.

We had a place lined up in Portland for mid-July and had a couple of weeks before that reservation began so we decided to stop in California’s central valley and explore a few national parks — read about that here!