Hasta Luego

We are back in the United States. We are spending the next few days heading home.

Our last campground in Mexico was outside of the town of San Felipe. There was a mix up with the campsites and instead of everyone getting a full hookup and ocean views, there were only two of the premium sites available. Since we were leaving a day early and didn’t need services, we ended up dry camping for the night.

We had a farewell dinner in town. They hired a shuttle to drive us into town and we had about an hour to walk around San Felipe. It’s clearly a touristy town that’s about a two hour drive from the border. Not as exciting as the other locations we visited. The restaurant was excellent. Greg and I had a seared tuna. A few others ordered a special called a Volcano. It was serve piping hot in a cast iron pot. It was so hot that the room temperature increased by a few degrees. The food was delicious and the conversation was fun. The members of the caravan really have gotten to know each other over the past month.

At the end of the dinner, Horacio gave everyone a gift that he made from feathers he collected during our trip. He made it into an indigenous medallion. The one he made for the men had 24 beads, representing the number of participants of the caravan. The women got one with 13 beads, representing the number of vehicles in the caravan.

This morning Horacio blessed us before we left with a smudging ceremony. It involved waving a bundle of burning sage and touching our arms, legs, hands, feet and heads with another feather. In Spanish he mentioned all our senses.

Next we headed for the border. The drive to Mexicali was uneventful and the roads were some of the best we had in Mexico. The border crossing only took an hour which was less than we expected. However we did get pulled over by the Mexican border guard who did a full search of our rig. He opened every cabinet and found nothing. And no dirty pairs of boxer shorts hit him over the head.

We managed to drive all the way to Barstow with a stop at a Trader Joe’s to replenish our pantry. Another big driving day tomorrow.