Wednesday, July 24

We made banana pancakes and good coffee for breakfast, then packed up and headed out. We went to an old onyx mine at a place called El Marmol. The best thing there was a wind mill pumping cool water out of a well. We bathed and cooled down while horses and cattle watched. We found a camp just between El Rosario and San Quintin on the beach with no people anywhere near. It is a pretty place with real Pacific Ocean surf and much cooler than anything I am used to. There are trash cans, an outhouse, and other signs that this is a pay-for-use beach, but there are no signs of people. We had another great dinner with Rick. He will stay till tomorrow, then he is off to Santa Barbara to hang out with friends. I noticed today that more and more cars have California plates. We are no longer so far into Mexico. It really feels like we are going back, though we can put off the actual return for another week or so.