Why? The Mexican government is doing a MAJOR upgrade of the Highway we travel along to the village, the 'Mex 1' that goes from the US-Mex border in Tijuana alllll the way down to Los Cabos, at the tip of Baja, well over 26 hours south.
SO.... the Mex 1 going thru the mountains south of Ensenada and north of Santo Tomas have been a tight, narrow 2-lane highway for decades. Why? Those mountains are solid granite, with a 1500 foot climb to get over them.
Well... the government has been re-doing the Mex 1 from Ensenada all the way past San Quintin (well south of our San Vicente location), and those roads have been fantastic.
But, the Santo Tomas mountains ... well, re-doing that 5-mile stretch... tough to do.
Guess what, there is NOTHING about a mountain that will hold back a Mexican crew from blasting and chipping away. They started doing the hard-core section last month: they blast away a chunk of the mountain, clear out a single lane, then let us crawl thru... close the road and Kaboom!
That means we get stopped for well over an hour while they are doing the Kaboom-clear it out-let us thru cycle.
Last time, we were stopped behind a rancher truck with a massive, snorting, angry bull, and the gate was held closed by a twist of twine to keep it closed... yeah, we were nervous!
Upside was that the usual Mex popcicle guys came out to sell their wares, and we were able to enjoy some tasty Mex ice-cream and 'palatas de limon'...
KA-BOOM! Dust clouds in the distance...
The big benefit WILL BE a fantastic new, wider road thru the mountains... but it's gonna take at least a year.
(Hey, popcicle guys... keep comin' around)
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