The Strike Road....

We scan the FB news posts on Talk Baja at 0700.  We consider the news we heard yesterday from the rig that arrived from the north...they were at one point, lead around a road block (set with tires on fire), by a local.  He lead them through back streets and back onto Mex #1, then shouts, "Keep your windows up....good luck!"  Gulp.  Then they are swarmed by protestors banging on the sides of the rig and blocking the road in front of them.  They see rocks in hands.  They keep moving.  Slowly....but moving.  The gas stations are closed.  They are under 1/3 of a tank when they arrive.  This is their trip to go see the new baby whales in San Ignacio....their first trip down the Baja.

Then there is the news of the rig that went north yesterday.  They got 10km up the road...deciding to follow a police car...for "safety."  Then, out of the fields come rocks flying through the air, aimed at the police car!  They see no people, but someone is definitley hurling rocks toward the car on the highway right ahead of them.  They make a fast u-turn? (question the fast)bumping through part of a field...and wind up at an rv camp only 5km from where we still wait.

But today the news on FB is that the road is "open" and the word Maria brings to us is the same.  She says, "It's open now...but for how long?  You should be good to go if you go now."  We all decide we'll go for it.  The way the strike is progressing and the talks are not progressing...we think it's best to go in this lull of activity, hoping we are right.

Pedro and Janet in the lead

We depart early (for us)....and find Mex #1 eerie in that there are very very few vehicles....going either way.  We decide to travel in a caravan, so all six rigs leave together.  We are connected by walkie talkie radios and that lends it's own sense of "security in numbers."  Pedro and Janet take the lead.  He is our ace Spanish speaker....among other qualifications!  But today he wears no "costume"...

I take photos from our moving rv as I can.  Here are a few of those shots, to try to tell a little of the story.

Empty highway

Crews of locals removing rocks from road blocks

Small gathering of protestors along the side of the road

Evidence of fire road block

Area of San Quintin and farms

Many unmarked white cars and trucks posed by highway, police nearby

At one point we count 17 federal trucks full of soldiers with flashing lights speeding south.  Whatever "it" is they are racing toward....it is behind us now.

Signs of the last fire road block

All bridges were blocked because there was no way around

Bathroom break....anyone have one around here?

I have no photos of the protestors on the side of the road at Camalu.  There were maybe 100 people, all with white signs today...some signs on sheets...waving...with the words, "Peaceful, Protest, Human  Rights, Fair Pay"....and no rocks in hands.  They do not try to stand in front of the rigs.  We give them the "thumbs up" and Pedro reminds us on the radios...."no stopping....even to give pesos for the effort...keep moving"....and we do.  Although many of us would like to put pesos in the hands...

Our trip is eventful, but uneventful.  We are full of graditude for a safe passage up the troubled area.  We stop at Las Canadas (just south of Ensenada) for lunch.

Lunch stop

Bringing out more food we need to use up!

Janet and Pedro....note CASE of brussel sprouts next to Pedro???

Dr.Bill and Dori

While we are trying to use up all fruits and vegetables...Steve comes around the corner with a huge, as in HUGE, crate box of....I know you guessed this...brussel sprouts!!  They are big and beautiful...and yes, a vegetable.  We cannot cross the border with this!  We all admire them...but...   He says: "This car stopped, they had an open trunk and beckoned me to come over....I know they probably have something to sell...my eyes fall on three huge boxes, two of tomatos and one of brussel sprouts...I say, ok, I'll take 5.  As in 5 total sprouts...and they motion, no, no, no...you take them all...free...just take them.  He is stunned as they place the entire box in his hands and leave.  ????  There is a story here.  We don't know it.

So...anyone for one more night in Baja...?  Brussel sprouts for dinner?  We decide yes.  Our next stop will be LA Cetto Winery...after the big job of Ensenada traffic and road construction on the malacon.

Kathy offers fresh baked brownies....we forgot to eat them last night!

Dori and Steve hug goodbye....they might go a different way...

Ensenada....an easy part of the city...

This band of travelers is now down to four rigs.  Craig will go off to La Bufadora.  Dori and Bill might make a different stop...so we say our goodbyes once again.....

....and off we go...just "a little further" to the winery.

P.S. The strike by the farm workers continues with unresolved issues, but some of the negotiations have given them hope for an improvement in salary and some hope for health care.  I don't read Spanish well enough to know about the details and this is not an issue covered well by U.S. press.  Hopefully there will be progress made.  The movement has gained numbers of people demonstrating and these demonstrations have been in many other areas besides just the San Quintin farm country.