Wed. 1st January. Happy New Year to all.
Well, the morning flew by. I was just finishing breakfast when there was a knock on the front of Poki. A Frenchman, Rom, must have seen the Landy from the other end of the camp site and came to say Hi! He was interested in our setup, but more the fact that someone else was driving the marque. He is in a TD5 130 with his wife and three children. They are towing an amazing trailer. All set up with facilities on each side. Fridge and separate freezer, kitchen sink with running water, cupboards and all manner of modern conveniences. The truck rear cabin has been made by Alucab? in South Africa and brilliantly adapted for sleeping and shelter.
We chatted for ages and also met two other family groups from France, one travelling in Ford F350 adapted for camping. He is French and his wife English….mmm a Frog and a Pom?…:). The other group travelling in a Mercedes horse float converted to a camper. Rom would be in his late 40’s early 50’s and with a similar philosophy on life, so like I said, the morning flew and next thing Tim, Sarah and kids pulled into the camp site. What joy to see them. The children were as excited to see their grandad, as he was to see and hug them. They are all looking terrific, relaxed and tanned.
The rest of the afternoon was taken up playing pingpong with broken balls, throwing football and frisbee, till it was too dark to see. The rest of the evening spent catching up with each others lives since we left their place in Whistler, May last year.
Thursday 2nd January.
I had the best night’s sleep and was woken at 8am by a loud bang in the side of Poki, it was Sarah with a big mug of steaming tea. No milk next time Sarah..:). It was great waking at 3am to have wifi working when every else in the camp is asleep and to find several emails from Jen.
The kids were soon helping me prepare breakfast!!! By 10am we were packed to head to the docks to see what sailings to the mainland are available. On the way stopping off at Walmart to do a shop-up at reasonable prices. La Paz is quite a big city, the main one at the southern end of the Baja peninsula.
Once again the kids helped me shopping and it was fascinating to see what was in the basket at the check out..:). Once provisioned, we headed to Telcel to get a SIM card. A great deal, as we each ended up with 12gig of data for about US$35. Three times the data compared to the US and 1/3 cheaper. The challenge will be to get it working in our Russian modem.
The port is about 20k’s from town and the next couple of hours were….interesting! Trying to find out which ferry company was offering sailings and where to buy tickets, all without a word of Spanish. After trying to convince Customs that I wasn’t Jennifer Cole, (Jen is the registered owner of Poki, for various reasons), and that it was OK for me to be travelling, we bought tickets.
The ferry to Tomplabampo was sailing in 30 minutes so we had to hurry. When we got to the ferry check-in we found the tickets had been made out for 3 days time, the 5th!!! Regardless, the ferry was full and we were unable to sail. The plan is to arrive at the wharf at 11am tomorrow for the 2.30pm sailing. That will be interesting.
Sarah found a lovely beach nearby on iOverlander and the kids were soon in the sea, playing for hours. Both vehicles are parked in the sand, just above high tide level. Lets hope there’s not a spring tide overnight. It’s a lovely evening and after dark we sat in deck chairs chatting, with the kids in bed.
Charley 
Sarah
Visits: 30
Dennis,
When U tell us about other vehicles it would b nice if u included a photo. How old are the kids? I have Mary on the phone and I read her your Bolg. She sends her best. She has a bad cold but is hanging in there. Bill
Hi! Bill, we are travelling with Sarah & Tim and kids. Jen on her way back tomorrow.
Seems strange to be sitting in wintery England and reading our blog. Catch up with you soon x
Hurry up and come back…xx 🙂