Trip Report to Rosarito Beach, MX - Lots of Pics

[KM Rolling]

We recently returned from a 19 day trip from Mississippi out to Rosarito Beach, Mexico and back to Mississippi.

3 nights were spent in San Diego, visiting family.

9 nights were spent in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.

6 nights were spent on the road.

We took the lower route, 40 to the 30 to the 20 to the 10 to the 8 because of colder weather (ice & snow) along the more northern route, straight across the 40.

We still had 5 nights that were in the 20's.


The truck pulled well, the trailer was a great home away from home, we had a great time and are already planning on repeating this trip next year.


The truck can go further between stops than us. Here we are pulled over for a break, somewhere in New Mexico-






And another break at a rest area in Arizona-







This is a rest area outside of El Centro, CA. We stayed here for the night, this pic is in the morning, right before leaving out.







I did not get pics of our first two nights on the road. The first was at a Walmart between Texarkana and Dallas. The second was at a Rest Area in New Mexico.



The only real climb we had was coming into San Diego...not much at all.







We arrived at families house in San Diego, CA. We stayed here for 3 nights, spending Thanksgiving here and visiting family, before heading down to Mexico.






More in next post-

[KM Rolling]

Leaving San Diego, we crossed the border into Tijuana at San Ysidro. It was fairly painless.

With the whole Caravan thing going on we did not know what to expect.

They checked our passports, ran an xray machine over the truck and trailer, and we were on our way in less than 30 minutes.

We got set up at Popotla RV Park, just south of Rosarito Beach. It is a very nice place, and we intend on staying there again next year.


This was our first afternoon there, enjoying the view of the ocean and little bay below.







Another shot of the bay, as the sun was setting...









...this was the first of many fantastic sunsets we experienced here-








Besides being a nice location, the security is good at Popotla, the electricity is good...a steady 119 volts. My Verizon signal is better here than at the house in North Mississippi!

The next morning, this is the view out the trailer door-






Another shot out the trailer door, notice this morning the tide is higher than it was yesterday afternoon.








The reason we are down here is for our regular medical check ups and maintenance chelation treatments. Nothing wrong, just keeping healthy.

Photo of our doctors clinic in Tijuana-







After leaving the docs for the day, we stopped at Walmart to do some shopping-








Did a little tourist shopping on the way back to Rosarito Beach.







Back "home" the second afternoon-





More in next post.

[SeeTheUSA]

Great pics .... thanks.

[Davidrvr]

Does the doctors speak English? My Spanish is non existent .. what type of docs are they if you don’t mind me asking?

[Scottybdivin]

Nice photos. That's a long haul to stay on a beach. I assume you have had prior business at that clinic TJ?

[KM Rolling]

Originally Posted by SeeTheUSA

Great pics .... thanks.

Glad you're enjoying. More to come!

Originally Posted by Davidrvr

Does the doctors speak English? My Spanish is non existent .. what type of docs are they if you don’t mind me asking?

Yes, they speak fluent English, as does much of Baja California, to varying degrees.

Dr. Castillo has been our Doc for over 30 years. He is an MD, and I cannot remember his specialty.

You can see his website at this link- Clínica CIPAG

We moved to North Mississippi from San Diego 25 years ago, but still see him regularly.

Originally Posted by Scottybdivin

Nice photos. That's a long haul to stay on a beach. I assume you have had prior business at that clinic TJ?

Glad you like me. Lots more to come.

Yep, long trip, but we had fun.

He's one of the few docs we trust with our health, and so it was nice to combine a fun trip, a nice stay in Rosarito and seeing him all in one.

[EZDZIT]

Thanks for the report and pictures. Glad you had a good time! We love Mx but have been hesitant to go back for a few years. We have stayed at Salina a couple times. I think Salina is a little south of Popotia but north of Ensenada.


Unless you wish to return to San Diego after Popotia you might return to the US via Mx3 which runs from Ensenada to Tecate. That route takes you through Baja vineyards and the crossing is less hectic.

[KM Rolling]

Here are some more photos of our time in Rosarito Beach, along with our daily drive up to TJ. It's about a 35 minute drive, about half the time along the coast, and the other half in TJ traffic.

Here's a photo of just after turning east off the coast, and heading down into TJ.

On the left you can see "The Wall" with the open space to the left...that is the USA.

All the built up area straight ahead and to the right in Tijuana, MX.







Driving along the Mexico side of the border...to the left is the wall right south of the border and another wall.







While we were down there, there were thousands of folks from "the Caravan" camped out all over Tijuana. The following photo is just a small section of one of the encampments that is right off the road we traveled every day.

Most of the folks we talked with in TJ were not happy about their city being "invaded" with the caravan.








Typical TJ traffic as we leave the docs and head back south-







Out of the city traffic and on the "toll road" (cost is $1.95 USD when they're actually collecting, which was only about half the time while we were there)-








The coastal view is quite nice heading south in Baja California.








More photo's in next post.

[KM Rolling]

Originally Posted by EZDZIT

Thanks for the report and pictures. Glad you had a good time! We love Mx but have been hesitant to go back for a few years. We have stayed at Salina a couple times. I think Salina is a little south of Popotia but north of Ensenada.


Unless you wish to return to San Diego after Popotia you might return to the US via Mx3 which runs from Ensenada to Tecate. That route takes you through Baja vineyards and the crossing is less hectic.

Glad you're enjoying. We we're a bit hesitant also, especially with the Caravan fiasco going on.

However, we did not experience anything uncomfortable in our time there. In fact, it seems safer/less sketchy than in years past.

We are already back home, but next time we will look into the other route you mentioned.

[KM Rolling]

One day we walked down to the beach from our site.

Checked out the tide-pools-







Mary got some good pics, along with a few "treasures"-









It was another "picture-perfect" day-







After walking back up to the bluff where our trailer is, we got a few more photo's of the sunset-














After watching yet another spectacular sunset...










...it was back to the trailer and time to get some work done. Nope, not retired, still working several hours each day on this trip!






Will post more photo's of this trip as time allows.

[macnut]

Great trip report! Thanks!

[guardrail53]

Great Pic's! Loved seeing the area again! Did you go to one of the many lobster restaurants in Rosarito? We used to drive down to Rosarito from Vegas for a long weekend of fun, relaxing, eating! I love the area, and the food, for sure! Rail!

[KM Rolling]

Originally Posted by macnut

Great trip report! Thanks!

Glad you're enjoying. More photo's coming.

Originally Posted by guardrail53

Great Pic's! Loved seeing the area again! Did you go to one of the many lobster restaurants in Rosarito? We used to drive down to Rosarito from Vegas for a long weekend of fun, relaxing, eating! I love the area, and the food, for sure! Rail!

Cool! Yeah, Baja is growing up.

Yes, we went down, 30 KM or so, south of Rosarito to LaFonda's and had a nice meal.

[KM Rolling]

There was a day and a half when we got some rain.

Headed down into TJ you could normally see for miles ahead on this road (see pic posted previously). Rain coming down pretty good on the way in this morning-








Back in Rosarito in the afternoon, it stormed off an on til the next day. Wind was blowing pretty strong up the bluff and hitting the TH pretty much broadside.








Next day it was clear and dry again!








We headed south of a nice meal before going up to TJ in the late afternoon.







Waiter made some flowers out of napkins-








After a leisurely AND good meal, with a spectacular view, we headed north toward TJ. Coastal view from the toll road-








They were collecting tolls that afternoon.








Back "home" that evening. For $5 you can drive down on the beach during low tide. Lot's of folks did it most every day, picnic, surfing, just messing around.







I thought about going down in our truck...but in the end decided not to, did not want to get salt all over it, besides, we can walk down faster than driving around to the entrance to the beach.

Here's a photo of a couple of vehicles that did not leave soon enough as the tide was coming in....and got stuck for almost 24 hours before the tide was back out enough for a tow truck to get them out.






More photos as time allows.