Cyrus and I decided to go whale watching. Jason dropped us off at Mario’s restaurant first thing in the morning. We would not be much help in fixing the truck, and we wanted to try to salvage some of our vacation time. Jason wanted to be present if there were any questions about the Earthroamer, so he stayed and worked with Noé.
We met up with a group of about 10 tourists from the USA, Mexico, and Japan. Our trip started with a very informative 45 minute talk about gray whales.
Next we boarded a van and drove for another 40 minutes through the salt factory. It was very windy, and drifts of sand had blown across the road.
A giant tractor, like the type used for moving snow in Tahoe, scraped huge bucket loads of sand off the road. We had to stop while the road was cleared. Eventually we reached a rudimentary boat landing with a few portable toilets and a small shed.
The water was rough and the wind was strong. We appreciated the foul weather gear and life jackets they provided. The boat driver did his best and took us for a long bumpy ride out to the entrance of the bay.
We held on to our hats and tried not to get too wet. Each whale watching company had their assigned area. We were lucky we had picked Mario’s. Most of the other outfits were not seeing whales anymore because it was the end of the season. Mario’s assigned area was near the exit of the bay, so they were still seeing plenty of whales.
It took several hours of bouncing around though before we found las ballenas (whales). A few people were sick, and all of us were splashed. The driver made a strange whistle noise and banged on the bottom of the boat to attract the whales.
Eventually we came across a group of 3 mothers with calves. One of the mothers pushed her baby from underneath right up to the boat and out of the water. We could reach out and stroke the soft rubbery skin.
There were little crustaceans attached in the folds of the skin on the nostrum of the whale. The skin was much softer than I expected. It was a baby, who had been born that season. When they are born they are pure gray. But they rapidly accumulate the crustaceans and whale lice that mottle their color.
We had examined a preserved whale louse during the earlier talk. It looked like a quarter-sized, crab-like arthropod alien, with many hooks in a circular pattern. They clamp onto the whale skin like a little dome tent on a snowy hillside. These creatures are parasites of the whales, causing them to itch, but it seems they do help clean small wounds and may help more than they hurt.
The whale barnacles, have a commensal relationship with the whale, meaning they benefit by attaching to and being transported by the whale, but the whale suffers little or not at all by their presence.
It was a very special experience. The mother whale pushed the baby up and out of the water so that we could touch it. Cy said he got a good look directly in the whale’s eye. We pet the baby several times and then we saw one whale spy hop out of the water. What an experience! When the whale exhaled, we were so close, we were sprayed with the whale breath, which got on my face and camera lens. Cy said it smelled like dead fish. We didn’t mind.
It was a 5.5 hour trip. I think they spent extra time searching for the whales because the conditions were rough.
We stopped to looke at the huge piles of salt on the way back. From afar it looked like snow.
Up close the salt crystals were quite large.
Heading back to the muffler shop, I crossed my fingers as we approached, hoping that Jason and Noé had fixed the ER, but alas, no.
The good news was that they had figured out what was wrong. It was the Transmission Control Module, or TCM. Electrical components had broken off and were rattling around inside.
The TCM receives data from sensors and works with the engine to optimize what gear it is in and how the torque conversion occurs. It also controls the cooling of the transmission. Noé found a replacement for one of the components that had broken off. Another one was loose, so pulled a unit off a circuit board he had lying around in his shop. But even after soldering these on, it didn’t work.
The bad news was that the nearest replacement TCM was in Ensenada. That is, it would be in Ensenada, if we ordered it today, and if the shipping gods conspired for it to be received and then shipped on time to Ensenada. The next nearest part was in Chula Vista California. If we ordered it by 3 pm they could have it there by Friday (two days). Our options boiled down to the following:
- Towing the ER to Tijuana and driving across the border to have it installed at Chula Vista Ford.
- Ordering the part and having it shipped over night to Gro. Negro, requiring us to stay 2 or more extra days.
- Driving in one gear 500 miles to have it installed Chula Vista.
None of the options were ideal. But after discussing it, we settled on #3, driving. The risk was we could overheat the transmission and get stranded again. Only this time we would have damaged an $8,000 part, instead of a $500 one. In order to avoid stressing the transmission too much, we took it easy on hills, and started up very slowly.
For all his time and effort (at least 8 hours) Noé asked for $130 dollars plus the tank of gas for his car. We were so grateful to him and thought he was such a nice guy we gave him $180 in addition to the gas.
To celebrate that we had a plan, we went out to dinner at Malarrimo’s.
It was probably the nicest restaurant in town. We had delicious seafood with shrimp cocktail. Cy had filet mignon and shrimp. It was very nice. Our meal cost about $15 US each.
Our plan after dinner was to start the drive back in the coolness of the night. We were breaking a third Baja driving rule – not to drive at night. The rationale for this practice was due to the chance of cattle on the road. After rains, the brush by the edge of the road grows luxuriantly and attracts the cattle. We saw cattle by the road a number of times during the day, so we knew we had to be careful. As we were driving we noticed other vehicles were using supplementary lighting. Then it dawned on us, we had auxiliary off-road lights! Including fog lights, we had 6 extra super bright lights. With the flick of the high beams we could turn them on and off. We hadn’t thought of it earlier because these are illegal to use on the road in the US. Here, however, traffic rules were optional. Now we were lit up like a Christmas tree, and we could see any cow that happened to cross our path far in advance.
We drove about 3 hours to Valle de los Cirios where we had marked a nice spot close to the road. We made it there without any trouble.
One traffic custom we noticed was that in places where there actually was a shoulder, the shoulder was to be used as a passing lane. We learned this after someone got very mad at us for not pulling off on the shoulder to let him pass on the left. What you are supposed to do is notice when someone behind you wants to pass. Then you pull halfway over to the right so you are driving half way on the shoulder. You flick on your left blinker indicating it is safe to pass. Then they pull around you halfway into the oncoming traffic, straddling the center line. If another car is coming, three can fit abreast by using both shoulders. We saw happen. However most of the time south of El Rosario, there was no shoulder, so it didn’t matter.
We spent a relieved night at Valle de los Cirios, with no vehicle trouble.
