About Us

The Pack Family Journal is a place where we gather text and images of our lives, adventures and travels. This is a very personal site, written openly and honestly. Enjoy.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Marlin for Dinner Tonight

Today we purchased 2.5 pounds of freshly caught marlin for $60 pesos (about $4.60 in dollars). To put this into perspective, we cut it into seven 1 inch thick steaks about 7 inches long. Tonight we're BBQ in a roasted sesame seed marinade. Of course Rachel will make me eat broccoli with it.

The picture will give you an idea of the size of these things, amazing. It's currently Marlin, Dorado (mahi mahi) and Sailfish season and they're jumping from Mulege to Cabo San Lucas.

Friday, June 12, 2009

We've Got Wheels

We've finally got wheels. Walking is fine and all, but riding a bike is mucho mejor (much better)! Yesterday alone we saw more of the town than we have on foot all week. Today we had our first meetings and getting around town on bikes is a snap. In only about an hour, we set up our first retail location in the historic district of town, a very nice restaurant called La Cas Cada.

We also have several addition meetings for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So next week is going to be a busy one for us. However, this weekend will be a little slower, we're hoping to do some more photography, video and writing about Loreto. We were hoping to also get in some fishing off the marina, looks like it might be a pretty good spot. This quaint little fishing village is special, possibly one of my personal favorites.


Now that we can swiftly make our way around town, we actually found a Banamex and got to do a little banking, and were able to go grocery shopping; I think one more cheese quesadilla for lunch was gonna kill me. Although, last night we did include some packaged meat making them into big tacos/fajitas, but that was dinner after all.

The image is of the municipal building in the town square. 

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Things are coming together

[the image is of the Loreto Malecon [beach walk]

Things are coming together. I was beginning to get frustrated because with things have not moving along like I wanted, not anyones fault, just want it faster, but I think we have our grove on now.

Yesterday was the first day we actually went to the beach and hung out, only for about 45 minutes but we were able to go swimming in the warm waters and let Cai run nuts on the beach. The beach was small pebbles until the edge of the break, where it became a dark sand. The water was as clear as a swimming pool.

We also walked to the grocery store and stocked up, not an easy walk carry groceries for about 2.5 miles. I didn’t want to do that again, so today we took the bicycle shop. We got a little turned around and walk another 5 miles. I now this because my lovely bride owns a pedometer, so I know I actually walked 9963 steps.

In any case, we’ll have the bikes back tomorrow with four inflated tires and good running condition. When we get our wheels, we’ll be all over the place. Explore, explore, explore.

On the business side of things, we’re looking solid. We’ve made 40+ business contacts in Loreto now and have got a few good leads from other people we’ve connected with via email.

Tonight we’re sending out our Loreto introduction letter (see below) and start arranging our meetings, stayed tuned the next week is going to be busy. This is the method we started in Peñasco and it works great.

Dear

My name is John Pack and my wife Rachel and I are currently in Loreto and would like to meet you personally to introduce ourselves. We’re the publisher’s of a printed monthly guide to Baja California and Sonora.

We’ve been growing our audience for the last 3 years and with the June edition we've expanded to include Baja California Sur.

The guide is called Mexico Living (http://www.mexicolivingguide.com) and we have a monthly readership of 25-30 thousand. We are a full color printed guide and sell for $20 pesos at retailers in Rosarito Beach, Ensenada, San Felipe, Los Algodones, Baja California and Puerto Peñasco and San Carlos in Sonora.

We’re working on our August edition and the featured destination is Loreto Baja California Sur. We want to make sure to include you in the Loreto section of Mexico Living. Ads start as little as $50 pesos, so no Loreto business should be left out.

Rachel and I will give you a FREE business listing in the August edition, just for taking 5 minutes to say hello. You can see all of our past issues on our blog, or visit our website.

Back Issue Archive:
http://mlguide.blogspot.com/search/label/All%20Guide%20Downloads

Website:
http://www.mexicolivingguide.com

John & Rachel Pack

Monday, June 8, 2009

Made it to Loreto

Hola Amigos, 

We left Estero Beach in Ensenada at about 11am. The last few days have wiped us out, so we took time out in the morning and organized some before heading out.

The trip from Ensenada to Catavina was beautiful. We always like reaching the top of the central Baja mountain range. Of course the higher altitude made for a couple of cold nights.

We filled up in Ensenada before heading out a got into Catavina with 3/8 of a tank, perfect, or so we thought until the only pumps in town were out.

Fortunately we were able to purchase 5 gallons for 36 pesos a gallon, not bad considering. That night we stayed at Rancho Santa Inez for $6. Nice big ranch, where we could literally setup anywhere we wanted. 

The family that owned the ranch were very nice, the dad and two young boys played on the porch with dad looking on, while mom and grandmother sat in the kitchen. From the open window on the porch we order from her hand written menu. We had a nice dinner of tacos Dorado for Rachel and chorizo and eggs for me.

We found a real nice place near a tall palm in a wide area where we could see the full moon. Once setup, we took both Cai and Max out for a walk, yes even Max the cat walks on a leash - when he wants.  

The night was bitter cold, but when the sun rose in the morning it was spectacular; warm and breathtaking with large trees and a lush arroyo of palms running one side of the our site.

The next gas station is Jesus Maria, where we filled up before going into Baja California Sur. The trip across the peninsula was beautiful, but uneventful.

Loreto is a gorgeous fishing town with lush gardens of bright tropical flowers in every color. The Malecon is a site with the sea literally slashing up to the sidewalk. After spending about an hour driving around town looking for the two RV parks listed in both our RV guides, which we NEVER found. We came across another real gem, called the Del Mar RV Park. We are only one of three people staying here, so it’s quiet and it’s has free WIFI for Internet, free laundry, is completed fenced in with high hedges and tall trees shading our site and the BBQ palapa behind us, and my favorite part is it’s only 1.5 blocks from the beach, marina and Malecon.

MAP OF WHERE WE ARE:

View Rivera del Mar RV Park, Loreto BCS in a larger map

Our plan has changed a little, we’ve decided it makes more sense for us to spend the next couple of weeks here in Loreto and get to know the area and people. We want to look for the Rotary and Lions clubs and go to a meeting of each. It’s a great way to introduce ourselves and quickly meet some of the people Mexico Living could benefit.

Today is Monday June 8th and time to get to work. 

[Photo of Loreto Mission]

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Travel Log: Day 1 - San Felipe to Ensenada

Hola,

We've made it safely to Ensenada and the adventure has begun already. We left San Felipe at 6:30 PM on June 5th and arrived at Estero Beach in Ensenada at 1:30 AM June 6th. This is a trip that we've made many times at no longer than 3 hours, this was 6 hours of head on traffic on Mex 3 with roadside campsites of racers getting ready for today's Baja 500.

Yesterday the 12-volt inverter stopped working, so we have no power in the coach unless we plug-in. When we get stopped in either Loreto or La Paz we're going to have it looked at.

Max, Cheeto and Cai are all getting along great and Rachel got a workout unpacking and putting things away as we drove down the highway.

Estero Beach RV Resort is very nice, our full hookup site is on an estuary in front on an open bay, across from the point where La Bufadora (the blowhole) is located.

Today's goal is to reach Guerrero Negro today by 6 PM, 375 miles from Ensenada.





Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The beginning of a new adventure

In two days a new chapter begins; we are moving back into our 32 foot RV and hitting the road.

The last time we did this we had just got married, loaded up ourselves, three teenagers and a cat and drove across the US - three times. This time it's ourselves, two cats and a dog and we're heading south to explore Baja California Sur.

Having three animals sounds nutty to me, but as I've learned from Rachel that someplace between different and strange is a great place to be.
Like last time, we are not completely ready. The difference is the last time, we had a brand new RV right off the lot. This time it has three years of traveling the US and 4 years sitting in the sun under it's roof.

We haven't taken it back to the US, since moving down four years ago. The tires all had to be replaced from the sun damage from sitting and our 12 volt system doesn't work, even after having every 12 volt, RV person we could look at it. For some strange reason, none of our RV batteries will charge off our generator, or the coach when running. The only way we could get it to work is to plug the RV in, and many Baja RV parks do not have power.
No worries, in a true Mexican way, we used what we had and got it working great with a little ingenuity and creativeness. What we've done is to put our solar system to work for us. What we did is create a secondary 12-volt system. We took our three gel batteries, inventor/charger and put them together under the RV in a compartment. Now we just charge the gels from the parks with power as we use it, then when we disconnect and hangout on the beach or someplace without power, we simply plug the RV into our inverter and run off our secondary system.

Our new power plant is the creativity of our friend Raine, who seems to know everything. Some people that think that are usually annoying, but not Raine, because I think she just might know everything. Thanks Raine it works GREAT!!