We stopped in the lovely town of Mulege (pronounced moo-la-hay) for a coffee. That was two weeks ago. It is a lovely spot situated on the east coast of Baja, at the north end of the Bay of Concepcion. There is a large American population, most of which are retirees who spend the winter months here. The guy in the coffee shop (an American guy who runs a property business in the coffee shop whilst his wife runs the cafe/bakery) told us we should spend a few days here because the beaches are overcrowded due to Easter and we should check out Don Chano campground, located between town and the beach. We did as we were told.
On our first evening two guys pulled up to check out Maggie. Mike and Corey are two Americans with a passion for fishing and interesting looking vehicles. They had some extra fish and invited us over to Corey’s place for dinner with one simple instruction, bring beer. Beer in tow we ventured up the hill to Corey’s rented place and enjoyed delicious home made fish tacos, cold beer and good conversation. They gave us the lowdown on the place, explaining that many people intend to go further down the Baja peninsula but don’t often make it past Mulege. In fact, there is one American couple in town who set up their vehicle with all the equipment necessary to drive to Argentina. They are now building a house here. We asked why this seems to be the case, and were told that there is no real reason, people just get ‘Muleged’ (as previously noted, pronounced moo-la-haid).
As the week progressed we went snorkelling and fishing from Corey’s boat and Hayden, determined to eat a fish he had caught, spent many mornings up before the sun. He tried his hand at fishing with a rod from both the rocks and Corey’s boat, spear fishing and fly fishing, all with some success. Some fish were caught but not the best eating kind, and some were delicious which ever way we served them!
Saturday rolled around, along with my birthday. We figured we may as well stay, it’s no fun packing up camp on your birthday! Plus, Hayden was feeling decidedly local and had made dinner plans along with a post-dinner activity. The sea was a little too choppy to try out my birthday goggles and snorkel, instead we walked up the hill to take in the view from the old lighthouse and ate a picnic lunch. For a birthday dinner we ate in a ‘real’ restaurant and the post dinner activity was the local fair! Rides, bright lights, fairly floss and churros! Hayden isn’t all that keen on rides and the sight of all the cables laying haphazard in the dust put me off out of fear that a small child would trip on a cable, unplug it whilst I was hanging in the air! No thanks.
We returned to the campsite just as Hayden began to feel unwell. He only got worse as the night progressed. Much worse. It turns out that eating in a ‘real’ restaurant does not make you immune from food poisoning. It took him all of the next day and part of the next to get back to normal, further delaying our attempted departure. With Hayden back on deck the days of early fishing, sunshine and nighttime home cooked fish dinners continued.
Eventually we realised that we cannot stay here forever. Corey was also packing to leave, needing to head back to summer in Montana. The amount of time spent fishing was reduced and the time spend organising and packing increased. With no personally caught fish for dinner, we sampled many cheap, local places for quesotacos, pizza and tacos de carne.
We feel we know everyone in town, we know who walks their dogs (where and what time), and know that 4pm every afternoon a casual bocce tournament takes place in the campground, the only rule appears to be that one hand must contain a beer. We know that one particular restaurant is known for its pulled pork it only serves on Saturdays and an old guy out of town cooks amazing chicken on the BBQ on Sundays. We know that house prices across the river are quite cheap and make for lovely holiday homes owned by Americans. We also know that side of the river floods, ruining these homes. We know it’s time to be on the road again.
We got ‘Muleged’ (pronounce moo-la-haid)
