Altar 2004 Day 3: 13-11-2004

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From Camp Carne to Camp Mariscos

Carne was a good camp.  There was no wind and while somewhat cold, it was tolerable.  But, the wind did start in the morning. The photo below shows a sunrise cold front that was passing over the area.

Dave looks like he is saying "thanks Don Julio". I don't think that he felt as bad as he looked.

Roberto's wife prepared breakfast for us that was chiliquiles, beans, tortillas and Mexican coffee.

Kai chows down on breakfast.

Always a good idea to check the hardware before using it.

Nancy going for a post breakfast ride on Dan's soon to be wrecked quad.

Packing to leave for El Gulfo.

A hard-pan valley close to Camp Carne.

Clawing our way through the ass-busting tundra. This is rough, slow, uncomfortable going. More frustrating yet, there is no way to avoid it. While it does not look bad in the photo, I can assure you that it is very, very rough to travel over.

We passed a group of Mexican four wheelers who were heading into the dunes from the El Gulfo side. They had new equipment and seemed prepared. They they also had a case of Unimog lust.

A view of the trans-peninsula railroad and an abandoned facility.

A view of El Gulfo from the mesa, just up the canyon from the El Gulfo dump.

As we got closer to El Gulfo, the scope of the garbage in the canyon became apparent.  I thought that the evenly spaced abandoned washing machines were quite artistic.  The smell from the rotting shrimp heads and the associated flies were sobering, so we moved along smartly after the photo to stop at the only Pemex in town.  Gladly, we all got fuel, though they were running low.

Here we are chowing down on raw oysters with lime and hotsauce..

After fuel and getting clams, shrimp and tortillas, we headed back into the dunes. In town we purchased mass quantities of shrimp and clams. Below, Kathleen takes a photo of the team back in the dunes.

Family photo. From left to right: Dan, Mark, Dave, Rob, Bill, Roberto, Kai.

Guess what?

Setting up Camp Mariscos (seafood). Here Kathleen has a beer before starting the massive multi-hour shrimp cleaning exercise needed to prepare the many kilos of shrimp that we bought for dinner. I was stunned that the group would be able to eat all the food we bought.

Jay Couch's bike. Big and heavy. And while Jay is a very skilled rider, the weight of the bike will work against him. As Kathleen and Bill prepared dinner, Dan and Kai went out on the quads for an evening run. During the run, Dan rolled the quad over himself, injuring ribs. The came back to camp on my quad, being forced to abandon his quad on the hill. It rolled many, many times and damaged the frame, suspension and drive train. The plan was to get it the following morning on the way out.

Nothing brings friends together faster than a burning tire.

Dan was not a happy camper. He has potentially broken several ribs and has taken medication to counteract the pain. You can see the sand on his coat from the roll.

Kathleen completes cooking the clams. Dinner was steamed clams with butter and hot sauce. That was followed by a second course of grilled shrimp and garlic sauce with tortillas.

The aftermath of the clams before we buried them. There were like 20 dozen of the boogers, but they sure were tasty.

The wind was good to us that night, it was clear, calm and cold.  Don Julio came by for a visit and we said hello. We all slept good except for Dan who was in pain from his rib injury. Tomorrow would take us back to the US, but it would be a fateful day.

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