 |
| Author | Post |
|---|
glitter
Member
| Joined: | Wed Sep 24th, 2008 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 12 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |  |
|
Posted: Sun Oct 25th, 2009 05:53 pm |
|
I am looking to take the ferry from Santa Rosalia in several weeks and was wondering if anyone knows how long it takes. Any other feedback?
Thanks
|
No Sniveling
Member
| Joined: | Thu Oct 27th, 2005 |
| Location: | Rio Rico, Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 1408 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |   |
|
Posted: Sun Oct 25th, 2009 06:20 pm |
|
I had posted the following journal of my trip from SC to SR and back last year.
OK, so it started with trying to check the schedule for Revolucion Day. Turns out that there is no ferry service on that day and nobody to answer the phone or website to let you know. Next day, call the number in Guaymas that I find on the English version of the website and get a lady who speaks no English. I ask and stumble through with my Spanish to decide a reservation is required. Drive down to the small building to find they are out to lunch at 1PM, returning at 3PM. Return at 3PM and stay until 3:30, but no one there, so return to SC to pack for departure that evening at 8PM. Arrive back at 6PM and wait in line behind two guys buying tickets - takes 25 minutes. Wonder to self "How do they fill the ferry if tickets take this long?". Now I am up, and asked if I have a reservation, as ferry is full (due to holiday). No, but if you wait here, we may be able to fit, depending on how the motorcycles can be packed - I have a full sized Avalanche and wonder how that can not be known if the ferry is "full". Wait and wait, get searched by Military and drug dog, fit motorcycles, Semi truck, then get asked for ticket - "I don't have one - I need to wait for the jefe to see if there is room!". Wait, load more trucks - Avalanche is told to back in between coffee truck and semi...HMMM..."If I get on, can they make me get off?" I am on, but now the Tale of the Tape shows I am oversize and get the 6 wheel truck price of $3,550P, +$550P for me, + $500P for a "shared room". I am on the boat and on my way to appointments in San Vizcaino and Todos Santos! Now, where is my room? OK, so everything is chained down, and there is one guy who is in charge of helping people get settled. There is an open salon on the lower deck, in the belly of the ship. This is "coach class" and what your $550P buys you: a fiberglass seat in a room full of people with TV, snack bar, and gas fumes from the vehicles above. Would not be pleasant in warm weather. On the Promenade deck topside, more fiberglass seats, open air, and people settling in for the 8 hour cruise...sleeping on deck or in the chairs with blankets. My $500P "shared room" it seems, does not exist, but the jefe will "upgrade me" to First Class. He opens the door to first class and it is vacant (they told me it was sold out). He turns on the lights, AC, TV and leaves me in the room of 12 rows of side-by-side reclining PADDED fiberglass seats. I get my pillow and blanket from the truck and go back to relative comfort. The Mexican clientele seem to find out about the open area about once an hour - one in a seat at the rear, one on the floor, but both eventually leave when the AC freezes us out. I get up at 4AM, have a Red Bull and get ready to tour Baja! It takes a LONG time from the moment you see the lights of the harbor until you are off the boat and past the Military search... like 2 hours. Anyway, it's 6:30AM and I'm on the road - too early to order my return trip reservation for Friday night yet. Off to San Vizcaino, back to Santa Rosalia to buy a ticket to return. Get out the tape to measure the Avalanche again, and this time, I pull it 4" closer to me...We are now under the MAX and get the $2480P cost, + $550, and no rooms available this time. I will sleep in the truck, or on the upper deck like the experienced travelers! Back in the truck and head for Todos Santos...beautiful scenery! LONG trip to fleabag motel in La Paz, and arrive at 9PM.
Tomorrow is another day!
#10
So, off to La Paz and on to Todos Santos next morning. Headed back to Santa Rosalia at noon and that takes 9 hours, including some white-knuckle night driving with cattle on the road frequently. Drive end to end in Santa Rosalia and settle for Oasis (I think) motel - spartan would best describe the room, but for $300 pesos with AC and TV, what do you expect. The guys at Pemex tried to send me to La Roca, but I did not find it until the next day because the sign is so small and the entrance is not easily spotted. It looks like a much nicer place, and has wifi. Internet and cell coverage is much more advanced in San Carlos than most of Baja. There were many 50-70 mile stretches of road with no phone signal, and one stretch of almost 100 between Pemex stations. Spent the whole day in Santa Rosalia fishing from shore and caught corvina and cabrilla. The ferry is sitting in the dock, but there is a wait until the Friday night return trip. Another Military and drug dog inspection and they begin loading at 7:45. We clear the harbor at 8:30 and it's about 8 hours later that you pass San Carlos. Seems like it takes forever to get into the dock at Guaymas, but I am off and driving at 6:30AM. I had spent part of the night trying to sleep in the truck, but it is very bright and a little stuffy in the cargo hold. I went up and threw down a blanket and pillow by the wheelhouse as I had seen a couple of guys do on the trip over - that gets cold/wet/hard real fast. Seas were calmer on the way home with 2-3 footers. On the way over I saw some green faces by the toilets with the 3-4 footers we were rocking to. The toilets apparently ran out of water for the last hour of the trip. Watch the stairs going to the lower level - they are steep and hardwood with metal edges. I went for a painful ride downstairs after coming in from the wet deck.
Luckily, this was a business trip and the $600 was expensed. Be sure to pay with pesos, as the price list is shown at 10 to 1 and I suspect it would have cost $750 in dollars.
I had thought about taking my boat on the trailer across at one time, to fish at San Marcos. That is out of the question - adding a 27 foot trailer would drive the cost up to $9980P each way! All in all, it was an adventure, and I'd like to go back and see more of Baja some day.
|
mesa
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 25th, 2008 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 104 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Tue Oct 27th, 2009 02:47 am |
|
| The ferries have a website. Don't remember what it is but try google. All in all, if you have a vehicle, it is not much slower and a LOT cheaper to drive around the top end and back down Hwy 1 in Baja.
|
daveMac
Member
|
Posted: Tue Oct 27th, 2009 03:08 am |
|
| http://www.ferrysantarosalia.com/
|
glitter
Member
| Joined: | Wed Sep 24th, 2008 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 12 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Wed Oct 28th, 2009 02:31 am |
|
| Thanks--their web site does not provide arrival times or say how long the trip is so that is why I am asking. I need to know to be able to catch a flight out of Guaymas.
|
No Sniveling
Member
| Joined: | Thu Oct 27th, 2005 |
| Location: | Rio Rico, Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 1408 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Wed Oct 28th, 2009 04:30 am |
|
| 10 hours
|
Current time is 03:33 am | |
|
|
|
|
