Changing plans

Hi Everyone,

Well change of plans. We are off to Australia on Tuesday flying out of San Francisco.

This is a photo I took from the moving car as we left Santo Tomas. This was basically dry when we cycle by the day before and it continued to rain off and on for the next few day so we think it got worse before better.

We had left the Ensenada area and gone down the road 40 km or so - it has been raining and there was a break in the weather so we thought we would head out south we were ready for a change of scenery. We stopped at an RV park and set up just as it started raining again. We went to the Restaurant for dinner that evening rather than cook in the rain. On our way out the owner Emma said you know it is going to rain a lot tonight and tomorrow - we said more than what we had already had - which was a lot and she said yes and were we sure we would be ok - we assured her yes. Well it rained hard all night - Ian got up once and checked around the tent and bike and all was ok. In the morning still raining we stayed in the tent till our bladders would burst and gave in and put on our rain gear. We made tea and breakfast and went up to the office Restaurant Motel. Well there was water coming in the roof and a mud slide out back and no power. At least one bridge down the road in the direction we wanted to go was washed out. Then she said come with me and she took us a few meters down the road to see the river which was a torrent. Everything in the valley it ran through was flooded it was a black horrible raging water and she was afraid for our tent?! She said come stay with me but then she said all the flooded land was hers - crops animals - she was stressed. This is all in half Spanish English. Then a guy showed up from the way we had come and he said the road was still passable and he was going back and would give us a ride. We packed up but couldn't fit in his car as he had a ton of other stuff. So we started hitching. A nice older man and his wife stopped and had room for our stuff but it was a truck so no room in the cab so the first guy would take us and the other guy our stuff. We squeezed in and off we went. Unbelievable flooding; all the rivers were large brown and black fast moving water sooooo much flooding; homes under water, animal trapped. Could be a while before this is cleaned up Emma said she had not seen it this bad since 1976 or 1978.Mexico is a great country we met wonderful people who were kind and helpful we will be back but perhaps we will try to go when it isn't raining.

We are now exploring San Diego - we quite like this city. It is lovely easy to get around nice ocean breeze. We had a wonderful time at the Maritime Museum.

This is the ship the Surprise which was used for the filming of Master and Commander, Russel Crow will have touched this wheel.

 This is the Star of India a metal hulled Bark the world oldest active ship! She is huge 212' beam 35' launch 1963. 21 round the world trips amazing.
There were also two submarines and lots of smaller sail boat an ocean steamer the Berkley. We spent 3 or 4 hour on the boats. The exhibits were very informative and the kids programing (there was a pirate thing going on) looked like a lot of fun.

The water front sculptures are lovely and fun in San Diego. This one inspired us so much we went to a movie. We saw Invictus good movie I don't know much about rugby but Ian does as you all know!

We are going to explore San Diego a little more today and then tomorrow fly to San Francisco to catch the plane to Australia. It will be great to see Squirty and Paul and meet their hound clan!

Till next

Diana and Ian