ROAD CONDITIONS: From the border to Maneadero road is in good condition. From Maneadero to Colonet the road is all new paving. Watch out for the two topes (speed bumps) in Santo Tomas. From Colonet to Camalu is mostly new paving, but there are some stretches of really rough road where crews are still working on repaving. (Expect some traffic delays.) From Camalu to El Rosario is mostly old road but it's in fair condition.
From El Rosario to Cataviña the road is bad. Some work is being done but there are lots of small pot holes. From Cataviña to the village of Rosarito (about 30 miles south of the Bay of LA turn off) the road is rough and there are lots of pot holes. This will probably deteriorate even more in the first good rain.
From Rosarito all the way to the Cape the road is in good condition with stretches of new paving. The only rough spot is from Km84 to Km45 going south from Loreto over the Sierra de la Giganta there are sections of rough road.
The two vados south of Todo Santos on Route 19 that were flooded in September have been repaired.
Watch for the two topes just south of Vizcaino which are not marked very well. There are three topes just south of San Ignacio, and Santa Rosalia is now up to six topes! None are well marked!
GAS: The new Pemex at monument is not open. It looks like they have stopped construction, so who knows when it will be open. There was no gas in Cataviña (Unless you want to buy out of drums from locals on the side of the road.) And, the price of gas has just gone up. The price is 4.04 pesos per liter for 87 octane. In Guerrero Negro the price was 4.14 pesos/liter.
CHECKPOINTS:
South bound:
Maneadero - thorough search but very courteous.
El Rosario - this one seems to be an on again/off again - searched.
Catavina - searched.
Eagle Monument (Guerro Negro) - Agricultural inspection, searched.
They charge 10 pesos to spray the underside of your vehicle (20 pesos for
RVs.) The immigration official asked to see our visas.
La Paz Agricultural inspection - searched.
North bound:
La Paz Agricultural inspection - searched.
Eagle Monument (Guerro Negro) - searched.
Catavina - searched.
El Rosario - searched.
Maneadero - searched
Mulege - Army check point - searched.
Ensenada to San Felipe to Gonzaga Bay.
In October, we took a trip to San Felipe and decided to return via
Gonzaga Bay as we had not been down that way in several years. We took
Hiway 3 from Ensenada to San Felipe, and found the road to be in "fair
to poor" condition. There has been some recent patching around Km14, but
the road is still rough. There is some really rough road just east of Ojos
Negros and around Km 74 to Km 80. There were stretches of good road, but
you quickly come up on stretches with lots of center line potholes. Drive
with caution.
The Hiway 5 from San Felipe to Puertecitos is in extremely poor condition. The road is continuous potholes, and we frequently drove off the road in the sand (we were driving a Ford Bronco). We encountered several washed out vados. A couple had been graded but not yet paved. It took us 2 1/2 hours to make the 52 mile trip.
From Puertecitos to Gonzaga Bay is 45 miles of graded dirt road. This leg of the trip took us 3 hours. The road is very rough and washboardy with lots of potholes. Watch out for sharp rocks as they can be murder on tires. As rough as the road is, the vistas were spectacular. At one point we stopped to watch a pod of whales frolicking about 30 yards out in the Sea of Cortez. We stopped at Alfonsina's and had a great lunch.
From Gonzaga back to Hiway 1 is 39 miles of graded sand/dirt. It took us about an hour and a half. The road was rough washboard and we drove off the road when ever possible for a smoother ride.