After a four-hour drive from Cabo San Lucas, we arrived at a small restaurant by the road, at kilometer 77. The heat was intense and you could feel the urge to venture yourself through the depths of Baja California Sur.
We found ourselves in a big gallery of rocky walls covered with photographs, horns, and, of course, a painting of the Virgin.
We had been there for ten minutes and Oscar Ortiz, founding partner of Cabo Expeditions, was already talking to the owner of the place, who, with jeans, a white shirt, and a hat, welcomed us from behind a counter full with typical products of a Mexican’s diet: cookies, peanuts, and candies. You could also read two cardboard boxes that now fulfilled the mission of being signs. One read “77-style machaca for sale in La Paz” and another “Meat empanadas.”
The sound of the oil in the pan and the quaint table with place mats featuring white and brown flowers were the first impressions we encountered on this adventure.
You could hear someone talking on the TV in the distance and the cry of a lady saying “We also have meat empanadas.” The smell of the food made your stomach unable to wait two more seconds and, after hours of road, it tested your patience.
The meal was everything we expected. Coffee, quesadillas, and typical dishes: machaca burritos with beans and meat empanadas.
Thanks to that same meal the conversation at the table shifted to discuss what made us South Californians. Each of us who were sitting at the table was born in another state of the republic but felt part of the peninsula. Actually, our love for the region grows because we live in the land that took us in and welcomed us.
We decided to call Baja California Sur home.
After devouring the food and getting to know who we were going to travel with during those days, we left the restaurant. Facing the road, in the middle of nowhere, I felt great tranquility. It reminded me, once again, of the importance of embarking on this Journey between Two Seas.
