The educational physics of a long bus ride

We drove south from Ensenada yesterday – 230 miles to the middle of nowhere – and stopped for the night in a town called Catavina. The Hotel Mision Catavina is a beautiful step back in time to the 1950s, with large, very basic, rooms that surround a courtyard with a pool:

Almost the entire 230 miles was on a narrow paved road that functions as a highway, and spreading out in all directions were dusty dirt roads heading out into the desert. The road is called Federal Highway 1 – and there are no alternative roads to transit Baja California. When I looked the road up to discuss it here with you, I see that it is designated as one of the most dangerous in the world, due to narrow width, lack of shoulders, no guard rails, and deficient signage. (Note: It seems to me that the time to research this was back in Washington state, before I booked the trip). If this alarms you, think of me: I need to finish typing this and then I am getting back on the bus – we’ve got 683 miles to go.

Artemio made full educational use of our 10-hour bus day and I learned a lot of key things. The first thing that I want you to know is that Artemio is the first person – shame on all of you – to ever take the time to instruct me about the relation and contrast between mass and density, using a piece of scrap paper he found on the bus, and so even if I don’t find the whales in San Ignacio Lagoon, I’m leaving this vacation with some pretty key knowledge.

While I feel like Physics might be useful in my general life, I’m a little sad to have gained the info with that 683 miles to go on narrow Highway 1. Let’s hope Artemio doesn’t move on to additional Physics concepts like Energy and Momentum.

We got to stop the bus at the Museo Cominutario in San Vicente, which has a population of 5068. When I looked this population fact up for you, I see that I was already aware of this little city because there was a significant shooting here in May of 2023 – it occurred at a racing event – and it was covered on CNN.

The museum was started when a woolly mammoth tusk was discovered near the town. I tried get further details about this online – but discovered only the road race shooting. I can confirm, probably using my newfound ability to appreciate mass and density, that there was some sort of a tusk there, but I was taken with the rest of the museum. It’s a village repository of random artifacts – just my style – with an extremely modest record collection and a few eggbeaters.

We also got to make a brief stop at Mama Espinoza’s in El Rosario:

This is where the paved road stopped up until 1971, leaving you with 800 miles of dirt road down to Cabo San Lucas. The grounds and building are covered with memorabilia from the hundreds/thousands of off-road racers who have stopped in here on their way south. There are guest register signatures from James Garner and Steve McQueen.

Mama Espinoza’s also has a place in history as part of the origin story of the Flying Samaritans, a non-profit that provides free health care in Baja California. In 1961, bad weather forced a small plane to land outside El Rosario. Some of the El Rosario residents heard the plane circling and then heard an ominous silence and went out into a dust storm to investigate. They found 5 terrified travelers and brought them back to town. Mama Espinoza herself took the stranded travelers in and shared a desperate story about their lack of medical care.

Three of the travelers returned a few weeks later – carrying 100 pounds of food, clothing, and medicine – and Dr. Dale Hoyt, who was mobbed by sick villagers. Dr. Hoyt came back two weeks later, with nurses and other primary care specialists, and the Flying Samaritans were born. They were the precursor to organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the Samaritans still exist – with 1500 members still flying down to staff medical clinics.

Before we left Catavina, Artemio took us out for a spectacular little walk in the desert. I’ll leave you with Artemio, talking plant biology in front of a big cactus, and then just a few pics to give you a sense of the gorgeous landscape. Note Ron and his new orange Hokas – I won’t be losing him in the desert!