Driving Highway 5 South in Baja from San Felipe and the Lake that Wasn’t There:  A Roadtrip Series (Part IV)

Follow Chuck Bolotin, from Best Places in the World toRetire, as he, his wife, and two dogs drive through Mexico in a large, white van.  This is the fourth story and describes their trip from very beautiful beaches to very unimproved road.

Most people think that the most important Spanish phrase you could learn is “Dónde está el baño?” (Where’s the bathroom?), “Cuánto cuesta este?” (How much is this?) or even, “Camarero, dos margaritas más, por favor (Bartender, two more margaritas, please).  While all these are very good to know in appropriate circumstances, my view is that the most important phrase to learn while driving south from San Felipe through Baja on Highway 5 (pretty much the only road you can take south from San Felipe) is “Tanque lleno” which, loosely translated, means “Fill ‘er up.”

The reason is that, in this area, there are long stretches with few gas stations, so we made sure our “tanque” was very much “lleno” before we left.

It’s not that we weren’t warned about taking Highway 5 south…

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