Slow Baja Winter Expedition 2024

February 10, 2025

Slow Baja Winter Expedition 2024 - Day 8

Day 8 - Finding El Negro

Sunrise in Bahia de Los Angeles

6am rise and shine! Time to find a tow truck and mechanic. Luckily Matt had volunteered to drive and help me canvas Bahia de Los Angeles during the morning. We were looking for someone who had a tow truck to get the Silver Surfer back to town. The Slow Baja Winter Expedition would continue to San Felipe for the end of the trip fiesta.

Immediate feedback came back to us to find Sammy "El Negro" Diaz as he had a trailer and was a welder. If you don't know the name Diaz, it is quite famous in L.A. Bay. Papa Diaz and his wife, were one of the most famous people in this area. They had a hotel (Casa Diaz), restaurant, airstrip, gasoline, etc in the days before electricity and at a time when sportsmen would fly in to fish and get away from the modern world.

We now knew we were trying to find a relative of his. First stop was his dad's auto shop near the hotel (his dad is a famous mechanic in his own right). Unfortunately in BOLA there really isn't cel coverage which we found out when his dad said he might be at Campo Gecko just south of town. Matt and I drove over only to find out from a security guard that he was working in La Mona today which is farther south at the end of the bay. After driving through the mud flats near the estuary, we eventually arrived. The security guard confirmed El Negro was there and gave directions to the house he was working at. After a couple wrong houses we eventually found him.

He agreed to stop working at the house and to go and get his trailer, welder and other equipment and pick me up at the Vermilion Sea Institute. When he arrived, I said goodbye to the Slow Baja crew who were just leaving. Thank Matt again as he really saved the day (and the night before). I jumped in the truck with Sammy and his son and we were off on the slow, hour-long ride to the breakdown spot.

When we arrived Mike and Wino were beat down but happy to see us. Sammy assessed the situation and it was determined the trailer was not wide enough by inches. He'd have to do a temporary weld repair on the spot and hopefully we could drive it back very slowly to be reinforced in L.A. Bay. Unfortunately, due to the damage this would take hours.

Sammy did it. We got everything ready and I drove with Sammy while Olaf drove ever so slowly back to Bahia de Los Angeles. We all pulled into town (thankfully) after dark and went straight to Alejandrina's Restaurant to eat.We treated Sammy and his son. What a meal it was, especially for Olaf and Wino.

We decided we would bring the truck over to Sammy in the morning so he could check it and make any needed fixes before we would try to limp back to the U.S. border. We drove over to Villa Vitta Hotel to finally get a good night's sleep.