With Chile’s borders still closed and our repeated requests to the Chilean consulate in San Francisco for special permission to reenter not approved, it’s been one long road trip aboard AV.
Off we go to SoCal!
We’ve spent some time around Monterey Bay, scouting for surf outside of Santa Cruz and enjoying the sunny and warm weather of the central California coast.
Time for a surf session at Asilomar Beach, Pacific Grove
Heading south, we settled in for four nights in the campground at El Capitan State Beach. Situated about 15 miles outside of Santa Barbara, El Capitan marks the start of the last 25 miles of undeveloped Southern California coastline. Miles of mostly deserted beach and waves gently washing onto the sand under sparkling sunshine are a reminder of why so many people live in this part of the world.
It was great visiting with our friends Annette and Mike, who we first met in Valdivia, Chile when they pulled into Marina Estancilla on their catamaran Rum Doxy
After a night visiting with our cruising friends from Rum Doxy (who generously scored us a parking pass to camp, and use the showers, in their marina in Ventura), AV headed north into the mountains outside Ojai. 
A steep hike in the Topatopa Mountains led us to 5000′ (1500m) and a panoramic view of the Ventura County coastline with the Channel Islands rising out of the sea in the distance.
Hiking outside of Ojai we were rewarded with a fantastic view of the Pacific ocean and the Channel Islands
We’re definitely fans of beautiful scenery, but waking up to 26F (-3C) and frozen water in an uninsulated van cured us of any more winter mountain wanderlust.
Brrr! No one told us it gets cold in SoCal!
After a few nights at lower elevation, we headed back to the coast – more travels to come.
AV enjoying herself in SoCal
Our path to Southern California. What would normally take 7 hours in a car, took us about 2 weeks.
