Date: 18/10
City: Guerrero Negro, Baja, Mexico
Miles ridden: 262
Cumulative miles: 13988
Before we started we had a look at the street report. Hurricane Paul hit only the southernmost bit of Baja, so the roads up to Guerrero Negro are fine. Some bridges were damaged further south but the construction crews were working on it and only minor delays are to be expected. So we said goodbye to Alfonso, the very nice person at the front desk, took the mandatory pictures with the Didles and Brice,
and started to get going, a bit earlier, just in case. It was an easy ride; we had a short stop at a hotel, where, for a smalls surcharge, you can book some company in your room.
We decided to give this one a miss. The landscape started to get more interesting with cacti fields surrounding the road.
At some places we could see some red cacti; the landscape looked just nicer with that red coloured dot in.
For lunch we decided to give a road side restaurant a go and it worked out perfectly. After entertaining all customers in the restaurant with our non-Spanish, we got finally the omelette with bacon from the breakfast menu, even in the afternoon. Victory! 😀
When we arrived in Guerrero Negro, we met two young pushbike riders, coming all the way down from Canada. One guy built the pushbike himself, out of bamboo, with some sort of soya glue. I was impressed! Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture, but we got a link to his web site: www.grassframes.ca . Here we parked our bikes the first time on a walkway just in front of our windows.
In the evening we realized that this was our 200th day since we started our journey. We celebrate it with Salami, Crisp bread and a beer. When we were eating dinner, we meet Harold from California. He is driving through Baja and likes to have a look at ancient cave paintings and the Missions that the first Jesuits set up around this area. He gave us tips what to see and where to stay as well what to see around La Paz.
And we had a nice sunset.
Date: 19/10
City: Santa Rosalia, Baja, Mexico
Miles ridden: 137
Cumulative miles: 14125
Today we were not in a rush to leave. I found a hotel in Santa Rosalia that had really good critics, so we planned to pamper ourselves a bit. The landscape was flat and boring at the beginning, but got more interesting later on. We were again in a hilly area with plenty of cacti around. After the experience in the road side restaurant, we stopped at another to have some lunch. This time we got really adventurous, Sigrid ordered something that I haven’t heard before (turned out to be a fish soup) and I changed my omelette to scrambled eggs 😀.
I couldn’t resist, when we left the restaurant I took a couple of picture of the cacti around.
Not long after that we arrived at the hotel and booked a nice room with sea view.
After a short power nap we went back to the town to have a look at a prefabricated church, designed by Eiffel (same guy who designed the tower in Paris). After trying to find the address on the internet, we were just driving to the city and looking for a church tower. It sort of worked, we had a look at a school, a comunity building and after asking other tourists, we had a look at the church as well.
So if you are in desperate need for a tropical storm resistant church kit, here is what we have for you! J. The church itself is build out of metal, so it is not very impressive, but the colourful windows make it a bit more interesting.
After having a look at the church we got a bit hungy and walked through the old town core where we found a bakery, that claims to have world famost bread. Hrmmm… to be honest, I don’t recall ever having heard of it.
So after a short shopping spree we went home and enjoyed the view onto the sea and a beautiful sunset over the hills.
During diner, the owners cat was walking around, she looked very similar to our cat Snowy.
After sunset we went to bed, not sure how far we go tomorrow, it all depends on the road conditions.
Date: 20/10
City: Loreta, Baja, Mexico
Miles ridden: 197
Cumulative miles: 14322
We started around 10AM and our way guided us around a bay, which was the first time that we saw a sandy beach in Mexico. During our ride we started to see the first washouts, and at one place there was only one lane left, so we let the trucks from the opposite side pass before we attempt the crossing.
We also had our first water crossing. Luckily it was not very deep, and so far everything went without a problem. The landscape was just great, with the mountains around, the sea and the cacti.
So we arrived in Loreta pretty early, filled the bikes up and drove into the city to the hotel recommended to us. The description was “the hotel is adjacent to the petrol station”. Unfortunately the hotel was full, so we followed a sign to anther hotel which was at the sea, but it was extremely expensive. So we turned around went back to the main road and found a motel for half the price. Our room is facing an old church and we could park our bikes in front of our door on a tiled walkway. Cool, that’s how I anticipated Mexico.
After settling into our room, we walked through the city, had a look at the church,
had lunch/dinner in a bar/restaurant and strolled around the city, where we discovered the beach. At other places the shore was just stones, no sand at all. This was the first time we put our feet into the Sea of Cortes, the water was warm.
This is a brave move particular after seeing the monster living in the sea.
When it was my turn to get the picture taken, I dropped my wallet into the sea, bummer. On the picture the water is still dripping out the wallet.
Then we went back to the room, looked for accommodation in La Paz, how to book the ferry and how to get on to it. I was writing my diary when a ceremony in the church started (with ringing a bell around 7PM and pretty girls standing in the church door. It looked like a communion.
I love this place; it is great to observe what is going on. It feels a bit like sitting in a street caffee. We will see how far we go tomorrow, if everything goes well we will end up in La Paz.
Date: 21/10
City: La Paz, Baja, Mexico
Miles ridden: 221
Cumulative miles: 14543
In the morning we had breakfast and watch people going to the Sunday mass, well, it was the second mass of the day, the first one was at 6AM and we decided to stay in bed after the church bells stopped….
The first part of the ride was through cacti fields in the mountain; from time to time we got a glimpse of the sea.
We had lunch in a small township, just after we crossed a road flooded by water. I was adventures and had omelette, Sigrid had Chilaquiles which is a sort of tacos with hot sauce and cheese; it tasted nice.
We took off to the most boring part of the day, straight roads surrounded by farmland. After an hour or so we had another coffee, just 120km from La Paz. After the coffee the landscape got more interesting, curvy roads with cacti. We arrived in La Paz, ask at the petrol station for directions and got them. When we arrived at the destination, we ask the next person (a mother with her daughter and her grandchild), for directions and she actually gave us a piece of paper with a drawing of where the hotel was. When we arrived there, it was really the hotel that we were looking for but we were not sure if they had secure parking. Before we got off the bikes, a young guy approached us and told us that we could park the bikes securely in the inner courd yard. So I hopped onto the bike, drove a short bit in the wrong direction along a one way street, got up two steps from the road with the bike and onto the pedestrian path into the hallway.
After that we removed the boxes, and drove it into the court yard.
But there was a second bike, so I took up the challenge a second time. It seemed to be warmer and more humid here than it was in Loreta, I would say around 30 degrees but humid. After we parked the bikes and settled into our room, we met Selina from Germany. She studies in Mexico and then travels through Yucatan during the semester break. We got some pointers for Yucatan; it seems that our trip in mainland Mexico gets more and more defined. Then we went shopping and had some dinner. By the way, part of this hotel is a Laundry service every 3rd day, breakfast and 2 Tequila for every guest (we didn’t know that, honest). So at dinner the night porter came along and asks us if we would like to have our tequilas, so we said yes, got them, updated our blogs and drunk 1, 2, hmm 3 Tequila
After that straight to bed ..passed out on the floor 😉
Date: 22/10
City: La Paz, Baja, Mexico
Miles ridden: 2
Cumulative miles: 14545
Did I mention that we selected the hotel because it was described as a bit quirky and some comments like ‘shoot the roster and it is nice’ where there? Well, around 5AM we knew what they were talking about, there was a roster who did his morning thing. To be honest, it was not too bad. When he stopped we stayed in bed a bit longer. We finally got up and had breakfast (cereal and coffee). Here is a picture of the court yard boss 🙂
After breakfast we drove to the Baja Ferry outlet, to purchase our ferry tickets.
It worked very well; they called a lady who spoke English. Except for putting our names onto the ticket, (I was ‘Bjoern Melbourne alessa’ and Sigrid just ‘Geb. Krebs’) everything else went well. After purchasing the tickets, we went back, passed a street stall where we bought our lunch, some sort of Scampi cocktail, very nice.
After a short nap we packed our stuff for the beach, had a short look at an photo exhibition in the town hall,
Went to the beach had a short swim, took some pictures
And then went home to plan the middle part of Mexico. Tomorrow we will leave Baja and go to the mainland.
Wow! It all looks wonderful and you seem to be having a lot more pleasure than in Nth America.
I’m looking forward to see where you go next.
Anne xo
Oi! Have you arrived somewhere? Puerto Escondido?