Baja 3 - Back Across

Since we had an early evening, we had an early morning.  Cleaned and dried with 40-grit towels, we were loaded and out by 8:30 AM.  The restaurants and food vendors weren't even open yet.  No coffee, but we head out anyway. 

Guerrero Negro is known for whales calving in it's bay every spring.  March is supposed to be the height of the season so we figured there may still be a few whales around in mid April. 

The road to Laguna Ojo de Liebre is just down Highway 1.  It is supposed to be a great place for viewing the whales plus we were told that guides with their Panga boats will take you out for a closer look.   

We turn off onto what looks to be a paved road.  That dream was short lived however.  About 1/4 mile in the road is now dirt, salt, sand and gravel.  For 13 miles each way we navigate our way to and from the beach. 

We arrive at the beach hoping to be one of the first tours of the day.  Instead, we find the place vacated.  No signs of life on the land or the sea.  Apparently the whales have left for the season and so have the guides and what ever other inhabitants might have been there. 

Back on the bikes, we head toward Santa Rosalia.  Here, we will be catching a ferry to Guaymas on the mainland.  We have been warned that since Easter was approaching reservations on the ferry are very important. We hear stories about people waiting several days to catch a ride.  

The weather is overcast and in the easy 70's as we cruise back over to the Sea of Cortez side.  It slowly warmed up after we had arrived. 

Heading into town, we pass the effort to re-establish the copper mining operation that was established and abandoned by the French many years ago. 

We stop at the ferry terminal on our way in.  After about a 1/2 of an hour, the ticket office opens and we easily make reservations and pay for our passage.  Let's hope they don't tend to overbook like the airlines do…. It's also getting quite windy.  We wonder if a storm is blowing in that might curtail our plans?  

We head out to have a little dinner and libation.  First stop turns out to be a Chinese place. Had a couple of beers there and struck up a conversation with a guy from Whitehorse, down here working with the mining company.  Interesting guy.   

Afterwards we drop into town, have a decent meal and begin a search for a little Cantina to have a drink before returning to the room.  It just so happens that Boxing is a really big deal around here and there happens to be a fight in progress.  The couple of bars we do find are either charging a cover or are loud and "seedy".   Oh well.  Call it a day….   Lots of time tomorrow then a whole new adventure begins on the other side of the Mar de Cortez. 

Baja 3 - South

What a day!   

Up, cleaned and fed, we set out on the bikes.  

Peter had spotted a possible project car a couple of days ago and we had learned that someone may be there today that we could talk to about the car.  Back to Pete's Camp we go.  

After all the information is exchanged, we set out for parts South.  The first stop is Puertecitos.

It looked a little more rough than we expected.  We kept on going.  The next stop was San Luis Gonzaga, about 97 miles south of San Felipe.  

It's hot out. A little over 100 in some places. When we stop at Gonzaga, Peter decides to hop in the Sea of Cortez and cool off a bit.

Looked inviting but I got stuck talking to a souvenir vendor  instead. 

All good pavement up until this point but we see that end and the dirt road start, just up ahead.  

The road leads to Chapala, about 40 miles away, where we will find Hiway 1, the main north-south road in Baja (paved). 

We had no idea that traveling this road would be so tough!  It is made up of some dirt, but with lots of rocks of all sizes, gravel both compacted and loose and sand at the most inopportune times.  

The sand is almost impossible to get through as the front wheel just plows in the direction of its own choosing while the rest of the bike tries to throw you off.  We do manage to stay upright the whole way but it was no easy task.  In places, you start to think: "hey, I think I'm getting this".  So, you start to speed up from 19 mph to about 21 mph. Just then, you hit that patch of sand that wants to throw you every which way and you slow down and/or stop right quick!  

There sure is some stunning scenery however. 

We did stop for a beer at the world famous "Coco's Corner".  

This is about 12 miles from the hiway and is run by a guy named Coco.  It is just him and his cat and some local coyotes at night.  His place is a collection of everything imaginable from undergarments to wrecked auto parts.  

BTW, Coco doesn't have any legs but skoots around on what's left.  Nice old guy…

Once we find pavement again, we head toward Guerrero Negro.  We had thought about Bahia de Los Angeles but that's about 40 miles in and we would have to come back out the next day. 

A quick bite to eat, a couple of beers and we're calling it a night. 

Baja 3. - Altitude

We stuck around San Felipe for another day of fun and adventure.   We might have to get our own place down here. Every time we visit, we find more reasons to stay. 

So far a very relaxing day in San Felipe.  Up early enough and on the street by 8:00 AM.  We walked down the Malecon and found a nice breakfast at one of the local beachfront establishments.  

There is lots of the "greater San Felipe metropolitan" area that we hadn't explored thus far.  Still pretty cool out so we hop on the bikes and have a look around. 

As is much of this area, we found a mix of nice houses and more "improvised" housing.  Well worth seeing. 

It was nearing 11:00 AM and we had been invited back to Pete's Camp to investigate a couple of things and see if we could set up the afternoon's entertainment. 

The people that we came to see were out when we arrived so we might we well hang around at the bar for a bit. 

We had met some of the locals the previous day and were greeted today as "good old friends".  Good stuff!

Our Baja racer friend, Mickey, shows up and he remains as helpful as ever. 

One of the people we met yesterday is Rafael.  Rafael happens to have an ultralight and gives tour flights.  That sound like fun and something we had to do! 

Mickey was nice enough to help hook us up with Rafael.  Before we knew it Rafael had landed his rig on the beach in front of us.  What's a couple of gringos to do but hop on and go for flight. 

Both Peter and I thought flying in an ultralight would be a "butt puckering" experience.  Quite the opposite!  It was a terrific flight and you felt safe and secure the entire time.  The view was great, as one might expect and the flight was over far too soon.  I wouldn't necessary want to travel huge distances in an ultralight but for an hour or two on a nice day, heck yea!

Off to grab some dinner and we'll have to wait to see what happens tomorrow.  We have several options…

Baja - 3 - Across

By the time we settled in to our room in Ensenada and got ready to head out for dinner, it was about 8:00 PM.  

The cruise ship was just heading out to its next port of call.  The snowbirds are in the midst of their northern migration so things were pretty quiet in town. So quiet, in fact, that our preferred restaurants had closed for the evening.  It fact most every place was closed except the loud karaoke bar.  If it wasn't that they serve one hell-of-a-good Caesar, we may not have stopped there either. 

Back and settled in early, gave us an fresh start about 8:00 this morning.  

We had checked the previous evening, at the restaurant where we first met "Elvis" (Miguel?).  They told us he is now working mornings so we decided to make that our destination for breakfast.  As luck would have it, they were not open when we arrived. Just across the street was a good meal.  

On the road early, we topped off the tanks and hit the trail.  It was a beautiful day for a cruise.

 

 We had a little over 150 miles of mostly twisty road to travel over to find the other side of Baja and the Sea of Cortez. 

There are several resorts and "camps" along the road into San Felipe before you hit town proper. We had seen these on a previous trip down and since it was still early, we decided to stop and have a look around.  

The first stop was at El Dorado Ranch. I huge development with condos, rentals, golf course and all of the rest of the facilities.  A look around and a stop for a quick beer and we were off to the next stop. 

This time we stopped at Pete's Camp.  A rather large place that features a restaurant/bar with acres of houses of every description. Single wides under awnings to large homes. Quite an interesting mix. The whole place seemed to be teaming with lots of nice people. 

We saw a few interesting things and met some of the locals over a couple of beers.  After a nice visit, it was time to saddle up and head into town to get a room, clean up and play tourist for the afternoon. 

Peter went to hit the start button in his bike and nothing, nada, completely dead…. The bike showed no signs of life at all.  A few checks of the obvious things and still nothing… Humm, a few hundred miles to the nearest dealer.  Well nothing much better to do than to grab the tools we brought and tear into the beast. 

They let us wheel the the bike into the shade of a carport to work on it.  We were also directed to one of the local Baja racers and suggested that he would be glad to help.  After tearing the plastic body panels off and digging into the innards, it seemed that the battery had up and died. 

We took the battery to the Baja racer to see if he could check it.  He was able to confirm that the battery had died and amazingly offered us a car to run into town to buy another battery.  

You won't find any more friendly and helpful people anywhere.  Perhaps it has something to do with an environment where you might need help someday yourself.  It's pretty sparse around here and a helping hand could save your life. 

Anyway, we hopped in the car and headed off in search of a battery. 

The first, and recommended auto parts store had a pretty good selection of batteries. Nothing exactly like what we needed, but pretty darned close.   

We decided  to shop around.  The next stop was at a motorbike repair shop. They had several chickens, dogs and broken bikes and quads but no suitable battery.  

The next stop was a beauty shop and alternator repair (in the same shop). Again, some options but nothing good enough. 

Back to the first store to grab the best compromise.  It was getting late by now and it needed to be fixed. 

Things fired up when all was reassembled.  Peter thanked the Baja racer with a bottle of tequila and were planning on stopping by tomorrow to say hi. 

A great dinner at El Nido and a margarita on the Malecon.   A full and interesting day. 

Baja 3. - Hola Mexico

Up early this morning, we cleaned up our act, loaded our gear and headed for the BMW dealer.  We were there before the service manager had arrived but it wasn't long before he showed up and got our maintenance underway. 

Waiting for our bikes to be serviced gave us an opportunity to shop for a couple of essential items.  After about 2 hours our bikes are ready for adventure!  

The temperature had changed from about 70 degrees in the early morning to the mid 80's by the time we left and into the 90's in places.    

It felt good to hit the road.  Riverside is close to Los Angeles and due north of Tijuana.  We decided to point our bikes toward Tecate instead of heading straight south. The intent was to then take an interesting looking road from there to Ensenada for our first night in Mexico. 

The GPS was up to its usual hijinks and we soon found ourselves in Otay, just slightly east of Tijuana.  That was fine as there is a Sentri office there so we stopped to see if we could get our bikes approved for the southern equivalent to NEXUS.  The line was surprisingly short but the answer was "no such luck", just the same.   Oh well, across the line anyway which meant we could now tackle our next task of getting Tourist and Vehicle permits for traveling on the mainland. 

The United States employs hundreds of people to perform a single task.  Mexico employs a single person to perform a single task. They work very effectively at performing that task. It may not make much sense, but they perform that task and do not deviate!  

We were unable to get our required permits at the border crossing.  We found this out after finally finding an acceptable parking place and visiting all of the people performing their single task.  We did learn that we had to proceed into town to the Immigration Office.  

The Immigration facility is comprised of several people within government and non-government spaces.  We first inquired at what later turned out to be a immigration fee collecting bank, about how to go about this process.  We were told that we had to go and see the government immigration official next door and fill out a form to get a piece of paper that we could take back to them to pay the fee.  

Only after that, could we repeat the process and get a permit for our vehicles.  

Before the entire process was complete, we had to visit the copy shop next door in the other direction to have copies made of most, but not all of the paper.  Seriously, this is the actual procedure!  Ah, for the good old days of carbon paper, although that would put someone out of work…

Permits in hand, we see a taco stand across the street.  Since we had neglected to eat thus far, a quick bite is in order. 

Rather than proceed to Tecate as we had originally planned, the now late hour suggests our time would be more wisely used heading directly to Ensenada.  Off we go!

We have traveled the toll highway several times and are familiar with the ocean views from that route between Tijuana and Ensenada. This time we decide to travel the through-town road.  A nice way to go if you're not in a hurry.  Lots a stunning ocean view or ocean front property and casa's.  

The through-town road finally heads away from the coast to go around a sizeable hill and finally into Ensenada.  As we head away from the coast, we stop to chat about our route and decide the best views would be from the toll "1-D" highway.  We turn around and pass through some interesting markers/barricades and signage (written in a foreign language) to access the 1-D. 

I have found that the lessons are best learned the hard way.  Peter and I had a quick lesson in Spanish today.  It turns out that the sign, and the people trying to tell us something, we're saying that the toll road was washed out.   After we had turned around on the coastal through-town road to travel the the toll road, we had to turn on that too and head back to the previous road.  No problem since the only appointment we had was with a cerveza!

Off to San Felipe tomorrow. 

Baja 3. Our journey begins!

  This afternoon we flew from Birch Bay to Palm Springs.  We were greeted at the airport by Dorothy and Rebecca, who along with Art, were at their place in La Quinta.  It was lovely to see them and extremely nice of them to pick us up.  We stored our bikes at their place and found them safe and sound upon our arrival. 

Peter and I had made appointments to get our bikes serviced at the local dealer before we head to the Mexican desert.  We figured that we would try to give us the best chance possible of completing our intended journey. 

The local dealer happens to be in Riverside, California, some 75 miles from where we were.  After a short visit with Art, Dorothy and Rebecca, we set off to find a room closer to tomorrow's appointments. 

Traveling California's freeways are always a high speed carnival thrill ride.  Riding after the sun goes down, behind a tinted visor enhances the experience.  Mix that with Semi's traveling 65+ and car going "fast and furious" and you start to feel like a ball in a pinball game.   

We made to Riverside, found the dealer for tomorrow, found a room and a beer so we're good for the night. 

Baja 3 - Sand and Cerveza

The lure of Baja and the yearning for adventure have once again gained the upper hand.  The storied adventures of Ken and Peter find us again heading eagerly for the sand and cerveza of Mexico.  We have positioned our bikes in Palm Springs where they remain perched, awaiting the roads and trails ahead.

We didn't have to ride all the way to Palm Springs. Due to the often challenging winter road conditions of traveling the Siskiyou's, that trip may have been cold and slippery. Peter and I instead, took advantage of an opportunity to trailer our bikes from the northern reaches of Washington, to as far south as Oakland California.  

It was rainy in Oakland when we arrived.  A couple of days exploring the area allowed the weather to finally brake in Northern California.  We then left for our ultimate destination, riding the bikes from Oakland to Porterville, over and through the Sequoia National Forest down through Barstow to Lake Havasu City Arizona, on to Surprise then Yuma and finally to Palm Springs.

We tried to stay off of major hiways as much as possible, which found us on a very scenic route with many way points that neither of us had seen before. 

April 7th, Peter and I will travel back to Palm Springs to begin our bike trip across the border.  Our plan this time is to navigate both paved and non-paved roads and trails on route from the border, through San Felipe to catch a ferry in Santa Rosilia across the Sea of Cortez to Guaymas on the mainland of Mexico.  From there, if we don't turn south toward Mazatlan, we will find our way north toward Puerto Penasco, exploring as many small coastal towns as we can find.  Much of our time will be out of cell phone service areas so Blog updates may be a bit intermittent but will be updated when possible.

Neither of us has any experience, at least any recent experience, riding bikes off road in the dirt, sand, rocks and cactus.  We are "jumping in the deep end" by learning to ride on the job.  Hopefully we'll come back yearning for more "off the beaten path" adventures.  It should be an interesting trip no matter what…