San Ignacio

Waking up in the morning Rigel wasn't feeling a hundred percent yet as his stomach didn't have anything in it anymore. We didn't have any crackers yet so I gave him a banana. I told him we could stay put so he could rest but he wanted to make it to San Ignacio.  I packed up camp and we set out stopping to get some electrolite drink at the next store to start rehydrating Rigel's system.  He didn't get sick again but was super tired the whole day.  Luckily the road was mostly flat with only some hills near San Ignacio so we kept a decent, although still slow, pace.  The roles were a bit reversed, so instead of Rigel riding behind me because I'm so slow, I was riding behind him pedaling only half the time.  It was a nice break from riding as fast as I can all the time. :)

We arrived in San Ignacio around 4:30, found everyone camped just on the waters edge in a campground.  San Ignacio is an oasis town filled with date palms so it was a wonderful change to the sandy cactus filled desert we have been in for the last week.  Everything was so green and lush.  Rigel and I made camp, had a light, no spicy in any way pasta for supper and took a shower.  The shower heads came out of the ceiling and used graviy as water pressure. The water was nice and warm and served its purpose.

Since the camping was so cheap we stayed an extra day to explore the town and let Rigel rest. We sat and watched Dave play his sitar in the morning then picked oranges and lemons at the old missions orchard before going grocery shopping.

Dave, a Calgarian, playing the sitar he hauls around on a cart behind his bike

the campgound with all the date palms

Vizcaino

We left Guerrero Negro fairly early (before anyone else) in order to stay ahead of the wind. It was about 72km to Vizcaino then another 73 to San Ignacio. We decided to wild camp just past Vizcaino.  The ride went by fairly quickly stopping at a small store to make lunch. Lunch for me was jam, avocado and cheese on a tortilla since I don't really like beans and salsa too much.  We made it to Vizcaino around 2 or so and ate again at this cool chicken barbeque restaruant.  It was super delicious. Rigel and I shared half a chicken and got fries, tortillas, and a macaroni salad as sides.
We met up with everybody at the restaurant then made our way out of town (which is bigger than you would expect from looking at a map) to find a good spot to camp.

Not far out of town they herded us towards the spot they had chosen.  It was not as stealth as Rigel and I would have liked but since we were in a big group thought it was ok.  We set up camp and then went around to all the pitayas with spoons for a snack.  We spent the evening in Ushi and Dave's 6 man tent before heading to bed.  Rigel wasen't feeling to good that day and ended up puking his lunch and dinner up several times throughout the night.  We wern't sure what caused it but thought it could have been the beans and salsa we have been carrying or an old pitaya.  We went to bed hoping he would be feeling better in the morning.

into guererro negro

for the last leg of our journey to the coast, we were immediately surprised when we were leaving our campsite and were met by two other cycle-tourists!  Virgil and Maryanna from France made their way down the cascade mountains from Alaska, south. Basically riding the highest altitude route they could find south.

The ride was another longer one, about 110km, and got excited to hear that there were yet two more cycle tourists on the road with us, on a tandem, though we had yet to meet them.  At the next town we caught up with the Frenchies, had some pop and talked.  The tandem went by! I didn't even see them. Then Virgil and Maryanne left town but we kept talking to a fellow headed south by van ( thanks for the avacado, Clayton) and continued on.  We shortly passed the French cyclists fixing a flat and then kept on.   They did not pass us again but we did get into town after riding behind the tandem a while! where are they?
Couldn't see them, parked,waved at them when we saw them but went for lunch.  Headed south. Once we got into Guererro Negro, some military checkpoint personel (hear they're looking for guns) told us a big group of cyclists rolled in about an hour before.  They would probably be our erstwhile companions. We started to go about looking for a good price on a hotel with a blog guide giving us the idea that 250 pesos is a good number to aim for.
We met Paul and Alexa (the tandem) at the second hotel we checked and grabbed their email planning to meet later at the taco stand across the street.   They are staying a rest day too; perfect!
Got a hotel room (300 pesos, wifi and hot water)  but it wasen't quite as nice as Paul and Alexa's, went for dinner and then to  bed.  What a day!

south of Punta Prieta

Starting out the next day it was still windy but it was much drier.  The day went by pretty quickly as well since the really really strong wind was mostly behind us.  Once we got to the Laguna Chapala area we really started to fly.  It was finally nice and flat with only a few rolling hills so we were able to cruise down the road at 40km/hr without tiring. It was really great to get where you want to go fast.  By the end of the day we managed to cover 109km.  We camped off the side of the road just south of Punta Prieta.  This was probably my favorite although most dangerous camping spot so far.  We pulled off the road and went down a bit of a hill so we were out of sight of the highway but this time there was no road.  We carefully maneuvered our bikes through the catuses until we found a decent clearing.  There were some larger not-so-spikey trees amongst the bushes of evil that helped to create a good spot but mostly if you stepped in the wrong direction you got pricked.
I was amazed how many different types of catuses were growing there; big big ones and really tiny ones that if you wern't careful, you would have a pant leg full of them.

The next morning we decided to try the catus fruit that we had been eyeing up. Turns out they are amazing and taste somewhere between a strawberry and a kiwi.  They are called pitaya. 

spikes surrounding our camp that the yummy fruit grows on

South of Catavina

The next morning in the dried up river bed we woke up to our tent completely soaked in dew and condensation. By completely I mean inside, outside and dripping onto my sleeping bag.  We don't know if it was the slightly damp sand that made it extra special or what but it was awful. I didn't really know how to deal with all the wet so I pondered quite a bit in my morning sleepiness.  Finally giving up trying to dry it all, I stuffed my sleeping bag and packed up the tent hoping to be able to dry them out later.
The ride into Catavina was quite beautiful as we entered boulder country.  Giant rocks everywhere. My Baja camping book described it as a photographers paradise and it certainly was.  I didn't want to get off my bike in order to take the pictures so I have learnt how to take them while riding. Sometimes they even turn out good.

We ate lunch in catavina at I think one of the only restaurants, and picked up some snacks and water (our first fill up in a few days) at the smallest grocery store.  Since this was the gas gap (about 315km) there were guys selling it out of their pick up trucks at a premium.  

We rode about 30km more then started looking for a camping spot.  We didn't ride very far but it sure felt like a long day.  We pulled off onto this little dirt road carefull of not riding over thorns and camped on the road at the bottom of one of the little hills. The road didn't have any fresh tracks on it and you couldn't see us from the highway so we thought it was pretty safe. But to make sure no one ran us over in the middle of the night Rigel put up a stick with his helmet on it at the top of the hill before our tent.  But I wasen't that worried.  It was also very windy that day which made setting up our tent a little difficult.  

West of Catavina

We  all left at different times in the morning, with Melanie leaving first at 7:30.  The mud on our wheels from a night rain stuck oppressively and I wasn't able to remove it all for at least another 100km.  Erin and I ended up getting out of there and rolling at 10:10am or so and I got my second highest speed (Even with the muddy wheel break) going 69.4 km/h on a  down hill. Erin said I was really crouched into my high speed corner. For my part, it was a bit like having a motorcycle again.
We had lunch at a little ranch turned restaurant and then headed out again.  Bryan, Maggie and Justin rode together and soon outpaced us.  Erin and I made camp a bit after the turn off to El Marmal, the old onyx mine.  the region is callled the Sonoran Desert Vegetation region and certainly included much desert like including barrel cactus, chollar,agaves, boojum trees and huge cardons.

Boojum trees seen against the horizon - they look right out of a Dr Seuss illustration.

We followed a dirt road into the desert, and found a nice sandy spot to camp in a dry creek bed.  It was a beautiful night, and we were out of sight of the highway.  Perfect!

Impromtu Cycle Camping

We started out early, at about 730 am, and had resolved to put in a solid day's ride.  We knew that we were going to be oing some big hills and that water access wouldn't be convenient so we had to pack a lot of water (Erin took 10 liters, and I took 10 liters, plus our water bottles and my back pack). The road was VERY hilly, and we had only done 30 km by 11:30.  Not bad actually, given that we stopped to take cute pictures of the enormous Cordon cactuses.

Cordon cactuses, largest cactuses in the world, get up around 75 feet.  HUGE!

When we got to the top of the hill (730 meter climb, not counting the ups and downs - ouch) we were greeted with a group of cyclists including Bryan and Maggie that had spent the day at that location as well as Justin, Paul, and Melanie that had started in El Rosario (de Ariba) in the morning with us.  We camped out together with them and another couple we had met briefly in Ensenada named Ushi and Dave. The nine of us knocked down spent agave trunks and piled them up for an evening fire along with enjoying the  hilltop view of the very unique Baja desert.  Beautiful.  And yes, the dried, dead agave trunks burn very nicely.

Ushi from Germany, and Dave from Canada.  The two have cycled thousands of kilometers together, and Dave cycles with his sitar and a mandolin.

El Rosario

El Rosario was a short 30km ride from our back yard camping spot.  We had resolved before hand to stay in El Rosario despite its short distance fom our starting place.  We got there at around 11am and went for (second) breakfast. We met an Albertan woman along the way, Melanie, and followed her lead in finding an in-town wild camp.  We ended up staying in a commercial building still under constuction ( likely to become a pub based on the signage we could see in the building). The building ended up being a godsend as it rained in the evening to no small degree. A few big dune buggies rolled into town to the restaurant and were quite entrancing as they were quite decked out for their obvious purpose.  These beast were meant for the all terrain approach to the desert.

The evening started with the three of us (Bryan and Maggie elected to continue on on their own) but we quickly gained 2 more as two fellows Justin and Paul joined us as well - two Americans! The night had quite a lot of rain, surprisingly, but none followed during the next day.

Ej-Valle Tranquilo

From the hotel we made our way to Vicente Guerrero to get some groceries from calimax on some nicely greased chains. We were greated by a parade in the streets as it was some sort of a holiday (in the middle of the week too!) As we rode by the people in the streets cheered us on making us feel like celebrities! The terrain was nice and flat and we had the wind behind us so we just flew down the road.  We had sandwiches in San Quintin on the side of the road in a park like setting for lunch.  Even though it had trees it wasen't very sheltered from the wind and dust.  Carrying on from there it was a nice ride on easy terrain and after ascending a hill we got to see the ocean again.  Every time we get back to the coast its like seeing the ocean for the first time.  So beautiful! We made it to the extremely small town of Ej-Valle Tranquilo and looked for camping.  There was a man hanging outside the little store who spoke a bit of english and offered his yard to set up our tents in. It was just down the road a kilometer so we accepted.  His house was still under construction but it gave us a wall to set our tents behind to get out of the wind.  We made some dinner and went to bed around 7 or so. Nice and late.

Camalu

The ride to Camalu had some long contruction areas.  They turned out paved roads into rough dirt roads in several sections for up to 6km.  The road was hilly in the morning, but the afternoon was a long series of rolling hills with the air behind us.  I had filled my water dromedary right up and so my bike was very heavy, and Erin was riding quite well and stayed ahead of me through much of the afternoon.  We were riding between 20 and 40 km and hour most of the afternoon.  Wooh!  Nice to make so much progress so quick!

We decided to treat ourselves to a hotel and visited a couple hotels until we got a price we liked (250 pesos for the night for a room for 2 people, not terrible).

San Vicente

The ride back down the dirt road was a lot easier than going up.  We had finished the 20km of ride back to the highway within an hour or so, and started just before 9.  The highway south had a couple substantial hills to welcome us back to riding as we were going inland following the Mex 1.  The wind, when it was blowing, was behind us but it was not very strong.   The downhill ride into Santo Tomas was so steep, I set a new speed record for myself of 74.4 km/hour.  Yow! I whipped by the town going 60 and missed Bryan and Maggie waving at me.  Erin talked to them and then met me where I waited a few kms on.  The highway has a lot of construction, including the first of a few bridges over dry rivers. The highway had an immediate detour around the bridge that was under construction - the detour was a dirt road running immediately next to the future bridge!  Amazing what you can do when there isn't any actual water to avoid.

Bridge under construction on Mex 1 just south of Santo Tomas

We ended up having our first Mexican wild camp.  We made it to just north of San Vicente and stopped near a ranch.  The building next to the road was just a cement shell without a roof, and covered in graffiti.  The area was fenced off with barb wire, so we pulled back the wire and lifted our bikes over it. Cimbing the hill was trying, but we didn't go far, just behind some trees and out of view of the highway.  We camped with the road runners next to the dessicated horse and cow dung (I've heard they're good fuel but we didn't make a fire).

Puerto Escondido continued..

We decided that while the Baja 1000 was going on this weekend we would spend a few extra days at our couchsurfing host's house.  On our last day we had lunch at Baja Mama's where we feasted on a wonderful buffet. We then went to check out the hot springs on the beach (had to bring a shovel). The water got so hot it was hard to step foot in but we managed to get a nice hot pool we could all sit in. All in all a great day.  

Puerto Escondido-The Hidden Port

We started out of Ensenda a bit late, around 9:30 because we only had a short distance to go.  We stopped at Wal-Mart for some supplies and made lunch there too as they have a small cafeteria.  The ride was nice and flat just the way I like and we passed a really gorgeous beach on the way out of the city.

Our destination was a house on a hill on the peninsula just outside of Ensenada. We thought it would be a fairly short ride but that proved to be the farthest thing from the truth. It started out nice as we divided from highway 1, then turned to a gravel road because of the construction and back to a decent paved road.  Then the hill started and lasted for quite a while.  Rigel and I took a break part way through consisting of a clif bar, banana, cookies and candy.  We were riding west on the north side of the peninsula and the diretions said we were to reach the top of the hill and see the ocean on the south side. We finally got to the top, turned off the highway onto a gravel road only to be met with the hill after the hill. On gravel. Ugh. Rigel, Maggie and I walked the steepest parts while Bryan just sped by.  The road was mostly washboard too. Our host, Matt, really does live on the top of the hill overlooking the ocean, but it was well worth the long ass ride.  Worth it enough to take a rest day tomorrow! We are ending the day with a sweet glass of red wine, turkey meatloaf (not sure if I'll like it...) and a beautiful sunset.  

Ensenada

We woke up early and had a lazy start to the day.  Maggie checked, on her magical ereader, her email to see if we had any accepted couch requests for Ensenada and luckily three had accepted.  We rode to find some wi-fi and coffee just a little ways along the road and up a hill.  We replied to one guy that had a private beach and beds for all of us.  That sounded great.  We finished our fish taco breakfast and started riding again. The road took us slightly inland which meant we had a mountain range to climb over.  It was a hot and tiring 10km ride over the hills but nearing the end had a few great views.  Going through some construction the road became of questionable quality but luckily it was on the approx. 10km decent.
At the bottom of the hill we ate more fish tacos in San Miguel for lunch then carried onto Ensenada.
Ensenada was amazing.  We sat down at a bar called Papas and Beer (fries and beer) and asked after Rocky, a fellow we had met briefly in Rosarito and while we sat and talked to him, person after person walked by and greeted us, recognized us, sat and talked to us.  We felt like celebrities! Someone walked by and invited us to stay with him.  His name is David and he is from Italy, doing his post-doc in astronomy here and using the observatory in the desert to look for exo-planets (planets in other solar systems).
The sunset was just too incredible, so here it is.  I've never seen anything like it, and the picture doesn't do it justice, but anyways.

 

K58 - Between Rosarito and Ensenada

Longostas?!  We were told about a good cache of Lobster in a place called Puerto Nuevo, and, starting late after saying good bye to our hosts Lanny and Rita, we went to check it out.

We were thinking it would be a short ride day, but we waited for lunch to have our lobster feast.  We thought, going in, that it was 185 pesos or about $15 american for 4 lobster halves and rice and beans and butter and such. Instead it was that price for 4 lobsters - halved.  On the down side, the lobsters were only cray fish sized and had no claws.  

Still - delish!  We headed out planning to see how far we'd get cycling.  The first available camp ground was at about 58 km from Rosarito.  The posted price was $15 dollars for a car and 4 people, but they tried to charge us 240 pesos or about $20.  We were frustrated by this and argued at least for the posted automobile price.  That night, the sun went down at 5 pm, and Erin and I were in bed by 5:30 reading and asleep by 6.  SIX!  We were up again by 5 or 5:30 or so.  Dam sunlight determining our fatigue levels.

Bryan and Maggie resolved to stay up longer despite the lighting and met some guys that came a bit later to camp.  They had been fishing down the coast and Bryan was able to convince them to sell him a spear gun.  A functional one!  Bryan had purchased a used spear gun in Phoenix from a fellow he met at a swap meet, but the spear was not straight and he broke it while trying to straighten it.  Now, better armed, he is eagerly awaiting his shot with it and his new goggles and snorkel. 

Maybe we will have some full size Longostas soon...

The camp ground was at the top of a cliff overlooking the beach.  The sunset was nice, but not as impressive as our position seemed to allow for.  At Ensenada, however, the sunset was incredible....

Through the Mexican border!

We woke up bright and early (since the time changed) packed up camp and went over to the Denny's with Bryan's parents for breakfast and goodbye hugs.  The food was delicious and we left quite full.  One of the campers at the KOA suggested we take the bike path to the border so thats where we started but ended up following our own instructions as the bike path didn't actually take us right to the border.
The border crossing was very busy and a bit hectic.  We got our tourist visas and went on to the other side passing many men with big guns without any issues. Wish I got a picture of them though.  And then we entered the land of can't read the signs and can't understand the people.  It's good Bryan and Maggie know some spanish because its just lost on me.  We asked some people for directions to the toll highway, and got to work.  We were shortly greeted with a long steep hill as we paralleled the border.  We found the exit to the toll highway but were shortly stopped by the security.  They told us we were not allowed on the toll highway but we could get off, go through town for about a mile and get back on the highway.  Ridiculous, but ok. While going through town we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant. I had turned on the tracking on our Spot when we left Denny's then turned it off at the border, and then forgot to turn it back on until after lunch.  (thats where the big gap came from)
After taking some pictures with the locals we got some more directions and headed towards the highway.  We missed the turn onto it and ended up using the dirt, garbage ridden pathway beside it till the guardrail let us in.  From there it was heaven to ride.  The toll road is in perfect condition with very few hills. We made it to Rosarito by a quarter to four and found our couchsurfing hosts shortly after.
Lanny and her mom, Rita, welcomed us into their lovely home, taught us some spanish (as Rita doesn't speak any English), and we made dinner for them.  The rest of the evening was spent playing cards, planning the next day and drinking homemade lime margaritas! Thanks Lanny!

just getting onto the toll highway

San Diego

We were up at 6am to clean up the house we had been staying in in Phoenix and get on the road for our 6-7 hour drive.  Along the way, we stopped at  a rest stop for lunch and for fun Bryan turned over a couple rocks to find local animals.  Not long to find a small translucent scorpion.  Gonna have to remember to shake our shoes out where we're going...

Arriving in Chula Vista at 4 (thanks to gaining an hour), we set up camp at the KOA and went for dinner with Pat and Bill.  They were having trouble finding a hotel (some kind of convention) so things were a bit rushed/stressful, but they shortly had that sorted out and were ready to relax for the evening.

The KOA has a hot tub! We'll call that the evenings entertainment and contemplate our cross border jaunt in the morning along with a good run on unknown foreign language highways and hopefully into a couch to surf on in Rosarito for the morning.

and now... Mex- Phoenix?

Pat and Bill came all the way down to San Diego to meet us, pick us up, and drive us out to Phoenix for a week.  On the way out, Uma gave us handfuls of halloween candy (I sure hope the kids still got some) and welcomed us to return should we need before going down to Mexico.

The highway was a beautiful look into the desert, and as we ascended up to 4000 feet, we became very glad not to be cycling the dry, hot trip.  The many Saguaro cactuses gave us a miniature example of the giant Cordons we'll be seeing in the Baja.

The house we stayed in has a pool, enough rooms for everyone, and is set in amongst many other professionally cared for, if satelite, homes.  It is owned by Bryan's cousin who welcomes Bryan's family to use the space for periods at a time.  Normally Pat and Bill use a motorhome/trailer to travel to beautiful places like many of the campers we've met along the way, but Phoenix definitely offers a consistent get away from the cool to freezing cold Canadian winter.  Snowbirds, anyone?

We went to the local swap meet, many stores, got spare parts for the bike, some new clothes, and deposited some extra items we had brought south with us for return to Canada (extra giant tarp, cutlery, metal bowls, clothes, heavy medical supplies, etc). Erin bought 2 kgs of truffles at the costco here too that she apparently doesn't want to carry south for frequent melts and freezes over the coming months in the hot/cold desert.

Pat cooked us a turkey dinner in lieu of the one we missed at Thanksgiving.  Nice to sleep on a soft bed! Next stop, the KOA just north of the border.