Recap of our Baja Motorcycle Adventure

We are home after 11 days on the road on our motorcycles. Steve and I started talking about riding the Baja when we met a couple in Cabo last year who rode from California on their Harley. Ryaan has wanted to do this ride for 40 years, so once Steve and Ryaan found out they both shared this wish, they started planning it. Ryaan just needed to buy a motorcycle! This was the first time in his adult life that he did not have a bike, so it was just a matter of finding a bike that he wanted. It was a wonderful trip, and we are all so happy we did it. The scenery was incredibly beautiful, the Mexican people were warm and friendly, and we enjoyed talking with the Americans living in Mexico as well as the Americans travelling through Mexico. Not once did we feel unsafe, but we were smart about what we did and where we went.
1.) We did not travel at night - too many curves in the road and animals crossing. 
2.) We obeyed all the speed limits in the towns, although this really wasn't hard to do. All of the towns had speed bumps (topes) to slow down traffic and most bigger topes were preceeded by a series of mini topes.
3.) Mexico kind of has a helmet law, but it is usually not enforced. We did not want to give the policia any reason to stop us, so we all wore helmets. We were very happy we did - it kept our heads warm through some very cold rides. Carol, Ryaan, and I all had shields on our helmets, but Steve did not. He was bitten a few times by bugs that hit him in the face and some part of his face was usually swollen  at any given time from the bites. I let him use my helmet with shield the last 2 days, and now he wants to get a new helmet with shield (for those times when he has to wear a helmet).
4.)We did not keep all of our cash in the same place, just in case we got stopped by the policia who wanted us to pay our "fine" on the spot. This was a non-issue as the policia never even gave us a second glance.
5.) We were friendly and respectful to everyone we met, and they in turn, were friendly and respectful to us.

We enjoyed our search for the best margarita of Baja and the results are in! We were not unanimous, but this is what we found:
Steve - Alberto's margarita in Ensenada, no matter what bar he is tending
Carol and Kathy - Alberto's tied with Bertha's restaurant in Bahia Concepcion
Ryaan - Bertha's restaurant tied with Gerardo's margaritas from LaDamiana Inn
Other mentions for really good margs are La Lunas in Loreto and Baja Max in San Felipe.
Although we weren't searching for the best salsa (we thought of that too late), we really liked Bertha's and Baja Max. If we could have only bought jars of the salsa!
We would like to visit the Baja again, but next time, travel by car so we can visit more places that were only accessible by a dirt or gravel road. We really enjoyed the Bahia Concepcion and Loreto areas and would like to revisit there in the future. But right now, we are happy to be home after our journey of 3028 miles.

I will have pictures posted to our website within a few days, so if you want to see a visual recap of our trip, go to http://www.anothernewadventure.com/ .

Adios Amigos!

Day 11 - San Felipe to Home

We got an early start this morning from San Felipe, anticipating a long wait at the border in Mexicali and a long, hot drive home. Steve and Ryaan were not looking forward to riding back over the dirt road that we rode on yesterday, but we had no other option. It didn't seem quite so bad this morning, and after Steve finished it, he gave Ryaan a thumbs-up signal, and off we went... for about 1/2 mile. We stopped at a military checkpoint, were waved through, and the pavement ended. Reconstruction for a new highway was underway. Approximately 7 miles later after riding over dirt, ruts and some very old pavement, we were back on smooth road. The temperatures were still very nice and we rode through some very desolate desert - flat sand on each side of us for as far as we could see- for about a half-hour and then the pavement ended again. This time the "road" was even worse - loose gravel, ruts, rocks, and washboard hard-packed dirt that shook the bike with every foot we rode. We endured this for 10 miles until it finally, finally ended. A short time later we were in Mexicali. It took us 3 hours to complete the 120 miles from San Felipe to Mexicali. We all agreed that if we had taken this road at the beginning of the trip, we would have turned around and gone home, thinking all Mexican roads were like this. Once the reconstruction is finished, it will be a great highway, but in the meantime, we advise all motorcycles to stay off highway 5. We rode through Mexicali looking for the border crossing and were very impressed with the city. As opposed to most border towns with taco stands on the corners and locals selling their wares, Mexicali is a big city that is clean and modern with shopping malls, cineplexes, chain restaurants and hotels. We found the border and there was a long, long line of cars waiting to cross; however, there was a lane for motorcycles! We had no line and were through the border in just a few minutes. We were happy we didn't have to wait as there were protesters at the border with signs urging motorists "No Visite Arizona", " La Ley es Racista", and other anti-Arizona posters that we didn't take the time to decipher. We stopped for lunch in Yuma at Ryaan's favorite Yuma Mexican restaurant, The Palapa, where we toasted the end of our trip before we parted ways. Carol and Ryaan headed north to Prescott while we headed east to Chandler. This leg was what we expected - long, boring, and hot. Three hours later, we were greeted at our door by a very happy Golden Retriever. It's good to be home.

Day 10 - Ensenada to San Felipe

We left Ensendada this morning after having a good breakfast in our hotel. After asking some locals how to get out of the city, we headed for San Felipe. The first part of the drive was through the mountains. It was a cool, beautiful ride, then we descended into farmlands as far as we could see before turning into desert landscaping. The temps started rising and the roads worsened. Other than a few stretches of fairly new road, the remaining part of our journey until we left highway 3 was over a rough, potholed road. Steve called it the SMR (sh***y, Mexican road). Obviously, the economic development plan had not yet reached this highway. Our route and the small towns we passed thru today are part of the Baja 500 which will start in a few days. We saw lots of dirtbikes, rails, buggys, and toy haulers - some there for fun, some practicing for the 500. We reached the crossroad where San Felipe turns south and Mexicali goes north. The southern route is a new area of road not yet opened, so once again, we had to drive off-road for a mile or 2 until we reached pavement. The rest of the road to San Felipe was a new 2 lane, then 4 lane highway so the bikes were cranked up to 75 mph and we made up for some lost time. We arrived in San Felipe, found rooms at the Costa Azul hotel on the beach, changed, and headed for the ocean. This was the first time in our trip that we had been in the water and it was glorious! Steve and I can see the San Felipe mountains from our place in Cholla Bay so we wanted to be able to look back to our side of the Sea of Cortez from San Felipe. Ryaan took a picture of us waving at Cholla. After swimming and then showering, we strolled down the beach and stopped at a cute restaurant, Baja Max, with an outdoor patio for margaritas and chips. It was a very good marg, but for our never-ending quest for the best margarita, we continued on down the beach to another restaurant for more margs, fish tacos, ceviche, and guacamole. Another good margarita later, we walked out to a bridge overlooking the malecon and watched the seagulls, pelicans, and egrets waiting for the leftovers from the fisherman. it was a beautiful evening, we took lots of pictures, and as we were walking back down the beach towards our hotel, Steve noticed some fish remains and it was a baby hammerhead shark! We had no idea there were hammerheads in the Sea of Cortez. We walked back up to the malecon to the pork taco place and tried their tacos (which were excellent), then had one more margarita at El Capitan, across from our hotel. It was a wonderful night for our last night in Mexico. Tomorrow is a very early start, so it is early to bed tonight.

Day 9 - Guererro Negro to Ensenada

We woke up this morning to a cold, gloomy, overcast day but with a lot less wind than last night. After a coffee breakfast, we layered up and set out for San Quintin. About an hour into the ride, the clouds melted away, the temps warmed, and we rode under a blue, sunny sky. It was not warm enough to lose the jackets, but at least we were able to shed several layers. We were stopped at another military checkpoint, but the guard just glanced in each side bag, made an admiring comment about the Harley-Davidsons and sent us on our way. There was a lot to see today - more flowers in bloom than last week that emitted a fragrance that could be smelled even with our helmets on; a horse crossed the road in front of us to join several other horses and a burro on the other side, an osprey landed on a pole next to its huge nest, and we saw a field of black cows with one lone white horse in the center of the herd. There were stretches of road that were rough, but we could see that reconstruction was underway as the road crews were creating a dirt road next to the highway for the detour. Gerardo in Loreto had told us that the road and bridge reconstruction were part of the government's economic development program - there are 300 bridges in the Baja, but only one main road - highway 1. There are a few other roads that branch from highway 1, but very few paved. Highway 1 wasn't built until 1973 - until then, the Baja was only accessible by off-road vehicles or pack animals. There are still some pueblos deep in the Baja that are only accessible by foot or mule. We stopped for lunch at Mama Espinoza's in El Rosario for her world famous lobster burritos. She didn't have any lobster, so we substituted crab (fresca!) burritos, and accompanied them with a margarita. It was very good and towards the top of our list for the best.  When we were travelling south, we had nearly no traffic but noticed there was quite a lot of northbound traffic, so we expected to encounter that on our return trip. We did have a few more cars and trucks to pass than we did on the way south, but there was still very little traffic, and we cruised pretty steadily until we reached San Quintin. We arrived there at about 3:00 and decided to push on to Ensenada so we could have more time in San Felipe tomorrow. From San Quintin, the traffic increased, mostly because of all the little towns between there and Ensenada along with some crazy truck drivers. We arrived at our same hotel as last week, Santo Tomas, at about 7:00, and after showering, ventured out to find Alberto to see if we could still compare his margarita to one of the best. Tequila's told us he was not working there tonight, but to check El Palmar down the street. We did, and found Alberto, who remembered us, and proceeded to make us a a splendid margarita. As we sat at the bar, we noticed the television was showing "Wild Hogs". We thought that was so appropo. We listened to some Mexican music afterwards, then found our way back to our hotel. Steve got distracted on the way to the room by some music coming from the garage. He investigated and found some mariachis performing a private concert for the male members of a family who invited him to join them. He stayed with them for awhile listening and dancing to the music. The rest of us went to bed.

Day 8 - Loreto to Guererro Negro

This morning Gerardo cooked us breakfast and we ate and chatted with him, Debora, and Juanita, another guest and Debora's friend. Juanita, originally from San Francisco, lives in San Ignacio in a big, blue historical home which also serves as a hotel. Wish we had known that when we had stayed in San Ignacio a few nights ago, but maybe next time! After saying our goodbyes, we rode away under a very warm sun headed for Bahia Concepcion, determined to find Bertha's. It was an easy find this time. We realized why we had missed it was because there was road construction and the trucks and machinery blocked our view of the beach and Bertha's below. What a delightful place! Carol and I ordered margaritas, Steve a beer, and Ryaan, water. The guys tasted our margs and we all agreed it was probably the best - but it did score extra points because of the ambiance. The chips and salsa were excellent, too. We left Bertha's and rode to Mulege to find the "beach" at the end of a long, dirt, rutted road. We could really see the effect of the last hurricane with all the downed trees next to the river along this road. We reached the end and met Travis, the American owner of La Casa de Villa restaurant bar at the end of the road. We sat on his pontoon boat as he told us about the hurricane's devastation and how the river we were floating on used to not be there before the hurricane. It used to be the road to the lighthouse that they could no longer access. It was very pleasant sitting on the boat and listening to him talk about life in Mulege, but it was time to move on down the road. We left Mulege and rode towards San Rosalia where we ate lunch at a little restaurant in town. We passed another military checkpoint and, once again, they quickly looked through our bags. We noticed on the way down that they were stopping more cars headed north than south and we think the reason is because of the boat traffic in southern Baja. They need to be sure we aren't transporting drugs brought in by boat. After Santa Rosalia, we had to say goodbye to the Sea of Cortez for a few days as we headed back into the mountains. It was still very warm and tank tops and sunscreen were the dress code. We stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and met the family who lives there - father, mother, and 2 sons. They had a dog who had 4 puppies about 6 weeks old that were the cutest little things. The mom dog seemed really hungry, so Steve gave her a Power Bar and she quickly devoured it. She was a sweet, well-trained dog, just matted and dirty. As we were leaving, the boys asked us if we wanted to take the puppies (perroitas) with us. We were all really tempted, but we had no room.We had another military checkpoint, but this time we were just waved on. The temperatures were really dropping and the winds were worsening and by the time we got to Guererro Negro, we were freezing, even though we did put jackets on along the way. We found a cute little hotel, the Malarrimo, which has its own restaurant and bar, but they only had heavy dinners and after the big lunch we had, we just wanted something small. So we braved the cold and the winds, and wandered down the street to a little restaurant we stopped at heading south. After chicken tacos, soup, quesadillas, and fajitas, we walked back to the hotel, had a nightcap at the bar, and went to bed. Tomorrow is 265 miles to San Quintin.

Day 7 - Cabo San Lucas to Loreto

We left Cabo this morning 18 hours after we arrived. We dropped south to San Jose del Cabo (which is actually the bottom of the Baja), then east and north heading for Loreto, a ride today of 365 miles. We took a butt break in San Bartolo, then cruised up to LaPaz. It was a very warm ride - no jackets required, except for a short bit in the upper elevations before Cuidad Constitucion. What a change from 2 days ago! We have passed through military checkpoints everyday and they always wave us through - until today. Outside of LaPaz, we stopped at the checkpoint and they asked to look through our bags. Our bags are so tightly packed that the idea of having to pull them all apart didn't appeal to us; however, they just did a quick scan through the side bags and the small top bag. We thought it was an agricultural stop because of the signs around us, but when Ryaan asked his guard what they were looking for, they said guns and drugs. He chatted with Ryaan, in Espanol, about the English translation of "guns" and about motorcycles then we proceeded on our way. The road construction between LaPaz and Los Delores worsened in the last 2 days and we travelled for miles on hard-packed road - construction workers waving at us as we passed. The road construction between C. Constitucion and Loreto was completed in the past 2 days and we had a nice, paved road the rest of the day. We pulled off onto an overlook over the Sea of Cortez just past Puerto Escondido and enjoyed the gorgeous view, then rode on to Loreto and LaDamiana Inn. Debora welcomed us, showed us to our rooms, we showered, and ventured out into the city. Debora recommended La Luna for good margaritas and internet (theirs was down), so I started this blog at La Luna enjoying a very, very good margarita - certainly a main contender for best of Baja. We had an excellent dinner at the Mediterranean- Steve, Ryaan, and I enjoying a variety of Sea Bass dishes while Carol had a Chile Rellano dinner - all while watching the activity along the malecon. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and Steve, Ryaan, and I sat on the patio, enjoying the beautiful evening, recapping our day while Carol called it a night. Tomorrow our day will end in Guererro Negro, a distance of about 250 miles.

Day 6 - LaPaz to Cabo San Lucas

We did it! We rode the entire Baja top to bottom! We left LaPaz this morning at 9:30 with light jackets and rode the 40 miles to Todo Santos over a smooth, new 4 lane highway. We wandered around the town, had a margarita at the Hotel California (not a contender for best of Baja), then headed out to Cabo San Lucas. We knew about the road construction outside of Todo Santos and found it to be hard packed and in small stretches here and there. Then it was a smooth road until about 10 miles outside of Cabo when it turned into nothing but a hard packed, washboard dirt road. We did not expect that, but we did make it through without jarring too much off of the bike, however, it will all be a great highway when it is finished. After driving through the neighborhoods of Cabo and removing all the clothing we could (it got hot!), we eventually found the hotel we were looking for - the Mar de Cortez, and checked in about 3:00. It's a nice little hotel with the breakfast claim of World's Best French Toast. We showered and changed (I have a dress on - I feel like such a girl!), then went to the marina for dinner. We had a very light breakfast and no lunch, so we were all really hungry. We all had fish tacos and margaritas at 'D Joint and the margs are in the running for the best! At 5:30 we headed for the Jungle Cruise boat and boarded for our sunset booze cruise. It took us out to Land's End, cruised the area during sunset, then headed back towards Cabo with music blasting, everyone partying and having a great time. We saw small stingrays jumping all around us - there were dozens of them - and they would just fly out of the water. We have never seen that before! We docked at about 8:30, then walked over to Cabo Wabo and Giggling Marlin. No one was in the bars, so we walked back to the hotel and called it a night. We have lots of miles to ride tomorrow so we do need to get some sleep.