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.
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