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.