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 2 - Ensenada to Catavina

We left Ensenada at 10:30 this morning after sleeping in later than we had planned, but still not too bad after getting in at 1 am last night. After eating breakfast at our hotel, we bundled up for our ride, planning on a few hours of colder temps. At 5:30 pm when we checked into our hotel in Catavina, we were still bundled up and shivering. We spent the entire day battling high winds and unseasonably cold temperatures, but the scenery on the ride made it all worthwhile. The route was a motorcyclist's dream - winding roads that climbed to elevations of 2000 feet then back to sea level with very few other vehicles on our southbound road. The topography of the Baja is not at all what we expected - rolling hills, green pastures, and vineyards, changing to flatter lands butting up to the Pacific with red flowers covering the desert floor, to more typical desert landscaping with lots of saguaro cactus, to a mixture of cactus, rocks, and huge boulders as far as we can see. We even saw a few prickly pear cactus farms, growing cactus to make nopalitos (cactus tacos). We stopped in El Rosario for a quick lunch at a quaint B&B owned by an American and his Mexican family, including a 3 month old Chihuahua and a 2 month old part-Rottie puppy. When we arrived in Catavina, we were very ready to be off the bike for the evening. We checked into the Desert Inn, a very nice hotel in a very tiny town. We met some other Americans, Maggie and John, who are travelling north to Seattle to John's home from Maggie's home in Los Barrillos, between La Paz and San Jose del Cabo. They joined us for happy hour at the hotel and we spent a few hours swapping stories. Maggie gave us some insights as to where to stay in our upcoming towns and the bars and restaurants that we need to visit. Although the margs won't be an entrant into the best of Baja, they were still quite tasty. We all enjoyed tortilla soup for dinner, then after everyone else retired for the night, Steve and I went out for a quick walk to look at stars and enjoy the evening. It didn't last long because it was cooold. We got to bed at a decent time, looking forward to the next day's ride.

Itinerary and Map of Baja

We are packing the bike today and Carol and Ryaan will be here about 5:00 to stay overnight. We plan to leave about 7:30 am to start Another New Adventure.

Itinerary:

Saturday, May 22, 2010 Chandler to Gila Bend to Yuma to Tecate (91°/62°) to Ensenada  65°/50° sunny

Sunday, May 23, 2010 Ensenada to El Rosario to Catavina

Option #2 Ensenada to Guerrero Negro  85°/65° sunny

Monday, May 24, 2010 Catavina to Guerrero Negro to  San Ignacio  87°/62° sunny

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 San Ignacio to Loreto  87°/68° sunny

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Loreto to Ciudad Constitucion to La Paz 94°/63° sunny

Thursday, May 27, 2010 La Paz to Cabo  89°/67° sunny

Friday, May 28, 2010 Cabo to La Paz to C. Constitucion to Loreto 87°/68° sunny

Saturday, May 29, 2010 Loreto to Santa Rosalia to Guerrero Negro  89°/65° sunny

Sunday, May 30, 2010 Guerrero Negro to Catavina to San Quintin

Monday, May 31, 2010 San Quintin to Ensenada to San Felipe 

Tuesday, June 01, 2010 San Felipe to Chandler

2954 TOTAL MILES