February 6-10, 2006

Today was a short haul south to Cabo San Lucas on the M1. Highway 19 is about an hour shorter, and I’ll take that north from Cabo on my way home. There are plenty of small towns to pull off and enjoy the sights on the M1. One of the nicest is Los Barriles, which is fast turning into another Cabo, although on a much smaller scale.

I rode through San José del Cabo on the way to Cabo San Lucas. To me they both appear overdeveloped. Traffic is a mess. Yet again every shop sells the same version of different trinkets, shirts and caps. The resort hotels have the beaches tied up. And so I retired to the quiet elegance of the Hotel Santa Fe, a five minute walk down Zaragoza to the main drag, Lazaro Cardenas.

At the Santa Fe rooms came with a fridge, a toaster oven, dishes and cutlery. There’s a small store, but prices are very high for gringos. My recommendation is to pick up what you need at the grocery store at the end of the street when you walk back to the Santa Fe.

I was pleased to learn that it had on-site laundry – washed, dried and folded for 40 pesos. There’s also a taqueria where mamma fed me breakfast with a smile every morning and the price was only 40 pesos. Years ago I learned that even the simplest attempts to speak a foreign language was welcomed by the locals, and that’s true here too.

I got more than my fill of Cabo over the next several days. After all, there’s only so much to see and do in a tourist town. The malls are the same everywhere. The stores, the hawkers, the gawkers and the talkers populate every nook and cranny. Boats in the harbour are impressive, expensive and empty, their occupants having gone off to some hotel or another to enjoy the finer things they didn’t bring with them.

Two days here have left me well-rested and ready for another leg of the trip, this time to La Paz. It’s an uneventful day with temperatures in the 70 to 80 degree range again. I fueled at Ciudad Constitucion and rolled into the outskirts of La Paz. I was surprised to find fuel on the north end, but in fact the entire entrance to the city has changed since my 2001 trip. It’s all four lane divided highway now, very modern and nice to drive. The little roadside taquerias have all but disappeared on the west end. I missed eating there on the way into the city.

La Paz is a modern city by Baja standards, with all the amenities you can think of. Yes, it’s Mexican, but that’s part of the flavor not to be missed. I much prefer it to any other place on the Baja, and it bears exploring.

I was lucky to get a room at the Los Arcos Cabanas for the night. The Los Arcos is right on the malecon, and from the bar you can watch the people on the street while overlooking the ocean bay. It’s an easy walk to restaurants and bars on the malecon, and the night life can be pretty active. I settled for a shrimp dinner and a beer and watched the action on the malecon while eating.

I’ll sleep in tomorrow, since it’s a short ride south to the tip.

February 3-4, 2006

I had a morning meeting with myself and decided that I’d ride all the way to Loreto today, a trip of only 409 miles (659 km). On normal roads that wouldn’t be a difficult endeavor, but with this narrow Baja road, and the corners and hills farther south, I wasn’t so sure. No sightseeing today.

Twilight came at 0530 and I hit the road at 6. Just south of the La Pinta driveway was the first vado I had ever seen with running water in it. Since it hadn’t rained here, I wondered why the vado was full. I crossed carefully with no problem — the water was only an inch deep.

Guererro Negro was my next stop for fuel, but before that the highway again meets up with the Pacific side of the peninsula, and the cold air and thick-as-pea-soup fog I encountered cut to the bone. I had to stop and put on my rain pants to keep from getting chilled. At Guererro Negro I also lost an hour, as the time zone switches to Mountain here.

I stopped for fuel again in San Ignacio. I was going to spend the night here before proceeding on down to Loreto, but instead rode on to Mulegé for more fuel. Mulegé is a bit of a pain with it’s one-way streets, but there is a Pemex in town.

By now it’s up to 80 degrees again – a little warm to be in town, but not so bad out on the road. On the way out I discovered a new Pemex about four miles south of the town on the highway. Oh well.

North of Santa Rosalia, the road descends from the hills in a twisting downward spiral. Unbeknownst to me, a semi had stalled up-hill in the left lane on a blind corner. Fortunately I wasn’t going very fast, so I missed the line of semis that had already passed it in my lane. Just another reason for not speeding on this road even though it is good enough for high speed riding.

Finally Loreto came into view, but I passed it by for the Inn at Loreto Bay. This was a great place to relax for a couple of days and eat something besides the local food I had been devouring.

I have stopped.

One thousand miles.

I have come to rest by the sea. I keep returning but I’m not sure why any more. Wind. Waves. Smell. Sky. Sun. Sand. Sounds.

It’s not the real sea. This is the Sea or Cortez. The Golfo California. And I am just outside of Loreto, Baja California Sur. Temperatures are in the mid-80s, although the nights and mornings are much cooler.

The road was good. Two days of hard riding in daylight only, for to ride the M1 at night would be cheating death. Cattle, trucks, cars, animals of all kinds litter the roadway at unexpected times.

I measure the days thus: a three dog day yesterday; a seven dog day today, for they always seem to be laying dead in the roadway. Pups perhaps, who haven’t yet learned to grow old in traffic and now never will.

Harsh? Perhaps. Welcome to the Baja.

Avoid at all costs the ‘direct line’ phone booths where they want your credit card for a call. Instead, buy a Ladatel or Telmex card in 30, 50 or 100 peso amounts. These phone cards can be found in the small stores up and down the shopping districts. If one store is out of them, another will have them. Sometimes there’s even bonus minutes added the first time you use the card. The Ladatel/Telmex phone booths are found almost everywhere in the Baja. (Although not in Catavina.)

Insert your card, wait for the prompt which shows how much is left on the card, and punch in 001 + area code + phone number to call any number in North America. After you hang up, that beeping noise is to remind you to remove the card.