Baja, MX

We left San Diego in the morning of Wednesday, October 31st. After stopping by at a Fedex office to ship a box of stuff we decided not to carry further, we were off to the border crossing at Tecate. Although Tijuana is only a few miles away from John's place, he advised us to cross into Mexico in Tecate, as the border post is small and quiet. We rode about an hour on a very cool twisty road, and were there in no time. Getting the paperwork done was hassle free, it took us under an hour and the customs personnel was very friendly. We got our temporary vehicle import certificates done there too. These are not required on the Baja peninsula, but since we are going to take a ferry to mainland Mexico from La Paz, we wanted to have these made right away, to get it out of the way.

In Tecate, we made a quick stop to withdraw some Pesos, and we took off for San Felipe, which is about 370 km south-east from there. The road was a mix of cool twistes and some straightaways in flat lands, altogether a good day of riding. We arrived in San Felipe just after dark, breaking our no driving by night rule on day one :/ We found a pretty nice hotel in the center of town for 40$ a night (which is kind of expensive for Mexico, but not for Baja..more on that later). We unloaded the bikes, got some beers at a nearby tienda, and then had our first meal. I took some SPICY tacos with beef, chicken and pork. I figured mind as well go hard from the start, eat everything, and if I was going to get sick, then I would get that out of the way early in the trip.

The ambiance in town was festive, it was Halloween night, so families were hanging out and kids in costumes were running all over the place. Back at the hotel, a short session of web surfing and we were off to bed. The first day in Mexico had been a good one.

The next day, we woke up fairly late, had breakfast and hit the road South. This was going to be a short ride. At the hotel in San Felipe, we had met a group of friends for the States who were down here for a few weeks with their enduro bikes. They suggested to us to stay in Gonzaga bay, where apparently we would find a cool spot to camp by the sea. This is also where they were heading, so we would see them again later that day.

After riding a little less than 200 km of paved road, we were in Gonzaga in the afternoon. We stopped at a nearby hotel/restaurant, had some beers and chatted with the owner. We then got a sweet camping spot right by the beach for 10$, which was great, since after two expensive weeks in the USA, we wanted to start spending less than our 75$/day budget. We set up camp, and then met with the American riders at the hotel/restaurant in the evening. Very cool people. One of them, Casey, not only took our bill, but also later gave us some detailed off road GPS routes going south towards La Paz. It turned she knows Baja really well. Her family owns a house in Gonzaga, and she also runs the www.bajagpsguide.com website, of which I heard about a while ago when planning for the trip. (Thanks again, Casey)

Mihai happy to be in Baja

Gonzaga Bay

Our camping spot

The next day, we took off to ride the first route given to us by Casey. From Gonzaga, the pavement ended and it was all dirt. We stopped by Coco's Corner on the way. Coco has a certain fame among people riding Baja. He's a half-legged ermite living on an improvised ranch in the middle of nowhere. He mainly lives off from selling beer to his visitors, so we obliged to a cold one before continuing on. 

Hanging out with Coco

Coco's Corner

From Coco's, we got on the gps route. We were excited, since this also the path of the famous Baja 1000 race, which will be held two weeks from now. The first hour or so was great, just the right amount of difficulty for our heavily loaded bikes. Things got a little complicated once the route started running along a dry river bed, and the trail became deep sand. This is where our struggle began. A few factors contributed to this:

• We didn't have much of a breakfast (ramen noodles, Snickers bar, and a Red Bull)
• For some reason we had been morons and didn't bring any food or enough water
• Did I mention that  the loaded bikes are damn heavy?
• Mihai didn't sleep well the night, before and has a high-revving metabolism, which means food often or his batteries get low.

By the time we had done the first half of the route, Mihai was burnt out and I was getting seriously tired too. We ended up bailing out after 90 km of dirt, and got back on pavement. The sun was low, and we needed food and drinks badly, as well as a place to stay. We found a room at a truck stop in Nuveo Rosarito after sunset. This is also where we met Ivan Ramirez (www.ivanramirezracing.com), a professional KTM/Red Bull factory rider, who stopped by for a meal on the way back from practice runs

Looking back, it had been a great day of riding:

• No injuries (a few close calls, though)
• The toughest days are the most memorable ones
• Beautiful scenery
• We had dumped the bikes multiple times, so now they have even more character (read scratches), which adds to our adventure rider credibility :P
• We have encountered a few race teams in trucks and buggy's  who were pre-running the course before the Baja 1000. These guys go seriously FAST, it's very impressive to watch.

Pumped for some off roading

Riding along a dry river bed

Broken tail light no. 2

Exiting one of the many deep sand passes

Obligatory helmet shot, surrounded by cactuses

Happy to see pavement, at last

The next day, we took off for a day of paved road riding all the way to Loreto. The route was a mix of good twisties, but also some boring and very straight sections. Loreto itself is a nice little town, usually fairly touristic, but a bit deserted at this time of the year. We found a decent little hotel for around 30$, and had tasty supper and breakfast the morning after right around the corner. I'm digging Mexican food so far, especially the hueves rancheros for breakfast, which are eggs on a tortilla served with a vegetable saute and salsa.

The first half of our final day towards La Paz has been awesome riding along the coast. About half way through the day, we arrived to La Concepcion. Casey has given us a GPS off road track from there to La Paz, but since the on road riding had been very fun so far, we decided to continue on the pavement. We also decided not to take the off road route, because it was 170 miles of dirt roads, and we felt like it might take us too long to cover. So we stuck to the Carretera 1, which turned out to be very boring all the way from La Concepcion to La Paz. I do regret that we didn't opt for the dirt route, after all. 

We're in La Paz now, and will be spending a day here before taking the ferry to mainland Mexico on Tuesday. I need to look around on Monday to see if I can repair my headlight, as it has been shattered by a bolt sometime during the day. I only noticed it in La Paz. Fortunately I have an auxiliary LED light, but I'm a little concerned that the broken light might become an excuse for corrupt cops to try to get a bribe later in the trip.

My conclusion of what I have seen of Baja is that off road is where it's at. There are some really nice paved stretches, but I wouldn't come here again just to ride on pavement. Our loaded bikes are not the right tools for the trails here: they are way too heavy. I encourage anyone to ride Baja, but come with a proper dirt bike on a trailer, and do one day runs, just like our American friends did it.

Green Baja de Sur, along the east coast of the peninsula

Shattered headlight. RIP HID.

Random Thoughts:

The southern part of Baja surprised us: as much as most of the inland is dry and desert-like,  the eastern coast is mountainous and very green. 

I'm slowly getting used to the Spanish speaking environment. The lessons that I took in Montreal are paying off, as I understand quite a bit. I practice a little here and there, and try to learn a few new words every day, but it's difficult to make sensible progress when you spend most of the day on the motorcycle. I will be looking into taking a week of intensive intermediate Spanish either in San Cristobal (South Mexico), or in Guatemala. 

Prices in Baja are high. We found decent accommodation for around 30$ a night, but the food is not far away from US prices.

From what I've seen so far, Mexicans drive well. I haven't seen anything reckless here in the past 5 days.

We ran through a few miltary checkpoints on the main roads. The soldiers were polite, and most of the time just waved us though. We haven't seen any cops on the road, so no problems at all with corruption.

Gas stations are nationalized (Pemex). Fuel sells for a little under a dollar per litre.

We haven't felt threatened anywhere so far. The only time we got a little worried is when we camped on the beach in Gonzaga bay. Around midnight, a small motor boat without any lights on approached the spot where we were. It turned out it was just fishermen, but if the boat had reached the shore, we would have seriously thought about jumping on the bikes and getting the hell out of there.

The food is tasty and none of us got sick yet.

The tail lights on both our bikes broke, so they are now both held in place with some electrical tape (Mihai-tech style :)