Playa Burro

I wake up with a good headache, but nothing that a couple of ibuprofens can't solve. the fire spinners form bend pack up to go south in search of warmer weather. there is rumor on the beach that there are 80 mph wind gusts in San Franciscito, and that the wind is coming south, too. not the best weather report, and I am really glad that I packed San Franciso style with lots of layerable clothing.

We decide to stay put and take our chances, especially since it is very calm in the morning, and it turns out to be a nice warm day. Alex and I stay at the beach while Paige goes to Mulege in search off a mani pedi, unsucessfully as it turns out.

But she comes back with lentils and other veggies, and we finally get to have our own gourmet cocinera up a dinner of lentil stew and salad. Paige is pretty beat, but Alex and I are all awake now after lounging at the beach all day and we go to the new bar on the block that we have heard about when we had lunch at the beach restaurant Bertha's. It just opened last month, the owner is 27 and they have pool.

We order margeritas and start chatting to the local americans. One of them turns out to be the drummer of Van Halen, he is a very nice guy without any attitudes and he plays pool like a god despite him already staggering around the pool table, and we meet his wife, too, and a couple other expats. Turns out he had played at Bertha's earlier today. we had heard there was music but were too lazy to walk over there. He actually lives at the beach part time in a two story palapa. Proof again that you don't need much. A two story plywood palapa in Baja at the beach with a view of the Bahia? What more do you really need I ask you?

When we get back to the beach the water has calmed down so the sea looks like a lake and the reflection of the moon in the water is so beautiful that we stand by the beach and watch the moon and the incredible stars. No wonder they call this the Bahia de Concepcion. It does look like Paradise. I sleep like a baby that night.

Christmas

on christmas day we wake up to a blue sky and the wind is not too bad. the plan is to go to the Bahia of Concepcion south of mulege and find a beach to hang out on along there. We go into town in the hope of finding breakfast and make phone calls to our loved ones, and the town is completely abandoned. It's before 9 still, so maybe something opens later, but I already have visions of hordes of starving american tourists roaming the streets hunting for food.

fortunately somebody points us into the direction of an american hotel that supposedly serves breakfast, and they do. there is only the waiter and one cocinera, so they are having a hell of a time to feed everybody. the food comes fairly fast, but then we have to wait 45 minutes to get the bill because the waiter is not familiar with the computerized system yet.

By the time we figure out how to make phone calls to the States and to Germany and get packed up it's fairly late again. The Bahia isn't too far, but when we get there, breakfast is really far away and I am starving. We stop at a couple of beaches in search for a wind sheltered palapa, and the one that seemed ideal gets snatched away under our noses. The water is turquoise and the beaches are pristine here, so it's like looking for a parking spot in San Francisco.

After that attempt I really need to eat and somebody points us to Playa de Burro that has a restaurant that is open. Same situation here, two people trying to feed pagan tourists with no regard for Christmas and it takes us about two hours to get fish tacos.

the sun is nearing the horizon again, and when we are about to leave to Mulege for a hotel, a guy on a little 70s Suzuki 50cc pulls up and we compliment him on his cute ride. His name is Clint and he ends up inviting us to his palapa at the end of the beach where he's staying with 3 other male friends.

They are basically doing the same thing, friends bumming around Mexico for 3 weeks, except while we are on the minimalist end of the scale, they are on the maximum end. They are from Bend, Oregon, and they are very equipped. They have everything from ginger infused vodka to fire hoops and fire spinning stuff to harpoons, fishing equipment and unbelievable food, and they can all cook!

Needless to say we consider ourselves extremely lucky, and it turns out to be a very fun Christmas eve with us learning how to wield the fire sticks and burning hula hoops, and generally proceeding to get nice and drunk killing a lot of ballenas. There is skinny dipping in the cold water and howling at the moon rise with some other beach neighbors, which was really exceptionally beautiful in the clear sky, and there are raw clams for dinner that came out of the ocean that day and yellow tail fish tacos that those guys had fished earlier that day.

When we go to bed the moon is about to disappear behind the mountains on the other side. Although I miss my family this is a christmas to remember.

Comondu

The next day brings 100 km of dirt road that will lead us past a small mision in comondu and a couple of beautifully lush palm tree oases. We need to be in loreto at 5 to meet paige. We already know that 100 km over the mountains in dirt will take us about 5 hours taking it easy with breaks and sightseeing, and sure enough, we get there at 3. the mision of comondu is closed unfortunately, but the land scape is gorgeous and well worth the trip.

In the middle of the ride we stop for lunch and have the remainders of the noodle dish. Lucky for us there was a small store open in La Poza Grande and we had bought a bottle of Salsa Verde. We drop half a bottle into the dish and what a difference! It turns into an absolutely edible meal. It's the little things in live, and we love it.

In Loreto, we find a hotel at the malecon with a view of the Sea of Cortes that looks like a mega palapa for cheap, take the first shower since the mainland ( I will leave the math up tp you) and go to the Cafe 0le.

At 5.05 paige rolls up. she has bee-lined it from los barilles in 4 jours for 300 some odd miles. she had the most amazing trip herself. Apparently those other riders she met had a beatiful spot south of la paz where paige got to kick back and enjoy.

since it's christmas eve most places are closed but paige is jonesing for steak so we find a fancy hotel on the beach that serves steak. It's like You Are Now Entereing The American Sector. After days in the boons it's almost a shock to the system, and at the same time very enjoyable because they serve good salad. It's been meat, fish, cheese and tortillas for the last week for paige and me and rice beans and guacamole for alex, so our bodies are very appreciative of this.

we fall to bed utterly satisfied after food and strawberry margeritas only to find out that our cosy palapa with the ocean view is not insulated whatsoever and that the locals go up and down this strip with their stereos hopping much like in the Mission district in San Francisco. I have 34 decible ear plugs but can still hear most, especially the one that makes my bedposts dance. I don't even want to know how paige and Alex were able to sleep without ear plugs.

I can't sleep so I amuse myself with finding patterns on the different car that go by. You can discern them by the type of music they play and I'm counting the amount of cars that are doing this loop and after a while I can tell when one drops out, like, oh, the guy with the salsa music didn't come around this time.

Eventually it all goes quiet. No idea at what time, since I have long given up to look at the clock much, nor do I know what day of the week it is without thinking hard. I know that tomorrow is Christmas but even that seems very far away. Traveling brings on its own rhythm and man made highlights seem to become less important, except for we are not sure if the stores are open, but we don't care since we do have emergency rations and can easily survive for a couple of days.

la paz to la poza grande

In the morning we make coffee pack up and get back to la paz. The plan is to maybe meet paige at the café we were yesterday. We will wait form 11 to 1130 and if she is not there we will meet in loreto at 5 the next day.



The café is closed so we hang out in front and I get a couple of fish tacos for breakfast from a stand closeby. 15 pesos a piece and they are So Good of course. Any opportunity I get I eat fish even foe breakfast and alex finds herself a quesadilla con hongos. Paige isn't coming so we check out the map and figure out where we want to end up tonight.



I am not looking forward to the stretch of road before us. Between la paz and ciudad insurgentes its straight and boring and the wind is still blowing hard. We are tired by the time we get there. You wouldn't think that sitting on a motorcycle going straight makes you tired but it does.



We hit the internet café to download and get supplies for tonights dinner. We have the choice of two mini supers that carry pretty much the exact ame thing, except for one has an emenada with oineapple which serves as a snack.



Instead of staying on hwy 1 we go straight north to la poza grande where we hope to get to the ocean. We drive through town and basically drive through the dump which is basura all in the kaktus dunes. Somebody explained to us that this is because the people are poor and there is no good program to take care of the garbage. Alex point out that before the plague of plastic the garbage was all compostable and people just haven't changed their ways. I'm glad I get to pay taxes and the garbage company to take care of that. Viva taxes! Beats lliving with nall that garbage.



Its really fun for me to cruise the sandwashes. After a while we realize though that the dunes are endless and that we are still far from the water. I go a little faster to scout it out but when I can't see alex anymore I turn around and find her bike on its side and her with a sire ankle but otherwise ok. This spot seems as good in the ever repeating desert, so we decide that this is now our campspot for the night. Its still really cool in the midst of all the kaktus.



Putting up the tent it becomes immediately covered with those orblike thorny things that stick to even the smoothest surfaces. It's a pain to get them all off the tent before we put it up and we almost have to put on gloves. Thorns are painful! Still, I'm amazed yet again at how inventive nature is in preserving species and spreading seeds that sticks to EVERYTHING, even our tent. Hopefully we won't import them to San Francisco...The desert is beautiful but somewhat hostile to us, so I don't need that in SF.



We make a somewhat bland noodle dish and fall asleep. I'm freezing in my 0 degree sleeping bag and curse it all night for being a piece of crap until I wake up in the morning realizing that the evaporated water droplets in the tent are frozen. No wonder! Brrr! I guess next time I go to Mexico I will need a subzero sleeping bag. Or maybe I go to Alaska instead...



I position myself with my wings spread in the sun on top of a cactus like I have seen the desert birds do and within a half hour its tshirt weather again.

basaseachi to rosario

alp

The alarm rings at 7. The wood stove made the cabana so hot I slept on top of the blanket for the first half of the night. I could pretend to be on the beach knowing full well that its winter outside.

The hotel is called tirolesas and the alpine name definitely jives with the weather. When I wake up its still not too cold inside but there is ice on the motorcycles. Paige is freezing. She is getting sick. We start the coffee and realize the water in the pipe is frozen.

It must have been sub freezing cold for a while last night. We have a hard time starting the fire again since we have no paper so I go to find luis but he's not there.

Fortunately there are lots of pine needles which do the trick to light the fire. we already fired the remaining pages from the printed guide book las night.

Eventually luis comes by and we tell him about the water problem which is turning into a bathroom problem. There is nothing he can do though so we pack up and alex and I decide to check out the basaseachi falls that are 5 minutes away.

But then the f650 doesn't start. The battery is a little low. Might be the temperature, battery going bad? Push starting down a small slope doesn't work either and only lands me away from camp.

Alex goes back to ask luis for jumper cables and comes back with rope to tow instead. That's a little sketchy for me since there is no good way to attach the rope. But luckily a truck with two strong guys in it pulls over and voila! Two people pushing and the bike almost starts but gathers enough juice again to start right up with the starter button.

Back at camp paige heard the battery being low and figured to get ready to go and we get on the road.

First item on the menu is getting gas and then deciding which way to go. The gas man tells us its 1 hour via the dirt road short cut and 3 hours on the windy road with a lot of camiones. We believe him and take a beautiful warm and gorgeous scenery road via mines, something that looks like a 50 people hotel on the middle of nowhere and a cute town named moris that i want to come back to one day and ride horses and dirt bikes.

Instead of 1 it takes us 5 hours. Good information is hard to come by here with us not speaking very good spanish. The man must have misunderstood the question. Up and down several mountain ranges with everchanging landscapes and vegetation.

Paige is really sick now and almost throws up in her helmet. Pobre sita! we feel terrible for her, but we can't stop since we need to make it to the ferry and are just super late.

Shes a real trooper and just pushes on too. When we get to yecora its 4 o'clock. We were told that yecora is not a good city to stay. Luis made hand signs indicating guns and says not to drive there at night since we might get robbed and los gentes son muy violenta. Its too close a los estados unidos still.

He suggested to make sure to get further away from the border at least to rosario. Its still 80 miles and according to the tres amigos the road will turn dismal. But what can we do we know it'll turn dark but we need to get out of yecora.

Turns out the road is great though contrary of what the tres amigos told us. Must have been recently repaved. So we make our way descending down through a surreal landscape that quickly starts to disappear in darkness, paige leading via gps which tells her which way the road is turning next.

When the first dots of lights appear in the otherwise pitch black darkness I am relieved. Driving at night is scary and something you should never do in mexico because of all the free roaming animals. You never know when there is a cow on her nightly outing around the next bend.

We get into rosario and paige makes friends with a couple of mexican women in the batroom of the gas station and they point us to a quaint 70s décor hotel in a side street. The doors are so low I have to duck. after showers we go into town and do taco stand hoppin which fits right with our eating schedule. Breakfast at 7am lunch at 4 double serving of dinner at 7pm. This time its two different carne asadas and grilled onions. So Good.

Two ballenas of pacifico later we get back to the hotel and sleep. Tomorrow is going to be an easy day or so we think, only 300 km on nice roads so well sleep in again. Looks like we are going to make he ferry. Thatll make me sleep well tonight.

La Paz plus

We arrive in la paz. They knock on our cabin doors to wake us up.

That was a short night but I slept really well. Something about boats. Its like being in the womb again. We manage to find good coffee on the boat or so we think. I guess the fact that it was advertised as cappucchino and was served in a non white cup san francisco style lulled us into security. But it was the same thin brew again with foam. No matter I got used to it by now. I just don't call it coffee. Maybe I should find a new name for it. Chocolate colored hot water? Tea with coffee flavor? Caffeinated energy drink?

We get searched once again getting off the ferry and make our way into la paz. We need to deal with the waterpump. When we get to la paz I'm leading so I drive around for while looking for a good spot for breakfast. After driving around for a while (I love driving around and just looking at a new town.The different way they present and sell things what kind of houses people animals advertising colors do they have here?) paige stops me and we go to a hotel that she saw with motorcycles.

we stop hoping we can get some information and just swap travel stories. Sure enough while we are standing there they come out and we start chatting. They don't know the ktm dealer ship which I would like to find for a couple tools I didn't pack like the c-clip pliers for the bearing.

But they do own a place 70 miles south where they are heading this morning and they graciously offer to let us do the water pump there. Paige goes inside the hotel to look up the location of the ktm dealer in cabo and standing outside we run into another traveler this time from australia who has been on the road with little work stints for 4 years. He points us to a ktm dealer in la paz.

When we go there it turns out to be a yamaha dealer and paige doesn't find them confidence inspiring so we leave to weigh more options over breakfast. I'm starving at this point.we go to a vegetarian joint that we drove past earlier and have vegetables. A nice change to meat and cheese.

Since we have reception again we call in sf we call at scuderia the sf ktm dealership where we have friends to get their input on the water pump situation. I found out that the people we met only have trailers on the beach and no real wind protection that we would need when we open up the cover I'm somewhat hesitant to do it there. The wind is blowing very hard today to the point that on the motorcycle the front wheel gets pushed around so much that I have the feeling i am going to loose traction and crash.

At scuderia I get don the owner of scuderia on the phone. The problem wih the water pump is not necessarily the water in the oil but kmore the water in the filter which causes the oil pressure go down. since we only lost a couple ounces so far he suggests to change the oil and filter now and keep an eye on the water.

Without the special tool he thinks we could make it worse. I tend to agree with him and that's our new plan.

Paige needs a couple of days of from too much estrogen and she wants to go south to hook up with those guys and change her oil there and alex and I are itching to be camping heading to a beach north of la paz to find a camp spot.

the town there san juan de la costa turns out to be another mining operation and the street dead ends so we turn around and start looking at all the beaches we have passed. The wind is still atrocious so we need to find a spot with wind protection. After a few turn offs that wouldn't work we find a spot in the midst of kakti and shrubbery and long horn cows where you cant see the bikes from the street and which is right by the beach with nobody else around. persistency is king.

We pitch tent and make ourselves a lovely meal with rice tomatos and hot peppers on tortillas and I have some of the roasted half chicken I got at a stand on the way out. Its almost full moon and we hang out at the water and drink our two ballenas.

We realize that it is winter solstice and the longest night of the year. Not the best night to pick for camping but I'm just happy to be outside. The short days and long nights have made me realize in retrospect that winter is not the best tome to pick for outdoor vacations...

Taking hotels was fun and giving the freezing weather on the mainland our only option. But on motorcycle vacation a big part for me is driving around trying to find the perfect camp spot make food drink beer and go to sleep under the stars. I love it!

Its bright outside from the moon and the cows bells are all around us. At one point I wake up and see all the cows file past the tent. I'm a little afraid that the long pointy horns are going to slash the tent. we don't have the rain fly on and the see-through mosquito net might fool them.

But they have no problem squeezing between the tent and the motorcycles. I'm glad we have the tent though otherwise as alex said we might have woken up by a big rough tongue cow lick in the morning. Alex is making the last bit of coffee now and well have that by the beach.

later we ll meet up with paige again in town at the same restaurant and if we don't meet there say something changes we made another meeting point in loreto at 5 on monday. There is no reception where we are now so we can't communicate.

It has been nice to be off the radar with cell phones. As much as I enjoy bantering by text with certain people I do feel I'm on the hook with that thing too much. constantly in communication with people that are not right there and sometimes not enough time to concentrate on the people that are right there or even to rest and listen to yourself.

Even writing this blog is hampering with the being silent in myself and enjoy the moment so ill quit for now. Hasta manana. Or maybe I take a christmas break for blogging. feliz navidad!

last day on the main land

Uneventful day. Rosario alamos ferry in topolobampo. We did have a good time though waiting for the ferry drinking ballenas and eating great quesadillas at the harbor convenience store.

Once we tied the bikes to the railing deep in the belly of the beast the ferry was huge we proceeded to the bar and had our first margerita. Unfortunately it wasn't very good so we continued with beer and dreamed of strawberry margeritas at the beach tomorrow.

Baja! We'll be there at 6am. i love boats though. I could live on a boat. i wish this ferry ride would take a lot longer. But its 2am now and i need to go sleep a little as much as I would like to stay awake and enjoy the the swaying and rolling.

leaving batopilas

430am. Alex is getting up. Takes bus. 530am. I get up. Take shower. 600am. Paige gets up. We pack in the dark and get going when the light comes around 7. We meet alex with her bike at la bufa and start to ascend out of the canyon again.

The scenery is still and again breathtaking and the road a good work out. Alex lays the bike down only once shes getting a lot better and more comfortable the water we crossed before is deeper now but we got all this riding behind us it seems easy now. We take an hour less up than when we went down. Awesome!

When we hit pavement paige cooks a vegetarian meal at the bus stop at the intersection while I make pictures of the huge pig that is running around us thinking about what good carnitas that would make. Its 11 in the morning. Piece of cake. We have plenty of time. or so we think.

We want to go to divisadero and look at the canyon from above. Its 300 feet deeper than the grand canyon. The paved part of the road to creel leads us through these huge stepped stone mountain walls that reach up like crowns. Its truly majestic and we take a break to take in the view. When we get to creel we realize that we are a lot further from the coast the we think we are.

We need to make the ferry on friday night.

When we ask how far it is to los mochis there is a lot of head shaking and we are being told that it is not possible to get there by friday. The physical distance is not to far but the roads will be in very bad condition once we cross into sinaloa we are told. Big potholes and poor surface, so bad that we will wish to be back on dirt roads. Which we do anyway already. I could do a whole vacation on dirt roads. I have to get a little more skills in the dirt but this vacation is great practice.

One of the guides at tres amigos helps us determine the route and we get on our way. We have to ditch divisadero in order to get to bacechachi before dark. Its pretty much straight road out of creel and then highway 16.

We heard that its 300 miles of corners. We do about 70 of them and sure enough there is only two 2 straight sections. The pavement is superb and the corners are even. After a while I get into this zone where you don't even really think anymore.

Its like a meditation on perfect radiuses and an ode to the god of the curved road. Its super beautiful too a lot of trees and the sun is going down between them. That's also the only drawback. Hard to see going west, so we have to go slow. One hand up as a visor taking the turns.

When we get to basaseachi its the most dismal town we have encountered so far. Basura everywhere really run down and corrugated patched huts. It actually looks like a slum and we really don't want to stay here. A lot of military too. It looks hella sketchy and a little hostile and I'm used to a little on the rough side but this is too much.

Unfortunately the sun is going down and we don't have too much choice in places to stay. Paige has the good idea to head toward the falls and the state park and try there. And sure enough there is a place that rents cabanas and looks secure, has a gate. Phew! And the cabanas are nice. All log cabin style and with a wood stove. That was pretty lucky.

And our very own board chef whipped out some supplies and we had miso soup and quesadillas with avocado for dinner. Perfect! I already had visions of us sleeping by the side of the road at 6600 feet freezing and our bikes getting stolen and so far I have felt pretty safe here in mexico.

Anyway luis the security guard here is very nice starts the fire for us and when we let it go out
starts it for us again and brings us tamales on top of it. Its cozy and we kick back read and write. Nice ending to a long 11 hour day of riding. Tomorrow we probably won't leave before 10 since there is frozen sections in the road according to luis. Maybe we hit the falls tomorrow. Well see when we get up.

creel to batopilas

We are in creel now. I finally feel like we are in a different country. We got up at 7 so we would have enough time to get packed, have breakfast and talk to the 3 Amigos about possibilities of getting out of batopilas via urique.

Turns out that it is possible if you are able to cross a waist deep river. We wouldn't be able to do that on our bikes with the skills we have, but apparently there is a guy with a truck that could take us across. That is, if he' s home. That is something we'd have to explore in batopilas.

We went to get more pesos from the bank and some tortillas avocado cheese and res de naranja that was just sitting in a kettle in the middle of the grocery store all caked in jelled grease. gruesome as it looked it turned out to be really yummy.

we set out around 10.30 and rode through some gorgeous mountains, all red and yellow and green and purple. I love the colors here. The roads are awesome too, very good pavement and corner after corner after corner and then another one.

After 50 miles or so of turns we turned off to the dirt road down the canyon. We had to go down a fairly steep rocky hill and cross a little bit of water right of the bat which gave us a good idea what we were getting into. So we slowly meandered down the rocky road, up and down and back and forth over rocks until it felt like I never did anything else. After 5 miles we had to rake all the layers off since it had warmed up a bit. Ok make that we started to sweat from the dirt bike work out.

We had to wait for a big construction thing to get done with whatever it was doing first to get through. From that point it was 2 miles how the crow flies as the GPS told us but 20 miles on the surface road to La Bufa. The altitude difference was about 4000, and a total of 7000 feet between creel and batopilas. The road was actually not too bad just really steep on parts dropping 20 feet between corners.

We went parallel to a river most of the time and enjoyed some amazing views of deep canyons, milky blue looking water with purple rocks and huge drop offs. If you had vertigo there would be no way to be able to go down that road. Alex is pretty much a newby for dirt and we were giving her pointers resulting in a very funny and embarrassing kind of dance type thing on how to stay loose on the bike. I'm not going to post the video, and it won't be on youtube anytime soon, lo siento, but suffice it to say that it was very funny.

paige's bike took a nap at one point as she likes to call it but nothing broke and there were people right behind her to help her up. When we got to La Bufa Alex was pretty exhausted and quite pale looking and the light was starting to go away since we started our day super late yet again so we decided that she get a ride for the next 20 miles with the same truck that helped us before, into Batopilas and Paige and I would haul ass to get to Batopilas before dark.

So that's what we did and she arrived maybe 45 after us in the truck when dusk hit. We had said we would meet at the zocolo and since the hotel we had recommended casas de minas real was right there it was easy. Martin the owner was in awe of us pulling on our bikes over a steep incline. The town of Batopilas is a very beautiful old mexican village right by the river. The guy that brought alex recommended us a restaurant that had stuffed trout. That sounded good to us.

And so we went to the trout restaurant. Walked into a room full borachos singing and drinking and we sat down in the courtyard and had some sol. Had more sol. And then ordered the trout. And a plato vegetariano para alex. We met many men there including but not limited to the cook the owner and the waiter.

The 20 year old waiter was the only one that would actually try to pick us up. He was really cute. But how do you say i'm 37 and I could be your mother? We told him that unfortunately we all had novios. After a while we left and walked around the village a little bit. It's beautiful and I am looking forward to exploring it more tomorrow. Since we couldnt find another open bar we retreated to the room and drank the bourbon that paige imported from the u.s.

We don't know what we are going to do tomorrow well see. Either riding more dirt riding or exploring the area via horses or just hang out. One thing is decided. We will make coffee in the room torrow morning since the hot beverage that gets passed off as coffee here just doesn't cut it and we do have a stove top espresso maker with us. Good thinking...

Batopilas day 2

This morning we slept in for the first time. We decided to have day off and enjoy batopilas . Its such a cute city with green pink purple sky blue painted houses along the river for 2 kilomters and 300 meters as our 20 year old friend from last night told us. It could be the town from 100 years of solitude.

We made real coffee in the hotel before we left. First good coffee since tonis house. Then we went for a walk through town until we got hungry. We found a little porch that was more like residence and had eggs machaca. In the back they were making tamales for the school lunch meal. We really wanted some off that so the woman let is have a taste of the meat. So Good!

The food has been just amazing. Not a bad meal since we crossed the border. Then we put on some skirts since it was like 75f. My skirt had some ink stains on it and my hair was all messed up and alex thought we all look like little girls except we have more expensive toys and our playground is a lot lot bigger now.

we put our suits over the skirts and made our way to the mision pedita in satevo. Paige and alex two up since the beemer is still in la bufa. 8 km out of batopilas along the river under a dramatic sky of lots of little clouds. The mision is under restoration but we could still go inside where they were building a christmas tree out of palm tree leaves.


Alex did a sketch of the mision and paige and I retreated to the shade since it was really hot. I was glad we had skirts on. When we got back we dropped off alex and went a little more dirt bike riding . We did another 3000 feet up made some amazing pictures and turned around . On the way down paige stopped unexpectedly right in front of me to make pictures and to evade her I had to lay down the bike. So now everybody laid down the bike once.

This was just after we had agreed on making a hand signal before stopping so this would not happen. I was also following to close...lesson learned.

anyway nothing happened we picked up the bike went back to town. Alex heard us coming (it´s a small town) and came to meet us and we had some really good tacos dorados. We actually thought dorados was fish. Turned out it meant golden and was fried pork. So Good.

Then we got gas and retreated to drink ballenas. Alex has to get up at 430 tomorrow to get the bus back to the bike and we will leave at the crack of dawn to meet her at la bufa.

In Creel

We left Nuevas Casa Grandes kind of late. Took us a little longer to get packed up than we thought. It got 9.30 before we left. We arrived in Creel at 5, and it was still light out. That was a big concern, having to go mountainous road in the dark. I'm also glad that it was light since it was again very beautiful. Long stretches of road where you could just enjoy the scenery alternating with some nice curvas peligrosas.

It doesn't feel so very different than California yet, the colors are similar, and working in the Mission district of SF is similar of what you see here, and the mexican heat is missing... At one gas station though somebody asked us if we were from gay California. Now nobody would ask you that in California. They would ask if you are from gay San Francisco.

Getting closer to Creel and climbing in elevation it actually got...warmer! Unbelievable. We had braced us for big suffering and freezing our butts off. Paige almost froze her fingers off in the morning leaving Nuevas Casa Grandes. She doesn't have heated gloves, only heated grips, and they don't work so well.

Found a nice cheap hotel in Creel, walked around the zocolo, had some more mexican cream of corn, and then a proper meal, found the internet place. Creel is quite a busy town, even around this time of year!

Tomorrow Batopilas, first piece of dirt we're getting. Internet time is running out, so hasta manana! If there is an internet cafe in Batopilas that is.

This blog came from the palm pilot, so no capital letters etc, because it just takes too ling and I need some sleep.

Saturday the 15th. Shower coffee pack. This morning we departed from Tonis place after wiping the frost of the seats wondering if the people that told us we were crazy might have had a point.

Then we returned the Uhaul
And got on the road. Finally. I had fun the
last few days but boy did it feel good to have a motorcycle under me and get on with it!

Any anxiety l had
Just
Fell. Right off me like a
Bad
Dream.
Distant
Memory by now.


Driving through the sonoran desert helped too.

So toni accompanied us to bisbee in jeans. Its the middle of the winter even on arizona and he looked really cold. jeans and summer gloves. We did a little tour around bisbee which is a really cute town that used to live from coppper before the mines closed and is now a mix of locals and people from san francisco and seattle and snow birds nestled into the hills that reminded me a little bit of italy.

We had lunch at the prickly pear cafe and then toni went back and we went to the border. The only exciting thing at the border crossing was me and paige fighting over where to get the vehicle permit now or 30 miles down the road. Since I just wanted to get the border behind me I wanted to keep going once we passed the border. my paperwork was a little skinny, so I wasn;'t sure if it would work.

We went right through the border and kept going. But after a few blocks we tried to turn back to get the permit now after all and proceeded to get a little lost and paige almost turned down a one way street much to the amusement of herself and the locals. She busted up laughing so loud I could hear it over her loud pipes .

It did take about an hour to get the tourist visa and the vehicle import permit. And this was the last point of stress for me since I didn't have a title in my name just a registration in my name and in paiges.

You can't take a borrowed vehicle over the border and supposedly you need registration and proof of ownership which the dmv couldn't give us. But it all worked out ok and we got on highway 2 to nuevas casas grandes. Beautiful sonoran desert. Over some hills with incredible views of subtle yellow green and purple desert.

It did turn dark on us though which was really scary since you can't spot the potholes and animals anymore in the street. And it got cold. Brrr. Really cold. Heated vest on high. When we found a cute hotel hotel pinos there were frozen puddles. We unpacked warmed up a bit with the heater cranked and then went to find some food.

Alex wanted to sit down but on our way to finding a restaurant there were just too many little stands to pass by and we got something paige describes as mexican cream of corn minus the cream. Corn mixed with lime chili butter and cojito cheese. So good! So good that we had to have another one at the next stand. That one tasted differente but equally So Good.

We asked the second corn lady for a restaurant and she pointed us titos marisco where we managed to get a vegetarian meal for alex of rice with vegetables beans and guacamole. They were very sweet and you could tell that they whipped it up just for us and that they didn't do this very often. Since I was already filled up with the corn I ordered a 30 peso small sopa de marisco and got served something that would have easily been a $15 dish in san francisco.

I'm so full now I feel like I don't have to eat for three days now. Usually I loose weight whenever I travel but at this rate you might have to roll me back over the border...

Leaving San Francisco

First attempt to blog from the palm pilot. My fingers are cramping up on those teeny buttons so this will be a rough draft without editing. How does the spell check work on this thing???

Anyway. Going down I5 in a one way Uhaul right now. It's freezing outside and it's warm inside. It's the most boring stretch of road in Califonia, especially at night.

Our only highlight so far was some 6 or 8 feet high neon letters up on a hillside spelling "Jesus is the reason for the season". That's still making our day. Great entertainment value, thanks Jesus.

It's a good thing though that we decided to take a heated vehicle since my heated vest seems to bog down the charging system on the KLR. I would have been able to only use it in an intermittend manner - as in, switch the vest on until I get warm, then off to replenish the battery, until I'm freezing my butt off again, then back on.

I'll be practicing this soon enough when we get to Creel which is essentially the entry to the Copper Canyon and it's at 8000 feet. According to that really fuzzy almost kind of hand drawn weather report in the SF Chronicle it rained in that area a couple of days ago so there might be snow on the ground up high.

Going down I5 though I'm finally jelling into vacation mode. Usually I'm on the way to the races when I go down this route. This morning was pretty hectic with last minute adjustments since I rode the KLR for the first time on the freeway last night and realized I really needed bar end weights to cut down the vibrations. Fortunately I had a nice heavy set at work which should do the trick.

Didn't have a chance to test ride it yet though since I also had to wrap up open ends at the shop.

But hey, preparation schmeparation. Since all my preparations went south already in terms of the KTM getting booted off the trip I'm figuring this was un-planned as an adventure trip into the unknown anyway.

I'm just starting early...

En route to Tucson

So we took that Uhaul down to Tucson. Jim Hoogerhyde, who is coming down to meet us in San Ignacio on the 28th came by to help us load everything in the truck, and the bikes didn't move an inch. Great job, thanks Jim! He also provided some moral support for me, since I was kind of a wreck just before departure. I don't know, the magnitude of the trip just got to me. Do I have everything? Did I pack all the tools? Are we prepared enough?

The drive down took us some 16 hours. Drove through the night, taking turns. Allen Zino hooked us up with Toni and Natascha who moved from the Bay Area to Tucson a little while ago. Toni just bought a KTM950 also. He is itching to take that out, and might accompany us to the border tomorrow. He started his own construction business recently, so he doesn't have enough free time to come with us.

So although Toni had no idea who we are, he totally put us up. When we got there, it turns out that Paige and Toni had met before. It's a really small world. Now we are sitting at his house in front of the fire pit and Paige is cooking dinner for all of us. That's the least we can do.

Since we got a lot earlier to Tucson then we thought we would, so we went shopping. That's what you get when you put three woman on a journey. Wait, we did it to ourselves...anyway, we did some more errands for things we needed, like a money belt, food, camera bag. Which reminds me, I haven't taken a single picture et. I'll be getting more diligent about that tomorrow.

So we are sitting around the fire, trying to figure out what the weather is going to be. The estimates range from the teens to the 40s. Maybe somebody mixed up the Celsius and the Fahrenheit. We certainly hope so, because TEENS? We didn't really bargain for that, heated vests or not.

So we will see tomorrow. There is no turning back now. Getting up early tomorrow, we want to be in Nuevas Casas Grandes before the sun disappears behind the mountain, which is the exact moment the temperature drops like 20 degrees, and proceeds to drop fast until it's below freezing. Plus mountain weather can turn fast, AND you REALLY don't ever want to drive in the dark in Mexico.

So this is probably the last blog before La Paz. Which we shall hit on the 22nd, so wish us luck, and after the luxury of having a computer to use at Toni's house. From tomorrow on I will be blogging from the tiny tiny buttons of Paige's palm pilot, so the blog will be pretty short, less polished and please forgive any spelling mistakes. It's just so much work on the palm, and my fingers cramp up, so I'll post, but shorter.

Cheers!

Jennifer

The Night Before Departure

Leaving tomorrow. We decided to truck the bikes down to Arizona after all. It's just a little smarter that way.

The prospect of going down I5 which is a busy two-lane highway with slow trucks in one lane and speeding cars in the other trying to pass you on the right because going 90 is not fast enough tomorrow night until the wee and very cold hours of the morning just didn't sound very appealing after we actually thought about it. Well, we did have that back up plan in case it was raining, but now we are taking that route anyway.

I'm blaming Alex: She made us think. Good Bye, Oh Blissful Ignorance, gone in on fell swoop with the voice of reason from Germany.

I am a bit sad though, since it's a little like leaving out a part of the journey, being lazy, cutting it short, taking the easy route. I do kind of like the hard part too, maybe not when it's happening, but afterwards, talking about it, and remembering it from a cozy chair, the memory of the pain distant but the memory of adventure clear and distinct.

Anyway, alea iacta est, and we'll load el one-way trucke tomorrow at noon and blaze south in one hit, taking turns driving, until we arrive in Tucson, AZ, where some friends of friends will put us up. The next morning we'll pack up early, head to the border crossing in Douglas, stopping for a drink at Big Nose Kate's in Tombstone and for coffee in Bisbee, and be in Mexico by the afternoon for the taco de carne asada, and some margaritas.

After that I will be blogging from a palm pilot, and won't be able to post pictures. So imagine it: Three women en route to Mexico. 20 hours in a truck, lots of things to hash out. Then, once on the bikes, lots of silence in terms of no talking, just the noise of the bike and the wind and our own thoughts.

Hasta manana.

Jennifer

KLR is ready for test drive

So just a quicky entry...blog entry that is.

The KLR is about to go on its first test drive, tires, tune up, brakes, chain and sprockets all done and saddle bags installed. Heated vest and gloves ready to plug in.

I'm forgetting something...right. Spares. Don't have any yet. Express order tomorrow.

Gotta run to the aeroporto now and pick up our third riding buddy, Alex. Hasta manana...

Jennifer

Things change

So here you see the old ride on the top and the new ride underneath.

As in: the bike that got booted from the ride, and the new one that will carry me through Mexico.

Staying is silver, riding is green.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Well, the oil light lit up on the KTM. That means: water pump is bad again. I went to the KTM dealership, and they looked at the cover to tell me that the bearing surfaces are totally chewed up, and that I need a new cover. Argh! So I express ordered it, and it will be here tomorrow.

That was this weekend.

I talked to a lot of people since, since by now I have lost some confidence in the reliability of that particular KTM. I guess this was the one bad years.

The gist: I can fix it and get it back on the road, but I'm running out of time to give a good shake down run regarding the water pump. Plus the crank might have gotten damaged, so I might break down in Mexico again, and I really, really, REALLY don't want that.

I want to ride, ride, ride and talk to the locals about something else but the best way to get parts to their remote village and who has a trucke to get me back to the border.

So. I'm taking Zach Boger's KLR. He is Paige's brother, one of my traveling companions. Thank you so much Zach for providing me with a worry free vacation, I owe you big.

The bike is getting prepped right now in my shop. Thankfully I have good mechanics. Daniel, one of the technicians in the shop, is doing a tune up, tires, chain, sprockets, brakes. I'd do it myself but need to get everything wrapped up before I leave.

Ironic really, since I started preparing for this trip a long time ago, only to find myself worrying last minute if I'll get it done.

Anyway, that's how it goes. All parts are ordered, will be here today or Wednesday, just in time to pack up and go.

So we are really right on schedule here. Leaving Thursday afternoon. It's just a little SNAFU, you know. And much better than if that would have happened in Mexico. Absolutely in the realm of fixable. So I fix.

Three Women, Three Motorcycles, Three Weeks to Mexico

Here's the plan:

Three friends take their well prepared enduro motorcycles from San Francisco to Mexico and back for about three weeks over Christmas and New Year.

Here's the outline:

Through California and Arizona in two days. Down to Copper Canyon, for four days, through Batopilas, to Los Mochis, take the last ferry before Christmas to la Paz, then criss-cross the Baja California peninsula back up for two weeks.

Items on our to-do-wish list, in no particular order, and not even firm: Find the nowhere spots, camp in the desert, watch the whales, drive on the dry lake beds in Baja. Do as much dirt as possible. Get up at the crack of dawn, ride into the sun rise. Look at natural wonders, go diving and kayaking in the Sea of Cortez. Find the beach on the Pacific side of Baja where the ocean currents from Alaska turn around and hunt for treasures deposited there, fireworks for New Years, ride down sandy roads through beautiful scenery. Sleep in, eat fish tacos and drink margaritas. Look for hot springs to soak our shaken bones and sore muscles. Find a good spot to hang the hammock.

Here are the weapons of choice:

Two KTM 950 Adventures, and one BMW F650GS.

Here are the culprits:

Paige Boger, Alex Ries and Jennifer Bromme. Didn't make a group picture yet to post here. Alex, as a matter of fact, is still in Germany as I write this, so the picture will have to wait till then. I prepared a BMW F650 for her. She'll arrive Tuesday night for this trip, and we'll leave two days later.

Here is:

To us. To fun. To good times, and may the travel gods and godesses keep an eye on us.

I will try to post an entry every day, internet access permitting. Keep posted! This will be an epic trip, I just know it. Haven't done a trip like this since I lived in Europe. The first one of many there me being 18 years of age, on an ill prepared Yamaha XT500, with just a sleeping bag and a change of clothes, breaking down a lot (I wasn't even a mechanic then but quickly becoming one), going for six weeks from Germany to Italy and Greece and back.

Some things will be different this time: I grew up, I have more skills and knowledge, and a better prepared motorcycle, a credit card to get me out of dodge easier, and a tent.

But most things on this trip will be the same: the sense of adventure, the gratefulness of being able to live my life to the fullest, the beauty of camaraderie, the knowledge that any problem we might encounter we will be able to tackle, the understanding that everything is relative in the big scheme of things.

Big trips like that do that to you.

Hasta manana. Gotta go, my bike is screaming for help...still deep in preparations.

Jennifer