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February 23, 1997
Baha Mexico by bike
Yeah! We made it through the second leg of the journey: Tijuana to Bahia de los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico. The wind is gusting to 35 miles per hour and the Sea of Cortez is a choppy blue-green. Sand is blowing into my eyes and the computer as I sit on the beach soaking up the sun. I look like a workaholic tourist and another fellow tourist has already snapped a photo of me and threatened to tell all my friends. Little does he know, that because of the internet, you'll find out about it before he gets a chance to drop his film off for developing.
We arrived yesterday after bicycling near the Pacific Ocean, over flat farmlands, and through an incredibly beautiful desert. We've come about 700 kilometers down Baja. At our first glimpse of the Sea of Cortez, we snapped this group shot. Note that there are now 10 of us (5 people plus 5 bikes). Theresa sporting the latest in mountain bicycles: Steve's bike. She joined The Expedition a day ago, about 90 miles from Bahia de los Angeles. Look for a higher quality of photos in our updates with Theresa as the photographer! (yeah and I love you too Jen - Jason) By the way, she jumped in with both feet! We biked our longest distance since we started: 90 miles, including 2 hours by moonlight on an isolated road, and it was her first day.
Tomorrow, if the weather is in our favor, we will begin to paddle across the Sea of Cortez in kayaks. Between the five of us, we probably have a total of 10 hours in kayaks, but our determination and spirit got the attention of John, who happened to be camping near us on the beach and has been kayaking for 22 years. He's agreed to make the trip with us as our guide. We expect that it will take about 8 to 10 days first skirting along the coast to San Francisquito then island hopping to Bahia Kino.
Life in Baja has its own timing. No need for watches because things happen as people want to do them. Stores that advertise "Abierto 7 - 10" will have a "Cerrado" sign posted for 3 hours in the middle of the day. We have our own timing with biking, too. We stop at almost every taco stand and eat our fill of tacos, quesadillas, and burritos. One benefit of biking on major roads: lots of places to stop and eat! It takes us longer to get there, but we enjoy the trip.
Dogs. Are there ever a lot of dogs! Skinny dogs, dogs barking after the bicycles, dogs killed on the road, mama dogs with puppies fighting for milk. Two dogs have adopted us here. They sleep next to us and follow us to town when we run errands.
My favorite part of Baja was the desert between Rosario and Bahia de los Angeles. It took us about 3 days to bike through. We started on the coast and climbed the plateau. Ollie heard about a restaurant and pushed ahead for a hot cup of coffee. Carole, Jason and I biked to dark and were just about to find a place to camp without him when we saw a light at the top of the next hill. An oasis in the middle of the desert: a restaurant. No cooking rice on a fire that night. We feasted on chorrizo y papas (sausage and potatoes) and drank several sodas and coffees. The owners of the place let us sleep on the patio. The next morning we awoke to rain. Just our luck! We bike in a desert and get rained on. By the time we finished breakfast, the rain stopped and the roads started to dry.
That day, we biked through the Catavina Boulder Field. Huge granite boulders were strewn over the hills and surrounded by dozens of varieties of cactus. One type of cactus here looks like a tall, narrow tree without branches. The hills rolled up and down, and again, just as we were about to find a place to camp, we saw the light of another restaurant on the horizon. We stopped for coffee, and the owner, William, insisted that we stay the night in his restaurant. Carole cooked a fantastic pasta dinner and we sat around talking to William and drinking beer late into the night.
The next day, Theresa joined us and we biked a beautiful, gradual downhill back to sea level. At dusk, we couldn't resist biking by moonlight. The conditions were perfect: clear night, nearly full moon, cool temperatures, and a desolate highway. Biking by the blue glow of the moon without city lights is unreal (especially when you plus bike disappear into a pot-hole in the dark - Jason). Magical. We stopped a few kilometers before Bahia de los Angeles and camped under a prickly desert tree.
Now we're climbing mountains that line the town, eating tons of fish and clams, kayaking, and relaxing on the beach. Like I said, tomorrow we'll push our kayaks into the sea and paddle down the coast and across the Midriff Islands. Or maybe we'll just hang out another day. We'll see.
--jen--
Posted on February 23, 1997 5:51 AM