Baja Bound.....

Our introduction to Mexico began on November 20th 2017. We left Mel’s house near San Diego after having spent 3 fabulous weeks there and tootled off to cross the border at Tecate (Keep a look out for short report….I’ll be writing up Border Crossings at some point.)

After an easy border crossing we headed down to Ensenada for our first night. Just followed the main road (Highway 3), and signs…all paved road…..nice and easy for a couple of Harleys….we’d already pre-booked this hotel….the ‘Posada El Ray Sol’. No breakfast included but a clean pleasant place set a street or so back from the Pacific Ocean. Not having much food on us we had our first supermarket tea of our Mexican adventure. We’d got here quite late as we’d set off mid-morning from the San Diego area and had just enjoyed the run down the 3 so we didn’t do very much…Chris went to watch the sunset and we just watched a bit of TV and went to sleep.

Next morning…usual stuff….packing up and a bit of brekky….we were a bit giddy….new country…sunshine….no where booked…..ooh….where would we end up. We’d picked a place on the map to start heading for…Bahia De Los Angeles but we knew we wouldn’t get there the same day.

And so off we went….basically just riding the 1 South…..not too many topes (speed bumps) on here apart from going through towns. Loved it….some great scenery….our journey today ended 230 miles later at Catavina . We’d only filled up once along the way and had just started to look for another petrol station……at this point we had just breezed through Catavina but came upon some road works which actually prompted us to check what time it was….we’d got a bit carried away. Anyways it was quite late…..going dusk so being low on petrol we turned round and went back to Catavina where we’d previously spotted a hotel. (Hotel Mission). Good job we did…..we asked where the next petrol station was and were told about another 200 miles down the road….see things happen for a reason….we were meant to turn round there. Conveniently there was a Mexican couple selling gas at the side of the road….as we had seen locals getting gas from him we knew it was ok and not going to be ‘crap petrol’. It was obviously a point in Baja that ‘Pemex’ was missing out on……lots of people pulled into the hotel for digs…..some with cans on their pick-ups….all re-fuelling……Catavina is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

Again there was no breakfast with this hotel but there was a restaurant and bar there if you didn’t have any food on you. We were ok…..we had supplies from the supermarket the day before. Morning ritual completed we set off for Bahia De Los Angeles…..nothing booked again….just ride the 1 and branch off to the East side of Baja……enjoy the ride….no rush. We got to Bahia about mid-afternoon….only ridden 106 miles….there’s several petrol stations here and plenty of lodgings. We ended up choosing one just out of the town down a little sand road….Hotel Vientos…got a room right on the beach…open the doors …..step onto sand….excellent…..swimming pool if you didn’t want to get in The Sea of Cortez and a restaurant and bar both on the beach……big smiles all round……but definitely a budget buster at $100 a night….eek!!! Really liked this place though……a typically walled building…rode under an archway to get in……doesn’t always look much from the outside but fab when you come into the interior courtyards.

Next day, nothing booked again but we were heading for a place called San Carlos…. didn’t know anything about the place…..just ‘chucking darts’ at the map really and you can’t always ‘Google’ somewhere because of the bad Wi Fi connections. There was no chance we’d get there the same day so we just got on our bikes and rode until about 3.30 ish……then disaster struck…..shock….horror…..just kidding….not really but a proper ‘pain in the butt’………my side stand spring broke going over a tope!!!!......blooming things……we already knew about the topes and had been trying to ride them as carefully as possible but some of them……seriously…..what are they thinking…..for those that take interest in this kind of stuffage…….the top lug/nut that holds the spring onto the side stand was knocked off thus making it impossible to put the stand down or flick it up with your foot. Chris tied it up with a tie wrap and from this point would have to physically cut the tie when I wanted to get off and place the stand down by hand to hold the bike up. We’ll start looking for a welder now. By this time, it’s going dusk…..luckily we are just on the outskirts of a small port town…Santa Rosalia…..it’s a busy port town…..not many lodgings to choose from……turn a corner and ‘what the heck’ …..see two British bikes parked up at a little hotel…….so of course we pull up. Great the hotel has a room for the night…..another supermarket tea, tv and bed…. As well as peeping out of the window to see if we could spot the owners of the English bikes……lol.

Finally, in the morning…..we met them……James and Anna……what a great couple…..well- travelled and lots of stories to tell…..we’re all heading the same way…..so we swap email addresses…..hopefully we’re going to meet up again….yey!!!

On we went…..following the 1 and branching off onto the 22. The ride down to Puerto San Carlos wasn’t very exciting and there wasn’t that much down there but we came upon a little place…Hotel Villas Mar y Arena Ecotours….again a room on the beach on the Bahia Magdelana….a friendly dog… ‘Binty’ I think she was called…..ospreys galore……restaurant and bar……good cheap food…..loved it.

It’s now Friday 25th November for those of you wondering what date we’ve got to……hey even we forget…..I’m constantly forgetting when I talk to ‘Video Diary’…..lol. From Puerto San Carlos we were heading for Cabo San Lucas ‘Cabo’ for short but we broke the ride up by stopping at the West side of La Paz…..just because we could. It was only 261 miles to Cabo but we set off a bit later and at this point we’re ‘dilly dallying’ a bit as I’ve managed to pre-book a hotel in Cabo and we’re ahead of ourselves. Looks posh….too posh for us ….the hotel we pull up at in La Paz….The Grand Plaza….always worth a try….you get a lot more for your money so things aren’t always as expensive. We didn’t think they’d let us in…..dirty, smelly bikers but we were greeted like any other customer and given 30% off! Think it cost us about £50.The room was massive……amazing and good internet…..so I got onto loading piccies and Chris went for a swim in the pool. There was a wedding on later that day and all the pretty people were out…..so we opted to stay out of the way. We ended up stopping a couple of nights it was so nice and we already had food so no extra expenses there and I managed to roughly locate HD Cabo so we could get my bike fixed when we got to Cabo.

Finally, we have arrived at Cabo……a tourist destination for many Americans…..We’ve booked a hotel just out of the main bit…Hotel Los Patios……for four nights…..worked out at £36 per night including breakfast…..brilliant…..great room…..good view. First task…find HD Cabo and my bike fixed and some new tyres……and look for a boot fixer as well…..the zip has bust on my Harley boots as well….heck it comes in threes….am I due for something else???

We find the HD Service department in a sort of underground car park for a shopping mall after a bit of ‘faffing’ around looking. They were really helpful and even pointed us in the right direction for a cobbler. Bikes sorted……boot sorted……time for a little trip. We’d walked round the marina previously and checked a few things out settling on a $15 dollar boat ride to ‘Lands End’ where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean. What a brilliant trip….only a couple of hours but we saw loads of brightly coloured fish….(the boat had a glass bottom), seals, pelicans or ‘Mexican Chicken’ as our ‘Capitan’ calls them…… the famous rock formation ‘El Arco’ and ‘Pelican Rock’.

Our stay in Cabo came to an end…..from here we headed back up to La Paz but on the Eastern side of the 1 to another place I’d managed to pre – book….’La Concha’…again approx. £36 including breakfast. This was again out of the main part of town. It was a little dated but still a pleasant enough place to stay. We had several reasons for returning to La Paz…throughout the last week or so since meeting James and Anna ….we’d remained in touch and had arranged to meet them for an evening out and it was here in La Paz that Chris had said we should go swimming with Whale Sharks.

As luck would have it….the night out with James and Anna was great fun….we rode down to meet them at KM O…..a little restaurant at the end of the malecon in La Paz…..and over a casual tea we swapped all sorts of travel stories…. And brillzy……they’d been diving with the sharks and gave us the details of the company they had used……as they had had such a good time. I’ve also been introduced to ‘Whatsapp’ by Anna for those of you who use it.

After our night out I got straight onto the Whale Shark diving company as Anna had said they were very busy……..bingo…..got booked in……luckily they had a couple of spaces left before we had to catch the ferry to ‘Mainland’ Mexico……..now we’re excited.

Diving day came quickly…we rode down to La Paz marina……doubled up on Chris’s bike…no need to take two bikes……met the group we were going with and off we went. VIP Tours is the name of the company. They were great…only take six out at a time plus driver of boat and instructor. It didn’t take long before the first Whale Shark was spotted and our snorkelling experience began. It’s amazing to swim alongside these beautiful creatures…we couldn’t get enough of it and had the most fabulous day. Check out our little video.

Tuesday 5th December…..ferry day……where…..across The Sea of Cortez……La Paz – Topolobampo to ‘Mainland Mexico’………..brace yourselves……..get the tea and biscuits out……..more blogs coming!!!!!