Assignment Baja: Thump, Carnaval, Memorial

We hung out on the roof of our Hotel 7 Puntas....and enjoyed the view....





We had dinner at the Burro....more gringos there......and some good eats.....



We had single rooms which meant that the chainsaw known as chabon was a bit more muffled being next door rather than in the same room.....

The morning sunrise was very nice....and we headed further south. Today will bring us to Puerto San Carlos....

chabon gets another chance to fuel up while on the road....



Ciudad Insurgentes.....with the family of insurgents.....



It's great to see more Rojo (premium) gasolina.....I gotta keep my horse filled up....



Just a bit further down the road is Ciudad Constitucion where we head out to the west coast again, pay attention to that intersection, the local polizia work it pretty hard, they were on a 4wheeler and motorcycle and pulled over several cars while we ate lunch....no photos, they were friendly and liked our motos and we didn't want to provoke them.....

There are several hotel options in Puerto San Carlos and the Brennan is full. OK, we end up at the Eco Hotel.....big kitchen, good wifi, it's under renovation and the manager/owner, Fito, is both entertaining and informative.




While riding around town, I recognized another project that is now completed. 3 years ago it was still under construction.



The 690 enjoys the company of whales and although our building is under construction, the room is nice and has a flatscreen with satellite channels. Kinda upscale for us but it turns out to be a good thing. chabon has suffered an injury and is developing a chiari headache. He's going to need the extra day before La Paz to recover.




We decide to take the Tour of Magdelena Bay tomorrow and let the bikes stay stashed. We started on Saturday and have ridden daily so a boat ride will be a nice break before the big city and Carnaval.......

On the road to San Juanico today....


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Bay of Conception


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How many hi-viz stickers can you see? And what the hell is the ski pole for?


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Back to dirt and gravel, ya!


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Another minor KTM repair. Thank goodness we didn't have to put in the spare crankshaft yet.


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La Purisima in the distance


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Aquaduct carved out of the rock on the left side of photo.


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Aquaduct continues along wall of rock.


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Nice hotelat San Juanico, and like walrus said, I didnt have to listen to him saw logs!


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Almost ate it all before I got a picture.


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Stumbled backwards over the stupid step going up to the bathroom. Gave myself a little whiplash to my already unstable cervical spine, ouch.


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Didn't get any pictures of the abandoned road we brought into San Juanico. Thanks for the track Stickman1432. Only goat prints and a couple small washed out arroyo's but a nice trail.

Kid in the resturant picked up my iPhone and started taking selfies and looking through my photos. Knew how to operate my phone better than I do. And no cell service for miles.


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San Juanico to Puerto San Carlos today. Feel like I've been riding sweep on the ride report ever since it started! I might have to take a day off work just to jump ahead of Walrus!

Large herd of burros, more that you can't see hidden behind the hill. Now this gets me thinkin. I've been eating some beef and carne asada but I have never seen a cow on this trip. I see donkeys often enough. Does anyone know if donkey tastes like cow? In any case, all the food has been excellant


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Rotopax Baja style.


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Ate here at Constitution and was good and good wifi. The traffic cops were stationed outside pulling people over. They were interested in us when we pulled into town, but we pulled into the resturant parking lot just 20 feet in front of them. They came over to check things out. The one guy kept showing me how his gloves were worn out and then kept pointing at my new gloves and motioning that maybe I should give them to him. I smiled and joked it off, I think he was just seeing how generous I might be. I took my gloves inside to breakfast! We were the only customers.....


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Power plant going into Puerto San Carlos. Big diesel fuel tanks next to it. My guess is that they bring in barges of diesel and have one huge ass honda generator in there.


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Fito's grandson (the onein the red sweatshirt)


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Gen 1 GPS


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So start chatting with these folks and conversation gets around to geology and blah blah blah and in any case, turns out this guy (Steve) is the uncle of a friend and guy I used to work with in a Geotchnical firm.... go figure. Its not like were on the big tourist trail or anything here.


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Nice accomadations, I think most modern and cleanest of the trip so far, most expensive also, $800p or about $70 ($35 apiece). Still one-third the price of a not so nice Motel 6 where I live.


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Hard to see here, but had a huge shower with plenty of hot water.


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aahhhhh,


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Fito set up our whale watching trip for tomorrow morning. I'm hitting the Vicodin and Cuba Libres to temper my whiplash induced headache,, ggrrrr. Watch some french military movie or something to that effect and sleep away the afternoon.

EDIT: And what I meant to say "Watched some french military movie or something to that that affect, and slept away the afternoon."

This may pair with this....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQKJUYBz9YE

Good ride report, and 50 some days left to work....Life is good

Diane Kruger....Cuba Libres.....and ggrrrr.....now calling the ride: BobbleHead and the Crippled Hipster somehow ride motos through Baja.



The tide goes out, the tide comes in....the bicyclists set up a huge tent and I drag you out in the sun....









Having found a bottle of Centenario Plata for $170 pesos, I am content to wander around town acquiring limons and sipping my tumbler....

You were closer than you thought about the power plant.



"Powered by Two-stroke Stationary Uniflow Diesel Engines."

That didn't come out quite like I wanted it to, edited.....

I need to recount the days, I think I forgot to add in the Cesar Chavez holiday we get next Friday.

With a name like JoeNuclear, I think you should know I used the carbon footprint in the sky to keep my bearings when we out in the bay. It was like a homing beacon.

I think BobbleHead and Crippled Hipster are appropriate descriptions.

Apparently I WAS here, at least there is a photo of me being in Puerto San Carlos. Vicodin + Cuba Libra+ Headache = Amnesia

Alrighty then.....A day on the water with Bobblehead, Crippled Hipster, Flipper, Dung Island, Moby Grape, Sand Bar and some really lazy sea lions......

We load up.....it's good that he owns the boats......right.......?



There's seven of us plus Captain Ron.....group rates apply......



Flipper is first up.......



Must be a girl.....girls like me......to swim with them.......



Dung Island appears on the horizon.....it is covered in birds.....I'm not a bird guy unless it's BBQ'd or on a plate.....these birds have done the bird thing and covered the island with guano.....



Moving along to where the whales hang......ahoy, Cap'n......whale breath......and breathing whales.......magic whales.......



You can't make this shit up...so I'm borrowing from chabon to prove it.....





Get chabon more meds and drinks.....I'm staying here......I don't wanna leave......

U, Oh.......looks like chabon might be having fun.....Analgesia, Anesthesia, Amnesia.......call Triple A.......

More whale breath....and on to the Sand Island....really, it's a peninsula.....






Back on the water, it chabons pals from Kali....out here in the Bay......with the whales....



These whales are not as concentrated or as social as the previous whale trip in San Ignacio Laguna....the bay here is much bigger and not as many make the trip this far south.....still a great experience that is well worth the time and money if you find yourself here.....or there.....



My camera battery ran out so here's chabons impressions of those lazy sea lions....actually, very similar honking noises........



We head back to the dock, hit the town and eat some dinner. La Paz is just a bump down the road and tomorrow is Saturday so there will be a Carnaval street party.....





Bring on the coctel des camarones.....

Is this the happiest man on the planet? Baja does that to a person....



[QUOTE[/QUOTE]

Another (recooperation) day in Puerto San Carlos.

The dock for loading up for whale watching


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"Wait, I think we're supposed to go that way"


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Beautiful morning, flat water, sun, we departed around 0800.


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Momand Calf


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This is like our panga. Glad we had a sunshade and something to hold onto while standing.


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Hard to get a good picture. Lots of pictures of whale backs as they re-descend. Ended up not taking too many pictures and just enjoying the experience.


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Lots of sand


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The captain put the boat in full reverse right when Walrus was jumping on. He kind of got under the boat but was okay. I missed the shot so we had him do it a second time


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Closest encounter was on the way in.


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A little late lunch or dinner in Puerto San Carlos. Next morning its off to La Paz


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Hypnotic eyes


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Headed out the way we came in. Back to the same resturant in Constitucion. I hid my gloves again just in case the boys in blue were still there. No people in the restaurant again. Had the hi speed wifi to ourselves and caught up on some spam.


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Only place we had reservations for the trip, CasaBuena. Thought things might be booked up as the is Carnaval weekend. Walrus has been here for Carnaval before, I'm a noob. B&B was very nice. Huge room.


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Run by ex-pats and catered more to north of the border types, but with Mexican feel also.


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Here is a sample of whats to come....


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I'll pick this up a little later..... (The fish taco photo made me hungry, got to go eat)

After the Coctel des Camarones.........:eek1:eek1

Yup, it was 2 weeks ago today that chabon and I rode in to La Paz and checked in to CasaBuena.........(http://casabuena.net/).......

They came to me on a recommend from the BajaNomads and that recommend was right on target.

But, of course, the first stop in La Paz has traditionally been the WalMart for some supply issue or another.......so true to form, the parking lot photo.....



Milton and SuSu are gracious hosts of a large B&B that's centrally located without the hustle and bustle of the city that surrounds them....I'm glad chabon kept his camera rolling since mine seems to have conked during that period.....we had a great courtyard, swimming pool (unheated) and a large room with some interesting showerhead plumbing....neither of us have pic?.......



We unloaded the bikes, cleaned up a bit and headed out the gate.....let the festivities begin........

The first week was devoted to riding south to La Paz...ergo Thump.

Today and tomorrow are Carnaval.....then we will accomplish the Memorial......

I really like La Paz and the sunsets there are spectacular. Except for the grey day out of San Ignacio, we've had the weather spirits on our side.....tonight is no exception......





Get your cartoon and cigarette stuffed characters here........



Celtic dancers?



What happened to the chips and the other taco.....blame chabon......



Hmmmmm.......



Not Brazilians.....



Also not Brazilians.....



And just like the Bobblhead and Crippled Hipster that we are, we didn't make the headliners who partied from midnight to four in the morning.....:huh

Lots of people. Made it an early night and retreated to the hotel.


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We had booked the room for two nights. Did a little site seeing the next day.


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The streets were deserted. Where did they put all that stuff?


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My drink of choice, orange Fanta


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It was good. Here is the aftermath.


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The guy set us up with a couple drinks of fermented pineapple juice. good stuff.


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Headed out to a beach outside of town. Nice sand and water.


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Headed back to the hotel and got ready for the big Sunday parade and another night of festivities..........

Nice report, missed you guy's by four weeks. Like your pic of the aqueduct. Hoping to see more dirt.