Left for the Baja on a BMW came home on a 990S

[Thylex]

Oh, and.. IN!

[Holaday]

We loaded up and hit the road shortly after sunrise. Getting into Mexico was a breeze. We were in the Nada que declarar lane [nothing to declare]. There was 3 border guards sitting on a bench about 3 lanes over they just looked at us and waved. That was it we were in Mexico. We were so suprised we missed the immigration office. Next thing we knew we were lost in Mexicali. We circled around and found the immigration office and got our tourist cards. In the confusion somehow my Baja map that I had been writing notes on and studying for a year blew out of the tankbag without either of us noticing. I couldn't believe it in the Baja for 20 minutes and I had lost my map.



Bike packed in El Centro. Tons of extra crap strapped on. Check.

We wasted no time getting out of Mexicali. Ken had told me the day before that it was kinda a mess with road construction and detours. We gunned it for San Felipe.



Glynis looking like a Japanese homestay student with one of the Mexican Soldiers. These guys are all really nice. We went through tons of checkpoints and it was always a positive experience. We asked this guy if we could take a picture and he had to ask his officer. Once we got the go ahead every thing was cool. He ended up giving us his hotmail address and asked us to send him a copy.



The old fisherman having oral sex with a fish statue. Too bad about the stage kinda wrecks the view.



Proud new KTM owners enjoying the Mexican sunshine



San Felipe waterfront

We gassed up in San Felipe and I bought a 1 gallon gerry can so that I'd have a little more gas just in case. The GSPD had a 35 litre tank it was taking some getting used to the 22 litre tank on the 990. We headed south to Puertecitos and found a nice camp site just north of Puertecitos.



Road to Puertecitos



Playa Destiny


I woke up at about 3 am to the tent flapping in the 35 mph plus wind. This was about the time hurricane Norbert was about to make landfall somewhere on the Baja. On the eastern horizon I could see the most incredible lightning storm. Ball lightning, forked lightning I had never seen anything like it. The only thing I could compare it to was the CNN footage of the" shock and awe" attack on Bagdad. I watched it for about 5 minutes it appeared to be getting closer and higher on the horizon. I thought it was the hurricane coming directly for us. I woke Glynis up and we got dressed and packed all the gear into the tent hoping that would stop it from blowing away. We went and woke up Felipe the caretaker and asked if we could take shelter in his shack. He looked at the storm and said " es normale" it was just a desert storm across the Sea of Cortes in Sonora. We felt like dumb gringos and went back to our tent and just watched the storm, the tent was making too much noise for us to sleep.



Felipe's casa at Playa Destiny



Parking the bike after beer run to Puertecitos



Paradise



Yellow tarp is for shelter from the wind. Our tent is hidden by the plant between the 2 palapas



NICE !!

Tomorrow we head for Gonzaga Bay

[GB]

oh ya!!

bring on the sunshine!!

[Racinace]

Originally Posted by YnotJP?

The KTM, the Ford pick-up, the shirt and the pants. I can tell Ace likes blue.

If the house was blue, I would think you were from Canada too.

Can't wait to read more, Great RR.

I painted the house this summer.... it used to be white with blue trim Just barely got that done!

[stickfigure]

Originally Posted by GSPD Dreamer

Great fin placement

Welcome to the orange side!

Jeff

[Holaday]

After coffee we packed up and got ready to leave for Gonzaga Bay. There was no gas in Puertecitos but we were told there was gas in Gonzaga Bay for sure. We had heard that Hurricane Norbert had hit Cabo and was heading north we considered heading back to San Felipe and wait until the high winds died down and we knew for sure what was going to happen with hurricane Norbert and the one forming behind Norbert. We decided that would be negative yardage and headed for GB.



Puertecitos



Leaving Puertecitos





Road to Gonzaga Bay







The road was really rough. With the 2 of us on the heavily loaded 990 it was starting to overheat. The air temp was at least 95 and we not going fast enough for the rad to do its job. The high temp light started to blink so we stopped for a while to let the bike cool. After 10 minutes the temp was back down to 5 bars and we carried on



Giving the bike a break to cool. Giving ourselves a break from the washboard pounding.

We saw a few other vehicles that day. A couple of guys in a dune buggy past us going south. They had about 20 cases of Bud Light strapped into the basket on the dune buggy's roof. We also saw 2 matching Hummer H1's heading north, they were the full hardtop ones totally modified for desert camping I wish I had got a picture of them.



Pemex Station Gonzaga Bay. Check out the blowing sand obscuring visibility in the background

After 4 hours of really bad washboard road we had made it to Gonzaga Bay. Why's the gas station closed we wondered. Oh well lets hit the beach and set up camp.





Is that Vanna White ?

[Mario Shi]

that the dirt road through Gonzaga will be paved soon? If so, that will be a darn shame...

[Holaday]

They are working on the road south of Puertocitos and we saw survey crews between GB and Coco's corner, so it kinda looks that way. We spoke with locals in GB and they are holding their breath. Change is slow in Mexico but it appears that the road will be paved eventually. Go see it now if you can. GB is like what the southern Baja was probally like 30 years ago. I'm no expert but this was my first time in Baja in 14 years and I couldn't believe how much Los Barriles has changed.

[Cmayer31]

Awesome write up so far!

Who makes the mount for the Garmin 60? I have the same model and have been looking at mounting it on the bars. It currently resides in the map pocket of my tank bag.

[tahoeacr]

What the heck? You went by Tahoe and didn't stop by? Twice? You should have hit the auto pilot. That bike has been here and knows were my garage is.


More Tahoe.

[Holaday]

The GPS mount is from Touratech. Check out there website, there is all kinds of ram mounts so you can set it up anyway you like. Sorry tahoeacr Ace told me to call you but I was on a tight schedule with having to meet Glynis in Palm Springs on Wed. afternoon. I only passed through Reno once and it was too cold. Interested in what your doing with mapping haven't had time to read all the details.

[motoged]

GSPDreamer,
It's a good start

Don't ya hate it when the Beemer starts to give you grief?!

It's Puertecitos, by the way....one of the ugliest places in Baja despite the great water colour...

The rumours of paving the road to Gonzaga Bay have been around for awhile, and reconstituted by the recent paving improvements....don't hold your breath on that plan....with the economy the way it is, and without significant development $$$ that way, there is really no need to pave it at this time.

The gas situation in Puertecitos hasn't been good for a long time...



But Alfonsina's is usually a reward for that ride down...

[stickfigure]

Originally Posted by GSPD Dreamer

Hey that spot looks familiar!



About 100 ft away, I'd guess

If they pave that road I am going to cry.

Jeff

[Holaday]

Checked into Alfonsina's. Great room on the second floor. 55 bucks for the night. Had dinner in the restaurant. We were invited to join a table with a mexican doctor from Tijuana and his engineer friend. They recommended the fish so we ordered it. Excellent dinner. They were super friendly and ended up sharing 4 bottles of red wine with us that the doctor kept bringing from his room. The doctor was driving a nice new Tacoma crewcab, I asked him if he drove a big Mercedes or BMW back in Tijuana and he said "F#CK NO I would get kidnapped for sure if I did that"




Dinner at Alfonsina's



Another Beer run

Went for a walk on the beach and ended up getting invited up to a nice couples place from San Diego. They were great hosts and offered us nice cold beers. Next day we checked out the local scenery.



I'm going to check out the view from up that hill



Looking down on Gonzaga Bay



View towards Papa Fernandez







The trail.

We had a little trouble getting used to paying cash for everything. Our supply of cash was already seriously depleted after one night of accommodation and dinner, breakfast, beer etc. We decided that we had better camp our second night in GB. We told Antonio at Alfonsina's that we had to camp our second night to save money and that we would be moving to the campsite at the other end of the beach. He asked us to stay and said we could put our tent up by the palapa beside the hotel for 10 bucks. Sounded good to us. I forgot to mention there was also no gas in GB. No one knew when they would get more. Rumor was that they came to deliver gas but the station had no money to pay for the gas. No money no gas. We managed to buy about 3 gallons off a nice couple from Colorado. Since we were low on pesos and wanted to keep what little US cash we had John from Colorado took my canadian pesos.



Glynis setting up camp next to Alfonsina's



Sunset Gonzaga Bay



Sunrise Gonzaga Bay

[Lambo]

Great RR,

Thanks