Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

[pceire32]

Just came upon your ride report. Thank you for the time and effort you are putting into this. I rode Baja to La Paz to Mazatlan earlier this year. Had no trouble at all with getting a TVIP in La Paz. I didn't even have the original of my registration only a copy and Mexican law says you have to have the original. At first they said I would need to get the original but after a while called me back and said they would accept the copy. I did have a problem getting the total cash amount I needed to pay for documents + Ferry fare etc. out of the bank, they had a pretty low daily total amount you could take out. I was able to work it out with a manger.
I have visited Mazatlan many times since 1985 have never had trouble at all. Do not speak Spanish. I think the Mexican people are some of the most helpful people I have met and a little mutual respect and taking things easy goes a long way. Things are done differently and at a different pace, accept that and life is a lot easier.
Relax, ride safe and enjoy your trip.

[BluegrassPicker]

Originally Posted by lightcycle

Hi Jeff, no formal training, just a lot of trial and error. As for post production, the most common thing I do is crop the photos to bring out the subject - thank goodness for hi-resolution cameras! Still learning!

I suggest you never get any

[RedRockRider]

Great ride report, Gene & Neda! Checked out your blog as well. You're no rookies!

[traindriver]

Great report guys, Called a realestate agent yesterday.

[Merlin III]

Originally Posted by traindriver

Great report guys, Called a realestate agent yesterday.

[lightcycle]

Originally Posted by traindriver

Great report guys, Called a realestate agent yesterday.

or ?

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/54.html



Southwards we go, armed with a list of places and things to see courtesy of Dan and Nancy! Our trip is like a scavenger hunt! Today we've been recommended to try to make it to Santa Rosalita for the night, only 400 kms away, but since we we're leaving LA Bay after a late breakfast (again, courtesy of Dan), we would probably arrive just before the sun sets.

The ride down Mex-1 was more of the same scenery - beautiful blacktop, twists and turns around the mountains and the ever present cacti along the side of the road cheering us on. Our journey was punctuated by the odd military checkpoint. Soldiers with machine guns stop us and ask about our destination. They're courteous to us despite our lack of Espagnol, and they are all so very young, and very curious about our motorcycles and our trip. These stops are meant to catch drug traffickers, and quite interestingly, we have heard that this effort is partly subsidized by the US government!


Riding into the port town of Santa Rosalia

Santa Rosalia is just south of the Baja Sur (Baja South) border. We lose an hour because of a peculiar time change because this timezone crossing is latitudinal, not longitudinal, placing Baja Sur into MST. This means the sun is still up at 5PM when we arrive at this port city on the shores of the Gulf of California. The outskirts of town are a mixture of industrial buildings and shacks along the roadside. We are tired and hungry and the sun is setting fast, so we book into the first nice (but relatively pricey) hotel and walk into town to find some food. We really do have to make an effort in finding some cheaper accommodations. Baja is a lot more expensive than I thought Mexico would be...


Something smells good in Santa Rosalia!


Neda y nada de gringos

We bypass a few restaurants because there were too many gringos in there. We're really looking for a "local" experience, and we find one with a Mexican family eating inside. When we're seated, the waiter hands us a gringo menu in English. *sigh* BYW, in the picture above, Neda is sipping on a "Michelada". It's a delicious beer/lime/salt concoction and was recommended to us by Yaw, who was our host in Seattle a couple of months ago. Wow, I can't believe we spent two months roaming around the western United States!

The rest of the evening we spent walking around the very small centros area, and we found ourselves hanging out with all the local families and teenagers in the town square watching some people set up a stage presumably for a concert this weekend. Too bad we wouldn't be sticking around, as Neda has just arranged for us to start Spanish classes in La Paz for next Monday morning. The curse of "a schedule" strikes again! Everytime we have to be somewhere at a certain date or time, my chest starts to constrict a little and my heart rate goes up. Or maybe it's just that spicy enchilada we had for dinner...


Retail therapy in Mulege

Our next destination on the way to La Paz is Mulege (pronounced Moolah-Hey), also recommended by Dan and Nancy. This is a quaint town full of neat places to window shop for local arts and crafts and boutique-y restaurants and hotels. As we approached Mulege, the desert flora transformed from cacti to lush, tropical palm trees, courtesy of the Rio de Santa Rosalia. The whole town is in the river valley and was subject to bad flooding in recent years due to the hurricanes in the area.


Flowers in Mulege


Lunch in Mulege

We stopped for lunch in a great hotel/restaurant where we met a whole bunch of gringos from Canada! Penticton, BC specifically. One couple was here on a scouting vacation, looking to move to the area. Apparently, there is a lot of ex-pat interest in Baja Sur.


Ater lunch, we hit the road and ride past some great looking beaches


WTF?!! I wish somebody had told us there was sand in the Baja!!!

Loreto is only 200 kms away from Santa Rosalia, so we arrived early enough to find a great (and by great I mean cheap) motel right near the centre of town.


These cute dogs live on the roof of our hotel


We walked around Loreto the whole evening, wonderful looking town!


Some other gringo bikers parked outside the more expensive hotel in the centre of town


The Mission in Loreto


Mission of Our Lady of Loreto is considered a historical monument

We heard some music coming from inside the Mission, so we sat in on some musicians and singers at the front of the church. We stayed for quite some time, enjoying the sounds of Spanish hymns sung softly in reverence. We are having such a wonderful experience wandering through Baja Sur.


Shops at nighttime near the town square


Christmas soon! But first, the Mayan Apocalypse...


The town squares are always the centre of activity. Here we watch a dance class underway lit by streetlights


And then off to finish the night with my favorite beer, Negra Modelo!


Getting ready for bedtime in Loreto

We are all set to push onwards to La Paz in the morning. On our farewell ride through the town square, we notice quite a lot of people gathered in the courtyard. And horses! Just like bikers meeting up at parking lot to go riding, these horse riders were getting together to ride to the next town. They gathered quite some attention!


One horsepower.


In the motorcycle world, this would be called "posing"


All little girls want ponies...


But glad to be back on her own pony

[eddyturn]

That is a great shot Gene!

[nuttynu]

ya two should be on the National Geo

[Scootard]

Loved the pics of Mulege and Loreto. We have some friends who speak very fondly of both being more like "the real Mexico" and not so touristy. It's great to see pictures of the area. I just checked your weather, apparently it will be 77F today. Perfect riding weather. Here in Oklahoma it's 27F. No scooting today. Looking forward to your next posts

[Turkeycreek]

Originally Posted by lightcycle

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/54.html

We heard some music coming from inside the Mission, so we sat in on some musicians and singers at the front of the church. We stayed for quite some time, enjoying the sounds of Spanish hymns sung softly in reverence. We are having such a wonderful experience wandering through Baja Sur.

A beautiful and moving write up. The seduction is almost complete. Mexico will change you in many wonderful ways.

Abrazos

[Jamie Z]

I've been perpetually behind on your ride report, but I finally caught up tonight. Glad to see your progress and excited to read about your adventures further south. I did a trip through MX and parts of Central American in 2007, and you'll probably go through places where I stopped too.

Tell Neda it's her turn in Words.

Jamie

[eakins]

que bueno!

...are you asking to park inside courtyards and such each night at hotels?
if not, i'd start working on that technique before you get to the mainland.

[Jamie Z]

Originally Posted by eakins

que bueno!

...are you asking to park inside courtyards and such each night at hotels?
if not, i'd start working on that technique before you get to the mainland.

Good point, though I rarely found I had to ask. Most hotel and hostel proprietors made it clear that safe motorcycle parking was part of the deal. I had lots of fun riding my bike up stairs and through doorways to park inside.

Jamie

[lightcycle]

Originally Posted by eakins

...are you asking to park inside courtyards and such each night at hotels?
if not, i'd start working on that technique before you get to the mainland.

Pretty much every place we've stayed at had an enclosed parking area with a gate. The exceptions were in Ensenada and Santa Rosalita, where they didn't have a courtyard, but let us parking right next to the reception desk which was staffed 24 hours a day.

Here's ours (covered) in El Rosario with a ton of other bikes in the parking lot, Moffat from Utah (V-Strom), Ben from Switzerland (KLR), an F800GS from the US, and a R1200ADV (I think) two up from England.

Originally Posted by Scootard

I just checked your weather, apparently it will be 77F today. Perfect riding weather. Here in Oklahoma it's 27F. No scooting today.

27F Ugh!

We were talking to a local this morning when it was around 72F, she said she was freezing! LOL!