(Note: I’m preparing this post with limited Internet Access in Loreto. I might have to add pictures and finish it later)

(January 15, here are the pictures)

No power when we woke up in the Bahaia de Los Angeles which meant no showers for another day. Welcome to Mexico. I think the trick is to not pass up a hot shower when available. Fortunately, the hotel restaurant seemed unphased and had fresh coffee they brewed over an open fire, they even managed to wrangle up two delicious plates of hueveros ranchos. We managed to put a MotoRaid II sticker on their sign to mark our stay. See if you can find it.

Anxious to make some progress we were on the road by 9:00 on a bright but cool Saturday morning for points south. The ferry from LaPaz to Mazatlan leaves on Tuesday and Thursday, we had the idea to try to make the Tuesday ferry. We made good time to San Ignacio where we stopped at the famous Rice and Beans restaurant for lunch, the same place Deby and I spent New Year’s eve last year. This time, we continued on and arrived in Mulege before we decided to stop for the night. The last time Deby and I were there we stayed in a pretty crummy hotel, this time Ricco at Rice and Beans recommended the Serenidad hotel. After a little excitement on the sandy road leading to the hotel we were greeted with a pig roasting on a spit at the entrance to the officina. Lucky us, it was pig roast night, yum.

The hotel is literally at the end of the Mulege airport and there were a number of gringos who had flown in to provide medical services to the locals. They were all in the bar and we had a great time hanging out, drinking cervesas and watching the GreenBay Packer game.  The only thing that could have been better is if the Packers could have won.

Bikes tucked in for the night

Sunday we made a last minute decision to ride only 80 miles to Loreto so we could 1) visit the San Javiar mission and 2) be back in time to catch the end of the Seahawks game. It was a beautiful ride to the mission and we were back in time for the last quarter of the game. The only think that could have been better is if the Seahawks could have won (they almost did).

San Javiar Mission

View on the way to the mission

Check out the road in the distance, nice ride.

Here are a few pictures from walking around Loreto….. warning…. graphic puppy pictures to follow.

Deby

Oh, a few friends at her feet.

Who can resist.

Ok, last one, I promise.

Deby and I went for a walk on the beach and I was in the right place at the right time for this picture

Picking up shells!

Tomorrow we are going to blast the 200 miles to LaPaz and see if we can get tickets for the Tuesday ferry.

Ok, I’m giving up on uploading pictures for now. I’ll add some when I get a better connection. Everybody is doing fine, the bikes are running well and we are having a good time getting to know each other. We seem to have compatible riding styles which is nice, approximately equal bladder capacities which keeps the stops to a minimum and generally laid back attitudes about the journey which is essential.

Thanks for the comments, I do read them all even if I can’t reply to them.

Donn, Deby and the gang.

We rode 314 miles further south today and stopped at the Costa Del Sol hotel in Bahia de Los Angeles. I checked my GPS log file from my last trip here and verified I stayed at this exact hotel exactly one year ago. How strange is that?

Thursday morning was cold and wet when we left to met our group at San Diego BMW. By the 10:00 meeting time the rain had stopped but they sky was grey and threatened more rain.

I had the route to the border programmed into my GPS, but to be sure, I asked directions and wrote them down. When it came time to leave and we all said good bye to the fantastic staff at SD BMW I was volunteered to lead the pack. Within riding 5 feet, (really!) my Garmin Montana 600 went completely blank. Oh great, I’m the leader with a blank GPS. Well, good thing I had the written directions in my tank bag right? No, not for me. I was busy trying to fix the GPS including removing it from the cradle while on the freeway and cleaning the contacts with my sleeve. It didn’t work. Really? Somehow while attempting repairs we missed the turn for 94 and ended up going north on 54. It took an embarrassing amount of miles before I decided to pull over and turn on my backup GPS (GPS60csx). Funny thing is that no one else seemed to know something was wrong or that we were going the wrong direction. Hmmmm, lesson one in getting to know my new riding partners.

With the backup GPS on and working we rode back to the missed turn and had an uneventful and enjoyable ride to the Tecate border.

Similar to my last time crossing the Tecate border the gate went up and we rode through without really seeing anyone. This time however, we knew to stop and procure out tourist visas, something I neglected to do on my last visit. After getting the visas and finding a bank to load up on pesos it was about 2:00 PM before we rode out of town.

Parked at the immigration office

We got as far as Santo Tomas before we were running out of sunlight and decided to stop for the night at a small hotel Deby and I had visited on our last night in Baja last year. Our first meal together was fun with great food, cervesas and margaritas.

Our room had vines growing through the window from the outside. Nice to have some green in the room.

Eager to get on the road we started riding by 8:00, it was cold, in the 40’s and we were thankful for our heated liners.

We stopped at an excellent taco stand for lunch.

The owner asked if I could put his picture on the internet…. here you go!

I did manage to take a few pictures while riding again.

Further south we came across an area that was filled with huge boulders which was extremely distracting for Deby. We had to stop to take a closer look. Good thing none of these would fit in her bag.

It was a long day today, 315 miles, but fun. Hopefully tomorrow the temperatures will get above 50 and we can turn off our electric liners, burrrr.

More to come.

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

Tomorrow we meet with the rest of our group for a 10:00 AM launch from San Deigo BMW. Deby and I had dinner last night with Jim who arrived earlier in the day after riding south from Seattle on I-5. Jim said he’s heard from Keith, Dave and Michael and everyone was close by and expected to make the scheduled rendezvous.

Since the last post we stayed a night in Burbank and visited with Dave, a college friend of Deby’s that we’ve kept in touch with over the years. Good to see you Dave! From there we  rode to San Diego where we spent a day at Balboa Park, home to the first World’s Fair in 1915. Today it houses a collection of museums, gardens and the San Diego Zoo. We checked out the art museums, the Air and Space museum and the Automotive museum where there were two Norton’s and a Vincent Black Shadow on display.

We didn’t take too many pictures but needed to get a shot of this glass art that was throughout the Prado restaurant inside the park.

Zooming in a little closer…… (warning parental bragging ahead….)

Martin Blank is the Seattle glass artist our son Jonathan works for. I had no idea some of his work was in the park. Click HERE to read about Martin Blank. Click HERE to see some work by Jonathan Ross Harvey.

I noticed our friend Pedro left Redmond today on his way to Brasil, safe travels my friend. We are hoping to catch up with him somewhere in Central America. You can track his progress HERE. Our friends Tad and Gaila made it to Guatemala, we hope to catch up to them as well. You can track them HERE. And don’t forget to follow our progress on SpotWalla HERE.

I have no clue what is in store for tomorrow, what time we will cross the border, how far we will ride or where we will spend the night. I’m turning off my phone when we enter Mexico and will post next time I have internet access. Be sure to check in on SpotWalla to make sure we are moving during the day and stopped at night, hopefully in a village and not in the middle of a desert.

More to come, Donn and Deby