The date was getting closer for our son’s wedding in Loreto, Baja Sur, Mexico. We had a huge blast riding around the mainland but now we were ready to take the overnight ferry to La Paz for our final month in the “other” Mexico, Baja California.

We had a beautiful last night in Mazatlán with another stunning sunset. They just never get old for us.

The setting sun lit up the beach hotels with warm hues for our nightly walk.

We had a relaxing last night on the mainland with a fine dinner overlooking the Sea of Cortez before topping off the night with a rousing game of crazy eights on our hotel room patio. We’ll miss this part of Mexico but we were excited to get on the ferry the next day.

We had our reservations all set for the evening sailing of the ferry to La Paz. We were advised to arrive at about 2:00 for the check-in process which in typical Mexican fashion required waiting in lines then moving somewhere else and waiting in more lines. All normal – as Deby and I frequently say when these things happen.

Deby was ready to get going – we were both excited for the wedding and looking forward to seeing everyone in Loreto.

The loading process took a while to complete, when it was finally our turn to board we were guided to ride between the truck trailers and the walls where we would strap down our motorcycles. We were tipped off ahead of time that we needed to buy our own tiedown straps. Good thing.

With the bikes secured we had time to explore the ship. You can tell Deby was excited to get underway.

I paid extra for a cabin, they didn’t have double beds so we each got our own single bunk.

For a little extra money (hey, why not), we had a “deck” and a window that didn’t actually open. The glass was so dirty from salt spray it was slightly opaque but we still could enjoy the sunset.

There were probably about another dozen motorcycles on the ferry besides us. We met some of them at a table where we had a great time swapping motorcycle tales. They were all Mexicans on vacation, between my spanglish and their much better English we got along just fine.

Perhaps most interesting of all was when we met Angela who was travelling Mexico by herself on a Can Am Spyder.

Angela is from Honduras and her family was worried it would be too dangerous for her to ride in Mexico. Amazing. We run into this often, everyone thinks neighboring countries are more dangerous than their own. I think most Mexicans would think Honduras would be more dangerous, I know that is what most North Americans think. Anyhow, Angela was having a fantastic time exploring the country. Here is a link to her website bio – she sounds like an amazing woman, I wish we would have had more time to get to know her. https://www.techosverdes.net/moto-aventuras

We slept great on the ferry and even survived the food served in the cafeteria. The other motorcycle riders were surprised we didn’t bring our own food, rookie mistake.

In the morning we docked about 6:00 AM and the disembarking procedure started, seriously, we didn’t clear the terminal until almost 10:00AM by the time we were able to unload and go through three or four check points…. all normal. I took this short 30 second video in the morning. It was really dark (the camera makes it look lighter), it was HOT in the hold of the ship where the bikes were parked and there were refrigerator trucks that has their refrigerator engines running all night so the hold was smoky with diesel exhaust. Here we are unstrapping the bikes in the dark, hot, loud and toxic lower level.

Just one stop of many getting off the ferry, nothing fast…

Once we were free it was about a 4 hour ride to the quaint town of Loreto where we would meet our children. Jon and his now wife Lindsey drove in their camper/truck from Seattle and Weston flew down. We were really glad to see those kids, especially Weston who anticipated our needs upon arrival!

Here is Jon and Lindsey’s honeymoon rig.

So for the next solid week we were busy with the wedding, friends, family and food. I’m not going to go into great detail about the wedding in this blog but will have a couple of fun pictures. I don’t have any actual wedding pictures because the bride and groom requested everyone place their phones in a big vase during the ceremony so as not to be a distraction. Good idea. Suffice to say they are married and it was a beautiful and touching ceremony. Congratulations Lindsey and Jon, we love you.

Here is a picture of my motorcycle outside the door of our casita on the water at sunrise, nice view for sipping coffee.

Deby’s bike.

We went for a boat ride and checked out some fantastic rock formations on the backside of Isla Coronado.

We even saw Blue Footed Boobies, a rare bird that I thought were only in the Galapagos. It was awesome. We tried to get a good picture but it didn’t really turn out. As a fill-in here is another boobie.

Ok, and now just a select few pictures from the wedding reception. We had a blast. The wedding was at a beachfront house with dinner and dancing with a live band on the patio.

Because it was cool on the beach everyone was given Mexican blankets to keep warm which ended up making excellent dancing accessories! Here is Deby and her good friend June who flew from Seattle with her daughter.

Later in the night we moved to a bonfire on the beach. We passed around a burning “talking stick”, whoever had the stick stood up and said a few words for the bride and groom. At the end, Jon and Lindsey took up the stick and thanked everyone. Now, the wedding dress will forever have holes from the embers! What a memory.

Ok, here is a five second video clip that pretty much sums it up. From left to right is Weston, Deby, Me, Lindsey and Jon.

We still had a couple of days in Loreto with everyone. The bride and groom rented a house with a pool on AirBnb which became party central for everyone.

Deby’s getting to be a good dancer!

So a little more about Loreto. This picture was hanging up in one of the hotels proving it’s been a motorcycle destination since the 50’s.

We did a walking tour of the city and at the end we learned how to make tortillas. Everyone had to put on an apron but since I was at the end of the line all they had left was a pink child’s apron. Deby thought it was the funniest thing.

After a week of festivities it was time for us to go our own ways. Jon and Lindsey would continue their camping honeymoon and Deby and I will ride back to La Paz leaving the honeymooners to have some privacy.

This seems like a good break point. We will have a few more weeks in Baja before heading home to the cold and damp. Or, maybe spring will arrive early, I sure hope so. Thanks for the comments and for following our adventure. More to come.

Donn and Deby