Our day off in Todos Santos happened to be a Sunday, it was recommended that we ride a little south and check out the Sunday market in Pescadero. The market wasn’t too big but had a good selection of craft from local artisans both Mexican and Ex-pat Americanos. 
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Villa del Faro to Todos Santos
As it turns out, once dinner is finished at the Villa Faro patio restaurant and we’ve made our way down the long path in the dark guided only by the stars and flashlights and we retire to the stone cottage, build a fire to add some additional ambiance and warmth and recline on the only piece of indoor furniture, which is the bed, there is not much else to really do. That, of course, is exactly why we went there. Continue reading
Loreto – LaPaz – Villa del Faro
This trip is going at a much more leisurely pace than the MotoRaid romp last year when we blasted the length of Baja in three days. After a late start we left Loreto for the short ride to the capital city of LaPaz. We met an Italian guy in Loreto that recommended the LoriMar hotel just off the malecon in downtown.
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Bahia de Los Angeles to Mulege to Loreto
The only way to start the day. Continue reading
San Felipe to Bahia de Los Angeles
This is one of my favorite rides in Baja. For years travelers were warned not to take the road south of San Felipe because of the rough and dangerous conditions. Even today most maps show the road as unpaved. 
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San Diego to San Felipe
It was nearly noon when we crossed the border at Tecate, our destination for the day was San Felipe which was about 200 miles away so we knew we had to make some time to get there before dark. Here is the route we took, from Tecate we rode east on the toll road towards Mexicali and then south. 
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Celebrating the New Year in San Diego
I had good intentions to get some postings up sooner but the internet connections have been sporadic since we crossed the border on New Years day. I was told that the internet and cell phone system for all of Baja was offline all day yesterday. Ahhh, life in the slow lane.
A little bit different than our trip from Seattle to San Diego, I only took this one picture.
On the road to Mexico for 2014!
Well. I haven’t posted in a while and I know I left everyone wondering what we are up to and how the crew are doing, especially Dave after his crash. I’m glad to report that Dave is much better and even though he’s had ongoing surgeries and lost some range of motion he is ok. In September we had a reunion of the MotoRaidII team at Keith’s house and I managed to get this picture. Unfortunately amigo number 6, Michael, could not be there. From left to right is Dave, Donn, Deby, Jim and Keith.
Motorcycles: It’s A Wrap!
Thursday, April 18, 2013, Buenos Aries
We allocated nearly a week in Buenos Aries to prepare the motorcycles for shipment. The week started on Monday with our scheduled meeting with Sandra at Dakar Motos. Continue reading
Last Stop: Buenos Aries
Thursday April 18th, 2013. Buenos Aries Argentina, Amerian Hotel
Saturday night, with Dave safely on the airplane home with his broken arm, the paperwork completed for shipping his bike and a rider arranged to go with us to Buenos Aries, the final four of us decided to celebrate with some good Argentine steak. One of our cab drivers recommended Victors a nice looking place on the main square of Bahia Blanca. Like prompt Norte Americano’s we were waiting for the doors to open at 8:00 PM. I’m never sure about restaurants where we are the only patrons. 
I ordered a traditionally prepared steak, bife lomo. Steak with an egg on top, a slice of roasted red pepper and spinach buried under the ubiquitous papas fritas (french fries) that seem to accompany everything. 
By the time we were done eating, sometime well after 9:00 the restaurant was full and there was a line of people waiting outside. 
Somehow during the few days in Bahia Blanca we started to piece together that people seemed to know who we were. Someone at a pharmacy Keith talked to, someone at the hotel and others said they heard about the Americano’s visiting on moto bikes. Finally we found out from Juan that there was a story about the crash in the local newspaper. We probably got more attention in Bahia Blanca than we did in Pucon.
Sunday morning we made arrangements with Miguel to meet us for an 8:00 departure from the hotel. He arrived with his wife who was excited to meet us, take our pictures, hug and kiss us and wish us “buen viaje”. Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of that but managed to take a picture of the horse cart across the street. 
Our last big day riding, 384 miles through the pampas of Argentina. Moving time 7 hours average moving speed, 60mph, probably a record average speed and distance for the whole trip.
It was a beautiful day of riding, perfect weather in the 70’s with clear skies and relatively light traffic since it was Sunday. 
We had some pretty stiff crosswinds for most of the ride but it didn’t seem to bother us too much. The flag was an indicator of the steady breeze. 
Miguel seemed to enjoy riding with us. 
We arrived in Buenos Aries well before dark and checked into the Holiday Inn near the international airport on the outskirts of town. 
We arranged a room for Miguel, a flight back home the next day and had a nice dinner exchanging motorcycle stories despite our obvious language barrier. Thanks again Miguel! 
This seems like a good stopping point for this post. We’ve been in e-mail contact with Dave, he is home and seems in good spirits despite the fact that he needs additional surgery and will likely loose some range of motion in his arm. Overall not too bad since it could have easily been a much worse outcome. Dave had a blog update today where he discusses the accident and the trip from his view. You can read it HERE.
Next post: Shipping the motorcycles home.
Thanks for following. Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂