09.12.08
Yesterday I reached La Paz, the Capitol of Baja California Sur.
After almost 6000 cycled kilometers it‘ s time for a short break, just a few days.
Time to think about the last days, weeks and months.
Time to think about the days, weeks and months to come.
I‘ m very tired and am glad that I don‘ t have to get on my bike today.
6.12.08
Bushcamping Ciudad Constitution
60,9 km, total 5751,1 km
Not much to say about this day. I got up at 7am, just after sunset. We camped in the bush the last night and I slept very good. At 8:30 am the bikes were loaded and we were on the road which was mostly flat and very straight, 26 km to Ciudad Sergentes. There we stopped for breakfast, I had scrambled eggs with bacon and beans, what was very good. After a while we were on the road again which was still flat, but we were going south then, on a highway with 2 lanes in each direction. Except for some farmland there wasn‘ t much to see today.
After another 26 km we reached our final destination for the day, Ciudad Constitution (50000 people live here but it doesn‘ t seem that big). It was hot, 33 degrees C, when we started to check out some motel rates. We finally ended up in the Paraiso del Valle, sharing a pretty good sized and clean (except for some crickets) room with wi-fi. Walking around town, I saw a lot of christmas decoration. It really doesn‘ t feel like it‘ s christmas time here and a decorated tree seems kind of strange to me when I‘ m sweating like crazy because it‘ s warmer than 30 degrees.
For dinner we had the best Quesa-Tacos here in Mexico so far!!!
We will try to make it to La Paz (210 km) in 2 days, stay there for a few days and then catch a ferry to Mazathlan on the main land.
Adios!
3.12.08
Mulege Rosarito
74,6 km, 5:10h, total 5527,6, hm 852
We left Bills‘ house at 9:45am and I was very unmotivated. I didn‘ t feel like another rest day either, so I just kept going.
After a while we reached Bahia Concepcion. That‘ s a Bay with white sandbeaches and it looked like a great place for a rest day. Eckart and Dave said yesterday that they would wait for us at La Réqueson, but we didn‘ t see them the whole day. The scenery was great the whole day and a nice change to cycling through cactuses and desert. But it was very hilly and I had a hard time.
In Aguajito, at the south end of the Bahia (we didn‘ t know that it was the end), we stopped at a Taqueria. We didn‘ t have lunch by that time and hoped for another Taqueria before leaving the Bahia because we didn‘ t feel like eating there. Since there was no other Taqueria we stopped in the shade of a tree at the side of the road and had lunch there.
I still wasn‘ t in a good mood and had a hard time to go at the same speed as Sebastien and Sara. Many cars with US plates passed us today and quite a few of them drove very aggressive, honked at us and some even drove by very close on purpose. The mexican people and truck drivers are definitely driving mor carefully when they pass us.
About 2 minutes before sunset we arrived in Rosarito, a town that only consists of 2 houses and one Taqueria. We asked if we could camp there and it was no problem. The people there asked us many questions about our trip and watched us while we pitched our tents. We had dinner there, Burritos de Machaca, Tacos de Pescado and Cerveza. They parked their car close to us and we thought they wanted to work on it, but they used the car battery to make some light!
When we asked if there was a toilet the all laughed, pointed all around them and said that the toilet is everywhere;-). We were just glad we didn‘ t ask for a shower!!!
At 8:30pm I was in my tent, close to the road. The passing cars were pretty loud but I fell asleep right away, I was exhausted. Only 1 ½ hours later I woke up because there were dogs barking, people talking and lights on our tents. After a while it was calm again and I fell asleep again.
02.12.08
Our friendly host Bill convinced us to stay another day at his house in Mulegé. He even drove together with Sara and Sebastien to the place where we wanted to meet Dave and Eckart. They wanted to keep cycling to camp at a beach about 55 km south.
After we did our laundry and had been on the internet for a while Bill gave us a tour of Mulege. We stopped at the old mission, the prison and then drove along a bumpy road to a sea-food restaurant right by the Sea of Cortez. There we had great shrimp-tacos and a beer.
On our way back we stopped at a grocerystore, the bike-shop and got some ice-cream. For the rest of the day we hang out at the porch, had another beer and ate dinner at the taco-stand next door which had really good food.
It was a great day and Bill gave us the opportunity to see Mulegé in a different way as we would have done it from the saddle of our bikes.
30.11.08
San Ignocio Santa Rosalia
73 km
We left San Ignazio at 9:15 am after a short stop at the grocery store. There was a strong headwind blowing and we had to climb quite a bit. A long time before we passed the Volcan Las Tres Virgenes we could see it already. We didn‘ t make much progress and when we stopped for lunch at a taqueria in Mezquital we still had almost 40 km to go. The taqueria didn‘ t look very welcoming on the outside but surprised us with a very clean and european-style interior. Eckart showed us the pictures of a big tarantula he took along the way!
A few km later we had a great downhill ride and an awesome view looking back to the vulcano. Rolling hills brought us to the next summit. From there we had a great view down to the Sea of Cortez. A fast downhill ride on a curvy road followed (we stopped several times to enjoy the view, it was amazing) and suddenly we were on the bottom of a canyon what meant that we had to cycle uphill again!
Another climb and one downhill later we cruised the last 8 km along the coast and reached Santa Rosalia, a former copper-mine town, with the last daylight. We checked into the Motel Del Real, took showers and walked into town to find a place to eat dinner. There we met Kristel from Belgium again, a backpacker from Belgium whom we already met several times since Guerrero Negro. We had dinner together at a restaurant that looked a bit touristy, but the food was really good.
A short walk led us passed the mission that was designed by Gustave Eiffel (you know, the guy the Eiffel Tower got its name from) to a mini-market, to the town plaza and back to our motel.
CU Anja
27.11.08
Today we stayed in Guerrero Negro for a rest day. We did our laundry in the lavenderia next door, had lunch in a small taqueria, die grocery shopping and uploaded some pictures on the internet. I couldn‘ t write all the journal entries I wanted to the day was just too short. When we came back from lunch we saw 2 bikes standing outside the room next to ours. We walked over there and met Dave from Canada and Eckhart from Germany who are also travelling south. Tomorrow we‘ ll try to cycle together. Things are going well here in Baha California, the people are friendly and welcoming and we even experienced rain in the desert!
Hasta Luego
Anja
23.11.08
Sacraficio Catavina
After a great night in the tent under a sky full of stars I got up at 6:15 am and we were on the road by 7:50 am. The temperature was comfortable 16 degrees C. The terrain was a lot easier than yesterday. At an altitude of about 500 m the road was going a bit up and down, there were some nice rolling hills but no long climbs.
When we reached El Progresso we were very glad that we didn‘ t go on yesterday because there was nothing there, no place we could have stayed.
After passing San Agustin the scenery was quite boring for about 10 km but then it became incredible. There were plenty cactuses and many rocks, small and big ones. Sometimes there were even huge piles of rocks. It looked like a playground, like manbuild. I took tons of pictures today, I just couldn‘ t stop.
Mario, a guy on a motorbike, passed us and stopped a while later. He lives in Santa Barbara now but is originally from San Salvador. He gave us his address and said we should contact him if we go there and have any questions. It was very nice talking to him.
Just before we arrived in Catavina we wanted to look at the cave-paintings. We stopped and Sara and Sebastien looked for the cave while I watched the bikes. They came back after 45 minutes and I thought that it would have been very interesting but they couldn‘ t find the cave! When we were back on the road we saw a sign somewhere up in the mountain while they looked for it in the valley. But we were all too tired to go back again…
We stopped at the first motel in Catavina but there was nobody around. At the other motel, the Desert Inn, they wanted 88 US $ for a room for 3 people!!! We decided to get some groceries at the small store, which was very disappointing because their selection was very poor, first. On our way over there we saw Uli and Vera at a Café and chatted with them for a while, they stayed at the Desert Inn. After getting some groceries we cycled 2 more km to Rancho Santa Inez (1km south on the main road, 1 km off road) where they wanted to charge us 100 Pesos per person for a bed in a dormitory which wasn‘ t very inviting. Instead we decided to pitch our tents for 30 Pesos each, with a cold shower though.
Around 7pm we wanted to get some food at the ranch but everything was dark there. So we had to eat the food we could find in our panniers I had another Nutella-Banana-Burrito;-).
22.11.08
El Rosario Sacrificio
48km, 3:40 h, 12,2 km/h, total 4835,8 km
We had a pretty slow start, as usual, and it was almost 9 am when we sat on our bikes, the thermometer showed 20 degrees C and there was no cloud in sight. Since we would cycle through the desert and didn‘ t know if there were any places to buy water along the way I carried 7 l of water.
Leaving El Rosario many dogs barked at us and followed us a bit but it seemed as if they stopped when Sebastien used his whistle. Before entering the desert we passed a small stretch where it was really green. Many climbs between 1% and 11% and 32 degrees C in the shade without any shade were exhausting.
Soon we saw the first cactuses along the road and at my first discovery-tour I found out that they really had pricks. Dry green grass turned into yellow-brown sand. Then I saw the first HUGE kaktus!!!
That was amazing. The whole scenery was pretty incredible. I was just waiting for a cowboy on his horse!
After 45 km we started to look for a good place for a roadside-lunch. Suddenly, after another short climb, there was a small loungeria in a town called Sacrificio (which was on none of our maps and probably consisted only of this loungeria). Great!!!
We sat down and each of us ordered 1 Quesataco and a soda for starters (because of the heat we weren‘ t too hungry and we thought that we would just order more if we liked it). While we waited for our food we obeyed a young boy who lookes very serious while he tried to catch a baby-duck. He could‘ t catch it though, it was very entertaining for us. After a while each of us got a plate with 3 Tacos and Beans. We were 100% positiv that we only ordered 1 each but we ate them anyways and they were really good.
We were really stuffed and didn‘ t feel like getting back on our bikes. So we asked if it was possible to pitch our tents next to the loungeria and it was. It was a great place to camp and we had the chance to catch a glimpse of the real mexican life. They even had showers there!
Sunset was already at 4:42pm!!! We hang out in our tents for a while, went to the loungeria again to have some dinner and were really happy that we didn‘ t push it today but made an unexpected early stop.
21.11.08
San Quintin El Rosario
66km, total 4787,8 km
In the morning we spent some time on the internet and didn‘ t get going until 9:30am. A few km later, in Lázaro Cárdenas we stopped at the ATM and at the grocery store. There we met Nadine who cycles around the world with her friend. They already started in 2003!!! After exchanging some information about the road ahead of each of us we were finally on our way around 11am.
The wind changed it‘ s direction constantly. The fog along the coast kept the air pleasantly cool at a temperature of 21 degrees C and dispersed a mystic mood. The car- and truck-drivers were again absolutely considerate and passed us carefully. After some easy rolling hills we had good a climb at the end of the day. It was in a construction area and it was the hardest climb of the day. The flaggers who worked there were very entertaining, though. They cheered for us, asked if we were ready for the next Olympic Games and made some funny moves. The climb was followed by an awesome downhill-ride into El Rosario.
There we met Uli and Vera at the Motel Sinhai where we squeezed us and our bikes into a small room for 300 Pesos. After a refreshing shower we had dinner with Uli and Vera in the restaurant at the Motel. I had Enchiladas con Pollo but didn‘ t like it too much, the others enjoyed their meals though.
20.08.08
San Vicente – San Quintín
103 km, 17,9 km/h, 5:42h
Sara, Sebatian and me left the Valentino Motel around 8am. It were only 16 degrees C when we started, but the following climbs made me feel warm soon. After 40 km we reached Colonet. At first I thought there was a traffic jam but then we saw that there was a parade going on. We passed all the cars and trucks that passed us earlier and watched the parade. Since the road was still blocked we enjoyed cycling without traffic for about 6 km. Leaving Colonet there were a some nice rolling hills and we made good progress. There were many possibilities to buy food or cold drinks today, but the didn‘ t seem to be where my map said they would be. The km shown on the map weren‘ t very accurate, either.
The last 20km there was a lot of traffic and we puched hard to reach San Quintín with the last daylight. There we met Vera and Uli again at the Uruapan Motel. I‘ m sharing a room with Sara and Sebatien. We had good Tacos and Quesatacos at a Taqueria at the other side of the road for dinner.