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Baja
October 2008
If you've looked at any of the
Baja pages on this site, you know that I like Baja a lot. I talk
about it a lot, too. A couple of my friends suggested a ride after
listening to me talk about it for perhaps the thousandth time, and well,
here we go again...
This was a quick one, down to
Santa Rosalia and back in just a bit over 3 days. We had planned to
go further south, but Hurricane Norbert was due into southern Baja at the
same time we were. When we got down to Santa Rosalia, the weather
looked real bad, so we turned around and headed home.
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| Lobster burritos are a specialty
at Mama Espinosa's in El Rosario. We always make it a point to stop
here for lunch after filling up at the Pemex (just visible on the left in
this photo).
It's 200 miles to the next gas station, so
topping off is a must! |
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| A tribute to the Virgin of
Guadalupe in the boulder fields near Catavina. |
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Bob checking out a Cardon
cactus. This is a medium one. Some get up to 70 feet tall. |
| In the boulder fields near
Catavina.
This place feels and looks like it belongs
on another planet. It is a very impressive area. |
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New limbs on a Cardon. |
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My Triumph Tiger. It's a
955cc triple-cylinder bike. It is perfect for this kind of riding -
it can cruise at well over 100 mph, it corners well, it has lots of
luggage capacity, and it gets about 50 miles per gallon. |
| Dave and Bob, in the middle of
the Vizcaino Desert. |
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These guys both ride BMWs.
Bob's favorite is an R1150RT-P, a former police bike. Dave has a
sleek GS.
Both these guys are far better riders than
me. I don't know how they do it, but they get through corners at
speeds that are way above what I can do, and they make it look effortless,
as if it's the most natural thing in the world.
Maybe it's just their bikes. Yeah,
that's gotta be it... |
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Dave grabbed this shot of Bob
and me. |
| Malarrimo's at night (actually,
at 5:30 in the morning).
There were no whales in town on this trip
(they migrate to this area and can be seen from January to
April). Malarrimo's has the best tour. Their restaurant
is great, too. |
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Our bikes in the San Ignacio
town square.
We spent the night in Guerrero Negro at
Malarrimo's, and then rode down Highway 1 to San Ignacio. |
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The Mission in San
Ignacio. I have quite a few shots of this church on my other Baja
pages, but the one below is really slick. My friend Dave shot it
with his Nikon, using the 12-24 Nikon lens.
The San Ignacio Mission is a "must-see" item on any trip down the Baja
peninsula.
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Dave's awesome San Ignacio
Mission shot. |
| A door going into the San Ignacio
Mission. |
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Another door. |
| And yet another, this time from
the inside looking out. |
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The Virgin of Guadalupe, on the
San Ignacio Mission grounds. |
| This guy in the San Ignacio town
square stopped by to admire our motorcycles. |
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These fellows are Mexican
dual-sport riders from Ensenada. The fellow who is second from the
left had just purchased up his new F800GS BMW. |
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Victor, the Mexican Tiger rider. |
| Las Tres Virgenes, under the
leading edge of Hurricane Norbert.
I read that Norbert was scheduled to arrive
in the Mulege/Loreto area on literally the same day we were supposed to
get there.
Norbert was a Category 3 hurricane. I
told Bob and Dave about it the day we left. They smiled.
"That's what we have rain gear for," they said... |
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Check out how much of the road
this guy is using.
Some of them do this going around corners,
too, which made for an interesting oncoming traffic riding experience. |
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Dave on his GS, in the shadow of
the Las Tres Virgenes volcano. |
| Bob on his RT-P in the same
spot.
That cloud cover looks ominous, doesn't it? |
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A painting on cart in Santa
Rosalia.
We had lunch at El Muelle, a pretty good
restaurant in downtown Santa Rosalia.
It sure was humid there. I had never
experienced this in Baja before. Just before we entered the Cuesta
del Infierno region heading down into Santa Rosalia, the air suddenly
turned heavy. It felt as if we had rolled into a sauna. |
| The Gustav Eiffel-designed
church in Santa Rosalia. I have quite a few photos of this church on
my other Baja pages, too. |
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Stained glass inside the Gustav
Eiffel-designed church in Santa Rosalia. |
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Dave trying out the pulpit.
He would have made a good preacher, I
think. For a Democrat, he's a pretty smart guy. |
| Looking from the pulpit out the
front door of the Santa Rosalia church. |
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Here's another view looking into
the church. |
| Father Dave, after hearing my
confession.
After having lunch in Santa Rosalia, we
turned around and headed home. |
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As I said earlier, it was hard to take a
hurricane named Norbert seriously, but the skies looked ominous and the
air felt uncomfortably moist and heavy in Santa Rosalia.
We made good time back to Guerrero Negro,
where we topped off our tanks and continued north into a sand storm along
the coastal plains. |
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We had 124 miles to go to get to Catavina.
We got in just as the sun was setting. The temperature
probably dropped 40 degrees from when we were in Santa Rosalia.
We stayed in the Desert Inn in
Catavina.
This is one of the sculptures in the Desert
Inn's grounds. |
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Me in the Desert Inn
hallway.
I still got it.
I grabbed this shot just for the halibut. |
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Sunrise over the Vizcaino Desert
near Catavina. |
| Another exhibit behind the
Desert Inn. |
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An old car out in the desert.
After a good breakfast, we continued
north. We had another 79 miles to El Rosario, where we filled our
tanks again. |
| We stopped at this place along
Highway 1 just north of San Quintin. It looked like it would be a fun
place to take a break, and it was. |
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Some of what was on the
menu. |
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Almeja ahumadas (these are going
to be smoked clams). |
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Lots of different
sauces.
This was a colorful place and it was a good
spot to stop for a bit. |
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This open air restaurant was
fun.
I told Bob and Dave that they were real
riders, now that they had taken this ride into Baja. That made them
laugh. Or, maybe they were thinking about the hotel in Guerrero
Negro, and me sleeping in the "loft." |
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An artist with a sense of
humor. This was the outhouse behind the restaurant. |
| There are a string of open air
restaurants and fresh produce stands along Highway 1. |
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My new Mexican
buddy.
The only way I could get him to pose for
this photo was to promise to bring a copy on my next trip. |
| These looked good. |
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There's a joke in there
somewhere... |
| More fruit. |
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...and still more... |
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Fidel. On a building
in Palomar, about 50 miles or so south of Ensenada.
We continued north on Highway 1, motored
our way through the traffic in Ensenada, and then turned northwest on
Highway 3.
Highway 3 is a beautiful ride through the
Ruta Vinicola (it's one of Baja's wine country areas) and beyond to Tecate,
our exit point for this trip.
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| We stopped at Naranjo's for a
snack before getting to Tecate. This sculpture is in their yard. |
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This young lady works at
Naranjo's. |
| A mama goat and her young son
behind the restaurant.
She was loud.
I guess they were used to being fed.
When I walked over, they came up to me quickly, and when they saw I had no
food to give them, they were not pleased. She was trying to tell me
I was baa-aaaa-aaaad. |
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Another sculpture behind
Naranjo's. |
| After a glass of a wonderful
homemade juice in Naranjo's (it's a blend of orange, pineapple, and lime
juices), we made Tecate at nightfall. We had planned to spend
the night in Tecate if the backup at the US border crossing was too long,
but to our surprise, there were only 50 cars or so in line. We got
through the border in less than 15 minutes. We took Highway 94 over
to the 125 (an exciting road at night), and from there Bob guided us to
the northbound 15. We stopped in Temecula for coffee and more
gasolina, and it got cold. We put on warmer clothes, which provided
quite a show for the people who watched us trying to get into our
motorcycle overgarments without falling down. It was pretty funny.
When I reached home, I had the
November/December 2008 Motorcycle Classics magazine waiting for
me. That issue has my story on motorcycling in Baja, and it seemed
like a fitting thing to find at the end of this trip. |
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