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San Felipe
November 2008
This was another one of those
quick 2-day, 800 mile blitzes into Baja, and it was great. My friends
(Bob, Dave, and Brian) and I felt that popping into Mexico was a good idea
(not that it took any arm twisting to convince anybody).
Bob knew that this was the
week the Baja racers would be pre-running the course, and we saw a lot of
off-road buggies and dirt bikes.
I had it in my mind that I
wanted to shoot film on this trip, so all of the shots you see here came
from my Nikon F5.
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We spend a lot of time talking
about the route we are going to take on our trips to Baja, which is kind
of funny in a way (there just aren't that many roads down there). On
this one we thought we would do something different, and we entered Mexico
through Tecate and picked up Mexico Highway 2 west to Mexicali.
Highway 2 is a toll road, and it is in great shape. It curves south
of Mexicali (it never gets into downtown Mexicali), and then it intersects
Highway 5 for a straight shot through the desert and the sulfur fields to
San Felipe.
I grabbed these shots on Highway 2, east of
Tecate. That's my friend Brian and his Triumph Bonneville, and
my KLR is in the background. Brian and I were trading e-mails about
this trip until 3:00 a.m. the morning we left, and we met at my place at
6:00 a.m. Neither one of us got much sleep the night before we
left. Neither one of us had any problems falling asleep once we got
to San Felipe.
Check out the sky in this and the other
photos. The weather was absolutely perfect. |
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Dave and Bob in Mexico, on a
rest stop along Highway 2. |
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My KLR 650 on Highway 2 in
Mexico.
My bike was the pipsqueak on this trip, but
I didn't care. I love the KLR. There's something about a lightweight
single-cylinder motorcycle that just makes it a lot of fun. It's
simple to work on (not that it needs much maintenance), it's actually
pretty smooth, it has a comfortable upright seating position, it will run
all day at 80 mph (which it did for long stretches on this trip), and it
sips gas delicately. It's a great machine. You can buy these
brand new for under $5300, and you can pick them up used for a song.
Mine is a 2006 model that I bought new, and I am really happy with it.
About 20 miles after I took these photos,
we were at the Rumarosa Grade (photos coming up below). Wow, was it
ever something! |
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The Rumarosa Grade, about
halfway between Tecate and Mexicali.
This was an awesome stretch of road, with
switchbacks and other dramatic stretches, nestled along the side of the
mountains, surrounded by huge boulders.
You can just barely make out the car
carcasses on the side of the mountain in this photo. Check them out
in the photo below. |
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I grabbed this shot from the
same location as the one above. I used my 17-35 Sigma lens for the
shot above, and a Nikon 28mm prime for this shot. Funny thing is the
Nikon lens had a polarizer on it, while the Sigma did not. I don't
know why the shot above has such a blue sky and this one doesn't |
| My friend Dave enjoying a Dos
Equis at dinner in the El Cortez restaurant. It's a great place,
overlooking the Sea of Cortez. |
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| This little guy was with his
family having dinner at the next table. He was pretty curious about
us gringos, and he seemed to really like it when I took his picture. |
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After a long and leisurely
dinner, we walked to the main drag and the seaside promenade. This
is a view looking north along the western coast of the Sea of Cortez. |
| One of the open air restaurants
in San Felipe. I didn't have a tripod and I was shooting 100 film,
so I held the F5 against a post. |
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| Bob hamming it up in front of
the camera. |
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Along the promenade in San
Felipe. |
| A street vendor in downtown San
Felipe. |
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They have what I guess is a
strip joint in San Felipe. This photo shows a decal in a car's rear window
advertising it.
No, we didn't go in. |
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This is a shot my friend
Dave grabbed with his D40X and converted to black and white. It
shows the desert racers parked at the hotel. |
| Brian, Dave, and Bob at the El
Cortez the next morning, just before we left.
The weather was glorious, and so were the
roads. We took Mexico 5 North again, and about 35 miles after
leaving San Felipe, we turned left on Mexico 3 for a magnificent ride
across the backbone of the Baja peninsula. |
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Highway 3 goes all the way to
Ensenada, and then after following Mexico Highway 1 for a couple of miles,
it cuts northwest through Mexico's northern Baja wine country (where it's
known as the Ruta Vinicola).
Naranjo's is a great restaurant along the
way (we always stop here when passing through). The boys are waiting
for another great Naranjo dinner in this photo. |
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