Pics

Pics for last few days

Me with some Dr. Suess cactus

Nov 26, 2012 San Quintin

I am not in san quintin prison.  But it kind of feels like it since the whole town seems to shut down at 6 PM.  I walked another half mile down the strip and found an internet cafe that is open.  Even tiny latin american towns seem to have places to take the money of teenagers who want to be on facebook or gaming at 8 PM. Jeff read that people who camp on the beach sometimes get robbed here so we are in a motel again, which is fine with me.

The last few days have been hiccup days again.  Over the same stretch of road I got them coming out.  I wonder if there is some environmental trigger.  They seem to have cleared up this morning.  There has been lots of bodily function talk on the trip.  Not just over pee stops, but the whole getting older thing.  That and comparing notes about which mexican plates did what to which of our guts and the two of us know more about each other´¨s systems than un-related men should.  If you have noticed that i have been avoiding using contractions it is because I do not know the ascii escape codes for the symbols we typically use in english- see the last sentence.  The lack of an english spell checker is also leaving me feeling naked out here in cyberspace.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving-

Nov 25th 2012 San Rosalillita

This little fishing village had a great beach with clear water and dark brown sand.  The defining feature seemed to be the number of kids with vehicles, there were 11 year old boys zipping around on quadrunners and dirt bikes on the beach, 13 year old girls driving toyota carollas to the town mini mart.  I guess if you do not have any police presence and do not have much to run into you let the kids run wild.

We went for a motel again.  Amazingly they had one with 4 rooms and hot water.  I guess they get surfers or surfistas through there.  I swam out to where the boats were docked in the bay and the guys on board gave watched me swim with amusement.

Nov 24 2012 San Ignacio

The town was full of racers from some baja 250 style race.  It was fun talking to them.  The town is centered around an old style town square that is full of kids and families and taco kiosks which made it fun.  We checked out the rock art museum in the morning.  Jeff was bummed we didn not have time to trek out and see them.

A British woman showed up at our motel in a cab at 3AM.  She did not find the owner but a room was open so she went in goldilocks style.  I helped her translate and pay just as we were leaving.  She said she was diong baja on bus and only had a tiny purse sized back pack.  I suspect she had some stories to tell, but also a person you might not want to get involved in, so we stopped short of asking her if she wanted to share breakfast.

Nov 23, 2012 Loreto

On the way to loreto we met the canadian couple that jeff befriended in san jose del cabo.  They saw us looking at maps by the side of the road and said we could camp in the yard.  They have a loreto family that stays in their place to take care of it.  The family had a 1 and 2 year old that decided tents and motorcycles are very cool so we interacted a lot.  At least I knew more spanish than the two year old miguel angel.

One cool thing in mexico is that in places where the road curve is tight and they want you to slow down, they place bumps that set you up on a regular cadence.  The bumps get progressively closer together as you go after that, usually downhill, which gives you a sense of speeding up down the hill, causing you to slow more.  It is an interesting use of tactile feedback and psychology. 

The other thing I have noticed is that in baja 1/3 of the dogs seem to have swollen teats from nursing.  I guess spaying and neutering haven't caught on here.

Nov 22 and 23 2012 in Todos Santos

The Bentley hotel was very nice.  We kept refering to it as the hobbit experience given all the curved stone work and rolling ups and downs of the propery and rooms.  They let jeff camp on the propery as well which was nice. 

Murray seemed to tolerate the ride from san jose del cabo well.  The surf at todos santos was amzing.  It was souch steep white sand on the beach and the surf was so violent you couldn't really stick a toe in.  It made for good pictures though.

We also encountered a soul band from michegan.  They were all brothers and a dad with the youngest at 12 on the drums and the oldest at 18 on the bass.  They were excellent musicians.  They had moved to the area and I couldn't help but wonder about how they were fitting in.

We passed through cabo san lucas and went to the southernmost point, lovers beach where the pacific and the sea of cortez come together it was spectacular. 

The murmonster left on the shuttle for the airport as jeff and I left todos santos for loreto.  I wish our paths were aligned to where we could travel more together.

Nov 18, 19,20 San Jose Del Cabo

Jeff and I raced out of Cabo Pulmo in the morning to drop gear at the hotel so we could go back to the airport and pick up Murray.  My plan was to be there before she got in so she wouldn't try to get a taxi to the hotel.  I was hungry and knew she would be, so I got in line at the subway for a sandwich so I could see her coming out of the terminal.  It seemed like it should just take a few minutes to get a sandwitch but the incompetence of the staff was amazing.  I was still in line 15 minutes later having started with just a mom and her 2 kids in front of me.

So I stood waving at her from the line as she and Jeff did the so glad to see you after all this time greeting.  She was hungry but decided that she didn't want to eat the chicken in a Mexican subway sandwich which at least left me with extra meat.  Strangely she has eaten meat at every other restaurant we have been at since. Then the excitement of getting her on the motorcycle for the trip home.  See photo.  I had asked her to bring her bicycle helmet but it was too big since she pulled a muscle in her ribs and didn't want to have to lift a big bag.  I have to give her points for packing light, but I bought her a helmet locally for riding to Todos Santos and to prevent her relatives from taking the picture below as Isaac's blatant disregard for her safety.

We are in the Westin in San Jose del Cabo which is deluxe.  Below are some pics of us in the infinity pool.  The picture with Jeff is at his hotel, the Posada down the road.  He got a deal with food and all you can drink till 6 PM, so he is living the high life for a few days as well.  It sounds like the over 60 set has been discovering him out here and I have been trying to convince him of the merits of that demographic.  

Cabo Pulmo Nov 16 and 17 2012

I saw a shooting star through the screens in the top of the tent tonight.  I lie awake in bed often, but rarely with a view of the stars. A view of the stars would mean a view of the morning sun which in turn would mean even less sleep. 

We dove a wreck and a reef this morning.  I had a surreal "moving wall of fish" experience.  Yellow ras swirled around and around me at a distance of a few feet.  When I would move they would divide and flow around me in another direction like a forked stream.  It took me back to the year I lived in the desert of Tuscon in the first grade.  My brothers and I would build mountains of dirt with lakes and rivers and dam and divert the flow around our mountain town creation.

There are goats head stickers and biting bugs, but with some deet and some care how you walk cabo pulmo is very nice.  The sound of the surf as we camped on the beach last night helped me sleep.  Tonight not so much.  Perhaps I should have put more effort into wearing myself out with my afternoon swim in the bay.

I have noticed I have a lot of these romantic sunset photos on my trip with Jeff.  I am definitely ready for San Jose del Cabo and Murray!  I have been doing my calisthenics to try to keep limber with all the time on the bike and sleeping on the ground.  I get no end of grief from Jeff about it, which is reasonable.  That and my daily underwear washing routine are admittedly quirky.  Plus there is usually time for me to exercise as Jeff tends to take an additional 30-40 minutes in the morning with his coffee and packing routine.  I have always noticed that women over 50 seem to lose the ability to manage the stuff they carry around and are always rummaging through a huge bag.  Especially when you are behind them at the supermarket with just a sandwich and a coke and need to get back to work.  I didn't realize the "stuff and bag" affliction could get men over 50 as well, but as I watch Jeff with all his bags and gear on the bike, he certainly suffers from that affliction.  :)  He still doesn't substitute for my normal "over 50, bag-rummaging" partner.  

Above is Jeff fully packed, you can see his helmet poking up over all the bags.

Nov 14 and 15 in La Paz

I had been in La Paz for a week of diving before.  I went to the museum, took in some strange municipal art, and explored the town.  I saw the snail shell people and then saw an explanation in the museum that for the indigenous people there, the similarity in shape between the snail shell and a woman's reproductive organs made it a symbol of fertility that got widely used.  I don't get it, but a cool quirky tradition none the less.

La Paz is a big place with the attending big city crazy traffic.  Jeff's age has started to rear its ugly head on this trip and he isn't comfortable riding at night anymore and tires after 3 hours riding instead of 5 hours.  At least these stark realizations are coming up on him while he is on a nice relaxing vacation.  Although he wouldn't admit to the nice and relaxing part when I have a spreadsheet showing where we need to be when every day...  But we are both having a great time.

The bikes through the church door shot was in Loreto, but my memory for time and space is pretty full at this point.

Nov 13, 2012 Santa Rosalia to Bahia Conception Coyote Beach

The camping at coyote beach was stunning.  Bugs as always and bug bites for Isaac.  It must be all the dessert in my blood.  I guess there has been more rain down here in the last month than normal so there is more green and more standing water.  I swam out to the island behind me in the pic of me shaving in the ocean.  Jeff cooked up the vigo black  beans and rice I brought along with some canned chicken and we had  a good evening.  Also included are a few pictures of me with cactus.  There is a lot of that out here.  There are some crazy cactus I have never seen before like the flacid cactus behind me.  It isn't just that one plant, they all need viagra.

Nov 12, Bahia de Los Angeles to Santa Rosalia

So we left some of our blood on a motel room wall in Mexico.  In Bahia de Los Angeles, we stayed at a motel called Villa Vitta also known as the mosquito coast.  When I mentioned to the manager that some of our blood was on the walls via our 50 mosquito assault, he said it was like that everywhere in the town.  But the town is small, we saw most of it, and no other restaurant, internet cafe space, or pre-racer's hotel room had the bug fest we had.  I am guessing standing water in the AC unit.  His sneering smile made me think he disliked us for some reason.  I can't say why, Jeff's beard was in reasonable shape and fragrence that day.

Above is one of the pre-runners race cars when we left in the morning in Bahia Los Angeles and my bike the lavanderia again in the parking lot.

Santa Rosalia is a nifty town as there is a gold mine that brings in money and monied people that want more of the things that I like, like curbs and municipal budgets for trimming trees.  We ate at Pollito for dinner and breakfast the next day.  The food was good, the service was quick, but they were not very friendly.  I will take good and quick over friendly though.

Nov 11, 2012 San Luis Gonzaga to Bahia Los Angeles

Today was the day we figured out that we would pass the end of the baja 1000 course finish line the day the three day race started.  Sounds like there is no problem except that we would meet a variety of persons known as pre-runners.  These are the serious racers who are running the course days ahead as practice.  They go fast, on dirt bikes and in fully custom dune buggy racers.  One of them accepted a swig from Jeff's cherry jim bean flask he was trying to get rid of.  This gift inspired our racer to make the connection between Jeff's beard and Santa Claus and he sat on Jeff's lap for a picture.  Unfortunately the pic was on the camera of one of the pre-racers team, perhaps we can find a link to it.

The maps shows our run from Bahia San Luis Gonzaga (Papa Fernandez campo on the bay) to Bahia de Los Angeles, through a magical place called Coco's Corner.  http://www.cocoscorner.com/  Coco lacks feet, but he gets around quite nicely on his quad runner in his oasis in the desert. Pic of me with his prosthetics on the wall.  The other shows me eating some local fish steamed in foil.  Very tasty.

Nov 10, 2012 San Felipe to Punta Willard, Bahia Gonzaga Papa Fernandez

The road from San Felipe to Punta Willard is now mostly paved except the last 15 miles or so and that should be done soon.  I couldn´t get it to come up on google maps unless I used the latitude - longitude format 29.829, -114.403.  There is a famous quirky little campo there started by Papa Fernandez.  His family still runs it and gringos have built houses on the land they lease there from the family. I would hate to be providing title insurance there.

http://www.papafernandez.com/index.html

We met up with Sadie and Greg again.  Greg was already pretty well pickled when we got there. We hung out with them and a couple of brothers, Tony and his brother.  They looked like the kind of guys who might escape to a remote part of México.  It made me wish we had more time there to get the back story on them and Sadie and her dad who had been an adventure tour guide for jeep.  But it could have been scary as well the way the story might unfold- it just had that vibe.  The other retirees we met at breakfast were a quirky but interesting bunch.


We can also see what happens when a neat freak goes motorcycle camping.  I can use the motorcycle as a washing machine and dryer with the help of a 2.5 gallon Ziploc sack.  I agitate the clothes in the bag by hand for one wash cycle with soap and one rinse cycle for about 5 minutes each in a liter of water each time.  The MSR dromedary bag carries 10 liters so I can also get a little shower from it over a 24 hour camping cycle.  I also brought clothes pins to dry the clothes on the bike.    The pins and bag take up very little space and weight.  The water and extra gallon of gas do throw off the balance of the bike a bit since I don´t want to put any clothes or soft goods in with the gas can.  I tried to find one that was hermetically sealed and failed, so it is in a couple of 2.5 gallon Ziplocs as well. If anyone has a line on a half gallon or gallon fuel canister that really seals, let me know.
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We camped on the beach.  It was amazingly beautiful.  The wind kept the bugs away, but also educated me on the disadvantages of a large tent, namely wind noise that keeps you up at night.  Between the frustration of this well worn internet cafe keyboard with the half dead key responses, the lack of an English spell checker on this mexican PC, and my need for dinner, I will have to retire this issue of the blog. I had hoped to catch up but what is a vacation if it isn´t short on time...

Nov 9 2012 Continued

Jeff and I met a woman, Sadie, and her dad, Greg, at George´s in San Felipe.  The food at Georges was great.  However when I began to take off my pants at the table, Sadie got all excited.  Then she saw that I had golf shorts on under my breakaway velcro riding pants and was dissapointed.  We all hate it when a woman is dissapointed after you take off your pants.  So I tried to make some small talk to ease the situation.  Turns out the have a place in San Luis Gonzaga bay at the Papa Fernandez Campo.  More to come...

Nov 9 2012 day in san felipe

We got a hotel for this night in san felipe.  I did some errands like getting a SIM for my latin america cell phone.  We spent 3 hours at an internet cafe in the morning which I know is what you aren't supposed to do on vacation, but I needed to get back to people and setup this blog.
This eve. I got a warning shot across the bowel after eating a couple of postres from the local bakery for dinner.  Actually I suspect it was the milk I had to go with it.
Jeff made the mistake of eye contact. With a prostitute so we were followed a good ways around the "club district" of two blocks by the only woman in town in heels.

We ate at a hotel / restaurant called Georges and the food was very good and reasonably priced.  We also met an interesting couple of people there as I was removing my pants.

Nov 8 2012 to san felipe

We rode from phoenix to san felipe today, another long ride.  The border crossing from Calexico into Mexicali was fast and tame.  I like the symetry of the names.  We had mexican insurance and passports all ready, but they just waved us through.

The road was nice and new and smooth the whole way short of a few construction areas.  Halfway to san felipe we both hit an unmarked change in the asphalt that felt like hitting a curb in the dark at 40 mph, although it was probably only 2" tall.

We camped at campo san felipe rv and twnt camping area right on the beach.  The fisherman smell and sound was a bit funky into the night, but the real funk was the restrooms.  They sort of define the OMG reaction we all use in texts but rarely mean in the all caps spontaneous appeal to your maker for mercy sense.  I have to remeber to lambast them on trip advisor.  Perhaps with one of the pictures I took.  I will probably need a red "explicit content censored" icon to put over the more graphic bathroom picture content.  We ate some good fish which was spoiled for me by a white wine and caper sauce.  The restaurant was called the "langosta roja" or red lobster but resembled the usa chain in no detectable way.

Nov 7 Santa Fe to Phoenix

I have had the hiccups for two days now.  My helmet, fortunately, is pretty quiet inside, which makes the hiccups all the louder.  Jeff and I stayed with his buddy Danny in Phoenix.  Danny collects music and music memorabilia.  I guess he had this manequin to show off a specific tour shirt and perhap´s the 80s torn jeans look.  But it was a bit of a trip to wake to this view.  Texaz BBQ house in Phoenix is excellent, as most decent food is after riding for 8 hours.  :)  Jeff has a blog up as well at http://cryptographics.tumblr.com/

Nov 6 Boulder to Santa Fe
Jeff and I met at the Breakfast King on Santa Fe St. in Denver before heading to Santa Fe NM.  We accidentally took the scenic route through Larkspur, Palmer Lake and Monument when I got off the freeway to blow my nose and we could not get back on.  The motel 6 we stayed in was actually nice, clean, no smell, hot water, friendly staff.  There are 3 in Santa Fe and it pays to look at trip advisor.