Time on the road

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Bahia de los Angeles to Loreto-July 23


Chris wrote:
Just arrived in Bahia De Los Angeles and got rid of the bags, and now off to go see the town, 110 degrees in the shade and humid as hell.


This is the bunch of guys from the "DLTMYGT" fishing tournament, they kept us very much entertained for a couple of days. You will read more about them later.



Ocean meets desert, makes for great colors at sunset.


I took a ride down a stretch of the "Baja 1000" route. What I would give to have my dirtbike here!


Like being on the moon, with color.





This is Pepe taking us out to see the whale sharks, we later found out that he has a knack for hitting big things in the ocean with his boat . A couple of years ago he ran over 4 girls in a semi-ridgid, no one was hurt and this day he hit a whale shark. Way to go, Pepe!!!





About an 30 foot whale shark, we dived in, carefully, and swam with this guy. Great experience.


"DLTMYGT" prize giving, with lots of Tequila.


A typical day at the beach, and Alejandro would serve us beers right here.


This quiet afternoon at the beach ended up getting a bit louder...


and louder...


and louder


until the tequila was all gone and we ended up feeling sorry for ourselves the next morning in the terrible heat.


This is our breakfast spot at Guillermo's motel in Bahia de los Angeles.


We nearly ran these guys over, our fellow mules.


KFC, below the below the border.


Built in the early 1700's. Its so dry here there is absolutely no corrosion.


Inside the Mission , San Ignacio.





This could be upside down. This lake is in the middle of the desert.


Same lake a little later.


Like a whale out of water.


These roads were in fantastic condition all the way down so far, one does need to watch out for the trucks.


Now Steve in the red was a plmbing contractor that said to Hell with it, packed up and moved to paradise, now he lives in this RV on his own little beach living off the ocean, with no stress, for about $1000.00 a year. He surfs in the morning, fishes in the afternoon and drinks beer at night.


This is his shower, made from stuff collected from the ocean.


Beaches like this are scattered all the way along the coast of the Sea of Cortez


Cool dudes


Cool dudette

We met Sandra at the Patron bar on the beach at Mulege, a sweet fun lady, she gave us some good pointers.


This was the first rain we have seen in a long time and it completely muddied up this road and as a result we nearly saw the shiny side down.





Those are grass shacks that you inhabit for the day or week or permanently, depending on how fussy you are.


Beware of moving objects!!!


What can I say, Missy's porta-gym, keeping fit on the road...

Melissa wrote:
We were scheduled to leave Bahia de Los Angeles at 7am this past Sunday. Up at 6, we were having breakfast, ready to load the bike, sitting under the patchy palapa at Guillermo’s and gazing at the blue water, when we looked at each other and said “Why are we leaving?” That’s when we decided to stay another day. What will we do? We hatched a plan to persuade one of the local fishermen to take us out in his ‘panga’ or small fishing boat in search of the whale sharks that live in the waters of the bay. We walked next door to the cinderblock building that housed “Alfredo’s Sportfishing” and started negotiations with Pepe, an elderly guy, with whom we finally agreed on a price. Pepe rented us his family’s snorkeling gear and off we went. We rode for nearly 2 hours searching, did some snorkeling and finally gave up and headed back. Suddenly a big ‘boom’ and the boat stopped short, nearly giving Pepe a heart attack. Seems after all of our searching we had bumped into a whale shark, and he was right alongside the small boat. He was over 30 feet long, huge, and we could see him clearly through the water. Chris and I grabbed our fins and masks and jumped in. When I opened my eyes underwater, I had landed right near his head, and his huge mouth was open. Looking at his eye and his cavernous open mouth, I must say I got a fright. He was indeed docile, though, and we were able to touch him, and finally to hold onto his dorsal fin and let this huge, gentle creature pull us through the warm blue waters of the Sea of Cortez. It was a truly magical experience. Enjoying another beautiful day in paradise (or as we called it, our own Corona commercial), we relaxed on the beach, and then the last few guys that were part of the DLTMYGT Fishing Tournament stopped by. The margaritas started flowing, and then Pat produced a bottle of Correlejos Tequila, the smoothest tequila we have ever had. Chris and I tried to keep up with the youngsters of 24, and it was a fun and crazy evening. We DID leave the next day and rode through the extreme heat to the town of San Ignacio, home of a mission built in the 1700s. It is a charming little pueblo, with a freshwater lake right there in the middle of the desert. As we pulled into San Ignacio we met a couple from Denmark, both riding KLRs—they had just gotten their bike licenses in Denmark, then flew to California, bought the bikes, and took off for Mexico. The woman was riding a 650cc bike---I was very impressed! One night in San Ignacio at the Desert Inn, and the next morning we headed out for Mulege (Mul-e-hee), which is a very small town near a river. On the way to Mulege, we stopped for some water and met Steve, an American surfer and fisherman who had retired at 40-something and moved down there. He lived in Santa Rosalia in a camper right on a beautiful beach. He had a dirt bike, a kayak, a small boat and was the happiest guy you could ever meet. He invited us to come by, and we went to check out his homestead. He was a plumber and had fashioned an outdoor shower out of a fishing rod attached to his camper. From the fishing rod he hung a paint bucket with some type of net around it—this was his shower. His shaving mirror was an old car rear-view mirror attached to the wall. Guy paradise. We stopped at the first hotel we saw in Mulege, called Brisas del Mar, a shady place with an equally shady owner and some scary dogs which wasn’t very clean, and was basically awful. We walked down to the beach along a dirt road and stopped for something to eat at Bar Patron at the beach where we met Sandra, an American lady who has lived in Mulege for 15 years. She was great, lots of fun, and gave us some great tips for the road ahead. It had rained a lot last night, so the dirt road out of the hotel had turned to slick mud, and when coming up the road this morning we nearly had a spill. Thank God Chris rides motocross, he can really handle that bike. Today we arrived in Loreto, a beautiful town on the coast with a lovely malecon and some great hotels. We checked into the Hotel Mision, a beautiful hotel on the beach..We’re considering staying an extra day to go scuba diving. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

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