Ride Day 162,-3 Rosario to Catavina

I left Rosario where I camped at the Cafe Casita for the night and headed inland into the mountains. Beautiful scenery of high desert all the way. The ride was hard. the sun was out early and the temps climbed up into the 90s. There was no flat road all up and down rolling hills with several long hard grinds up mountains. I had hoped to make it to Catavina but after 50 or so miles of constant climbing, I just melted in the heat. I stopped at a ranch and asked the farmer if I could sleep in my tent for the night. He said yes and after I set up my tent, he and his farm hands admired my setup and we talked for about an hour about my ride and our families etc.

Then we went to work. He was culling his calves into groups by sex and size. I joined in on the fun. They were roping and dragging calves and I was opening and closing the gates and directing them into their different pens. It was very entertaining for me watching these cowboys work. I think I heard every swear word in the Spanish language. It took us a couple of hours and when we were done we sat and talked for a couple more hours until the sun went down. I was very tired and crawled into my tent after playing with his guard dog. All night long the dog which looked like a blue was guarding me and protecting me from coyotes. He chased them off repeatedly much to my amusement. He was very serious about his work. I finally passed out.

In the morning I broke camp and hit the road at first light to try to beat the heat. Again it was hard riding and the temps shot up to 95 very quickly. I was melting again from all the hard riding. The scenery changed to rocky outcroppings with huge cacti. I loved the scenery. I eventually made it to Catavina where I sat and had a coconut drink then went over to the fancy hotel for a beer.

In the hotel I met a group of 16 people traveling down to watch the whales. We had a good time talking over a few beers and then they invited me to ride along with them. I was totally exhausted and the idea of avoiding about a hundred miles of blistering hot hard mountainous desert riding made me consider their offer. I said yest in about 30 seconds. We loaded my bike in one of their pickup trucks and I jumped in a van. We rode south.

We made it to a hotel where we checked in and then went for dinner as a group. I had a great time and enjoyed their company. The food was fish tacos. I passed out almost immediately when I finally hit the bed after a night of drinking beer and shots of tekillya. Very entertaining evening with a great bunch of people.

In the morning they headed out to see the whales and now I am off to find a campsite tonight. Today I am not riding. I need the day of rest. I am loving my trip so far...