Day off San Ignacio Whale Watching

Yesterday was a day off for me and I did almost nothing all day. I did run into another biker from Holland that had just ridden into town coming from Argentina. We talked about the ride and the routes as well as safety. I also heard today that a biker got hit somewhere here in Baha in the last week. I did not see any official story but a number of people have told me it happened. It is always a fear down here and everywhere for that matter. I try to ignore it.

Today however, I had a fun day, I went out to see the whales. For the last couple of days I was waffling back and forth about going out to see them or not and finally this morning after breaking camp I went out to see them. It was worth it.

We rode out to the lagoon from San Ignacio in a van and that took about an hour or a bit more. Then we jumped into pangas the small Mexican boats and headed right out into the lagoon. After a short 15 minute ride we arrived in the viewing area. We slowly cruised around watching whales blowing and diving. A few were spy hopping which is when they hold their heads out of the water and just look around the area. I did not see any breech today. We watched this for about a half hour and I was thinking that I have seen better whale shows out at the islands in San Francisco. Then one of the grey whales approached our boat as we drifted. It had been playing with another boat earlier and it just moved over to our boat to check us out.

We all took turns touching the whale and getting lots of close up pics of a grey whale. Then it was my turn to touch it. I started giving it a back rub and it loved it. The harder I rubbed it the more she liked it. Then she rolled over on her back so I could do her belly too. I was going to town rubbing her real hard and she rolled back over and blew on the other people in the boat then practically climbed into the boat with us wanting me to continue rubbing her head. It was a blast. Then we had a big wet kiss and I stopped rubbing her and she moved off looking for another boat to get a back rub from.

I took a lot of pics but the whale was so close it was hard to get good shots. Now how often to you get to say that. I took some closeups of the barnacles on her and of her blow hole and her eye and flipper and stuff like that. I did not get a pic of me kissing her cause I was kissing her and it is hard to take a selfie with yourself and a 40 ton whale cause my arms are just too short. Great day even though I was not on my bike. Tomorrow I hit the road again even in the 95 degree heat. Not sure where I might end up for the night tomorrow but such is the life of a wandering pobrecito.

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...

Ride Day 161 San Quintin to Rosario

Today I hit the road in dense fog. Normally I would never ride a bike in fog but there was a five mile long dirt road to get me back to Highway 1 and the dirt road had almost no traffic and what traffic it had was slow due to the washboard road. I bumped along at about 3mph and sometimes had to walk a bit through soft sandy areas. This road is a dentist's dream. I was shaken so badly by all the bumps I am sure the milk I drank for breakfast turned into butter. I resorted to riding next to the road in the farmland and it was easier going until the accident. There I was just bumping along with my eyes down looking for rocks and glass when I was suddenly the victim of a hit and run crash. I was knocked off my bike and the bike ended up in a heap with the bags scattered in a trail to the contorted posture of the bike. The perp that hit me just rolled away like nothing happened. The perp joined some of its buddies and totally ignored me getting up off the ground and putting my bike back together. i did manage to get a pic of the perp, it is the one on the right hand side of the pic.

After getting the bike back together I continued on until I hit highway 1. The fog was thinning by now since it was almost 2 hours since I left Don Eddies campground. I was wet and muddy from the bike spill and the bike was really filthy but such is life. I cam to a Pemex gas station and used their water to rinse off my brakes and gears, that helped a lot. I also had to bend the derailleur hanger which was slightly bent in from the crash.

The road was not too busy with traffic so I rode on the road to begin only occasionally jumping off the road to ride on the gravel shoulder when traffic was coming from both directions at the same time. It was nerve racking at first riding on such a narrow road with virtually no shoulder and speeding cars and trucks but then as I got further from town the traffic almost totally disappeared and I rode the rest of the way on the road without a problem.

I did not expect as many hills and mountains as I encountered. There were two long hard grades and a lot of smaller ones that I had to spin up in the heat. The scenery was always a dull brown but the landscape was changing constantly from farms to mountain ranges. The fog lifted about halfway to Rosario and it was hot and sunny. I enjoyed the ride even though it was hard work and sweaty. I took very few pics because the fog blotted out most things except for the last couple of hours of riding in the mountains just north of Rosario. I passed the military check point without a problem. Tomorrow is high desert mountainous terrain so it will be another long had day in the saddle. At least I don't have to start out with five miles of washboard gravel. For the next 150 miles there is not much as far as cities and services so I will need to get some food and carry extra water. No fun carrying extra water in the mountains.

I will spend the night tonight camping behind the restaurant I am in right now. I was talking to the owners and when I asked them for a campground they said right here. I took them up on their offer. I hope I sleep well in a noisy Mexican town. Or is that a redundant phrase, noisy Mexican town? The few pics I took...

Day off in San Quintin MX

It is only 7 in the morning here in San Quintin MX. I have been up and around for hours already. Today is a day off from riding just so that I can acclimate myself to being in Mexico now. I am camping in an RV Park called Don Eddie's with the Utah couple Pat and Gary that gave me ride yesterday. My Spanish, which has always been terrible, is extremely rusty right now and I am trying to remember words and phrases so I can communicate better. I need to buy a new pocket dictionary soon. I also really need to take some more classes. The worst part for me is my hearing is poor and in Spanish you need to hear all the syllables of the words to know what is being said and I can only hear and understand about 50% of it. It is the same for me in English only hearing 50% but in English I can quickly fill in the missing words to figure out what people are saying. Much more work is needed on my part to get so that I can speak better Spanish.

The last few days while I was getting ready to enter Mexico I had a feeling of excitement in my body and mind about entering Mexico on a bike. I loved that feeling. It is very hard for me to get excited about anything these days because I am just too jaded being the grumpy old man that I am. Now that I am in Mexico those feelings have already disappeared and I am back to my normal routine life devoid of excitement. Don't get me wrong I love traveling in Mexico or anywhere for that matter and I enjoy myself tremendously but I am just never excited any more.

Today I plan to soak up a bit of sun on my lilly white body and try as much as I can working on my Spanish with the locals. They all speak some English so I can ask what words mean and things like that. They are being very cooperative with my feeble attempts to speak Spanish. They tell me I need a long haired dictionary to learn to speak Spanish. I could go along with that way of learning but where do I find this long haired dictionary that they speak of? I will try to add more to this later in the day and hopefully a few pics.

Ride Day 160 SD to San Quintin MX

I rode over to the Mexican border and I had a problem, the bike path to the border was closed. So I went over to the pedestrian bridge made famous in No Country For Old Men and there was a big sign NO BIKES. The only other way to enter Mexico was on the freeway so I took it. When I rode up to the gates, the border officials did not like it one bit that I was riding my bike on the freeway. I explained the situation with the closed bike path and the big sign on the pedestrian bridge and they allowed it. While arguing with them I met a couple from Utah and they told me they would give me a ride to Ensenada. I jumped into their RV and we were off. I ended up riding all the way to San Quintin which was much deeper into Mexico than I had intended to ride by vehicle but I am glad I did. My RV hosts Pat and Gary, were very nice hosts and fun, easy to talk to people. The next thing I knew we were in San Quintin. I set up my tent in our shared site and went to eat and have a beer in the restaurant nearby. We ran into another couple from San Diego and we all sat around chatting for a good time. Great day with more of the wonderful people I meet on the road. a few pics shot out the window...