The trip started as expected. We were totally unprepared. I packed all of my things (minus those which I forgot of course), about 20 minutes before leaving to Matt’s. When I got there his bike wasn’t starting and I had about 2 hours of packing video gear and mechanical tools ahead of me there. We left in the darkness (which we said we wouldn’t do the entire trip), and it took twice as long as expected to travel to LA.
Then there was a rained out day, followed by a late start that had us two days behind on the 4th day. Oh well, hopefully we’ll get better. We still have a couple of months to get back on track. We made our first connection at Suzuki, where the head mechanic steered us to Baja.
Crossing into Mexico was a breeze. Matt split his first lanes to pass a half hour’s worth of traffic at the border, and then was splitting lanes throughout Tijuana as if he hadn’t told me two days earlier he refused to! That easy cross we found out screwed us when we actually wanted to cross to mainland Mexico from La Paz since we had no paperwork.
Northern Baja blows other than Ensenada. Cesar the couchsurfer made our time interesting, and we met worlf famous ceviche street-vendor Sabina.
Roads were boring, the towns sucked, and things are not cheap. It was really just killing time until we passed Guerrero Negro to Southern Baja, where twisty, well-paved roads, surrounded by scenic landscape, made for a nice, enjoyable ride. Unfortunately we were in such a hurry we blew through it all in a full day, but that day marked the first great day of the trip, and really defined what the trip is and what we’re doing. We rode hundreds of miles and got sore asses, but enjoyed every minute of it.
I took a Mexican shower in the bathroom of a restaurant, and then while I was brushing my teeth in the street outside we were picked up by some girls who offered to give us a tour of the nightlife as well as a place to crash for the night, which turned into keys to an empty house for two days while we waited for the ferry to Mazatlan.
We’re doing some great riding, meeting people, playing it by ear, learning Spanish, and living without regrets.
I think Matt has finally stopped worrying about being kidnapped or robbed, since everyone we've met has been very helpful and cool. Other travelers have also reiterated my point, which is not to take heresay advice from people who haven't done anything like this or traveled to these places themselves.
]]>
