Author: 2WF Page 4 of 9

We just met Nathan on our way to the ferry

La Paz –> Mazatlan

The next morning, still on the ferry, we see dolphins jumping in front of the boat and two big whales in a distance. The skyline of Mazatlán becomes slowly visible as well.

When we cycle from the ferry we get company from Nathan. With the three of us we cycle along the boulevard of this beautiful town and we bend off to the old historic center for a coffee. It’s still early in the morning. We arranged a Warmshowers address to stay with but we don’t want to be there to early in the morning.

Between the huge trucks coming from the ferry

The Mazatlan boulevard

The Mazatlan cathedral

It’s around noon when we arrive at Dennis’s place, our host for the coming two nights. Dennis invites us in his apartment. Three other cyclists moved in all ready this morning and soon the small house is filled with bikes and people. All the same folks from the ferry. Sean from Canada, Alice and Aurelien from France, Nathan from the US and the two of us. Beside those cyclists there is also Ricardo, a drug addicted detoxing young guy over who Dennis takes care of.
Dennis it self is a missionary from the US, based in Mazatlán to take care of the homeless and drug addicted people. Around a hundred warm meals are cooked in the small kitchen every night and served along the streets to those who need them most. Dennis thumbs up ?
In the afternoon we continue our discovery of the old town and the market. For a change we cook today so we need some fresh stuff. (Not for all the homeless but for ourselves ?)

Apartment packed with bikes and people

The day after we take a small hike through town with all of us. A short ferry takes us to Rocky Island with it’s nine mile beach. Nine miles of pure white sand. Gorgeous.
We swim, snorkel and play cards all day long. ?

With the whole gang through the streets of Mazatlan

Home made mini bug

Boat to Rocky Island

Ricardo

Arjan

Walking back through town to Dennis place

Mazatlan by night

When we wake up the next morning we realize it’s time to take off again on our bikes, ready to discover the Mexican mainland. With the four of us we say goodbye to Dennis, Ricardo and the France couple (Alice feels ill and stays in bed today)

Leaving Dennis again

Sean on the right looks fast 🙂

We and Nathan have the same destination for the coming days. The town of Tepic, around 300km from here. Sean wants to go to Durango so after a few kilometers we say goodbye to him as well.
There are two roads parallel going to Tepic. The 15 and the 15D. The 15 is the old road going through all small towns in between, the 15D is the newer, faster and wider but paid highway.
Officially it’s not allowed to cycle on the highway but since the old 15 doesn’t have any shoulder to cycle on it’s much safer for us to get on the 15D. We take the risk and we will see what will happen if the cops see us our if we want to past the toll booths.

Fixing Kims third flat tire of our trip.

Forest roads

Road construction

After a few kilometers on the 15D highway the first toll booth comes up. Signs of ‘cycling is not allowed’ are present and on the sign with all the prices is the bicycle unknown. When we arrive at the toll booth a guy smiles at us and waves us through. “Buenas Dias”… “Grasias Amigo”
Mexico, a country where all rules are not taking to seriously, we like it.

Toll booth coming up

Cycling not allowed

We continue our highway ride and the later it becomes the higher the temperature goes. Around noon we’re in for a long lunch and descent siesta so we drop down our bikes and find a nice spot in the shade. After 10 minutes a police car stops in front of us. We see a cop sitting with a huge machine gun but he doesn’t come out of the car. After 30 seconds two more police cars are stopping in front of us. Still no one comes out of the cars. They all carry the same big machine guns and make phone calls.
We are wondering what is this all about. We know we’re not allowed to cycle here but three police cars, six cops and three big guns against three poor cyclists seems a bit of an overkill to us. We continue our lunch and wait patiently what’s gonna happen next.
After five minutes one of the guys comes out of his car and starts a conversation in poor English. We have no idea what he wants to tell so Nathan takes over in decent Spanish. The cop looks surprised and continues his story in his own language now. He asks if we are alright. We: “Euh, yes we are alright”
Cop: “Yes because there was a robbery along this road and maybe you guys have seen something”
We: “No, we are here for some time already but didn’t see anything”
Cop: “Ok, thank you. Goodbye and take care”
We: “Thank you…”

Robbery? We didn’t see any!

All three cars take off again and the cops wave friendly to us. In the hour of our siesta that follows we see the police cars riding up and down the highway multiple times but nothing spectacular happens.

We continue our cycling and by the end of the day we hit the small town of Escuinapa. We want to try to sleep at a fire station tonight but we can’t find any so Nathan asks a few police cops where to find the local fire station. The cops say they have a better idea. “Follow us” is the answer, and so we do.
After one or two kilometers they stop in front of a culture center.
They explain that the culture center is under police protection 24 hours a day so this is the safest place in town for us to sleep. We know that in the coast region around Mazatlan drug kartels are still presents so we don’t mind to sleep under police protection tonight ?

Asking some cops about the fire station

In front of the cultural centre

The next day we depart early again and thank the police officer on duty. The coast road is still without hills so we go fast. We take long breaks but still at the end of the day we count 115km as we arrive in Rosamorada. One of the first things we see when we cycle into town is a small simple church. “Maybe a good opportunity to stay tonight?” is our first thought. Some guys work in the garden of the church so we ask one of them if we can stay tonight. “Probably no problem but I have to ask our pastor first. Besides that, tomorrow it is Sunday and the first church mass starts at 7 in the morning and the clock bells for that will start at 6am so you will be awake early”
We answer “no problem, we are awake every morning because of the hot weather so we can take long siestas”
The guy leaves the garden and returns after a while to say it’s no problem for the pastor we stay tonight.?
Before pitching our tents in the garden we walk out for some street food. We find tacos and hamburgers. When we return to the church the guys over there ask if we want we can sleep in the parish house of the church instead of pitching a tent in the garden?
Sure we want that. No tents to set up makes it even more easy.

At 6am the next morning the clock bells wake us up and by the time of 7am we packed already to hit the road again. The visitors of the church look quite surprised when they see us coming out of the parish house besides the church. We thank our host, see a glimpse of the pastor starting his mass and are of again.

Napping in the church

Leaving the church again

Nathan is going another route from this town. We continue on the 15D highway to Tepic, Nathan keeps following the coast to visit some friends who are in Puerto Vallarta at the moment. Maybe we see him again in Guadalajara, the next big town we hit and where we gonna stay a little while.

The 15D highway moves into the mountains from here, going more land inwards. We raptly climb to 1000m coming from sea level. We go downhill after it as well. We climb again, go downhill again. This sequence repeats multiple times which makes us much slower than the days before. The ride for today stops in Jala, a small town close to the Ceboruco volcano. This 2300m volcano is sleeping since the year 1875 so we aren’t afraid to be buried under lava tonight.
In the nice town we find a cosy hotel ran by an old Mexican. In this hotel we also meet Sergio, an Mexican guy who is in town for business and to make photos from the volcano. He invites to go up the volcano the next morning early. We agree of course. The road up is very bumpy and about 16km uphill, we didn’t plan to go up at all but this is nice opportunity.

The next morning we meet Sergio again in the hotel lobby. Indeed the road up is bumpy and even with a car it takes us an hour to go to the crater. In the meanwhile Sergio tells about his company which is specialized in the registration of animal movements and geological changes in landscapes.
At the crater we hike around for quite a while in a superb landscape and have some good conversations with the three of us.

Inside the volcano crater

Cactus and pine trees growing on the same place

Measuring seismographic activity

Steam coming out

Brand new signs?

Cows on the road on our way down.

Leaving Jala again

The way down from the crater to our hotel also takes another hour and sometimes cows block our way. At the goodbye with Sergio he invites us at his home when we will pass it in a few weeks. It’s halfway the afternoon already when we leave the hotel to go to the next town for today. Ixtlán del Rio, just one hill and 15km away from Jala. On the iOverlander app we found a cheap hotel in Ixtlán del Rio but on arrival we can’t find it. Above a door between some stores we see a small Hotel sign. When asked it seems another hotel than planned but also cheaper than planned. No problem ?

For the first time in Mexico we eat at a small Chinees toko. We already had heard that Chinees restaurants in Mexico should be very good. And indeed the food is surprisedly good.

When we awake the next morning it’s not just raining, it seems a waterfall is coming down from the sky. We decide to stay an extra day in this town with a good Chinees within just 100 meters.

The day after our goal is the home town of the Tequila. The road keeps hilly with loads of up and down hills but the temperature drops the higher we go. The closer we come to Tequila the more Agave fields we see, the plant where Tequila is made of.

Another volcano in a distance

Taking photos on the road

Mountains coming up

The forests becoming denser and denser the more south we go.

Siesta

A wants (Heteroptera) in Mexican style… much more colorful then in Europe.

Agave plants all around

Tequila it self is a nice town, touristic but not to extreme. Tequila tours and tasting can be done everywhere.

Entering Tequila

Our stay for tonight is a rare small place which we found on the iOverlander app. It’s a sort of a restaurant but it’s just a terrace in someone’s garden with a kind of outdoor kitchen. They only serve breakfast here.
The daughter and granddaughter of the lady who runs this place are both speaking fluent English. They invite us to stay and explain where to drop our sleeping bag and mattresses down. After acquaintance we walk into town to have a look around and by the time it’s getting dark we hit back to our host where on the opposite of the street we saw a Pizza, Beer and Rock & Roll sign. Sounds like a plan to us. When we enter the place, no one is there, just the owner. Inside the place looks more like a storage house than a restaurant but the owner asks us which pizza and beer we want and puts on some rock music. Despite the place looks awful the pizza is really good and the owner is a nice guy to have a chat with.
By the time we go back to our stay for the night just one worker is left to do some preparing for the breakfast the next morning. He warns us that the restaurant opens at 6am so a sort night maybe expected. We roll out our sleeping bags and fall asleep.

The next morning at 6am nothing happens. By the time of 8am we hear some people and go out. The restaurant isn’t open jet but a bunch of people are busy preparing to go open soon. When we see how the big pieces of meat are cooked in the street we consider to have breakfast somewhere else. Our host doesn’t mind so we do.

Breakfast

Our ride into Guadalajara today is a long decent climb uphill. The big town has 1,5 million inhabitants so the big streets into town are packed with cars and trucks by the time we come closer to town. It’s rush hour and even with our bikes we stay stuck multiple times. It takes us hours to reach the Casa de Ciclistas of Guadalajara, our base camp for where we gonna discover this massive city the coming days. Mario the owner invites us to come inside, explains everything and gives us our own keys of the house. He also tells more cyclists are expected to come, a couple from France he says. Alice and Aurelien we figured since they must be around one day behind us because Alice was feeling bad when we left Mazatlan. The days after we discover this historic town with loads of old buildings. Some say this is the most Mexican city of whole Mexico.
This blog story stops here for now.
Our stories will be continued by the time we enter Mexico City in a few weeks.

We end this blog with wishing you all a great Christmas time??? ⭐️

Underneath a bunch of random street pictures from Guadalajara.

In the Casa de Ciclistas

Cheers…?

After cycling the Mexican Baja California from Tijuana to La Paz we thought it would be wise to learn some more Spanish. In the Baja some people do speak English but most don't. On the Mexican mainland and more south in Central and South America we expect even less people to speak some English.

We did a week course in La Paz. Every morning up at 7am to be in class at 8am. Classes till noon, have some lunch, do homework for several hours, have dinner and go to bed. And start over the next morning again.
At least, this was the plan but...

Plans never go as planned.

At the first day at school we meet Julia from Canada and Alex from France but also living in Canada. Those two are traveling together in a Ford F350 short bus*, transformed into a really awesome camper van. (*Short bus: The well known yellow school bus but much shorter)
They are on the road for half a year already and still have a half year to go. We become friends pretty quickly and spend a lot of time with them during the week. Off-course we did our homework but beside that we also did a lot of "fun" things.

In the weekend after the course we where invited by Joanne to come to her campsite in La Ventana, a very nice beach village south of La Paz and very popular by kite surfers due the goods winds. (Joanne was also doing a Spanish course together with Erik but not in the same class as we did)
Around La Ventana we went to a luxury hotel with nearly any guests for swimming and kayaking. It was locally called the "Kartel Hotel" because all this luxury and no one who actually seems to pay for it. We also went to the beaches north of La Ventana for digging big holes. Thermal heated water will fill the holes if you dig on the right places and you end up in your own self made Hot Tub. It did cost us a few hours of digging but it was pretty awesome.

Ok, lets do this

Hey Arjan, ten cuidado!

Relaxing after a day of hard work at school

Quote of the day

Doing homework

One of the nice beaches around La Paz

Eating big self made hamburgers

In the classes

Pinning where we from on the worldmap

Lunchtime in our hotel

On the road again, leaving California hotel

Bikes on the back of the camper

In the camperbus

Enjoying the view from above

In the pool of the "Kartel Hotel"

A pretty small boat for the two of us

Kim "Come on, faster!"
Arjan: "F*ck off, my boat is sinking!"

Sunset in paradise

Not a bad place at all for a camp

Hottub at night

Alex keep digging, even in the morning

Hard work pays off

"I go for a early morning dive"

Hiking time

Some strange mutations

Having a break on the beach

Blub says the fish

Watching the kite surfers

Bye bye friends, hope to see you again on the Mexican mainland in a few weeks.

When we are in the town we go to get some coffee at a local coffee shop. ☕️ Here we have Wifi so we can have some conversations with the home front. We also have contact with our Czech friend Pavel. We find out that he slept in the town of Guerrero Negro and we find ourselves reunited again. We leave the town a little later in the day and ride 30km to go and sleep in the desert together.

Wake up early in the mist

Pavel cycles a little faster so because Arjan and I are already packet up we decide to hit the road. Pavel says he will catch up with us anyway so we know we will see each other again.
The end of the day we want to arrive in San Ignacio where we will go to our first “Casa de Ciclistas”. This is a place at peoples homes where you can put your tent in their garden for just 100 pesos. There you can do your laundry and have a nice shower and when you’re lucky you can meet up with other cyclists who are also doing a long distance cycle trip.

Wall painting with lots of names

We manage to make it to the Casa de Ciclistas. There is no one there so we decide to put up our tent and take a shower. We try to figure out the WiFi password so we can send a message to Pavel. We did not see him all day and we find it strange that he is still not here.
The next morning we meet the family of the Casa de Ciclistas: Othon and his wife and two sons. He also owns a fish taco stand in town. Because the fish taco stand was not enough to provide the family for a good living they started this campground for cyclists in their backyard with help of a french couple in 2014.

We do our laundry and Othon‘s son helps us with the WiFi password. We are wondering what happend to Pavel so we send a message to him right away. We tell him where we are and that we will be staying here another night. Pavel is just 5km away from us but had a lot of flat tires and that is why he was not able to catch up wit us. Eventually he makes it to our campground.
Not to much later another cyclist arrives. He is a cheery and nice fellow called Gus. He’s from England and he has been on the road for quite a while too. But earlier this year he already did some hiking with his girlfriend in Colombia, Peru and Equador and visited Mexico City when his is parents came over to see him.
We go to eat lunch with the four of us at Othon his fish taco stand. The food is amazing! We grab some beers to dring back at the campground. When we arrive back there we see that there are even two more cyclist. Laurent and Odlile from Switzerland. Wow, now we are with a group of 6 cyclists!
We spend a nice night together swopping stories and exchanging tips and tricks and just have fun together.

Taco Time

The next morning Pavel, Laurent, Odile, Arjan and I will go on further south of the Baja California Sur. We aim to go to Mulegé within the next few days. It is close to 1st and 2nd November what means we are close to the celebrations of “Dias the los muertos”. We all want to celebrate it there. Gus tells us he will also catch up with us on the 1st of November in this town.

Leaving again 🙁

Pavel has another flat tire and the problem to his flat tires is found. The rim tape has to be replaced because the sharp edges make his tires go flat. Since we have got no rim tape we decide it might be a good option to put duck tape over the rim tape inside. Why not? With Duck tape you can fix anything, right? ? And it seems to be working. Woohoo! ?

No rim tape so we use duck tape on Pavel’s rimes to protect him against even more flat tires

Just before we arrive to the town Santa Rosalia Arjan finds out that his back rim is broken. We wanted to go wild camp on the beach just before the town but because of the broken rim we decide to check the local bicycle shop te see if they can help us with a new one.
At the local bycicle shop they can’t help us. The boy at the shop things that we will have better luck in Loreto. We hope Arjan his rim will hold for that long because Loreto is still at least 5 days riding from here. Arjan puts his panniers on the front racks to take of the weight of the back rim. Hopefully this will do the trick until we make it to Loreto.

When cars go slower downhill then us bikers it becomes annoying

Downhill… no cars 🙂

Second wheel ducktaped as well

We spend the night just after Santa Rosalia at a wild camp spot somewhere just off the road not visible for the traffic.

The sky is on fire

The next day we make it to Mulegé. We can see right away that this is a very nice little town.
We want to stay with a Warmshowers host, but when we arrive we find out that this person does no longer live at this adres. She just moved to another town. But we talk with the landowner and he offers us to stay at the garden of his house. We can put up our tent there and we even have a very nice view over the sea.
Pavel, Arjan and I take on the offer to stay here. Laurent and Odile decide that they rather stay at a campground nearby.

Laurent and Odile from Swiss

In town everybody is in the streets. It looks alive and everybody is very happy and cheerful. Parents are walking with there kids going from door to door for trick and treat. It is actually a tradition that they took from the USA. It is not really part of the tradition of Dias de los muertos.

The landowner shows Arjan a place where we can use the BBQ so we get some groceries to make a nice meal.
When we are preparing our meal another cyclist arrives who is also searching for the same Warmshowers host that we were looking for earlier today. We invite him to stay with us and eat with us. We figured we have enough food anyway.
It is already dark so it is probable his best option anyway and he doesn’t even have to cook his own meal. Who wouldn’t like a welcome like this?! ?
His name is Nash and speaks fluent Spanish. He tells us he has lived and studied in Mexico for 6 months and that is how he learns his Spanish.
The meal we prepared turned out pretty nice. And the good company and nice conversations make it even better.

Preparing the BBQ

Making new friends with Nash who comes along by accident

The next day we spend together going into the town to get some breakfast at the supermarket. Also take a look around in the town square and see what shops they have here. We bump into Gus who just cycled into town and grab some coffee together. The afternoon we spend chilling in the garden with view on the sea. The water is so nice and warm that we can’t resist to not go swimming. The coastline is full of beautiful shells and the water is so clear the you can see all the fish swimming around you when you are in the water.

Backyard camping close to the beach

Hey doggie!

Conversations…Conversations…Conversations…

Eating out at night

In the evening we go back into town to see what happens with “Dia the los muertos”. We didn’t see a lot happening in the daytime. We know we have to go to the graveyard because it is celebrated there. There should be music and a lot of people celebrating, but when we arriver there we see some people lighting candles on some graves. There is no music however and it seems not to be a very cheerful mood. We feel like intruders and a little misplaced to be there. We decide to go back tot he house and call it a day.
The first day of dia the los muertos was not really wat we heard of it and what we expected it to be like. Maybe the celebration on the mainland of Mexico is different. We don’t know. They say Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur are different from the rest of Mexico because it is more connected to the USA. Maybe that was why it was different than what all of us expected. Or maybe we weren’t in a big enough town.

That is why we decide to move on the next day. All of us are all leaving Mulegé.
Everybody has different plans as it seems so Arjan and I will be cycling on our own again. We say good-bye to Gus who leaves early this morning. We had a great time with you Gus! Hopefully we will meet in La Paz again!

Best group picture ever 😀

More serious now…

Saying thanks and good bye

Somewhere further on the road Nash catches up with us. He cycles so fast and other than us he planned to ride a long distance for today. We just want to go a few kilometers to camp at a very nice beach: Playa El Requéson that we have heard of. So our paths will also divide here. Maybe see you somewhere on the road again. It was sure fun meeting you Nash!
We take a break at a beach at lunch time and we are reunited with Pavel again.

With Nash on the left

Going downhill to the next beach

We have a very easy going day and arrive at the Playa El Requéson. Here is where want to camp. It is the nicest beach of the whole Baja California they say.
We meet with some nice American people Rola and Cookie. They tell us they are kite surfers and that they are heading south to La Ventana. La Ventana is a very well known spot amongst kite surfers. They have a big RV and a pickup truck. At the beach you have to pay for every vehicle you take with you. They offer us to pitch our tents behind their RV so we don’t have to pay a fee to stay on the beach. That is so nice! Thanks a lot! We even get yoghurt and 6 boiled eggs. Wow, sweet! They tell us they are gone early so we will probable not see them again.
The next morning when we wake up Arjan finds a note and Starbucks coffee left by them for us. What a good start of the day!! Thanks so much!

Sunrise

Meeting people who leave Starbucks coffee in the morning… we like it 🙂

Cheers…

We make coffee and it tastes so good and after that we take a swim before we hit the road again.

Fish Taco?

After two days the three of us arrive in Loreto and we have trouble finding a place to sleep. We eventually ask at the local church in de middle of town and they let us camp in the garden of the church. Pretty sweet that we can sleep here! Even nicer when they tell us the history.
Loreto was the first Spanish colonial settlement of the Viceroyalty of New Spain on the Baja California Peninsula. That is the reason why they have the oldest church in de whole Baja. We’ve been told that it is over 300 years old.

Another flat tire with Pavel

In the backyard of the church

Leaving in again.

We don’t have to pitch our tent because we can sleep under a roofed part in the garden. We make our dinners on our stoves and dive straight into bed because we are so tired.

The next morning is another beautiful day. We take a stroll through town. It is really beautiful and we like to stay here for some days.
Eventually we find a good priced campground by accident.

We see there are two more cyclists staying here as well. Jan from Germany and Luc from France. Jan is the first cyclist we meet that is going from south to north. He started in Panama and wants to go up to Alaska. And Luc is cycling around in Mexico and will go to central America as well. We spend the night at the campground exchanging stories.

Jan is already leaving us the next morning to go further north. We wave him goodbye and wish him safe travels.

Brothers in crime?

Arjan gets his new rim done

We stay in Loreto for the next 2 days just to relax, go to the beach and get Arjan’s rim fixed. Drink some beers together. Get our route sorted out for the next part and do some laundry.
Pavel needs a haircut as well…. so hey… why not let Kim do this! ✂️
She is almost a pro now…????

Kim does another haircut

We sort all our stuff out before we begin the last part of cycling in the the Baja California Sur. We say goodbye to Luc.
Pavel is staying another day but we know we will definitely see each other again in La Paz.

We know we have a big climb to do today. Before the steepest part of the climb begins we take a nice lunch break at the beach. We won’t be seeing the beach again until we get to La Paz. Our final destination in the BCS. So let’s enjoy it while we can…??

Siesta on one of the many beaches

From the coast back in the mountains

Sweaty weather

Ride with a view

In the evening we find a restaurant that also has a room we can sleep in for a very nice price. The food is very good. But it is a strange sight because the restaurant is almost empty except for the table we are sitting on. While we are eating we hear one of the two women that we met when we arrived sewing something. Eventually we find out it is our curtains that she is sewing. And when we go back our room they ask us if it’s okay if they hang them in front of the window.
We ask them in our best Spanish how long the restaurant and rooms exist and they tell us they just started the business. They are still redecorating the restaurant and the rooms.
Okay now everything makes sense!?

With just one table in the restaurant

Jail hotel

We sleep well here and the next morning we leave early. We can cycle a lot of kilometres in the coolest part of the day. That is perfect! We start with a good uphill to go more downhill for the rest of the day. We arrive early Ciudad Constitutión and find a good campground. They even have a swimming pool and the place looks nice! Also the showers have hot water which is pretty exceptional for Mexico.

Yoga at 6:30am

The next morning we leave the campground early again. We buy some water in town and get some coffee at a coffee stand on the street. We see we are standing in front of the town hospital. An older man who is definitely is one of the patients is taking a walk outside of the hospital trying to get someone to give him a cup of coffee. We decide we can make his day and buy him one. It seems this man is no stranger because the lady behind the coffee stand knows exactly how he drinks his coffee. We bet he does this every day! ?☕️

Misty mornings

Big spiders walking on the road

Adding more water… about 5 liter per day, per person.

Midterm elections in the US.
“…and that the democrats may win, not the non religious Trump… Amen”

Another ghosttown

Dead snake along the road

This some “Días de los muertos” decoration left along the road.

Road… No road…

Another jail hotel

We where in contact with Pavel again and he told us he was cycling pretty long days because he wants to catch the ferry ⛴ in La Paz to the mainland on Saturday evening. Somewhere in these last days he passed us but we didn’t see him. On our last day before we arrive to La Paz we see a cyclist in front of us and it turns out that it is Pavel. We are reunited once again!
Sad thing is only that he has a problem with his knee. It is hurting pretty bad. He still has to cycle a lot of kilometres with this bad knee before we will be in La Paz. Today it is already Saturday and he really wants to catch the ferry because our English friend Gus will also be on that ferry. They want to cycle on the main land of Mexico together.
Today we stick together and hope for the best! When we’re close to La Paz it is really time to say goodbye to Pavel once again. Now we know we will not see each other for a long time. Pavel will try to catch the ferry and we are staying at a campground just before La Paz. He really has become a very good friend of ours and we’ve had so much fun together! Thanks for the nice time and good luck Pavel! Maybe we see each other in Nicaragua again and otherwise definitely in Czech Republic ?? or Holland ?? !?

One of the last long stretches to La Paz

The last kilometers to La Paz, downhill.

Next day it is only a few kilometres to La Paz. So we have a pretty easy day in sight. We arranged a Airbnb a few days ago but we have to wait before we can go there until 3.00 pm. Time enough for us to get to know La Paz a little better. We first go to check out where we can find our Spanish school where we will be going for the next week. This is easily found after that we go to check out the rest of the town.
We go to the malecón. Here we have a nice view on de harbour and the sea. And along the malecón there is even a cycle path. It is pretty busy today because it is Sunday and everybody here is enjoying the day and we do too.
When it is finally time to check in at our Airbnb we arrive there to find out that we can not stay at this address. The man we talk to explains that he has had some payment problems with Airbnb and that he has been trying to get off of the website. Okay….hmmm it looks like we have a problem here. He calls with the Mexican Airbnb department while we are there. But still this does not solve our problem because we have to find a new place to stay for the next days or at least for tonight. We say goodbye and hope we can get our money back that we already payed trough the website.
We will try to sort this out with Airbnb when we have found a place to stay the night since it starts to get dark pretty soon.
We cycle back to the malecón because we know there is a cafe that has good WiFi there. While we are there we meet a Belgium couple, Katrien and Jens, who are also cycling in Mexico for a few weeks. We chat a bit about our cycling trip and there’s. Katrien and Jens tell us they are staying at a pension nearby that is not very expensive. That sounds really great! We are definitely going there!

You take a nice picture from someone else…

… and this is what we got back 🙁

Glad we still have this one 🙂

Leaving San Diego

We say goodbye to Dan and we move on south, keeping the sea on the right hand, heading to the Mexican border at Tijuana. Tijuana is one of the biggest and busiest border crossings of the world. We keep our fingers crossed that everything goes okay today.?
When we are halfway from San Diego to Tijuana a lady on a fancy racing bike joins us for a talk. Her advice for the border is “go there where the pedestrians go and not where the cars go!”
“Thanks lady!!!”

Salt Lakes

When we nearly at the border we see a huge outlet shopping mall. A lot of Mexicans cross the border just for a day to go shopping here. We stop by to eat lunch.
At the border we can’t find the pedestrian gate in the first place but after a good search we discover this gate is moved and we go on. It’s not very busy and we don’t have to wait long. The officers at the desks hardly speak English but we’re checked in in just ten minutes and get our six months visas ????
When we walk out off the office we see thousands of cars waiting on the Mexican side to go into the United States. Big border crossing? Yes for sure, the biggest we’ve seen so far.

Taking Photos Prohibited 😉

Baja California, Mexico it is.
We slowly start peddling through Tijuana. The streets are more dirty and have had less maintenance. The city smells different, more smog and other things you don’t even wanna think about. But on the other hand, more music and more smiling faces on the streets.
We follow the shortest route on our gps, out of town. Not the best route we discover. Some streets are so ascending, we hardly can cycle them. At the top of the mountain, somewhere middle in town, the pavement ends and it looks like we end up in a dump area with garbage everywhere and with just a small track through it.

Fun hey?

Yeah, real fun… 🙁

On our way down from the hills we decide to take the highway instead the shortest gps route. This works out much better and finally we make progress getting out of town.

Better roads

We arranged a Warmshowers host in Rosarito before we entered the Baja California.
When we arrive in Rosarito it’s time for dinner. To get used to the Mexican food as soon as possible we eat a big Mexican style pizza for nearly nothing ?.
We’re close at our host but when we arrive near her house we can’t find it. It’s dark already and al houses have big fences, half doesn’t have a house number and there are many barking dogs. When we ask a guy at his house he explains we’re in the wrong street. “Go three blocks back” he says.
We search and ask around at a local store but can’t find it.
When we go back to the place we searched in the first place we try to figure out which house it might be. When a car stops close by, Kim asks again if we are at the right adres here. Answer of the lady “Yes you’re at the right address here, I’m a girlfriend of your host but she lost her phone that’s why she did not answer your calls or messages”
We’re so happy we’ve finally found it. Mexico by night on the first day you enter it doesn’t feel good. Especially because that is what everybody told us not to do!
The strange thing is the guy we asked about the adres the first time we arrived lives just two houses away, 20 maybe 30 meters…
Ix Chel our host gives alternative health care for women and practices at home. “The school of Mother Earth” as she called it. On our arrival she has a client so we meet short and she explains were we can put our tent and can take a shower. We fall asleep early after this long and hectic day.

Frida Khalo on the 500 pesos bills

Diego on her back

The next morning we sleep long but Ix Chel sleeps even longer. Her friend Liz did stay last night as well. With the four of us we eat breakfast and chat a lot. We decide to stay an extra day at Ix Chel, go to the beach and in the evening we go out for dinner together in a authentic local restaurant. After dinner Ix Chel shows us around in the touristy part of town. In the night we celebrate life with wine from the Baja California and have good conversations.

Mexican open kitchen

Ix Chel, Liz and Kim

Guitar man in the background

Sadly we have to move on the next morning so we say goodbye to our new friends and hit the road again.
The road in this part of the Baja California is separated in a new toll road and the old highway. We take the old highway since cycling is not allowed on the toll road. The traffic is okay, all big trucks are on the toll road. We roll in and out towns, town after town.

Say bye bye

Our planned stay for the night is a Warmshowers host with a surfers hostel near the beach but when we arrive at the place. The hostel is closed and the name of our host is unknown by the locals.
To bad… what to do next? We drink something at the Oxxo and decide to go to a campground into the mountains, found on our iOverlander app. (Oxxo = a small shop which sells drinks, small foods, cigarettes and other things you might need to survive the day. These Oxxo’s are found in every town, no matter how small the town is)

Big Brother is watching

Farmers at work

We head to the mountains and climbing higher and higher. Sadly we have to cross a road construction and have to wait for more then half a hour to go through. Luckily in the row of waiting cars a guy starts a chat with us and offers cold beers. We like! He and his driving mate drinks a few too. We guess Bob is not his name.

Road Construction

After the road construction it’s another 30km before we arrive at the campground where we are the only guests, despite it’s quite big.
The camp spot it self is big too, the showers are cold and the local cat steels our cutlery and Swiss pocket knife at night.
In the morning we search the whole area for our stolen cutlery and pocket knife, which were smelling like food and were left outside by us in the evening. To bad we couldn’t find any of it.
We hit the road again, back to the coast.

The traffic is horrible and we hope the rest of Mexico will not be like this. It is noisy all day and the streets and the sides of the road look dirty. Still all the people we see in the towns and on the road are very warm and friendly and are waving and saying; Buenas diaz! Buenas tardes!! Or will even cheer us on.

Trash Mountain

Checkpoints now and then.

Sapje der bij…

We end the day at the Aztec hotel. At the desk of the hotel they ask us if we want to stay the night or if we want to rent the room for 4 hours. Ehm….okay we just would like to sleep here the whole night. When we have checked in we take the panniers off of our bikes and bring all our stuff including the bicycles up to our room. We laugh when we see our room because it even has a mirror above the bed. We think this hotel is used a lot for couples who need some privacy from the rest of their family or even the ones who want to cheat on there other half….
We eat some nice tacos at a vender on the street and get some groceries at the local Oxxo for the next day.

In the mountains

We always know how to make a room cosy 😉

We get the bikes packed up the next day. It is already very hot early in the morning. It is still noisy, with narrow roads and lots of traffic. We stop several times today to get some rest and drink something in the shade. We tried to get a Warmshowers host for tonight, but we did not hear back from them jet.
Then we see another cyclist passing us by. Arjan whisles at him and he sees us. He turns around to come and chat with us. He tells us his name is Pavel and he is from Czech Republic. He has been working in Alaska this summer in the salmon industry to make some money. He wants to visit two friends in Nicaragua and he decided just like that to go from Seattle to Nicaragua by bicycle.
He tells us this is his first Cycle tour trip ever and he is liking it so far.
We ask him were he will be staying tonight and it turns out he also wrote to the same Warmshowers host as we did. We tell him we have no clue if we can stay there too since we don’t have any wifi now. He is in dire contact with the Warmshowers host through their daughter via Whats App and he sends a message to her. Eventually we can stay there as well. But she tells us that the health of her mother is not at its best at the moment so she already says that she is sorry that her mom will not be able to be with us very much during our stay at the house.
We cycle the last part of the day with the three of us and get a warm welcome by the daughter of Carmen and Israel (who are our Warmshowers hosts)
She tells us that her father just went to town on his motorbike to get something but he will be back a little later at the evening. Her mother Carmen is now laying in bed to rest. But when we are in the house to get everything explained bout the sower and where we can sleep Carmen comes to welcome us.

The daughter of Carmen and Israel has a pizzeria that is right next to the house so we decide to go eat at the restaurant with the three of us.
The pizzeria has a good ambiance and it is also very nice that we can get to know our new cycling friend Pavel.
A little later in the evening we get to meet Israel in person too. We hear that Carmen and Israel work at the hospital. They are very nice and warm people and we had a great stay at their house!
The next morning we say thanks and take a nice photo together to remember this nice and warm family! We also got a lot of nice tips for different places in the Baja California so we are now a little better prepared for what to expect and where we can find nice places to see and spend the night.

On the road with Pavel

At our host

Israel is a BMW rider as well

Bye bye and many thanks Carmen and Israel

From here we go on to San Quintin where we have another Warmshower stay at the house of Gabino and Lupita.

Refilling the water bottles

Gabino and Lupita have hosted over 400 cyclists! They even have a map with a lot of pins in it that shows where all the different cyclist came from. Gabino earns his money with buying secondhand stuff in the USA and re-celling it in Mexico on the Sunday market.
Our new Cycling friend Pavel decides to go on cycling the next day, but we want to stay a little longer to get more acquainted to the Mexican weather and lifestyle.
We check out the little town of San Quintin and go to the market where José is now working because it is Sunday. It is a very big market and it is full of people buying and celling stuff like shoes, clothing, furniture and lots more.
We already noticed that every town we cycled through so far are full of second hand stores. It seems this is a big thing here in the Baja.
We return at our hosts house and work on learning our Spanish.
Gabino gave us a lot of good tips where to go and where we can get food and water and other essentials we will need on the road. The day we leave, Gabino goes with his fiends to cycle a mountain nearby so the first part out of town we cycle together with him and his friends. Another great stay at a very nice family!

Thanks for hosting us!!

This day we decide to cycle a short day so that we can camp at the beach. We find a very nice spot and read and relax a bit. The wind is strong and there is not a lot of sun so sadly it is not a nice day for swimming. ut still we enjoy our time here very much. We cook our dinner and go to bed early. Tomorrow will be a big day off cycling.

Beach is coming up

We plan to cycle some days of long distances. We are going into the desert and we will cycle through it for the next few days. These days the temperatures are very hot going between 29 up to 40 degrees celsius.

Lonely hot roads

The desert is beautiful in it’s own special way. The cactuses we see are amazing and some are really incredibly huge! We are surprised that everything in this desert is so green, we even see a lot of flowers.

Long shadows

Ghost towns

Huge cactuses

Flowers

Breakfast in the shade.

Lunch in a 5 star restaurant

At the end of the day we make some time to cut Arjan’s hair because it is too long and he likes it to be a little shorter in this hot climate.
Okay, nice challenge! Kim has done it before so luckily she is not scared to put the scissors in Arjan’s hair! 😉

Kim “Are you sure?”
Arjan “I can always leave my hat on”

Final result 🙂

We find some places where we can eat some local (cheap) food and fill our water bottles. With this warm temperatures drinking enough water is really important. But it seems here in Mexico there are people living everywhere. Even when we don’t expect to find anything there still will be a small restaurant at the side of the road from time to time.

Eating and sleeping at a restaurant

If we need a place to stay when we are in a town we will ask at the a restaurant and eat some food there. We pay for the food and they are more than willing to give us a spot to camp on at the back of their restaurant.
Also we found nice ranches where we could spend the night.

Sleeping on a ranch

Cat company

When we are in the middle of the desert we will just find a nice spot in between some big cactuses and hide behind there, put up our tent and cook ourselves a nice meal on the camp stove.
After a few days we arrive to the coast and camp on the beach. This is the end of the Baja California Norte and close to Guerrero Negro in the far north of the Baja California Sur.

The road to the beach

Camp on the beach

Vultures eating whatever they can find

Bye bye Baja Califonia Norte