Day 1

we began planning this trip by pulling together the equipment we felt we would need to carry on the bikes to repair or otherwise get the bike moving if we were stuck out in the middle of nowhere. that list included:

- first aid kit
- stop-n-go tire repair kit
- cycle pump (http://www.stopngo.com/Contents/76085.asp)
- matches/lighter
- spare tire tube
- siphon hose
- Zip ties
- small gas can (1 gallon)
- jbweld
- hand sanitizer
- rubber gloves

we didn't use the zip ties, but everything else was useful and will become a permanent part of our adventure pack.

we decided the destination was loosely cabo san lucas. if we made it all the way, fine. if not, that's fine too, that would only mean that something else was deemed more interesting.

our original scheduled was delayed a month since my contract was due to expire at the end of march. my contract was extended for another 6 months. after working 4/9 hour days, we were packed and ready to head off directly from work at 11:00 a.m. on Friday 3/30.


fiddle, fiddle with the gps. ye loves that thing and although i don't think it necessarily kept us from getting lost in the cities, it was a life saver when it came to pointing out the distance and location of the next pemex station.


i should mention that we had purchased a couple of neck pillows for camping some time earlier. we've taken them on previous camping trips to baja and they've been useful, albeit cumbersome. on this trip, ye decided that they would make great butt pillows to enhance the almost non-existent comfort of the sv650 seat. you can see part of it (it's blue sitting on the yellow bike seat) similar to this one:

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/comfortstore_1943_8818453

that very morning in the turn lane going in to work, ye shifted his weight and that darned butt pillow came flying back at me. he turned the corner and i stopped to pick it up. . .oops. i mention it because you will see it again later from a slightly different perspective.




our ride to the border crossing at calexico was uneventful. i plugged in my ipod, turned on my tunes and barely noticed the slab as we rolled off the miles.




you can see that smile from here. . .time to hit south of the border.

we crossed at the mexicali east crossing which is easier for us to reach, less crowded, and we've been that route so many times we're very familiar with it. . .but wait! there's road construction that takes us on a detour. so we end up winding around this way and that until. . .we're lost. okay, not to worry, we've got 10 days to find our way out of this neighborhood. we continue riding through the residential area until we find ourselves on a busy street.

okay, now what? well, i lean over to a young man in a car next to me at the stop light, lift my visor and open my mouth and whip out my best engspanol ((c) ywr, 2007. all rights reserved) "donde esta camino cinco, por favor?" or for us english speakers "where is highway 5, please." at least that's what i thought.

he looked at me like my helmet was on fire. . .hmmmmm. now what? ye leans over and says "donde esta san felipe." oh, the spark of recognition shines through. a couple of hand signals and some words we don't understand and we turn right at the next major intersection. big sign says SAN FELIPE. we're good.

once we clear the traffic of mexicali, we have free sailing to san felipe. the wind kicks up across the dry lake bed making for some other worldly, but interesting blowing dust conditions. we get waved through the military checkpoint at the junction of highways 5 and 3 (to ensenada). they were having a group meeting and didn't want to be bothered with us. that's cool.

we arrive at san felipe just in time for some dinner. yum! although we are vegetarians, we "fall off the wagon," please, make that "jump off with glee" when it comes to fresh fish tacos along the malecón in mexico.

the view from the "restaurant":


fish tacos, nothing compares to looking your dinner in the eye just before consuming it. heh.


catching the moonrise:



never one to pass by a parked motorcycle, ye starts the obligatory sniffing:





we met up with this guy the next day on the road south of puertocitos. . .but that's another day.

a view of the restaurant:


we bought a copy of lonely planet and decided to try out a couple of the spots that they recommended. the first one was a place that was described as:

Departmentos Peña - Behind the owners' little supermarket is this small, friendly and clean mini-motel. it's one of the cheapest in town, doors from the 2nd floor rooms open onto a shared balcony.

okay, not exactly. it is now called posada del sol and the owner, i believe his name is ralph, is a great guy. the phone number in lonely planet is wrong and it was a bit difficult to find, especially with the name change but. . .we found it. they are going through a major remodel of some sort. can't tell if they are starting or finishing as things always tend to be in some state of construction, with the exception of the completed state. there is very rarely anything that is complete.

ye noticed the bike was having some issues starting and pulled the seat to take a look. he fiddled with a bit looking at different things, but we didn't spend too much time on it friday night because. . .we had 9 days to fix it. mañana was good enough. we bought some cervezas and settled in to chat about the days events and laugh.

time for a little shut eye. wrong again, see in baja, you can ride anything on the streets. so people were tearing up and down the streets all night long on their two-stroke quads and bikes. good thing we had earplugs because we needed them. once they were in place we had no trouble sleeping.

i can't wait until tomorrow.