Day 3

we awoke to the sounds of dirt bikes being warmed up. the group from the night before was going to split, 4 headed to meet the local celeb, coco, the other 2 remaining to expand their trip a bit.

we weren't in any particular hurry, just heading south. before leaving, we chatted with a couple that had taken the road from puertocitos in a vw microbus. i remember passing that van that was puttering along at >10 mph wondering how in the heck it wasn't being wrenched apart. it looked like a piece of licorice twisting one way and then another down the hillside.

much to my surprise, instead of it being a couple of young, foreign hippies, it was a couple in their mid-70's. she was a hoot, proclaiming it was all "quite fun!" telling us that at one point they got stuck in the sand and dug for an hour before some dirt bikers came along and helped get them out. it was probably one of the two groups that were there at alfonsino's. she told us that her husband had climbed mount kilimanjaro after having 5 bypass coronary surgery at the age of 72. he also rode his bicycle across iran and turkey. dude looked like he could barely make it down the stairs. my hat's off to him.

we slowly loaded the bikes, afterall, we had 8 days left. . .we decided those pillows were more of a pain than they were worth so we left them on the table outside of our room. i'm sure someone is enjoying the a whole lot more than we did! we mounted up and hit the road to visit coco some 25 miles down the easier side of the ride. uh-huh.

we pulled to the side of the road in just about the same place that ye last year crested that hill and ended up coming straight down the sand dune. we had to reminisce a bit, laugh and make stick man signs of falling and rolling down the hill.







a few scenery shots. . .

it's all a little "mad max," isn't it?

okay, now i want you to look at this road, *really* look at it. . .study it. because i had to and i think i can identify each and every rock. sigh, this way was not a lot easier than the road north.


and still more miles to go before. . .



we arrived at coco's! my favorite mexican alive. this man is truly amazing. he's 70, living out in the middle of the desert making a living by being famous. he added a photo board since our last visit a year ago. before i got off the bike, he was asking ye how my leg was. last year i squidded it to the mini-mart in gonzaga bay and when we returned i burned my leg as i was dismounting. coco fixed me right up.








my other favorite person. . .








but as i was saying, coco is 70, receives countless visitors each year and remembered about my leg. and apparently this is not unusual, we later met up with a touring couple and coco knew that this young woman was not the same young woman that the guy had brought the year before. . .scary! i can't remember what i had for breakfast!



he also grabbed his guest book and knew what month we had been there the year before. amazing, simply amazing. we had fun showing his picture to other mexicans that we met on this trip. coco is muy grande compared to your average mexican.

after paying homage to senor coco, we mounted back up and made the mad dash for the transpeninsular. ye was riding like a crazy man and i finally just stopped trying to keep up and just concentrated on keeping the front wheel heading forwards. . .kinda.

a few times i thought perhaps i had hit something a little too hard, but i was still up, so it was all good in my book.

until. . .we stopped at the end of the road.






i snapped this shot to show the straight road that ye left me to waste on. . .

ye stops to add air to the tires so we can ride the pavement now. i LOVED that little air pump, it proved to be worth every penny i paid. ye said it was worth every penny *i* had paid too and he was glad he didn't have to buy it himself.








there's that cute little air pump! isn't it precious, and small!













but what's this! blessedly, it held air the rest of the trip,







this was our lunch stop about 1 mile down the road from the turnoff. good, i was hungry after all that riding and denting. :-)


this is the wonderfully, beautiful donita. have you ever seen a smile so angelic in your life? she was the owners daughter. the cafe was in the front section of their house so the kids are quite used to playing around the customers.






her slightly older sister. see the family resemblence? i'm a sucker for the children and brought stickers to share with them. they were thrilled.

they love seeing pictures of themselves on the digital camera. each blushing when they see their image.




last but certainly not least was their big brother. all with the beautiful, warm smiles. all helping their mom when she needed it.

meeting the people has got to be the biggest kick for me when traveling.

one final group shot of mi tres amigos! love. them.

a quick shot of how our lives differ. these people do not take electricity for granted. a lot a places have propane tanks for their stoves. this was the power source for their stereo on the shelf above.

our next destination was bahia de los angeles (los angeles bay) i have several photos of the bay that i will share. note that picking up trash in not a big priority in baja. once they put some thought in to that, things will be much prettier. for for now, enjoy the scenery we saw:

uh-huh, and that's what i'm talking about. . .

isn't that just beautiful! those are those patented views i was talking about on day 1. this trip was chock full of them. these are only some of what i was able to catch on camera.

on the beach. we saw a car in bahia de los angeles that was a true convertible. some early model large car that the owner had taken a sawzal to. there was no roof, supports, no windows, no windshield. anything goes in mexico.




even though it was their spring break, this beach was relatively deserted with just a few families enjoying the water.





ye is preparing to spend a little beach time. . .right after this he was talking with a man in a van with a beautiful golden retriever resting in the shade beside it. he looked like a great dog and made no move other than wagging his tail when ye approached. ye poured some water in his hand and offered it to the dog. . .then it went psycho on him and tried to eat him.




this is a sand castle, complete with moat that father and son were making. as per usual, the father was much more in to the construction than the son.




his dad asked me to take his son's picture so he could see it in the display on the camera. how can you refuse such a request?

once again we hopped back on the bikes and made our way south. we thought we could make san ignacio without too much problem. we came upon a military checkpoint.


there are no pictures allowed, but i was able to click off a few while we were waiting in line.

although much is feared about these checkpoints here in the u.s., we've never had a single problem. it's a bit unnerving to have a young boy standing there holding a military rifle while they attempt to talk to you, but they have never been anything but nice. of course, we're old, i'm a woman, and i don't speak their language. i think that's 3 strikes. they try to communicate with ye
and basically leave me alone.








still waiting. . .















this is our hotel in san ignacio. i was hot, tired, dirty and more than a little grouchy at this point. i wanted to throw my bike down on the ground, crawl in to the room and take a nap. remember, we had ridden from bahia san luis gonzaga in the dirt for our morning stint. ye, as usual, was chipper and making the best of things. not me, i was over it, wanted a hot shower and a clean place to sleep with no sand on the floor. rice & beans was recommended by the advrider board. i can see why.

i didn't even take any pictures of the place. the rooms were huge, they had hot water and by the time i got to the bar, i was human again. couple of margarita's later and i was downright tolerable. i made a quick call back to the states to let the family know we were still alive, ate and hit the sack early. slept like a baby i did. i like the fact that the hotel had the bar and restaurant right there.