Continue.....

From Todos Santos we continued on to La Paz were we stopped for the night. We consulted "the planet" and found what we thought would be a suitable hotel for us and the bikes. We always had to have safe parking for the bikes....this turned out to be less of a problem than we thought...but the hotel we picked was full so we asked the guy at the desk to recommend another. He sent us to the Lorimar. For 35 dollars we had a basic room, but came with the best parking. When we asked about parking for the bikes the guy told us to bring them through the lobby and into the courtyard of the hotel. How safe is that??? Paul's big Harley wouldn't fit through the doorway into the courtyard so his sat right by the front desk!!

From La Paz we were aiming for Mulege but ended up staying in Loreto and we were glad we did! Between La Paz and Loreto we stopped at a beach we had seen on the way down and went swimming. It was hot and I think we all got a bit sunburned, some more than others, and it would catch up to us later......
As we were looking for a hotel in Loreto we heard about this "biker bar" so after a shower and a clothes change we headed off to the cantina. We met Kathy and Primo the owners , who pointed us in the right direction for dinner, the Super Burro which turned out to be the best place to eat on the entire trip.....John's sissy bar had suffered a break and Primo welded it for him the next morning. We have met the coolest people on this trip!

By the way if you check out the map feature on my flickr site it will show you where all the pictures were taken!

Cabo

We pushed ourselves hard to get to Cabo San Lucas by Paul and Shelly's anniversary on the 2nd of April. We rode from Santa Rosalia to Cabo in one day! That's over 800 kms. So the evening of the 3rd day in Mexico we rode into Cabo. We stayed at The Hotel Santa Fe where we spent a whopping 78 dollars a night. We had to go down to Cabo Wabo and take some pictures because everyone we know would ask us if we went there and we wanted to make them all jealous. We ate some good lobster (We had flan for dessert but John had more lobster) in this little restaurant in one of the back streets and we enjoyed the heat and sun. That's the four of us with our feet in the Pacific at the southern most place on the Baja. We spent a few days there and then we decided that Cabo was just way too touristy and we decided to ride to La Paz but this time take our time and stopped at some of the interesting places along the way.
The first stop after leaving Cabo was Todos Santos. This is the the supposed location of the mythical Hotel California written about in the song by the Eagles. We parked out front, took some pictures and did a bit of looking around before finding a place to have lunch. We also visited the mission there and I took a pretty interesting picture with the sun behind the bell tower.

El Rosario

Like I said I got ahead of myself a little bit. Before stopping for the night in Santa Rosalia we stopped for breakfast in El Rosario. This little place is one of the check points on the Baja 1000 and there is a little restaurant called Mama Espinosa's that was the perfect place to stop for breakfast. We met a woman from Ontario who was travelling solo in her Taurus station wagon and bowler trailer on her way home. We also met a little girl selling bracelettes to collect money for the orphanage that was supported by Mama Espinosa herself, who by the way was over 100 years old and still, we were told, as sharp as a tack.
Back on the road we stopped in the desert to take some pictures. This place was all rocks in the middle of a perfectly flat desert. It was like someone picked up a handful of bolders and dropped them in the middle of the desert. It was pretty interesting landscape and I took quite a few pictures of the cacti. More pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/andreajarman

Back Trax

So I have to back track a bit because I forgot a few things. ( I might have to do this a bit because I have a great memory but it really is short) Back in Oregon one of the D-rings for the tiedowns in the floor of the trailer we were transporting the bikes in snapped. My bike fell over and the wind shield got broken and John's tank got a little scratched. We fixed the scratches with some black nail polish but my windshield was another story.....now this is really quite vital even though it is a motorbike. Try to imagine driving your car without the windshield.....same effect on a bike.
Jim and Jean (the friends we left the trailer with) took us to several bike shops to try to find another without luck. The last Yamaha dealership we went into there was a lady waiting for some parts and overheard our dilemma. This wonderful woman named Lisa offered to give me her windshield so our little gang of bikes followed her to her house and in her garage was a perfect windshield for my bike. (she has a Honda Shadow) Turns out she is an artist and she gave Shelly, Jean and I a tour of her house and artworks while the boys fixed my windshield. She is a wonderful person we just happened to meet at the right place at the right time. (Lisa if you are reading this leave your email. I can't find yours!)

Shelly was also taking pictures like a madwoman. I am glad she did because with riding our own bikes we didn't really have a chance (dangerous!) to take pictures from the bikes. So here are some of her pictures of the border and a sneaky shot of one of the military check points. And we can't forget about the most memorable stop, about 1/2 way to Ensenada we stopped at a guy selling oranges out of the back of his truck. All of us agreed these were the best oranges ever!!

Sex, Bikes & Rock & Roll

That got your attention!!! Awesome!!! That one word sums up the trip.....We (John & I and John's uncle Paul and his wife Shelly) left Sacramento on a Thursday and spent 2 days riding to the border and crossed at Tecate. The Mexican border guard was apparently having a siesta in his truck and didn't want to get out so he just honked his horn at us and waved us through and we were in Mexico. About 45 minutes later we came up to a Army checkpoint with the guys with the M16s. They took a look at our bikes and our Canadian Flags and waved us through.
The weather was not as warm as expected because of a cold front being pushed down from Alaska....but it was still warmer than here and no snow!!!! We rode fast and far and the first night in Mexico was spent in a dusty little town called San Quintin.
The hotel we stayed at was cool though and it cost us a whopping 38 dollars a night. But really not the most picturesque. The next afternoon we crossed into Baja Sur (southern Baja) That's at the check point after we got glared at by the immigration officer for not having the proper paperwork and that night we were in Santa Rosalia which is where we finally removed all the leather and were able to enjoy the sun. Santa Rosalia is right on the Sea of Cortez and is an old French mining town. A pretty neat place and we stayed in an old colonial hotel that was pretty cool. This is where we also had the first lobster and other fresh seafood...yum.
Stay tuned for the next installment.......

Return

Well we have returned to the frozen north....and not very happy about it I must say.....it was 32 Celsius when we left California, Friday, in the truck...and 3 when we arrived in Vanderhoof. Depressing? Just a little. The internet was not the readily available on our adventure and when it was we were not thinking about it....So stay tuned for pics and narration in the next few days.
A & J