free the freeway

Beautiful Baja adios!

Actual ferry experience:

Surprising good food on the ship.

Stinky and hot as hell Garage.

Great shower!

Met a group of beemers from Guatemala on the way back home.

Karl got sea sickness pills that made him sleep like a baby even after, when we were riding...

Mazatlan:

Nice breakfast, rain, beautiful people, too much traffic...

Ride to Tepic:

No more money to expensive mexican freeways! La carretera libre is so much beautiful, fun and ( on two weels) not much slower.

Too bad we got separated just entering town and we had to struggle to find each other again....

as soon as we lost site of each other we both went back to the confusing cross road but after

not seing each other for a while( probably like an old mime/clown skit), we tryed to go to the zocalo...but again we were waiting in two different squares! My walkietalkie battery was dead but finally I figure out how to call with my phone,and carlito turned his on! We were in two opposite side of town on rush hour...but finally we reconected. An other 30 minuts to struggle to find a place to stay and finally when I rode inside the garage the very first thing I did I ended up dropping my bike on the side of the van of the hotel's owner...not fun and defenetly embarassing! But ( so far) he's been very gracious and after all I have a nice mex insurance. Almost invisible damage on the van, appreciable damage on my pride.

We have to decide if taking the coast or going inland tomorrow. Weather a strong discriminant.

Watching replay of footage of 9/11 on TV...no comment necessary on that.

I guess I forgot to say were we are...: still La Paz, BCS .

Finally we got the tickets for Mazatlan!!!! We'll leave tonite at 8pm. A 12 hours trip.

After paying a fine for being illegal immigrants and having to wait ( basically an extra day) for our not knowing and for their strange ( after all we are strangers in an other country)office hours and computers with a very erratical working performance .

I can think of much worse places to be stuck though...and so we had time to get used to this heat in a very comfortable and safe place. Ice cream last night was very good!

I think I figure the pc pictures resizing...and we got our first taste of the ( low) speed of paper work in this wonderful country today...it's all a great learning experience..and a lesson in patience.

BTW..there was a ferry leaving today...but when we found that out it was too late to ( infact) be ready with the documents. One office was also close ( lunch at 10am?) and that was definitely part of the delay. OK. We'll leave tomorrow then! . I't too hot to do anything from noon to six. So we are also learning to be really lazy ( siesta?). It will come handy in the future!

jemena (the hurricane)

Well...We wanted to stop in Mulege but the hurricane went trough it very badly and this little nice village was practicly destroyed...very sad...all the belonging of this poor people were scattered in the street and still wet and muddy... very very sad... people wandering around working hard to save what they could and trying to rebuild their lifes after the disaster...we saw an chopter and few trucks full of militaries hopefully bringing some relief to the area...

we didn't feel like staying and we left pretty quickly.

That shocking tragedy can't be even faynltly certainly compared to our first problems but I 'd like to report them too...

Karl lost again the right case and sligthly damaged the board. This time it happened on a detour, due to the road damage, were wee had to ride on rocks and pebbles... we migth have to use locktite on the clamps...

Then we stopped in Loreto were we stayed on an hotel right in front of the cathedral..very nice and picturesque and so the booths for the fiesta of the loreto's vergin...except...the fiesta was happening that evening...and that night...infact we had the fiesta right in front of our window! Local talent concert, speeches, tower bell playing ,country mex, pop star and firewors included...

fun but long and well attended , thousands...

anyway they were thanking the virgin that spared miraculously the city ( no kidding) and so the hurricane hit badly south and north of it...

but today we made it to La Paz!

to learn (while profiuosly dripping sweat in our gears) that contrary of what Lonely Planet says the ferry leaves on Thursday...so we will have to wait here an other day ( not a bad place really..)...and we'll have to get used to it but we will trash the book most likely. The other two things I looked up ( room prices) were also wrong!

Still struggling with my (new) netbook(pc)and how to resize pics so you'll have to wait for images...

surfing the topes

Left Ensenada, we tried unsuccessfully and a bit impatiently to see the Bufadora( a natural water spray that supposedly goes up 90 feet high on the cliffs coast)... we saw a lot of local tourist though...it's Sunday after all.

Then we decided to continue to Guerrero Negro. There are a lot of "topes" or speed bumps on the road and we hopped on many of them happily...then ( riding behind Carlito)on one ,not passed even very fast, I saw his right case coming off and the surf board dragging it on the road...surfing?

Anyway no damage, but from now on Carlito will check the clamps on the bags more often...

The desert is beautiful (some saguaro cactus are three story high!) and the curvy road just a lot of fun. No pics ... still working on getting everything else working and getting used to the routine of the travel.

I'll try to keep the camera handy tomorrow. At the gas station they warned us that we might find water knee deep in some part of the roads still from the hurricane...we'll check that out!

crossed the first border

Yes. We made it to Ensenada...after many miles (and millions of cars )of lane splitting in a very hot day.

Devin,Karl's cousin, after kindly hosting us at his apartment in LA, escorted us on his KLR all the way accross the most crossed border of the world.Tijuana. What a mess! We had fun!

Ensenada evening is cool and we are enjoying some breaze from the Ocean. Tacos good.

Here two shots from the starting day in SF.

So we left! As planned this morning from SF.

Met bishop Joey (first church of the last laugh) at Harris ranch.

Hot in the valley.

Following Karl (with his surf board strapped on the side of the bike) splitting lanes in the LA traffic was a lot of fun.

Nice warm evening in LA tonight.

Last sushi before heading for Baja tomorrow.