Loreto

Biking in Mexico hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be. The trucks can be pretty scary, but they almost always move over as far as they can when they pass us. It's a little trickier when a truck is passing us at the same time as oncoming vehicles, but usually we're able to just stop and get off the road. There's so little traffic that between the trucks and the rare occasions that cars pass each other in our proximity, the biking here is great. I would way rather bike here than on a freeway with a 3 m shoulder but lots of traffic. Even though we have encountered several other touring cyclists (six others camped at Playa Santicpac while we were there), I think we are still a bit of a novelty here. Almost everyone waves and smiles as they pass us; it's really nice.

We spent a night in Santa Rosalia, stocked up on pastries at the fantastic bakery there, and then biked to Mulege. We spent a day and night in Mulege and then rode about 15 km to Playa Santispac. We stayed on the beach for three nights. It is a beautiful beach with clear water, nearby islands covered in cacti, and lots of fish and birds to watch (as well as reported whale sharks that we unfortunately didn't see). I love beaches, but Brydone's right, I got pretty bored by the third day. It would be a great place to spend more time if you had a boat and fishing gear or something, but I'm not so good at just sitting on the beach, especially when it's hot and windy. A generous American couple lent us their snorkeling gear and kayak for a day, which was awesome!

Yesterday morning, we left Playa Santispac with the plan to ride 20 km to Playa Buenventura, but when we got there Brydone and I agreed to keep going to Loreto (his version isn't exactly true; I did want to keep going but as he wasn't feeling well the day before, it was his choice :) Turned out to not be a great decision, as it was farther than we probably should have ridden in the time before sunset, but we made it!

Loreto is an interesting place. Apparently the state government put a lot of money into the city in the '70s to promote tourism and create a Cabo San Lucas-y resort area, but it didn't really work. Tourism is picking up now and there are many tour operators offering whale watching, etc. The downtown area is beautiful - there are stone paved pedestrian streets with great landscaping and a long walkway along the waterfront. There are restaurants everywhere, and they all seem really good!

Tomorrow, or the next day, we will likely go about 25 km south, near Puerto Escondido. We will have to get up early the next morning to make sure that we have time for the 120 km ride to Ciudad Constitucion, which is on the other side on the peninsula, over the (really fun sounding) Sierras Gigantas.

Tortilla

Into Loreto

First off, congratulations to Queen's football team for their Vanier
Cup victory this weekend!

We spent one night in the charming town of Mulege which is situated at
the terminus of the only year round fresh water river in Baja. As I
had mentioned earlier Mulege was devastated by a hurricane in
September. It appeared that most of the damage came from flooding;
the river rose 10 metres above its normal level which was still
readily apparent by the branches, blankets, and countless other items
wrapped up high around the towering palm trees. There was no
organized relief effort visible in the town but the locals were hard
at work clearing debris, rebuilding walls, buildings, and roadways,
and just generally carrying on as that is their only option. I almost
got the sense that it wasn't such a big deal to them that a good
portion of the town had been destroyed; life goes on.

From Mulege we cycled along rolling terrain adjacent to the coast
until Playa (beach) Santispac. We camped a few meters from the
water's edge alongside a palapa for shade. We had finally arrived to
the warm beautiful waters of the Bahia de Concepcion. The beach was
not too busy but mostly occupied by Americans and British Columbians.
We were befriended by a wonderful couple from San Diego travelling in
a bright yellow converted mini school bus. They very graciously lent
us their snorkeling gear as well as their kayak in order to explore
our ocean playground of islands and waters teaming with fish. They
were great. A fifteen foot whale shark was spotted in front of the
beach so we attempted to find it using the snorkeling gear.
Unfortunately, our efforts were to no avail.

After three days on the beach Torill decided she was bored of paradise
so it was time to continue south 114 kms to Loreto. I had started
feeling pretty ill with a sore throat and fever but I guess she
figured strenuous exercise might cure me, or make it way worse, either
way something would happen. We left really the beach quite late at
about 10 am and it was a very windy and challenging day of cycling
with countless big rolling hills and one long hot ascent to a
beautiful desert plateau. We made it into Loreto slightly before the
light began to fade which was nice as I preferred a bed to sleeping in
the middle of the desert, this time anyway.

After downing a few litres of water we headed out to for food, ending
up at Super Burro, home of massive burritos,
45-centimetre-circumference-massive, and jammed with the most
delicious tender beef. Price, $5 CDN. Thankfully Torill only got
through about 3/5 of the way through her's, so good. In the course of
the day yesterday Torill went from saying, at lunch, that she was
going to go back to the strange land of vegetarianism to proclaiming
her love of meat at dinner time.

B

PS - Torill asks that I add that yesterday's bike ride seems to have
helped and I am feeling better today.

PPS
Photos from the last post: lighthouse at Mulege, dog with eyeliner
(yeah), sunset in Mulege, the remains of a hurricane ravaged bus in
Mulege, sunrise behind our palapa on Playa Santispac, climbing up from
Bahia de Concepcion, Super Burro's BBQ, and lastly Torill's Super
Burrito.
Attached photos: Playa Santispac and the birds and a boat of the rocky
beach off downtown Loreto.

Bahia de Concepcion

Some photos from Mulege through to Loreto.  Blog to follow...

Mexico!

Today we reached Mulege, Baja Sur (south) after cycling 60 kms from
Santa Rosalia with a fantastic tail wind making it almost too easy.
We had spent the previous three days on the bus first from Tijuana to
San Quintin, then to Guerro Negro, then into Santa Rosalia. The bus
rides were considerably better than riding with horrendous Greyhound
but it just felt wrong missing out on all the amazing scenery that we
whizzed by. However, we are far enough south now that it no longer
gets cold at night and the water is nice and warm. We head to the
beaches 15 kms south on the Bahia de Concepcion tomorrow.

So far we have been very impressed with Baja; the people are so
friendly, the food excellent, the landscape surreal, and the expenses
low! It is a very easy place to travel even though we lack usable
Spanish and very few locals speak any English; it would be an ideal
place to backpack around though no one seems to be doing so.
Yesterday we shared the bus with a couple from Revelstoke who are
cycling from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas (the southern tip of Baja),
apart from them we had not seen any travelers save for those in large
trucks and RVs from the US. We should start to run into many more
foreigners now as Baja Sur is much more of a tourist destination than
the northern state.

The roads in Baja are generally very narrow without much, if any,
shoulder, however, there is very little traffic and we both really
enjoyed today's cycle. Most of the time we had the road to ourselves,
occasionally being passed by cars that pulled way over, and a just a
couple times we stopped as transport trucks passed in both directions.

Mulege was hit by a huge hurricane, Jimena, in early September and the
damage is visible everywhere. It is eerily similar to the situation I
witnessed in Thailand 4 months after the tsunami swept through.

-Brydone

PS - look closely at the photo of the boys with the stroller...

Photos from Catalina Island and San Diego

Some photos of Oracle/BMWs trimaran challenger for the America's cup.
Awesome boat!

Day 1 Mexico

We made it! Had a short morning ride to the border then crossed, got our visas, and caught a bus to San Quitin via Ensenada. Everything went very smoothly. We ended up catching a bus from right beside the San Ysidro crossing to Ensenada. We timed it perfectly - our bikes were loaded on the bus and we were off within about 15 minutes of arriving in Tijuana. In Ensenada we caught another perfectly timed bus and now here we are! Not the nicest place...although we found a nice hotel (with bonus wifi) near the bus station. I think we'll likely leave early tomorrow morning and try to get to Guererro Negro (about a 6 hour bus ride) before dark.

Our pretty much total lack of Spanish has been alright so far. I find it really frustrating and embarrassing to be so dumb, but Brydone is helping me to see the funny side. He learned today that "double" when asking for a hotel room means two beds, not two people (just like at home!). We have a very spacious room tonight.

The bus is so fast! It was a nice change to just toss the bikes in the bus and cover so many miles so quickly. Kilometers I mean! Also nice to be back to metric; miles are so long. :) The road would have been pretty tough to cycle to here I think. I know lots of people do it, but it's busy and narrow and hilly. I'm sure I'll miss biking pretty soon and will look forward to riding soon.

Goodnight!

Rill

Mexico Tomorrow

Hellos!

We arrived in San Diego last Wednesday after a few days on Catalina and a few short cycling days between here and there. I was feeling pretty sick the day we arrived in the city and didn't leave the hostel much for a few days. As a result, I have not seen much of the city, but what I have seen seems really nice! I am now feeling much much better and am excited to get to the border tomorrow!

Catalina was wonderful. We saw quite a few whales and dolphins on the ferry over. It's easy to forget how close to LA you are. The little houses and cars are so cute! The island is hilly and dry and just rugged looking. It was nice to have four mostly very quiet and relaxed days there. We had hoped to stay longer and explore some of the remote campsites, but a permit is required to cycle anywhere on the conservancy land (which is about 88% of the island) and we were feeling ready to move on to somewhere warmer. The cycling was fast and easy between LA and San Diego. Lots of people on road bikes.

I have been apprehensive about cycling into the Baja, not because of the overblown security stuff you here in mainstream media, but because the roads are narrow and the trucks are big and fast. I think we've now worked out a good rough outline for the next part of our trip that will avoid the busy northern part of the peninsula. We plan to ride to the border tomorrow morning (the San Ysidro crossing) and after getting our visas hopefully find the bus depot and head to either San Quintin or El Rosario. We plan to just spend the night at either place and then bus the next day to either Guererro Negro or San Ignacio. From here I think we will bike to about Loreto, hopefully finding some nice beaches along this stretch. The tiny towns seem to be well spaced out along this route, but we aren't sure about the elevation, so plans might change. From here maybe we'll bus to La Paz and cycle the circle route between there and Los Cabos. The whales likely won't be in the area in any great numbers until mid-December, so we have to go back north a bit so we don't miss them. Then we'll ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan. From there, who knows! I guess it'll depend how much time we have. The Copper Canyon railway looks awesome - anyone been there?

Today we're just doing some bike cleaning and fixing and getting our stuff organized for Mexico! I'm excited and ready to get going!

Love,

Rill

LA and Santa Catalina Island

The scenery on the last few days riding south to the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles was as stunning as it has been for, well, a long long time now. The riding has generally been quite easy lately as the road tended to stick close to the endless beaches.

We spent a relaxing three days on Santa Catalina Island, a real gem of an island. There are very few cars on the island, residents and tourists use golf carts and a selection of electric cars, trucks, and tricycles to get around. Architecturally the island displays a Spanish presence. The island is well known for its Casino, which is actually not a casino at all but a movie theatre and ball room built in 1932 and financed by the patriarch of Chigaco's first family of chewing gum, the Wrigleys. Wrigley built a concrete mausoleum for himself which was just up from where we camped at the edge of the town of Avalon. The Wrigleys helped to preserve much of the island's wilderness and today almost 90% of the island is owned by the Catalina Island Conservancy as a nature preserve. There were big fish visible in the waters off the main town of Avalon and someone even caught a tuna off the ferry dock as we strolled past (which a large pelican then tried to steal and eat!). I highly recommend a visit to Catalina Island (Adey, thanks for recommending the Mexican place for happy hour!).

Before LA we visited the historic mission in Santa Barbara and stayed at a number of beautiful beach-side state campgrounds along the way.

We are now in San Diego for a few days before heading across the border into Baja Mexico. We now plan on travelling down to La Paz and will then take a ferry over to Mazatlan and likely continue south from there.

Beaches and Santa Barbara

It is very nice to be down in Southern California at last. The
weather has been perfect for many days now although the sun keeps
disappearing earlier and earlier each and every day. We went over the
last of the big hills between Morro Bay and Gaviota including some
awesome high speed descents. We've mostly had nice tailwinds for the
last couple of weeks; it is true that on the coast the wind always
blows from the North unless there is bad weather near. We've not yet
seen one exception to the rule. We had an off day on Sunday at
Refugio Bay State Park; our hiker/biker camping area was beach front
under a row of palm trees, spectacular. We went swimming in the ocean
for the first time on the trip (there were two aborted attempts
further north) and found ourselves tossed like rag dolls in the very
powerful waves.

On Monday we cycled into the Santa Barbara area and headed through
University California at Santa Barbara. As we headed towards campus
we passed an apartment tower with the biggest bike rack I have seen in
North America (only bettered so far by Amsterdam) filled with
countless bikes. A little further along we started to notice that all
around us there were people on bikes and once we reached campus proper
it was like we had suddenly arrived in planet bike; virtually every
person was on a bike, there was probably only 1 out of 20 that was
walking rather than riding. The bike paths headed off in every
direction with big bicycle round abouts keeping the orderly chaos
flowing. It was really cool; I should have taken a video.

Santa Barbara is a very nice city. We cycled up to the old Spanish
Mission circa 1786 which remains an impressive building. Not far now
until Los Angeles and beyond that the Mexican border. The question of
just what we plan to do after San Diego remains. I am leaning towards
continuing on through the Baja and then ferry over to Mazatlan or
Puerto Vallarta although I think that we'll probably be jumping on a
bus or two along the way.

I hope everyone is avoiding the swine flu or more importantly the
swine flu hysteria.

8 November 2009

Hello from Refugio State Beach. Apparently once the site of much smuggling and pirating. Now we are the only pirates as we hunt for left-behind firewood.

Our laundry is drying in the hot sun on a line strung between two tall palms just outside our tent. Brydone is reading on the beach, keeping an eye on the many surfers and hoping to see the first of the gray whales that should soon be passing by. As I'm accustomed to being Snowflake, I'm keeping of the sun until after mid-day.

Hard to believe that we are now almost at LA. We've seen a lot between San Francisco and here.

Monterey was a highlight for me. We took a day off there to spend at the aquarium, which was very impressive. Great exhibits that featured sea-life at varying depths in Monterey Bay and beyond. Most exciting for me was of course the sea otters, which I anthropromorphize terribly. There were also sea otters visible in the bay surrounding the aquarium. As we saw these from the deck of the aquarium, Brydone was reluctant to grant me my wish of an official "real life" sea otter siting, but he eventually relented. Success! 

Our day off in Monterey happened to fall on Halloween, my favourite and last uncorrupted non-religious holiday. We celebrated with a bottle of $1.99 merlot. Not good! We also celebrated with the many transients who take advantage of the free showers at the state park we were camped in above Monterey. At least the city has a clean homeless population. The cheap hiker/biker sites are such a good idea and I'm very grateful for them, but the ones close to cities do attract some characters, making it hard to confidently leave anything unattended. Honestly, I don't think I'd feel very safe in some of them if I were alone - but big old Brydone is keeping me and bikes well cared for.

I'll write about charging the computer in the bathroom at the Monterey park sometime soon - I think it made us look sketchier than many of the shower users.

After another day of beautiful cycling along the highway etched above the ocean, we stopped for a day at Phieffer-Big Sur State Park. This valley marks the southern extent of the California Redwoods. We explored the Big Sur River and hiked up the hills under the swirling vultures and condors.

Another few days of up and down along slide-ridden and narrow Highway 1 then leveled out just after Ragged Point. The scenery was spectacular through the Santa Lucia Range, but I was happy to return to rolling terrain and wider shoulders.

Then the elephant seal beach! Not as many seals around as when I was here with family in late December 2003, but still hundreds of juveniles (who don't yet make the big, twice-yearly migrations) resting on the beach. They are so huge and cute! With their little front flippers flicking sand over their big, blubbery bodies. Scratching and burping and shifting around in the sand all day. I just can't help assigning human properties to them (and making comparisons to some of my companion's behaviours...sorry buddy; I love you!).

Worst campsite so far was at Oceano. We were about 10 m from the freeway on one side, and about 20 m from the train on the other. I kept waking up with the earth rumbling beneath us. We have since modified our plans a bit to avoid the campsites reported to be close to the tracks, which led us first to Lompoc, and now here, where the train is a few hundred metres away.

Yesterday, between Lompoc and here was one of my favourite days of cycling. It was about 20 miles up a very gradual approximately 900 foot hill and then a swift decent through some unusual-in-the-area east-west oriented hills with beautiful shear rock faces with succulents dripping off the cliffs. The kind of interesting terrain that is pretty from a car, but that for me needs the extra time afforded by bicycle travel to really appreciate.

Perhaps another day at the beach, but we might head to Santa Barbara tomorrow. There is supposed to be a good farmers market there on Tuesday, so we might stay for that. I thought once we got to California I could rely on finding good local produce, but it's actually not that easy. A few days ago I bought tomatoes without checking where they are from; Fraser Valley of course. Shitty. Seems that stuff is just trucked up and down the coast and that nothing stays where it belongs. I have my suspicions about the sustainability of California strawberries, but they are delicious when bought at the farm stands as we pass the fields, but that's about all that is readily available so far.

Ok, it's after 2 pm now, so I can venture out into the sun without damaging my reputation (at least as important as my skin). Time for a swim!

Love and oxes,

 

Rill

Southern California!

We have now arrived in what our cycle book calls "Southern
California". We've gone about 1,600 miles or 2,500 kilometers to get
here. We didn't get in to our stop for the night, Oceano, until just
before dark so we didn't have a chance to try out the ocean but we're
told it is quite warm right now. We have been dipping a foot in at
various spots along the way and so far it has been cold; much much
colder than English Bay this summer. The short days make life more
difficult; it is now dark by a bit past 5pm. There is not much else
to do but go into the tent after dark. I'm quite glad to have brought
my small netbook computer and lots of movies and tv shows. We're also
going through lots of books.

The coast from Monterey to San Simeon contained perhaps the nicest
scenery we have encountered so far. For long stretches the rugged
Santa Lucia mountain range left virtually no room for the Pacific
Coast Highway, and there was certainly no room for a shoulder, the
road was narrow, winding, and the views incredible. It is a very
isolated part of California with few inhabitants and not a single
respectable grocery store to be found! Our guide book let us down
here and we ended up having to rely on the pitiful and very expensive
food hidden amongst bursting rows of tacky touristy knick knacks
available at the stores. Big Sur, made famous by a Jack Kerouac novel
of the same name, was a highlight and we spent an extra day in the
State Park there.

Just north of San Simeon we passed a large and very active Elephant
Seal colony. At this time of the year the beach is occupied by
juveniles only. Soon the mature males weighing up to 5,000 pounds and
measuring 15 feet long will arrive from the rich fishing waters off
Alaska and the juvenile males will not be waiting around to greet
them. The females will show up in December and after giving birth to
a new crop of 150 pounders will then be claimed by the most
ferociously dominant of the males. That one beach is the only place
that the seals in the colony ever make landfall. Such is the life of
the massive and totally odd Elephant Seal.

From here on the route will become increasingly urban until we hit
Baja. We are a little apprehensive about cycling in Mexico but I'm
sure it will be much easier than what everyone (none of whom of course
having cycled there) have told us.

Central California Photos

Here are some photos from the past week. Blog posting coming soon...