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