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Mexico
I had spoken to a lot of people about how to travel safely in Mexico and the main thing they all told me was to get of the road well in time before dark. Easy enough I thought, but still there I was on the road after dark on my first day in the country.
It had been early afternoon when I rolled on to the streets of Tijuana, through the city center and on to the freeway that follows the walled and fenced boarder west to the coast. There I made it to a smaller town but it was still going to be daylight for another two hours so I decided to head on to the next town, eager to see more of Mexico.
It was so different from the U.S. It might aswell have been on the otherside of the world. The buildings were older and the streets had more potholes. Some of the small concret houses with tin roofs were painted in bright green, blue, yellow, purple or red and was something that I often came to see in the towns I passed through and was always glad to see.
On the heavily trafficated freeway that I road out from Tijuana as on many roads in the country, there was people walking, cycling and hitch hiking. A lot of the hitch hikers seemed to get rides from people with pickuptrucks. I drew this conclusion since a lot of them had people riding in the back. There were also a lot of motorcycles and scooters passing me. Sometimes with as many as four passengers and almost always with no helmets.
From cars and houses there was often mexican music being played as loud as the stereo would possibly allow. There were alot of lose dogs and some of them barked and ran after me for a short while before loosing interest. This could have been a very bad thing but they actually never seemed to do it out of aggression. Unlike the guard dogs in Rumania had done when Kajsa and I cycled there a year and a half ago.
Next to the road there were plastic bags and bottles, diapers, dead dogs, magazines, beer cans, broken glass bottles, car tieres and so much more. It really seemed like they didn´t have a working system for garbage handeling at all. In a lot of the small villages I came to pass through later on in mainland Mexico they simpley put their garbage in a pile next to the road and burned it.
Baha California
Tijuana
I´m on the other side of the wall now....
The sun had started sink into the pacific and I was not far away from the city where I dicided I would stay in a cheap hotel. It´s not like me to do this but it was way to much people everywhere for me to feel that wildcaming was a safe option and there were no campgrounds to be found. Thats when I heard a pschuuu and felt the back of my bike sink closer to the asphalt i was rolling on. A big screw had gone in to my tire, through it and out on the other side. It took me about half an hour to put in a new tube and there for I cycled the last bit in the dark. Making me a little nerves every time I passed someone walking or cycling on the shoulder of the freeway.
I quickly found a budget hotel when I arrived in the city. I layed down on the bed and thought that this was a long time ago. That I slept in a bed I mean. I gave it some thought and came to the conclusin that it most have been in Washington when Robin and I met Joe in Aberdeen. Well it was actually a bed sofa but i think it counts.
No castle but what a view!
In between the ocean and the mountains
The next day I continued south with mountains on my left and the ocean on my right. It was still a lot of traffic and short distancec between the towns and citys. So when I on my third day in the country got the chance to take a smaller inland road for half a day before it joined up with the freeway again at the coast I didn´t hesitate. It was raining heavily in the morning when I left the freeway and followed the smaller road through a green valley with a slow flowing river in the middle. There was trees and bushes growing making a strong contrast to the otherwise sharp fauna, the cactai. The road crossed over the river in a small town and then made it´s way up the side of the valley to the top of a plateau where big fields with grazing cows covered the landscape. I cycled up and down the rolling hills and enjoyed resting my eyes on the mountain peaks towering in the horison to the east. After a few hours the road joined up with the freeway again outside the city Ensenada and I thought to myself this is going to suck. The heavy traffic I mean. But when I road down on the freeway I couldn´t hold back a smile. Yes the traffic was horrible as expected. Even worse then before, being so close to a big city, but there was two other touring cyclist infront of me which I was very happy to see. I had been trying to find someone in the us to cycle in Mexico with. Both for the company and or safety reasons, but I had been out of luck. Until now.
I catched up with them and it turned out to be two brittish sisters that had started their trip in Portland, Oregon and luckily they didn´t mind having some Swedish company. We cycled togehter for a few days. We followed the road allong the coast and some days inland up and down big hills in the cloudy and quite cold autum weather and we were often saying; Come on Mexico, it´s supposed to be warm hear. It´s desert!
We spent the nights in campgrounds since it was still a lot of people in the surroundings. But one morning it all changed. The road followed the coast and there were almost no houses around. Just big hills covered wtih cactai leading all the way down to sand beaches that slowly was being eaten away by the waves from the bright blue ocean. The bright blue ocean that was shining as intensely as the clear blue sky we were lucky to have that day. But the beautiful surroundings wasn´t even the best part. It was a lot less traffic. It could be several minutes between the passing cars and trucks compared to the few secounds that we had most of the time earlier on.
Finally off the freeway for a while
Double rainbow!
Up and down, up and down
The road left the coast and until lunch time we cycled up and down the big hills further into the desert. We stoped in a small town for some delicious fish tacos and afterwords they hopped on a bus since their time was starting to run out for one of them. I countinued on my own further inland up and down the hills that kept getting bigger and bigger, and covered with an aboundence of different species of cactai. When the sun started to go down I had no problem finding a campspot. There was not a building in sight and hadn´t been for hours. So i simply followed a 4x4 track over a hill, making me invisibel from the highway. I enjoyed a beautiful sunset and after that a stunning star filled night sky.
The next morning I was awaken at sunrise by a loud humming. Like the sound of a bumbelbee as big as a fist. But it wasn´t any angry Mexican steroid bees, with a taste for gringos, it was of course hummingbirds. They were feeding on the nectar of some flowering cactai. I spent an hour watching, filming and fotographing them before I started my daily routine. Breakfast, pack down camp and load it all on the bike.
I spent about a week following the road through central baha before it went out to the west coast again at the town Guerro Negro. Most of this stretch went through an area called Valle de los Cirios, a protected wildlife area in the desert. And I must say that it was the most beautiful desert I´ve ever seen. It was even more stunning then Joshua tree national park had been. In the beginning I road through a real wild west lanscape with big cactai and mountain platoues. Around Catavina big boulders started to pop up everywhere and the cactai grew more dence in between them and more species competed over the room. Bojoom trees or doctor Seuss trees that their sometimes called grew in plenty around hear and they just looked unreal. With their green fluffy looking stems and branches growing in all different directions.
In this area I only cycled half of the day and spent the other half bouldering on the many rocks around me.
When the rocks started to disappear after a few days even more plants toke their place. Now even Joshua trees strated to pop up everywhere. At first just a few small once but after a few more hours on the bike I was in a cactai, Joshua tree, Dr Seuss tree forrest. It was just incredible how much that was growing their and I just loved being their. Walking around my campspot in the evening and morning looking at the many differnet plants that was growing their. Their flowers, and the birds that were feding of of them. It was just magical, so peaceful.
A snake that I scared of the road Just before the road left the coast
Into the desert!
A video of the hummingbirds
Valle de los cirios
Camping in the cactai forrest A movie with som of the bouldering I did around Catavina
But nothing lasts forever and when I was just half a day of riding away from Guerro Negro grazing cattle behind fences was the view on both sides of the road. It was flat and the mountains had disappeared. But thats when two cyclists, Yann and Tim, from France cought up with me. We continued together to Guerro Negro where they had organised a stay with a warmshowers host and managed to sneak me in aswell.
We had a rest day there and were given a tour of the area by our host. For example we visited an area where they are breading the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn Antilope. And I must say it´s a real shame they are so few in numbers. It would have been amazing to see these beautiful animals in the wild in what might be the worlds most beautiful desert. It was now quite emty from large mammals. After Guerro Negro the landscape was quite boring until we got close to the east coast where mountains and cactai once again surrounded ous. For a few days the road more or less followed the shoreline of the sea of Cortez and it was a real paradise. The desert mountains reaching all the way down to the warm, blue ocean and its hidden beaches in the many bays.
But once again nothing lasts forever and soon the road went back towards the west coast. Again the mountains dissapered and we cycled on a flat straight road with fences on both sides. It was also really warm, more than 30 degrees in the middle of the day and the last few days before arriving in La Paz, the last stop for ous in Baha, we also had a head wind. And I think that we all agreed on that this part actually was no fun at all.
We ended up staying in La Paz for about a week and a half. We didn´t just want to take the ferry across the sea of cortez to Mazatlan, it didn´t seam like fun. And using a motorized vehicle all of the sudden just seamed wrong. So we decided to try to hitch a ride with a sailboat instead. We were real lucky because after only fifteen minutes or so talking to people in the marina we found a ride. Not only for the three of ous but also for Lisa, one of the britts that I cycled with a few days i North Baha. Her sister had gone back to Canada for the winter so she´had sent me a message looking for cycling company.
The sailboat that we found was an old race boat named Pipe Dream. Sailed by captain John "fuck, fuck!" after his great ability to swear like an old pirate when something went wrong, and co captain Mikey. Who were more the silent type when things went wrong. And sure did things go wrong.
Before we set of we got to know them a little bit while we were waiting a few days in La Paz for a storm to pass. They told ous that they been quite unlucky since they left Los Angeles headed for Boston. They had something on the boat break down every third day on average. Good we thought, then all that is done with by now and everything will go well from here on.
"Mayday, mayday, this is pipe dream, we are taking in water." (fuck, fuck!) "Mayday, mayday, this is...."
We had only been on our way for maybe twenty minutes when I went below deck to grab a sweater and found water on the floor. Something in the engine, (the drive shaft?), had moved and was now causing water to come in. Luckily not faster than we were abel to scoop it out.
We got towed back to a marina outside of La Paz by a boat that was in the area. So then we came to spend a few more days there. Reparing the boat and waiting for good weather again. Well, John and mikey was doing repairs, the four cyclist drank beer, margarithas and played cards most of the time.
But finally the day came. We left La Paz and after spending two beautiful days at an Island outside of La Paz we made a successfull crossing of the sea of Cortez in only 28 hours thanks to very strong winds. It made for a real bumby but memorable night.
As we went into the marina in Mazatlan I think we could all look back at the crossing and the nights at the island and remember it being just the paradise we had imagined that it was going to be. Sunshine all day long and plenty of swimming in the warm ocean. Relaxing on deck doing nothing but watching the horizon and every now and then a jumping tuna or some dolphins that raced along with the boat.
This huge Scorpion ran out from underneith my tent one morning and charged for Tims feet
Desert flowers
There were plenty of eagles in some areas
Dasha and Kent from Canada that we camp eith one night on a garbagefilled beach
Sonoran Pronghorn Antilope
A much nicer beach that we camped on a few days later An oasis along a river
Along the Sea of Cortez
Tarantulas was a common sight on the road We´re off the first time The hard life on the sea
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