UBER Riding to Bahia San Luis Gonzaga

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Only 3 days but whew, I am now the uber riding chick… or at least I would be if I had gotten out of first gear a little more often.

The destination was Bahia San Luis Gonzaga. The first ninety kilometres to Puertocitos and slightly beyond were slick new pavement. Then the road ended. I mean seriously ended. First it went from finished pavement to just a first layer clearly waiting for a finishing layer. Then the black ended, and so did the nice flat wide highway. Seven or eight big boulders painted with tar and placed across the road indicated the end, and it dropped down about 25 feet at a 25 degree slope of rough gravel to some construction roads.

A bit of scouting over the facing hill and we realized the actual road, unimproved had departed from the new highway a while back. No signs, no indication whatsoever as to where traffic was supposed to go. We even passed some construction workers that just watched us go by. I guess they felt we would figure it out. And we did.

The unimproved highway was where my first gear came in handy. I did mention that I didn’t get to gear down my bike before Mexico, remember.

The seventy or so km from Puertocitos to San Luis Gonzaga were eighty km of rough gravel road, we are talking BIG gravel, rougher on the up and down inclines, and totally washboard on the flats. I was braking all the way down the hills to make sure I was not going too fast to avoid some of the baseball to soccer ball sized sharp rocks and praying to miss them on the uphills when I didn’t have any choice but to give some gas or stall.

We made one stop, along a flat plateau stretch at, can you believe it, a taco stand. The only inhabited structure on just about the whole road. Sadly, she was out of beer, but we had a coke and chatted for a while. Running this little ‘oasis’ in the desert is allowing her to put 4 children through school. Her family lives in San Felipe, husband a fisherman, coming out to visit her when he can. Two kids are away at University, 2 more still in high school - amazing.

By the time we got to San Luis Gonzaga we were so exhausted we went straight to the only hotel and paid the outrageous amount of $55 US for our room, the rest of the US $100 bill for beer, dinner, and breakfast. I think Alfonsina knows that your only other choice is a palapa and your Thermarest - not acceptable after that many km in first gear with a death grip on the handlebars.

On the good side, the room was ok, the food was great and the beer was, in the circumstance, well earned ambrosia.

We checked out of the hotel first thing in the morning rested and fed and immediately checked into the palapa on the other end of the beach. We set up our tent and hammock and spending the day relaxing, taking pictures and drinking the 6 pack we picked up with our fuel at Rancho Grande.

I think we are really getting to old for 10 hours on a Thermarest. It gets dark really early down here, like 5:30 pm. It’s possible to spend a couple of hours in the dark, making food, reading by the headlamp and laying listening to the waves, but eventually you just give up and go to bed at like 8pm.

The guys down the beach had a fire going. We found out the next day they’d bought the wood same place we bought out fuel. It is kind of tough to carry firewood on a motorcycle - the 6 pack was a challenge - I suppose it can be done - we will plan ahead next time.

I tried to look in the brush to see what was about but nothing big enough to keep a fire going for more than about 10 minutes.

Woke up stiff, and packed up early to tackle the rest of the unimproved road - about 55 km worth. It was better, the gravel not quite as large, more flat, only a few rocky hills to navigate through. There were parallel tracks beside the road that provided a less rutted alternative, but then it was sand. I prefer first gear and washboard to sand.

When we finally got off the pavement, at Lake Chapala, we figured we’d earned a beer, but again, all they had was soda pop.

Though the last 176 km were a bit of a race against the fading light, it was impossible not to appreciate the scenery. Imagine a real life desert forest, designed by Dr. Seuss. I have never seen so many strange and creative looking plants in my life.

We got into Guerrero Negro just as light was falling, checking into a nice little motel before having our worst meal yet from a nearby taco stand. Tired, I just asked for one of everything he had - tube like different coloured tacos wrapped around indistinguishable interiors, all soaked in grease. Mistake. The guidebook said the best food in town was at taco stands. Not this one.

I hope this all doesn’t sound like complaining - it isn’t really. I am always up for an experience and I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it - well maybe the tube like greasy round things.

That was yesterday. Today we are taking a day off. Long walk this morning, breakfast in the safety of the hotel restaurant, checking out the local grocery store, doing laundry and maintenance on the bikes, downloading photos and just laying about in the sun or otherwise.

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