Escaping Cabo for the Wilds of Los Frailes

Met author/rider Phil Berg and his top-box passenger, Umma, in Todos Santos

We spent a couple of nights with Deb and Jelle and a couple of their friends who have built a lovely home just South of Todos Santos: Trisha and Don.

Trisha and Don’s place was very simple but absolutely lovely. Their palapa roof was so artistically done that I enjoyed looking at it as much as the sunset over the Pacific, which you can see from their roof terrace.



With an awesome caffeine kick and internet updates finished at Baja Beans, we headed in the direction of Cabo San Lucas. We had planned to visit a few of the motorbike shops to see about tires for me, but as soon as we got into Cabo, the heat and the traffic overwhelmed us and all we wanted to do was get out. Apparently, the hurricane knocked out several traffic lights on the main road… so imagine any 4 lane main road that usually has stoplights, all of the sudden having a 4-way stop intersection every 2-3 blocks.

It was also pretty staggering to see luxury holiday high-rise resorts and golf courses, mere blocks from year-round shacks.



After stocking up on bottled water and groceries, and meeting a couple of fellow Vermonsters, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer.


Apparently, this is one of the more picturesque Tropic of Cancer crossings

After a long break at a gas station where we had a nice chat with a group of riders who had just come from the mainland and were headed home to Southern Baja, we headed back to the coast to Los Frailles, which we heard had beautiful free camping to offer.


Got some great advice for riding around the mainland from these Baja riders who had just returned from picking up a couple of new BMWs

We’d heard the road to los Frailes was paved until the last 15 kilometers, which then turned to hard packed dirt. Well, “hard-packed” was a bit of a misnomer. Some of it was hard packed. The rest featured loose gravel where you were lucky, soft medium-to-deep sand where you weren’t so lucky, and bull dust where you were extremely unlucky.

The Transalp and I went down again, but since I did such a good job of angling it towards the side of the road where there was an incline, and hence it was partially upright and not spewing fuel everywhere/it would be easier to pick up, Roel managed to get photographic evidence this time:


Oopsies.

After that 15 kilometer workout, we were ready for a big meal so as soon as we found a spot to camp, I went to work preparing tacos with black beans, guacamole, salsa, queso fresco, and grilled peppers and onions. It’s become a bit of a staple for us here in Baja and can be had for less than $6 for generous portions for the both of us.


Ensenada de los Muertos, between La Ventana and Los Frailes

Taming the Sand Amidst the Cacti

Sand Dancing in Todos Santos

Sunrise in El Sargento


Nothing like a little sand-riding to get the adrenaline going in the morning

Waking up on the beach at La Ventana was something I could easily have enjoyed for many a day. The sunrise was stunning and spending the morning doing yoga on the beach was just what I needed.


Beware of the "almost there" signs

We headed to El Triunfo from there, as we had it on very good authority that they make excellent scones in the cafe there. The road was quite a thrill, from cavernous potholes to road-wide sand drifts, but it became beautiful and curvy, soon enough.





El Triunfo Cafe was tasty and it was a cute little town. Good for a leg stretch before we headed to Todos Santos.






It's nice when you have options in Baja....


...because sometimes you don'tWhile riding down the main street of Todos Santos, we heard shouting from a cafe and there stood our friends Jelle and Debi from Coyote Beach, who we’d been hoping to run into, again. Deb toured me around the art galleries and shops of Todos Santos, including the Hotel California.


Benito, an extremely talented sculptor in Todos Santos





Chillin at THE Hotel California


And then we followed Deb and Jelle to a beautiful beach for some free camping. They warned us that they didn’t know what the road conditions would be like since the hurricane, so when we pulled off the highway on to loose dirt and a little sand, I was not surprised.

I was however, a little surprised when the road completely cut off and men working on the remaining stretch of the road directed us over 8+ inch sand grooves that only led to more 6-12 inch sand grooves. Which went of for a kilometer.


Lovely. NOT!!!

It was not easy going with the loads we have and given the fact that we were running the tires at street pressure.
For the first time in 8 months I dropped my bike. I’m proud to say that I made it through 1.5 kilometers of nasty sand before it happened, and I made it the remaining .5 kilometers without incident (not that it was pretty, and you can be sure I gave a mental finger to every surfer dude who flew by on a 250 with deflated nobby tires), but I did it.

And it made the beer Deb had waiting for me when we finally caught up to them on the beautiful beach all the more tasty. Same with the bottle of wine that followed

Roel was especially pleased as he found my "antics" in the sand to be rather amusing AND the Hepco & Becker rack and Gobi cases held up perfectly... Unlike the last time I "danced" with the sand in Arizona, when Roel had to spend the following morning banging out my aluminum Touratech cases and bending out my old rack.


A hard earned bottle of wine and my Hepco & Becker setup, still looking like new

Exploring Baja Sur: La Ventana y El Sargento

Ensenada de los Muertos (visible from El Sargento)

We headed for La Ventana from La Paz. Not a very long distance, but if you don’t exactly know where the road is that you’re looking for and there are no signs to be seen, it can take a very long time.

It was about this time that I learned the difference between “derecho” and “derecha” with directions. We were on a straight road and people kept telling us to go “Derecho, derecho, derecho y entonces izquierda.” Me thinking that derecho meant “right thought” - “What the heck! are these people trying to make us go in circles?!”

FYI, derechO means “straight.” DerechA means “right.”’

This explains quite a bit about a few of the other times we’ve gotten lost after I’ve asked for directions, and that one time I led us down a one way street. Oops


The potholes on the road to La Ventana from La Paz (BCS 286) are hard to miss - literally in some places :/

We finally made it to La Ventana, just in time for sunset and some playing in the rather deep sand that led to the beach with free camping in El Sargento.

Roel parked the Africa Twin in a rather unique (albeit unintentional) manner, and for the first time, I was able to touch the ground with both feet while sitting astride the AT


LOOK!!! Both feet are FLAT on the ground astride the Africa Twin!! This has NEVER happened before!


He was up, and then he was DOWN!! That's OK... it gave us the opportunity to shovel out a little more sand from under the tire.








In El Sargento, about a tenth of a mile after the sign for the town of El Sargento or two tenths of a mile after the Oxxo, is El Capitanes Taco Bar on the right. This is where we had the most tasty shrimp tacos. Seriously. Incredible. And it was VERY good value for money. Each taco was 22 pesos... so about $1.50 and the sides were abundant, tasty and fresh. If you are planning to visit La Ventana, GO THERE. You'll thank me




The soups were a complimentary surprise


YESSSSSSS!!!

The stuff morgasms are made of

La Paz and following "signs" to our first wonderful homestay in Mexico.

Overnight the temp dropped down to freezing, as evidenced by the frozen water in cups from the night before. We delayed crawling out of the tent until the sun had risen and I delayed until the coffee had been brewed.

As you can see, first things first.



We headed in the direction of La Paz, making sure to obey EVERY SINGLE traffic sign in Ciudad Constitucion because we’d heard rumors that the cops be a little on the shady side.

Once in La Paz, we hit up Walmart for some supplies and began riding down the Malecon - the scenic road that goes by the waterfront, in the direction of one of the free camping areas that was about 20 kilometers out of town.


One of the many statues lining the Malecon of La Paz

At one stop sign, we heard shouting and looked over to see familiar faces gesturing to us from a truck - it was the family we had met at Mision San Javier! We pulled over to chat and they re-extended their invitation to camp in their backyard.



The three of us felt it must be meant to be as they had found us in traffic in the middle of the city, so we followed them back to their home and immediately felt very welcome.



We spent the night chatting with Gilberto, who spoke very good English (he was visiting his family in La Paz as he works in Guadalajara representing Heineken - amongst a variety of awesome Mexican beers - so he and Roel had a lot to talk about there). The rest of the Medina family was very patient and forgiving as I slowly recalled the more conversational Spanish I could remember from my high school Spanish teacher, Mrs. Brody. I may have cursed her weekly quizzes, but I’m certain grateful for them now






We pulled out the map and the Medina brothers pointed out which routes to take and which routes to avoid on the mainland.

Roel communicated through the language of futbol and there were many jokes made about las ballerinas de Hollanda (Dutch ballerinas: i.e. Robben) and muchos penal.



We had a lot of errands to run while in La Paz and some friends who we wanted to meet up with, so we stayed for a few days and thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Medina Family.


We managed to get our Motorcycle Permits for the mainland, so once we decide when to take the ferry, we should be all set to ride aboard.



Roel had met Ben, a fellow Dutchie, in Ensenada and they made plans to get together on Dual Dragons, Ben and his partner Nannie’s catamaran in La Paz. Quite an inspiring couple… we could easily see ourselves traveling this way, one day, though we’ll likely have to rob a bank to buy a cat. They can store up to 400 bottles of wine at a time on their boat - this could definitely be the life for us!!


It took the better part of a morning due to a very, ahem, well-used rear tire on the Africa Twin, but with the help of Chris and a couple of the Medina Boys, Roel finally put on his set of Heidenau tires from Adventure Designs. It’ll be really nice not to have to drag those around anymore.


We were not able to find a rear tire for me, but we did manage to find someone who could put a new pad on Chris’s rear brakes. And we did find oil for the Transalp, which is unfortunately still guzzling the stuff… This oil is blue, though… Hmmmmm.