Adios Baja California, hola Mazatlan

Some of my last views of rugged Baja California on the ferry to Mazatlan.

Enjoying a different form of transport to the bike.

I caught the ferry from Baja over to the Mazatlan on the mainland on the 6th of January. I had hoped to head a bit earlier but it was very heavily booked due to the time of year. Nick had decided to chance his luck on a yacht headed for Puerto Vallarta a few hundred km further south of Mazatlan. I wasn't the only touring cyclist on the ferry though as Andrew Flansaas, one of the Alaskan Pan American cyclists was also on board. Andrew was heading ahead of the rest of his gang in order to meet his parents for a week down in Puerto Vallarta.

I had become very relaxed travelling through Baja as it is very user friendly for a touring cyclist and the people were extremely friendly but traveling over to the mainland was another step into the unknown. I didn't know much about Mazatlan except that it was a popular tourist destination, had a pretty old town and that it was a city in the state of Sinaloa, the Sinaloa drug cartel being one of the biggest cartels in Mexico!

It did not take me long to try out the pool!

Andrew had told me that he had been kindly offered a place to stay in Mazatlan and said that I could come over to the house if I wanted to. Not being one to turn down a possible place to lay my head I followed Andrew from the port to the location he had been directed to. Even though it was less than an hour on the bike we had worked up a decent sweat with the warm day and the extremely steep up hill to get to the house which overlooked the old town. We were welcomed by the very friendly Gloria who showed Andrew and myself around the house. Wow. This was not any old place to lay my head but a incredible holiday home with beautiful views of  the sea and the city complete with a swimming pool! A short time later I got to speak with Bill Hurley who very generously told me that I was more than welcome to stay. He didn't have to offer me twice. I have had the privilege to stay in some lovely places and beautiful homes on this trip so far but Bill Hurley's pad in Mazatlan certainly takes the biscuit! Thank you sincerely Bill!

Brendan and Gwen on our way to Stone "Island",
a relaxed beach area of Mazatlan.

Gloria told me that she was friends with an Irish couple in Mazatlan. Keen to meet my first Irish in Mexico I was glad when Gwen O'Toole phoned to arrange a coffee in the old town. Gwen and her husband Brendan were headed to Guadalajara for a few days shortly after I met them so we bid our goodbyes as I thought I would be long gone by the time they got back. Suffice to say when you've spent five months mostly in a tent and you might have to go days at a time without a shower Bill's palace was a very difficult place to leave! So when I was still in Mazatlan almost a week after I had said my goodbyes to the O'Tooles they kindly treated me to a couple of more days out. (Drinks are on me next time you guys are back in the Poitin Stil!)

Olas Altas - part of the Malecon by the old town

Cathedral by night

Street in the old town.

As I had heard Mazatlan has a beautiful old town which was only a steep 5 minute walk down the hill from the house. I really enjoyed getting to know the old town as well taking trips further down the malecon to some of the more touristy areas. Mazatlan's malecon, which is a kind of beach walk way, is the longest in Mexico and stretches for miles.

The Malecon stretching right along the bay

One of many beautiful sunsets I witnessed while in Mazatlan. 

Nick, with whom I had cycled Baja turned up in Mazatlan after a few days. His boat to Puerta Vallarta had turned into something of a nightmare crossing with the engine going on the first day and the main mast breaking a day or two later so I think he was quite happy to step back onto dry land even it was Mazatlan and not Puerta Vallarta where he had originally planned to boat to.

It wasn't all lounging by the pool. Looking pretty red faced after a run up to the local lighthouse.

One of the many large statues along the Malecon

Mazatlan is famous throughout Mexico as being the best place for Carnival (/Mardi Gras). Before I left you could see the city starting to gear up for this massive street party with lots of giant statues dotted along the Malecon and in other parts of the city.

Chingonas and the final stretch of Baja to La Paz

More beautiful scenery as we make our way along the coast before turning inland again.

As myself and Nick were finally pulling out of Loreto we bumped into 3 Alaskan Pan American cyclists. I had heard about the guys from different people but this was the first time that I actually met these bearded folk. We exchanged details, had a quick comparing of notes and said that we would keep in touch.

No camping past this stone wall, so we found out!

Our first night camping outside of Loreto didn't go particularly smoothly. We had decided to camp in dunes by a lovely beach that had a large luxury hotel at one end. As it turned out we were too close to the hotel for the security guards liking and just after dark he came to move us. After a bit of toing and froing with the guy which involved 3 visits to our camp between asking his supervisor and then the supervisor asking his boss we were told to move. Even though this was quite the pain in the neck having to pack up our tent after dark the guy couldn't have been nicer about it. "Bill, malas noticias" were the words I didn't want to hear on his third visit to our camp - Bill, bad news! We only had to walk our bikes less than 200 metres past a certain wall where it was then okay to camp. The friendly guy had also explained to me about the local wild life in the dunes. He had arrived with a stick in hand which he reassured me was for "Los serpientes" When I inquired with my pigeon Spanish that these serpientes (snakes) weren't dangerous were they, he responded in no uncertain terms... "Si, muy, muy perlgroso" - Yes very, very, dangerous! So bears were not the only wild life with which I need to concern myself on the trip.

Some decent climbing to make our way away from the coast.

Beautiful mountain landscape

The next few days brought us away from coast and into the desert centre of the Baja peninsula again with some more beautiful landscape and some incredible sunsets.

Cooking up a storm before the sun goes down.

New Years Eve in the exotic Ciudad Constitucion was an interesting one. Being on a tight budget and still a few days cycle from La Paz (one of the few big towns in Baja), myself and Nick had discussed the merits of bringing the New Year in at some random wild camping spot in the middle of the desert or to stop at whatever nearest town we got to on the day. So Ciudad Constitucion had the privilege of being the location to bring in the New Year for 2013 and one of my more unusual New Years Eves too. We hit the town at about 10pm ready for a rare night out but slightly concerned by the lack of revellers to be seen out and about. Having quizzed various passers by who all told us that things wouldn't start until much later we were still surprised to hear that some places would not even be opening until midnight or after?! We spent over an hour in a bar that was fully decorated with balloons, with most of the tables reserved but where myself and Nick were literally the only people in the place apart form the bar man. Having spent too long staring at the door hoping and praying for people to walk in we decided to call it quits as we needed to cycle the next day. We brought the New Year in on the deserted streets on our way back to our not so fancy hotel with our tail between our legs!
On our way back a car drove by with some blaring music which is the norm in these parts. It pulled up and some girls shouted out the window at us! I shouted shouted back "Feliz Año Nuevo" and a minute later the girls DEMANDED that we get into the car with them so being polite gentlemen we obliged. My mammy had told me not to get into cars with strangers but despite being pretty excitable the girls did not seem overly threatening. As we had learnt to our peril in Loreto on Christmas Eve, when trying to locate the source of blaring music in the hope that it would be a busy bar, it is not uncommon for people to drive around towns with blaring music and essentially have the party in their car. Myself and Nick had finally made it to the big time as we cruised the streets of Ciudad Constitucion in a party car ....Aaaaoooouu!! Among other things the girls gave us a crash course in Mexican slang. The catch phrase for the night was "Chingonas" which roughly translates to Bad Asses! After cruising the streets in the party car and learning the essentials of Mexican slang we eventually went to a night club which quickly filled up, when I say quickly, it was probably about 2am by this stage. Anyway despite the very quiet start we had a great New Years Eve, Constitucion-style with some Mexican bad asses!

Almost the end of the road for me in Baja. 

Nick fixing one of many punctures.

A few days later we made it into La Paz, our last stop in the spectacular first chapter of Mexico coming down Baja California. On our day into La Paz poor Nick suffered the full wrath of the Baja cacti getting about 5 punctures.

Kanaan, one of the Alaskan cyclists testing out an alternative to the bike.

La Paz seemed to be quite the magnet for travelers and among others we ran into the Korean and Alaskan cyclists again, numerous motor bikers and a US/Brazilian couple who were driving from Chicago to Brazil.

Shark on the Malecon made out of old plastic bottle to raise awareness about pollution in the sea

To Coyote beach and on to Loreto

We had been doing quite a decent mileage for about the first 10 days into Mexico as Tim with whom we were cycling needed to catch a flight on the 25th of December out of Cabo, down at the very southern tip of Baja.

There have been some beautiful sunsets down along Baja.

With Nick and I not under the same time pressure we eased up on the pace significantly about half way down the peninsula a few days after making it into the state of Baja Sur. Some other touring cyclists had told us about a good beach where you could camp by the water that was just south of a town called Mulege. The thoughts of a few days off by the beach certainly appealed to all of us.
We said our goodbyes to Tim after his two days off as Nick and I were in no rush to leave the beautiful beach location.

One of the days up at the supermarket I happened to bump into fellow touring cyclist Mikael from Denmark with whom I had cycled the Cassiar highway, a very isolated stretch up in northern British Colombia back in August. Mikael was a bit under the weather so didn't take any convincing to take some time off at the beach to get his energy back. There was a lovely community here of mainly American and Canadian families many of whom have been coming to Coyote beach for years. They were all very welcoming and took special interest in nursing Mikael back to health.

Coyote Beach proved to be quite a difficult place to leave and a few days turned into the best part of a week. I almost felt sad to be saying my goodbyes to the various people we had befriended during our time there.

We did not have far to go until our next stop over as we planned to spend Christmas in Loreto, little more than 100 km further down the road. Having camped out the night before we arrived into Loreto on the morning of the 24th December. Once we settled on our accommodation it was time for a 10 minute shower, which was a very refreshing Christmas present after well over a week of camping! That should do me until next Christmas.

Loreto has a beautiful old town centre as it was the historic capital of the Californias.

Old colonial church in centre of Loreto.

Keen to check out the nightlife on Christmas Eve, Nick and I soon discovered that Loreto resembles something of a ghost town on the 24th.

Central square in Loreto

Even had the red Christmas togs on

Christmas day was very relaxed, catching mass in the lovely old church, Skyping family and friends, a quick dip in warmer waters than I am used to for my Christmas swim and treating ourselves to a good Mexican meal.

It wasn't my mothers usual incredible Christmas feast but the Mexican mixed  plater still hit the spot!

Down Baja

So I am over a week into Mexico now and loving it.

The first few days involved some pretty treacherous traffic with little in the way of a shoulder for the most part. Thankfully the further south we progressed the lighter the traffic became. After a few days in, leaving the coast past El Rosario there was not much on the road as we headed into the desert for a few days. We had been warned to make sure to have enough food and water as there was not much in the way of towns or facilities.

It has been great traveling with Tim and Nick who have been putting me through my paces with a few challenging days in the saddle! 

Some of the desert landscape that I have witnessed in the last few days has been one of the real highlights of the trip so far. It is certainly not like anything I have seen before.

I had been warned to be very careful around the cacti as they have been the cause of many a touring cyclists puncture. Strolling along one evening I still managed to get one embedded in my leg. Getting it out took a while as the spikes were at all different angles!

Goodbye USA, Hola Mexico

San Diego

Today, 4th of December 2012, I cycled from Pacific Beach, a laid back beach suburb of San Diego, to just south of Rosarito in Baja California, Mexico. I have had an amazing experience for the last 4 months cycling from northern Alaska to San Diego but I was looking forward to crossing the border and starting a new chapter in the adventure.
In the last week I had coordinated with two other cyclists that we would cross into Mexico together. Nick, from England and Tim from Canada will be my new cycling buddies! Before today we had not actually done any cycling together but you strike up friendships pretty fast in the land of long distance cycle touring. I bumped into Nick briefly in Smithers, British Colombia a few months ago. Nick was heading off to cycle the continental divide when I met his which is the longest off road mountain bike trail in the world stretching from Banff in Canada to the Mexican border so I was not expecting our paths to cross again. Nick actually started out in Prudhoe Bay less than a week after me and had a very close up bear experience on that early stretch along the Dalton highway needing to get a new tent upon getting to Fairbanks as a bear had ripped holes in his first tent!

Nick, Billy ad Tim about to head for the Mexican border

 I bumped into Tim when I was camping in Humboldt State Park in the Redwood forest north of San Francisco. We had kept in touch when we heard that we were both Pan American cyclists heading for Argentina.
I had been staying with Julie (of www.Pubquest.com fame) since I got to Pacific Beach in San Diego so the two guys arrived up this morning and after a few photos we headed off on in the direction of the US/Mexican border.
 I think we were all pretty excited at the prospect of crossing into a new country and a new culture not to mention a new language.
After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing at the border needing to head back to get out passports stamped by immigration we exited into the streets of Tijuana.

Trying to squeeze our packed up bikes through the turnstiles was great craic.

The next hour involved some hectic urban cycling including just managing to avoid a large man hole that wasn't covered. Having been given advance warning of the joys of trying to cycle out of Tijuana by some other touring cyclists we some how managed to find the hole in the fence and after a little off-roading we were onto the toll road with little traffic and a nice broad shoulder. We had made it out of Tijuana and were heading for Rosarito.