Yuma to Ushuaia

Hasta Luego

2010-04-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

welp. our trip is nearly over. Not enough time to write about it now, but suffice to say, we are still having fun. Some of that could be due to the fact that we are soaking up every minute of this adventure before it ends. It could also be due to the fact that Guatemala is incredibly beautiful. Either way, we have seen some incredible adventure these past few weeks.

so we climbed up Volcan Tajumulco, the tallest peak in Central America. Yup...beautiful:

From Mainland MEX

Weve spent more time the past week riding our bike unloaded then loaded. Lots of beautiful rides with our gear resting in the homes of our warmshowers.org guests. This morning we rode up and around and down Lago de Atitlan. And tomorrow we leave this oasis:

From Mainland MEX

We plan to leave here tomorrow, ride to Antigua, camp in the side of the active Volcan Pacaya. On Cinco de Mayo, we will be catching a flight out of Guatemala City and starting a different life in Milwaukee. Perhaps in the future we will find ourselves flying into Columbia to ride south through the Andes....

Proper Guatemala update with photos and sappy thoughts to follow when we return to the States. Nervous for sure...

redirect...again

2010-04-18T00:35:00.001-07:00

We both know that remembering how to spell Ushuaia is a Payne. From now on, all posts for this adventure of Lisa and I will be posted on my other,easier to remember, blog at http://ultrapayne.blogspot.com .

sorry....

La Riviera Maya

2010-03-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Detour up into the Northern Yucatan for cenotes and CANCUN! Cenotes, good. Cancun, yuck.

Dos Ojos cenote, which Lisa scuba dove, and I snorkeled in:

From Mainland MEX

random shot bike touring Austrian friends shot at Palenque ruins

From Mainland MEX

Mundo Maya

2010-03-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

These past couple of weeks have been spent hopping from Mayan site to Mayan site. The actual bike riding was very fun in Chiapas since there are mountains, then down to the flat limestone shelf that is the Yucatan peninsula.

Chiapas was one of our favorite Mexican states, but toward the end of that state on the Eastern end, things changed. People seemed more desperate on the streets. Women stood on the sides of the road with a rope they could pull which they raised across the road, forcing cars to stop. One time they pulled one right in front of me, causing me to slam on my brakes on wet pavement. No fun, and all for 6 pesos for elotes (corn). Another man approached us and asked if we had a spare shirt. Another time Zapatistas approached us at night and forced us to move off of their land...

But Chiapas had Palenque. And Agua Azul. And Misol-Ha.

The Yucatan had the Mayan ruins of Calakmul...

Calakmul back in the day was always at war with the more popular Tikal, which we plan to visit in a few weeks. Thousands of visitors visit Tikal daily. Calakmul? 100. So we rode the 60 km on a narrow, quiet road thru dense jungle and Mexicos largest Biosphere Reserve seeking that solitude. What we found were tucans, howler monkeys leaping from tree to tree overhead, and finally no rain. Unlike Palenque, visitors are allowed to climb to the top of these pyramids. Hundreds of feet in the air, the views were huge of the unending jungle canopy below

Right now we find ourselves in Tulum which feels more like Baja than Mainland Mexico. We are definitely back on the gringo backpacker circuit, and its easy to see why people visit this place. There are many many underwater caves to dive and snorkel to. The beach is perfectly white sand with jade colored water. Things aren´t cheap either...

Once we leave here in a few days, we´ll head down to Belize, FINALLY out of Mexico. 2 weeks tops in Belize, then to the glories of Guatemala.

Until then, a perfect stretch of beach sand with Mayan ruins awaits us...

the ruins of Chicanna had this building...can you see the jaws of the serpent around the door opening???

Maya

2010-03-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

After 3 days in Ocosingo waiting out Lisa´s mysterious illness, we rode the stretch everyone had been telling us about: Ocosingo to Palenque. Cutting through the Chiapas highlands we saw beautiful waterfalls, as well as the worst poverty of the trip. We slept near a turquoise-colored river where children stared at us as we set up camp. It was easy to entertain them when we have an alien-looking tent and tiny stove that runs off gasolina. Today we visited the Mayan ruins of Palenque, definitely a highlight of the trip. The rain was pouring down the entire time we were there. Instead of being a bummer, it made a cool fog around the trees and eliminated lots of the trourists that typically flood the place. Tonight we´ll camp in the nearby jungle one last time, probably being serenaded by howler monkeys again. The call from those monkeys was LOUD last night, sounding more like dinosaur than primate.

Now we will probably ride longer days in the flat country of Tabasco and the Yucatan peninsula until we hit the Mayan ruins of Calakmul and then the Caribbean coast.

La Gente

2010-03-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

From Mainland MEX

more photos waay below

¨Dinero¨, I heard a kid scream to me from the top of the hill. After searching through my pockets and unable to find any loose change, I hear ¨Fuck you¨.

For some reason, I´ve realized that I rarely write about the people we see out here. Coming from a backpacking background, we tend to focus on the landscape and how it changes each day. On a trip like this, we are really here to experience the culture...the landscape is secondary.

Lately, we´ve been seeing even more and more indegenous culture. 25% of the peoples of Chiapas are indegenous...thats roughly a million folks. As soon as we escape a largish city like Tuxtla Gutierrez or San Cristobol de Las Casas, these are really the only people we see. The men look like most of the other men in Mex, perhaps with darker skin. They are inheritants of the ancient Mayans, and usually are wielding machetes. They walk alongside the carettera on footpaths worn from decades of use with these blades, and occassionally, a bottle of coke. We can hear the high-pitched clang of their blades hitting stalks of corn or trees for firewood.

The women are a different story. Dressesed in beautiful traditional garb, they always catch our eye. Their dresses are ankle length black, with bright turquoise and purple patterns. Women here seem to carry all of the firewood, not men. The wood is wrapped in some sort of cord, then attached to a strap which goes across their forehead. Never attached to their backs. Weve seen 70 plus year old women carrying tons of wood like this, and their husbands lagging behind carrying only a machete.

When we first entered Chiapas, we didn´t feel welcome. None of our smiles were ever returned, and certainly never heard a return of BUENOS DIAS...possibly because they speak different languages, not only spanish! Since leaving San Cristobol, we have felt incredibly welcome. The children see us while they are playing in their backyards and start to sprint toward us. Only once have I got a negative vibe like from the encounter I opened the post with. They scream out GRINGO, GRINGA! as they are chasing us, giggling the whole time. Sometimes they ask for money, or sweets. A girl approached us in the streets of Ocosingo last night, dressed in a beautiful dress with a filthy face, asking for Chicle (gum). We had no gum but gave her a donut. She smiled gratefully and split it with her brother.

There have definitely been times in the past few days when I´ve taken the idea of volunteering even more seriously...

Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico, but sometimes it´s hard to tell when looking at its people...

and now those photos

After hanging out in Monte Alban, way above, we had a fun descent back down to Oaxaca proper.
From Mainland MEX

beauty amongst the foothills and agave as we approached the Sierra

From Mainland MEX

Pretty nice up there...

standard Mexican promotional graffiti

peeking over the divide, dry gave way to lush

whoa....now this is a proper beach!

but this is more of our style at Mazunte...

nice light after the scramble to the top of Punta Cometa

still have a few cactus around

and some salt-mining

your standard view of the Oaxacan Coast, nothin special

goddess guarding the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

¨If there are strong winds, reduce speed¨. WINDY WINDY WINDY out there

and still beautiful

Typical swarming of kids after we go for a dip in the river

really like these mountains

epic epic Canyon del Sumidero via boat for breakfast

and a nice waterfall coming from a cave for dinner

needless to say, we are digging Mexico...probably more than ever. Chiapas is full of natural beauty, not overpopulated, and the people are inspiring. Yesterday after winding through beautiful pine forests, we met a motociclisto, Eduardo, whom we had coffee with in Chiapas del Coro. He was excited to see us while he was on his own 4 day trip with biking buddies, so invited us out to brunch. His buddies were on a really nice loop going to 3 different Mayan ruins, waterfalls, colored lakes, and bird sanctuaries. The boys eat well, and fed us a nice breakfast of juevos con camarones (eggs with shrimp). 10 km later, we were hiking up a large structure in the Tonina ruins, totally alone. With a killer view of the surrounding valley, we couldn´t help but think how lucky we are...

And this has been a recurrent thought these past few days. A feeling of gratitude that things have lined up in our lives to put us together and out here. It´s nice...

Next up are the waterfalls of Agua Azul y Misol=Ha, then the ruins of Palenque, and then out to the Yucatan...

Zapatistas

2010-03-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

(sorry for the lack of photos due to faulty USB ports...)

After quite a bit of time, we finally made it to our next big town destination: San Cristobol de las Casas.

We left the big city of Oaxaca a day later than expected. Bike chores and the desire to see more of the city led us to stay. We met an amazing couple from England via warmshowers.org who rode their bikes to Oaxaca from Halifax, Nova Scotia, then decided to stay in Oaxaca to volunteer. We had a blast talking to them, and they even gave us some stuff we needed that they didn´t. Namely, they gave me a pair of new tires. Not just any tires, but Schwalbe tires...by far the best tires you can find. The timing was uncanny since I was looking at ordering Schwalbe tires online ealier that morning, and here I got them for free.

We visited Monte Alban, Zapotec ruins up high on a hill outside of town, and then we were ready to leave. We rode toward the sea, crossed over the Sierra Madre del Sur to get to Puerto Escondido. Beautiful road, lots of climbing which led us to a killer view from the divide. Behind us were the dry hills we had come accustomed to, in front of us was lush and green. All of the rain gets caught on this side of the divide, and there were streams, waterfalls, and actually leaves on the trees. Gorgeous downhill had us on the beautiful Oaxacan coast.

We stayed the day at Mazunte, an amazing and quiet slice of coast. We paid a few dollars and camped for the night with other backpackers. This is the first time weve been in the backpacker scene, and it was fun to talk with people from other countries with Spanish as the common language. A fun scrample up Punta Cometa gave us a great view at sunset.

Leaving Mazunte, we passed many other beaches, and climbed over many ridges that dropped to the sea. The riding became predictable in a fun way. We realized that the mountains were dropping fingers of rock down to the coast, parallel to our road. We´d climb over a ridge, drop down into a valley with a inhabitants, then climb again. In one of those last valleys, girls rushed me at a speed bump to sell tomales. I felt bad, but decided to buy tomales from the girl who was the fastest runner. We´ve been swarmed by people selling all sorts of things before, but never girls under the age of 10. Nice tomales too!

After we went thru the hellishly large port town, complete with oil refinery, of Salina Cruz, we rode into absurd winds. This section of Mexico is where it is at it´s thinnest, the Isthmus of Tehauntepec. We had an amazing headwind for over 30 km, passing through many wind farms on the way. Turning east it turned into either a tailwind which felt like we were sailing, or it would be a crosswind which was terrifying.

That afternoon the wind finally died down, and the riding was smooth. We got to Tuxtla Gutierrez with its amazing street art, climbed over the Sierra again after entering Chiapas, now are in San Cristobol de las Casas. A beautiful colonial town, and easily the biggest congregation of gringos we´ve seen yet. There are loads of hostels, vegetarian restaurants, fancy pizza joints, and they show radical documentary films about Zapatatistas and other movements for the peoples at night. We´re paying for lodging for the first time in a while, trying to find a horrible noise in Lisa´s bike, going to see a flick on Zapatistas, then leave in a day or two. Once we leave here, we will drop down into the jungle and serious heat. Forecast is calling for 104 deg heat with 75% humidity. Yum.

Amigos Nuevos

2010-02-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

From Mainland MEX

After many many days, we arrived in Oaxaca via what may have been the slowest route ever. We left over 10 days ago from Taxco, a city that is still our favorite of the trip. That day leaving Taxco had us hiding in the shade from the brutal heat that was building in the canyons. More water, more water needed to prevent that light headed, faint feeling...

After going through Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, we climbed into the mountains. For two days, we wound through constant steep descents and ascents in the highlands of Guerrero. Not many people live out here, so not many cars on the road. At the end of that last climb on pavement, we had what had to be the best descent of our lives. Over 40 minutes of winding downhill led us to a surprise waterfall. Below the double falls was a swimming hole where we were able to hide from the noon sun. Best waterfall of the trip. Best descent (so far) of the trip. Those days were definitely really hard for both of us, but the rewards were HIGH, and the smiles were large.

The town of Tlapa de Comonfort was at the bottom of this valley, complete with the worst city roads weve seen yet. Potholes, potholes, uneven pavement, and loud horns were the name of the game...so we left quickly. This is where the maps would start to fail us:

According to our map and local advice, we were to follow the valley north for a few kilometers. This we did. Then we would turn east and follow a canyon upstream. Check. With all of these things done, we found a beautiful and quiet campsite on an old mining road and called it a day...

From Mainland MEX

Next morning we climbed and climbed for 3 or 4 hours. The scenery was beautiful. We climbed higher in this canyon where the leaves were yellow and orange as if it were fall. The sky was slightly cloudy and dramatic and we were feeling strong and happy. Then all of a sudden we saw a sign which made us doublethink where we were. Asking a cab driver confirmed that we were on fact on another road. Another road not on the maps! After barating this fella with questions, we discovered that we could do a near impossible climb up a dirt road and drop down into a nearby town. A nearby town, guess what...NOT ON OUR MAPS!

We made it to this town, and were greeted with a group of dozens of young boys on the sidewalk. We tried to open them up with a ´´que pasa´´, but no response. Only stares. Weve been noticing this more and more lately as we go further off the gringo track. The next day our friend Francisco would tell us that he had only seen one gringo in those parts in his entire 40 year life, and certainly no one on bikes...

After asking numerous people how to get out of this road with steep streets, we found ourselves on a dirt roady two track. Beautiful out there, with the threat of rain coming. We rode further and finally we were back on the map, in a town that we should have arrived at 6 hours earlier. Oh well, at least we took the scenic, beautiful, and memorable route..

From Mainland MEX

Back on track we a bad sloped campsite in a cow-infested canyon before riding out in the rain. Drizzle ain´t all that bad, but not the best way to start Lisas birthday. At the top of a climb, we put on rain jackets, and did a lil descent which put us back on pavement for the first time in days. How easy and fast the riding was on a smooth surface. That climb was probably the steepest of the trip, where every ounce of concentration was needed to stay in the single line of well packed rock, or you´d swerve into the loose dirt and rock and loose traction. Yes, even with low tire pressure...

We rode through the tiny town of Santa Rosa, where a taxi driver flagged us down in perfect English. Francisco had lived in the US for over a decade, and was delighted to practice his long under-used Second Tongue. He offered us a place to stay, which at first we declined. We rode another few kilometers, until the rain started to dump, and we needed a lunch under a tree. Francisco rode up, found us, and gave us some fruit juice. He later told us that he couldn´t believe that we were out in the cold eating cold food. Again he offered us a place to stay and we couldn´t decline. It was impossible to enjoy the views up in the highlands with the thick cloud-cover, and this would be a nice diversion for Lisa´s birthday. He introduced us to his wife, then 3 children. In typical child style, they started off shy, but later came to like us. Especially the 3 year old. They cooked us dinner. Prepared a Temezcal, which is a traditional Mexican sauana from the old days complete with herbs in the steaming water. Relaxing doesn´t begin to explain...

We left, Francisco with a bit of tears in his eyes, and rode into a beautiful morning. The clouds were really breaking up, and we had huge views. This route turned out to be amazing, slow, but amazing.

We dropped out of the highlands and followed a really flat and easy 190 km or so through a wide valley to get into Oaxaca. Here we met Philepe and Manu from Austria and are spending a few days with them here in town. There are also two other cyclists from Portland here, who now have an apt to live in while they study Spanish in town. So, tonight we have a free place to stay.

Tomorrow we ride to Monte Alban, very old and beautiful Zapotec ruins set high above the valley. And then we leave. Oaxaca is nice and colorful, we we yearn to leave the big city and find the smaller pueblos. Our current route has us riding over the Sierra Madre del Sur to drop down to the Pacific Ocean some 200 km later. We´ll follow the pacific, cross the narrow Isthmus of southern Mexico, then head back into the highlands of Chiapas and San Cristobol...

From Mainland MEX

Oaxaca

2010-02-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

From Mainland MEX

quickly...we loved the highlands of Western Oaxaca. The steepest climbs yet led to even bigger views. There are little people out here, and this is what I expected Mexico to be like before we left for this trip. Incredibly beautiful...

We had some nice adventures involving getting lost due to bad map and road sign combo, going through the smallest pueblos of the trip and getting rushed by children, and on Lisas birthday we were offered a place to stay with a family in the tiny town of Santa Rosa. Played with the farm animals, enjoyed some time in a traditional sauna, etc...

Proper update to come in Oaxaca proper, some 200 km away

Elation after frustration

2010-02-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

From Mainland MEX

It´s amazing and slightly pathetic how easily our moods are affected by the amount of traffic and the feeling of solitude we get on this trip. A couple of weeks ago, we were fed up with riding in mainland Mex. Entering and leaving Guadalajara was pure hell. A 6 lane highway with speeding traffic and cars leaving exits is a recipe for cycling unhappiness that we presribed for ourselves. Riding through a heavily populated farming area before and after Los Reyes had us huffing fumes from fires that farmers set in every valley. The rain and chilly descents on the way to Morelia and lightning worries...blah blah blah.

From Mainland MEX

and then we see things like this;

From Mainland MEX

Recently though, there has been no negative side. We delt with one day of rain leaving Morelia, hiding under bus stops frequently, and the rest has been gravy. Quiet roads. Lots of big climbs, lots of big descents. With the ascending comes large trees, thick forests, and clean air. We´ve been fortunate enough to spend days on end staring at large snow-capped volcanoes in the distance. Lucky to have our minds blown while staring at millions of butterflies awaken, and then surround us. Most recetly we went into an enormous cave system outside of Taxco.

From Mainland MEX

Again, we were required to go on part of a guided tour. This tour had a slightly cheesy feel to it, but it was worth it to see what we saw. The stalactites and stalagmites were unbelievable. The national park had done a nice job lighting up the cave and putting a sidewalk and stairs through the thang! High cathedral ceilings. Crystals glinting in the stalactites. Cave paintings. The experience was nearly the complete opposite from the Monarch Reserve (dark and still), but was equally amazing.

From Mainland MEX

Yesterday we rode into Taxco after some climbing to get a good view of Mexico´s largest peak. Orizaba is the 3rd largest peak in North America, and it dominated the sky with it´s glaciers reminscent of the way Ranier dominates so much of Washington. We dropped down and were staring at Taxco, clinging to a steep hillside. Every road seems to go steeply up or steeply down. Never before have we seen a road like this, or a town like this. Taxco is considered the first mining town in North America, so naturally there are loads of old and preserved buildings. The church was built in 1543, and the carvings inside are all covered in 23.5 karat gold...a sign of the money this town had at the time. Walking around town is a test of fitness since you are always ascending or descending. We found amazing quesedillas and gorditas stuffed with any meat imaiginable for $.50 USD. We repeated this food for lunch today...

From Mainland MEX

...and now we leave.

From Mainland MEX

We´ve come up with a challenging route to reach the state and capital of Oaxaca. We´ll have a day or two that will be easy, then possibly around a week cutting through the mountains that drop all the way to the coast, the Sierra Madre de Sur. We know it´ll be beautiful. After a few days in Oaxaca, if we´re feeling up to it, we´ll climb out of those legendary valleys and back into the mountains to drop down to the Pacific and follow that to the state of Chiapas. We´re now in our 8th mexican state, with quite a few to go. Quite a few mountains to climb, beaches to snorkle on, local grown cafe to sip on, and Mayan ruins to climb.

From Mainland MEX

mexican roads have tons of obstacles;

From Mainland MEX

Butteflies galore

2010-02-08T09:49:00.001-08:00

Still no photo uploads since I need to deal with a cracked rim on my bike. Photo uploads are just too slow on this computer. Maybe in 4 days in Taxco??

We spent 3 days in Morelia waiting out a torrential downpour that never stopped. when we were finally able to leave town, we passed the town of Tuxpan which was turned into a disaster site. The river that flowed through town had flooded, washing away housing, and filling others with mud. The military was there directing traffic around the muddy streets and distrubiting food to those in need.

We have been fortunate enough to ride on road without much traffic. Road with enormous trees and dense forests unlike any we´ve seen in Mexico. Yesterday we took one of these quiet roads to the tiny Ejido of Macheros. Here is the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. WE had to pay a small amount for a compulsory guide, then worked our way up the mountain Cerro Pelon. After an hour of hiking, we were rewarded with literally MILLIONS of butterflies all over the fir trees. The sun had yet to hit the trees, so these shaded branches were covered with what looked like black leaves. This was actually just the butterflies with their wings folded inward, which they do when cold. The underside of their wings is black. As the sun hit the branches, they slowly open their wings and the branches turned orange. A bit more time later, they were flying all around us. Some landed on us if we were in the sun. Others flew to different trees. The only thing I can think of that this reminded me of was watching a bat migration of thousands of bats in Coloardo...which paled in comparison to this. The amount of butterflies in that one area was astounding, and definitely one of the highlights of this trip. After they mate here, the males die, and the females go on to fly to the southeastern US, where their eggs hatch, butterflies are born, then go to the Great Lakes, then a few generations later, other butteflies find themselves here. It´s considered one of the most complex migrations on the planet and scientists still don´t understand it. Sorry for the weak, rushed explanation here.

Suffice to say we were thoroughly blown away. Nice hike back and we were back on the bikes. Now we are in the Pueblo Magico of Valle de Bravo. Gorgeous valley with a lake in the middle. Time to walk these streets to fix my bike and get more food...

Patzcuaro

2010-01-31T10:56:00.000-08:00

I´d be lying if I said we weren´t nervous entering Michoacan. David and his familia, who opened their amazing home to us, told us western Michoacan was dangerous. We´d been warned back in Baja as well, but with enough conflicting reports from others, we decided to give it a go. Not on the typical tourist path as recommended, but on back roads until now. We are fine! No drug cartels that we could see, just gunshots in the air due to wedding celebrations.

Michoacan has been beautiful, beautiful. We summited a volcano a couple of days back, just outside of a village where the locals dont speak spanish. To get to Volcan Paricutin, we had to ride a horse for 2 hrs, then scramble the last bit to the top, where the volcano was still active. Steam vents were everywhere, and sitting on the cinder cone warmed your butt nicely. gorgeous country.

Leaving that town, we got back on the highway for the first time in a week, and again, I considered quitting. Catching a bus out of Mexico because these direct highways are just too much. In a new twist on Mexican driving, we are discovering that the drivers use the shoulder as another lane to aid in passing. To their credit they are always aware of us and give us plenty of space, but still. It´s a tad tense, and we can´t wait to get to Morelia when the traffic splits considerably north toward Ciudad de Mexico, which we will avoid on backroads to get to the Monarch Butterfly Reserve, then put together an awesome route to get to northern Oaxaca, then the states capital proper, then work it over to the Yucatan. This all takes weeks of course, and hopefully tomorrow I´ll be able to throw up some photos in Morelia, where we hope to have some couchsurfing lined up.

Nueva Estado

2010-01-28T12:13:00.001-08:00

We just entered the state of Michoacan via an amazing quiet backcountry route. The roads are quiet, there is a miraculous shoulder to ride on, the valleys are wide, and the volcanoes large. Will give a better update when there is more time, but first we must make our way to a large waterfall (cascada) just outside of this town, Los Reyes.

Tequila

2010-01-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

From Mainland MEX

Quick update

We are now in our 5th Mexican state, Jalisco. Jalisco is the only state where agave is grown, and hence, its most definitely tequila country here. After the climb out of Ixlan del Rio, we are now following long valleys full of agave azul. Beautiful plant cultivated in beautiful rows.

Just as I got off the internet from updating the blog yesterday, I found Lisa being interviewed by a reporter. Francisco worked for the local paper and is writing an article on our journey to be published tomorrow. He took our picture, and enjoyed talking to us (and we enjoyed talking to him) about how we liked Mexico and it´s people.

From Mainland MEX

Tomorrow afternoon we´ll be in Guadalajara for a few days with a guy lined up from warmshowers.org.

From Mainland MEX

!Subre!

2010-01-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

From Mainland MEX

We peered over into the valley below and saw the lake we sought WAAAYYY down below, Laguna Santa Maria del Oro. For a second we considered not going down there, only to have to climb up a steep 10 km to get to where we were peeping from, but that notion was quickly erased.

From Mainland MEX

It was beautiful there, and we spent a half day longer than planned. No traffic, no noise, not many people... I started and finished reading Slaughterhouse 5. How I managed to miss out on this for 28 years of my life, who knows.

Back on the road, we passed a huge volcano and rode through a massive lava field. Fun and different and now we are looking on Google maps for topo information on the road options and climbing options on getting to Guadalajara in a couple of days.

Enjoy the pics!

From Mainland MEX

Verde, Verde, y mas verde

2010-01-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

From Baja

Oh how we love Mainland Mexico. After failing to secure a free ride across the Sea of Cortez by working on a sailboat, we caved and took the paid ferry ride. 12 hours later we rode the bikes off the ramp and into Mazatlan, full with 2 cruiseships of gringos walking around with their camera cases. I was feeling sick with some magical Mexican sickness, so the tour of town was short. The church though was a highlight, and probably the most beautiful church I´ve ever stepped into. Too bad the inside was full of dozens of tourists snapping photos (including myself, oops).

From Baja

Out of town we were on a road with a shoulder. And cars. And more cars. We had hoped that most of the Mexican population, lots of people, would all live around Mexico city, which could be avoided. Not the case. Lots of peole live in mainland Mexico compared to Baja California, which I´ve come to expect. With lots of people came lots of people on bikes. Fun bikes. Rusty bikes. Bikes with milk crate racks. Racks with large tires in them. Bikes towing wheelbarrows. All of the bikes means that people are used to seeing bikes on the road, and that makes us smile.

It´s green out here, and we love it.

From Baja

The riding was flat for days, all the way to our detour to San Blas. San Blas is a beautiful town on the Pacific Coast set amongst mangrove forests. We rode beside coconut and plantain trees, over bridges for creeks, and past tons of birds. Beautiful for a couple who just spent 6 weeks biking through the dry, but beautiful, desert of Baja. We rode up to the top of a hill and hung out by an old church and armory for hours, enjoying the shade and silence away from town. The buildings were from the 1500s, complete with plants growing on the buildings. Beautiful spot.

From Baja

Camped on the beach for the night, and now we´re climbing slowly to the hills around Tepic. According to a Quebec bike touring couple we met a few days ago, we have 6,000 ft to climb to get to the highlands around Guadalajara! Wow. They also gave us the great info that it costs $500 to cross the Darien Gap from Panama to Columbia. Time to start counting our pesos!!!

From Baja

will write again in Guadalajara, till then we´re riding in trees! Trees!

From Baja

Adios Baja, Hola Jalisco

2010-01-11T15:26:00.000-08:00

From Baja

Baja has treated us well.

When we tell people that we have ridden from Mexicali, more often than not we get perplexed reactions. Ranging from ¨youre insane´¨, to ¨that road is crazy¨, and every once in a while we get words of encouragement and amazement. People like to refer to riding through Baja as RIDING THE BAJA, but thats unfair. Sure 90 percent of Baja visitors ride Hwy 1 which cuts south through the entire peninsula, but they fail to acknowledge that there are all sorts of other options to get off the beaten path. Riding on that highway was both fast and enfuriating. It was nice to make miles on smooth pavement, but not so nice to ride constantly on a road with relatively heavy traffic, and that road having zero shoulder for space from traffic. We did quickly get into the habit of hopping off the road if we saw semis coming from both directions. I think Lisa would agree that many of our favorite moments were when we were out on the slow dirt roads, not much traffic, and the rewards were really earned. We have no idea what the roads will be like in Mainland Mexico and beyond, but at least there are options as there were in Baja.

Ive gotten so far behind on the blog that Im just going to put captions below the photos to tell some of the story. Hope you can enjoy...

From Baja

leaving Puertecitos to see the Sea of Cortez become overwhelming, too bad the clouds don{t show how turquoise that water is...

From Baja

get used to pushing when the pavement ends

From Baja

las montanas son muy bonita

From Baja

gonzaga bay, one of our favorite spots on the sea of cortez. At low tide a sandbar is exposed and you can hike out to the island

From Baja

so many beautiful sunsets, this one over Lisas beautiful bike

From Baja

clouds meant storm in the mountains, which meant scary 50mph winds where we were down below

From Baja

the Boojum Tree, named by Dr Seuss, and the coolest plant on the peninsula...

From Baja

nice waves on an impressive swell near Santa Rosalita surf camp

From Baja

beauty in the sand dunes north of Guerrero Negro

From Baja

so many birds in protected marshland outside of Guerrero Negro

From Baja

people have fun with their shredded tires in Baja

From Baja

these trees were a delighted site for us in San Ignacio

From Baja

first of many 200 plus year old churches, this one in San Ignacio

From Baja

Volcan Tres Virgenes which humbled us and had us turning back shy of the summit

From Baja

ouch!

From Baja

most fun descent of the trip possibly down to the sea of cortez at Santa Rosalia

From Baja

this trip could have the highest number of phenom sunsets of any trip weve done

From Baja

Bahia de Concepcion, a snowbirds heaven

From Baja

not a bad campsite on an island

From Baja

crossing the water to go back to the bikes

From Baja

climbed up high to check out San Javier church, off the beaten track for sure

From Baja

the Sierra de Giganta seen from our last beach on Bahia Conception

From Baja

amazing mountains and amazing canyons

From Baja

hiking up canyon Tabor

From Baja

whoa!!

From Baja

back to bike pushing to get over the 4wd drive rd thru the Sierra de Gata, and down to Bahia de Muertos

From Baja

the payoff for that pushing

From Baja

on a different, SANDY, dirt road along the eastern cape. Too much barbed wire, too many mansions, too much sand. sigh...

From Baja

Cabo Pulmo was a magical spot

From Baja

with great snorkeling to boot

From Baja

the next day we entered the zoo at Cabo san Lucas, and this is the beach at Lands End

life has been good and it is time to move on...

From Baja

Lands End? Check!

2010-01-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

Welp... Lisa and I walked as far as we could out along Lands End in Cabo San Lucas, going as far south as we possibly could in Baja. Unplanned detour which has become par for the course.

Obviously weve seen a lot in the past couple of weeks since I updated last. From experiencing a Mexican Christmas, drinking *Mexican Margaritas* with a cool Mexican lush on New Years Eve in La Paz, soaking in hot springs, hiking up beautiful canyons, and riding on plenty of sandy yet quiet roads. Baja has treated us well, and I plan to do a respectable update tomorrow. Till then, weve got to hit the road for another beach stealth camp before the sun sets below the sea.

¡Viva Mexico!

Feliz Navidad

2009-12-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

After some mellow days spent in San Ignacio and Mulege, we´re now in the town of Loreto to experience a Mexican Christmas. This will be one of the last times we´re on the Sea of Cortez, a sea with constantly changing scenery. The Sierra de Giganta are finally dropping into the sea here, dolphins oftentimes come into the sea for breakfast, and the water has been torquise green.

Baja Peakbagging

Volcan Tres Virgenes was on our radar as our first Baja peak to climb, and it shut us down. If you´re considering going off trail in Baja (there are no trails!!), be ready for lots of bushwacking. We had been warned, but with enough desert hiking under our belts this year in Utah and Arizona, we assumed it´d be no big deal. Wrong. Both of us pulled chunks of cactus out of our legs, multiple long cactus spines, thorns thorns thorns. This is the type of stuff that everyone likes to warn you about in desert hiking, and usually it´s avoidable and never thick enough to complain about. All of that changed on this volcano and for every mile of forward progress, we had to make about 3 miles of winding walking around cactus to get there. After realizing that we hadn´t really made any elevation gain whatsoever, we made the decision to kill the summit attempt. We were lucky enough to climb enough the night before to give a nice view of the desert surrounding the summit, and it was beautiful. Mtn ranges following the sea, and huge black swaths of volcanic flows on the ground around. Can´t wait for that next big view...

Back on the Sea

Santa Rosalia was an old copper mining town with cool wooden buildings, Mulege was a quaint town that was hit hard by a hurricane this fall, the beach at Isla Requeson wasnt really sandy, but was all tiny seashell fragments. Here we hiked across a spit that was only accessible at low tide to get out to an island just off the coast. Camped away from the RVs on the island, read books, took photos, etc etc. Life is sooooo stressful...

In Mulege we had someone buy us lunch after we fixed a flat tire on his townie for him, then that night a pilot was fascinated with us being crazy enough to ride the highway and bought us beers and the best food of the trip. I love ceviche these days.

People here start celebrating Christmas at midnight, so we plan to stay awake and catch the services, listen to some singing, see more happy people, then crash in the RV park, or possibly even a hotel room, the first hotel room since Mexicali.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Date trees¿

2009-12-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

thank god we are nearly out of the Vizquaino desert. Both of us love the desert, but we finally entered a desert devoid of any vegetation other than small brush, and full of traffic on a highway with absolutely no shoulder. The desert started off beautiful, with the largest cactus we´ve ever seen; the Cardon Cactus. Even more beautiful was the strange, Boojum Tree. Boojum is apparently a name taken from a Dr Seuss book, and the name is fitting. The trees look like carrots planted into the ground upside down, with a cool tuft of Orange hair on the peak. Very strange. Very cool. Even the Spanish name, Cirios is fitting. Cirios=candle. The trees could look like a candle with the leavs on top being the flame. Either name works, and we´ve found ourselves fascinated with the flawless naming of the trees. Well, these trees filled a beautiful valley and Biosphere Reserve (think national park in Mexico) that extended for miles. Nothing but massive cacti, these Cirios trees, and mountains in the background. This section of the desert was beautiful, but after all this vegetation left, we found ourselves fixated on the semi trucks and our incessent swearing directed toward them.

Our cycling friends Hannah and Mike have split with us here in San Ignacio. We need a day off and they are in a push to see the Sea of Cortez for the first time. Luckily for us, this is the best possible spot for a zero day, finally off the highway, a tiny town with a 200 year old church, proper square plaza, huge trees, a LAKE!!! to swim in, date and palm trees. Luckily this place turned into the oasis that everyone told is it would.

Time for a couple of tacos, sneak out of town and camp near the volcanoes.

Hasta pronto

Cha Cha Cha

2009-12-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: there will be no photos uploaded due to the theft of our mini USB cable, done by a coyote!!! It's a shame too, because this stretch has by far been the most scenic of our 2 or 3 weeks, or however long we've been out here....

South along the Sea

So we left San Felipe where we updated last and continued riding along the incresingly scenic Sea of Cortez. A few miles south of town we found some sandy dunes to try to block the wind coming from the sea and camp for the night. What at first seemed like a nice campsite, turned into the 2nd most difficult tent setup of the trip. We had to dig deep into the sand and brace the stakes against concrete blocks we had found to keep the tent upright in the wind. At first the setup was great. Wind predictably died down at sunset and we got to see the beautiful full moon rise up over the sea, casting a massive reflection over the sea. Then the winds came. The winds were pounding the side of tent, which is the weakest spot for it to hit, and we were waiting for the tent to fall down any second when the stakes got yanked out of the sand. Magically this never happened after we tied off to our bikes, and woke up to calmer air.

This would be our last day on pavement, and a fast one. A tailwind developed later in the morning that would push us a fast 60 km or so to Puertecitos and to the most gringos we've seen yet. There was a small bar slash hot dog joint called Cow Patties where we hung out and got some info on the road ahead. The guys told us that there were at least other 3 other cyclists ahead of us, and they were making fun of these guys on their skinny tires going over the rough road ahead. Still, we now knew that we may possibly meet someone else out here doing the less traditional route. Later we'd meet others, but didn't know that yet...

We had plans to stay at the hot springs in town, but since low tide was necessary to get the water hot, and low tide was too late in the evening PLUS it was absurdly expensive to camp at $20/night, so we went further south out of a town that turned out to be depressing and disgusting, despite the oasis we had created in our minds. Further down the road was nothing but gravel pits, but we had to find one to camp. Not necessarily the most beautiful camp, but not too ugly either. And wind free!

Eric's chain was having problems hopping off of low gears on rough roads, and with the rough road ahead it was time to do something about this. His chain got shortened and we rode a few miles before the chain started to skip again. We pulled over to a beautiful spot right on the water and found the problem. The problem was the broken chain breaking tool wouldn't put the chain back together properly, so it took both of us, one with chain tool the other with pliers, to slowly get a functioning chain. With few bike shops, and even fewer good parts, it may prove tricky to find a decent tool. Finally with a functioning bike and Lisa nearly finish with her book 4 hours later we started the long climb up onto the dirt. Washboards. Washboards. Rocks. And loose dirt.

The road wasn't really the problem though, the problem was the traffic. Namely dump trucks and other construction vehicles. This road is slowly being extended as paved south for the growing gringo traffic, so construction is never ending. We got passed constantly by these trucks, and when they passed us they spit up clouds of dust. Darkness was slowly descending and we had to wear sunglasses despite the level of light to see down the road. Sadly the dust and constant noisy traffic managed to drop our enjoyment of this area slightly.

The sea of Cortez was starting to become surreal. The water had finally turned turquoise which we'd read about in these bays, so not only was the water a strange sight, but so was the land. Cliffs dropped into the sea in ways that reminded me of the fjords in Alaska. Mountains popped out of the sea which are now islands once the peaks were surrounded by turquoise water. Again, the scenery was our favorite of the trip. Somehow things get better and better.

Things would continue to be rough for the next few days, but the scenery was pristine, and thankfully free of litter. Every highway in Baja has so far had trash EVERYWHERE, and out here on the rough road with no traffic, things looked as they should be. There were some wild horses. A few beautiful sunsets. Some fast and fun descends. Blah blah blah...

Then came the wind. We left a beautiful spot where we finally swam in the Sea of Cortez at Gonzaga Bay after a lazy morning. A few motorcyclists passed us and said they were glad they weren't us as we started to fight the wind. A headwind. At fist the wind wasn't so bad, just slowed us down a tad. After 2 hours we were off of our bikes and pushing. Lisa got blown over twice, and we knew that we couldn't ride in the wind. What really worried us was finding a campsite. There are no large trees in this desert, and no good rocks anymore to provide any shelter from the wind. We gave up early around 3 pm and decdided we couldn't go on like this, at less than hiking pace. Amazingly, we found a wide ditch-thing beside the road that helped a little bit. Winds were EASILY 50 mph plus, the worst taht either have us ever seen sustained for over a few minutes. It took us well over 2 hrs to find a decent spot down there to camp. The spots were either wayyy too sandy, or waayyy too rocky underneath, but 12 stakes later, we were in a tent that has continued to impress us under seriously serious camping conidtions. No broken tent poles!

Coco

We met Coco near the end of the dirt road before we dropped down to the Transpeninsular Hwy and pavement for the first time in days. He ran a little business in the middle of nowhere where we could buy a Coke, with real sugar and no high-fructose corn syrup!, and fed us free food. He got us to sign into his guestbook, and it turns out there were at least 5 other cyclists a week or so ahead of us. This was also the first place that made us feel like we were on a long trip, and felt like we were on a long-distance hiking trail. Food hookup in the middle of nowhere, signing a book to see whose ahead, and good company for hours...

Back on the highway we cruised nearly 100 km to get near the highway that branched off to get to the Pacific. The next morning we woke up and realized we needed a day off. Our hair was fried, we were a bit dirty, and could do with some old school laundry done with Dr Bronners and a bucket...

Cha Cha Cha...

15km later, we were on the Pacific Ocean for the first time, in the town of Santa Rosalita and met an awesome gringo named David. David was originally from Germany and had a killer massive grey moustache. He told us that we were welcome to stay near his camp 5 miles further along the beach at Playa Andreas. No brainer: go to David's. Stocked up on food, we rode the miles on a dirt road and went to the most beautiful beach we'd seen yet. Nothing but 6 or so palapas, a handful of surfers, and constant surf. Apparently there was a legendary "swell" coming in and all of the surfers had come down from San Diego to check it out. They were all awesome to us. Told us where the cold shower was. That there were going to be fish tacos in camp at night. Etc Etc Etc.

What had originally meant to be a half-day off became 3 days off. Bikes fixed. Books read. Journals caught up, we could finally surf. Everyone seemed to have a spare wetsuit that they wanted to loan us, and good boards to start on, so we spent a few hours out on the water. It's easy to see how people can get so hooked on surfing. It's so peaceful floating on the board waiting for a wave to come, and when the wave finally does come, the ocean feels so powerful. You can't plan these things. Here we are getting free surfing lessons on a beautiful beach taht most tourists would never find. Lucky indeed...

We couldn't stay there forever, so after surfing and getting some info on attractions ahead, we got back to the highway and headed south. We have since met 2 other cyclists, Mike from San Francisco, and Hannah from Sweden. Now we're in Guerrero Negro hanging out, making tentative plans to rent a ponga (boat) to take us out to an island out in the Sea of Cortez to stay for a few days. Read, write, journal, photograph, and enjoy.

The future

Up ahead we've gotten news of tons of beauty awaiting us. 3 dormant volcanoes called the 3 Virgins that erupted only 200 years ago. Apparently you can see the lava flows from them and from this lava grow the largest Elephant Trees on the planet. There in a really lush valley where the town of San Ignacio and it's legendary old crumbling mission are held. Date trees. Green green and fresh water! Then there is supposedly a really hairy and fun descent down to the Sea of Cortez and that torquise water. Old scandanavian mining town where the houses are made of old wood, the river delta town of Mulege, pristine beaches where you can camp on the spit of sand that juts out into the sea, and maybe christmas on an island in a national park.

Life is good.

Mar de Cortez

2009-12-03T12:42:00.000-08:00

A bit nervous, and a bit excited, we pushed our bikes out of our cramped hotel room, into the elevator, and down into the bustling streets of Mexicali. The man at the front desk of the hotel advised us on the best way to escape the traffic of town, but as soon as we were out on the streets, his advice became worthless. None of the streets were signed at all, and this would continue to become the standard for the following days of riding in Baja. Best to get used to it from the start then being shocked later I guess.

The shoulder was wide, the drivers friendly, and enthusiastic complements from the side of the street were flowing as we stretched our legs for the first time. In less than 30 minutes, we were out of Mexicali, and on the quieter highway which led west to Tecate, and even further west to Tijuana. You see, we had decided to take the more scenic route to San Felipe, only some 200 or so km or away. Instead, our route would wind up taking us over twice this distance, and possible thrice, in the name of adventure and more scenery.

Eventually the sun beat down on us enough to compel us to stop at an amandoned shack/gas station/marcado within view of a huge salt flat. The shade was nice, and gave us enough time to get ready for the last push into twilight. When we felt like we could barely be seen any more on the roads, we found a break in the barbed wire on the side of the road, and pushed our bikes thru the sand and around dry bushes to our first camp of the trip.

Our maps don't really show anything in terms of elevation gain, but we did know that soon enough we would be getting into the Sierra de Juarez. What we didn't know was if we had to go over a huge pass, if we slowly went and stayed up high, or what. What we found was that we would wind up climbing constantly for a few hours after we got through our first military checkpoint, and stay up high for the next 3 days.

the scenery immediately had me thinking of southern California on the Pacific Crest Trail, and then Lisa had to remind me that we were looking north, into California 'norte', and probably could see the mountains that the PCT was on. Oops! The view from up top was absolutely beautiful, and it was amazing to see how much we had climbing up from the valley floor. The further we went away from Mexicali, the more beautiful things seemed to become, and we were ready for the mountains near Parque de Nacional Constitucion.

All along we had been planning to enjoy some hot springs in Canon de Guadelupe, which according to some quick notes we added to our Lonely Planet guide, could be found in the Parque. The previous day though, we saw a sign to the Canyon on the road, and this side road wasn't even on our map. Without a clue as to how far the canyon was from the road, we decided to pass it up and enjoy whatever else the Parque would have for us. After the huge 3,000 ft climb, we stayed high and went to the town of La Rumorosa for a resupply. We figured we would need 4 days of food and water to get through the next stretch, and this would wind up being dead on. The young boy who swepth the floors and did other odd jobs at the marcado took an interest in us, asking us about our trip, which we enjoyed responding to in our broken spanish. spanish that is slowly improving...

9 Liters of water, lots of packed food, and a heavy bike later, found us pedaling south through town on our first dirt road.

Brecha: noun: Gap, hole.

Our maps called these backroads 'brechas'. Not sure exactly what to think of that, and not sure if the literal translation from our dictionary implied, we took off into the sand. Within a few miles, we found ourselves sliding all over the sandy road. Getting off the bikes a lot to push through the deepest sand. Asking locals for directions on how to get to the Parque whenver the road would fork, and the signs weren't there to help us figure out where to go. We were offered water and a place to stay at Rancho Nuevo by a really friendly father and son in a pickup, but knew we wouldn't make the remaining 20 km before dark fell. Before darkness fell though, we were treated to a beautiful sunset and a nice campsite.

And then the wind came. And then the rain. The wind was pounding our tent so hard that we had to reinforce the tent with as many guylines as the tent would hold. Sleep was tough to come by, and around 4 am the rain started to come down. When we woke up at 6 or so, we had to decide what to do. The rain would pour for 15 minutes, then hold off for a few, then come down again. Ultimately we would stay in the tent until 1pm, before riding into the cold and damp day.

The rain had made the sand rideable, and actually fun and smooth. We didn't make it very far that day since the hours of daylight are so short. A little more rain fell that night, and no more would fall for the next few days. The next day we started earlier and was full of new challenges. The wind was bad, we were cold, and decided to drop to lower elevations and better weather, or so we imagined. The road started off innocently enough, but then turned into a series of neverending steep hills. More bike pushing up the sandy hills, riding down slightly sketchy loose sand, pushing up again, repeat repeat. This road was more beautiful than the flat plateau that we were just on. The going was slow, and again we got to an unsigned junction. Knowing that we needed to head south, we followed the left fork which seemed to be going in that direction.

2 hrs of stess about the road starting to head in the wrong direction without any good landmarks got us to a sign: "Parque Nacional Constitucion - 20 km". what the hell?? We had been thinking the whole time that we were far south of the park, but somehow we had branched west, and taken a road that wasn't on the a map which connected back on the road we were just on. 6 hrs of hard work had us back to where we had started in the morning. At least it was all beautiful!

The road had snow on it, without much traffic. The park was very pretty, with a huge dry lake which is full of life and water in the summertime. The descent down from the plateau was the most exciting of the trip and got us to the town of Ojos Negros and paved road.

The paved road was immediately a drag to me: slow rough asphalt, lots of traffic, zero shoulder, and really scary winds created by passing semi's pushed my stress levels through the roof. Lisa was handling it much better than I was. I was immediately longing for the adventure of the high jeep roads, not the boring, flat monotony of the highway. Within 30 minutes, my mood had changed and I enjoyed cruising the road. The valley was beautiful and wide, traffic died considerably, and the sun got low.

More highway riding later, a birthday for Eric in a San Matias diner for truck drivers, and a ride along the sea put us in San Felipe. Of course there is a ton missing, but we are both very happy. There are mountains in view to the west, the sea to the east, and are in a pretty quiet town.

Bienvenidos!

2009-11-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

2 days of Greyhounding, 2 days of POOR sleep (for Eric at least), put us less than a block from the border in Calexico. A few locals came up and gave us encouranging words and left while we put the bikes together. Just as the sun was setting we rode those hunks of steel and aluminum across the border only to find that the bank was closed which was needed to pay for the 180 tourist visa. Luckily, an immigration officer took pity on us and just stamped our visa anyway and gave us the extension. Nice start to the trip.

Now we´re drinking Pina Jarritos, making typos on a Spanish keyboard, and sleepìng in the fanciest hotel that Mexicali has to offer, at the discounted rate of 300 pesos!!! Gotta start getting used to dividing everything by 13 to figure out what it costs in USD.

Tomorrow we take off early and start to make our way into the mountains and to National Parque de Constitucion, or a park with a name something like that which we know has hot springs and peaks and other mountainous stuff, complete with what the guidebooks say is a STEEP jeep road to start heading south and toward the Sea of Cortez at San Felipe.

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Bye Bye

2009-11-23T00:28:00.000-08:00

The past few years have been pretty packed with long adventures, but the prep-time for this one took the cake by far. The entire week that we've been in Georgia has been stuffed with bike work, research, bike work, chores, stress, etc etc etc, and a tiny bit of visiting friends. A wheel was rebuilt, new brakes installed, and a thrift-store front rack rigged onto my fork with some misc hardware store parts. Tonight we just finished spending a couple of hours trying to figure out how to squeeze bikes and gear into bike boxes to slide under the Greyhound. A few swear words later found the bikes shoved in and we pray that when we arrive in Calexico they will be in one piece.

A few weeks prior, I had grand visions of posting pictures and details of our planning process, but as the days came and went, I knew that my time was better spent actually planning and working instead of writing about planning and working. Sorry.

Now all that is left is to get ready to enjoy another new adventure, starting at 2pm tomorrow. This is the most nervous I've been for a trip since starting the Appalachian Trail. The butterflies are a good thing, and I'm so damn excited to put the bikes together in Calexico then ride across the border into Mexicali. Baja promises to be incredibly beautiful, and so will the rest of Latin America.

We've got a funky BlogLoc tracker that uses info from our SPOT tracker to put a dot on where we are for the day. You can click that pic for a bigger gmail map, and then navigate around it to your hearts content. Fun stuff.

wish us luck!

Starting up...

2009-11-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I'll get a gear list up here and who knows what else up before doing internet cafe updates on the road while munching on Fish Tacos.

Till then, a ghetto map of our unplanned 'route' through Baja. Really, we'll be making it up as we go, but we start out on the east coast in Calexico, know that there are 10,000 ft peaks to hike through, canyons with hot springs, snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez, whale migrations on the Pacific side, and so much more. No telling where we'll end up, but at least this is what Baja looks like on a map!