The road home

I woke up late in La Paz because I didn't have far to go. I went out to breakfast with Martine the hotel receptionist to what was supposed to be the best Carnitas stand in town. We walked about 6 blocks and went through the downtown market area which was interesting. Lots of little shops and things but this wasn't a shopping trip for me so I only saw what was in the windows. Everything is a lot cheaper there. You can tell it's a place where Mexicans shop, not gringos. 

After breakfast I went back to the hotel for a shower and then packed up to head north to the Rainbow Gathering. I got out of there around noon and rode for about 30 miles north along the inner coast of the Sea of Cortez before I ran out of pavement. From there on I faced about 20 miles of rough dirt/gravel/sand road. I passed through a small mining town called San Juan De La Costa (holy long name) and one man directed me to keep riding along a certain road and I'd find the place.

The Rainbow Gathering was being held at Punta Coyote (Coyote Point) and I could see on my map that it was quite a ways away. The road was really rough to ride on, especially on a street bike but after awhile I found out that if I just went faster and leaned back a little bit it wouldn't give my suspension enough time to bottom out when I hit a bump. The ninja's suspension has a very short travel so if I went to slow it was really hard on the bike. The trade off being that it's a little easier to lose control and go down when you're going faster. I shrugged it off and cruised along at about 30-35mph unless I came upon a creek to cross (usually filled with sand) in which case I would slow down a bit. The road was well traveled by cars and trucks you could tell which was nice to know in case I did get stuck out there somehow.

I rode for a long while, and eventually found myself in a situation I'd already been in a few times on the trip. The sun was going down, I was in the middle of nowhere, and I didn't know exactly what I was looking for. I knew the place was roughly 31km past where I ran out of pavement but that didn't help much because I didn't see so much as a small trail off the side of the road the whole way, let alone one that had vehicle tracks on it. I pulled over for a moment to evaluate my situation and then all of a sudden two mexican dudes pulled up to ask if I was ok. It was seriously out of nowhere. I askd them if they knew where the place was I was trying to get to, and they directed me back about 3km and told me to look for a small pile of stones. They said that was the place I had to turn off and they mentioned that one would expect there to be a sign or atleast a bigger pile of rocks. On my way back I saw a car on the side of the road and a couple of people standing around as well. I pulled up and for the first time in my life was happy to see hippies. They were fixing the sign that the wind blew over that was directing people to the little trail that takes them out to the beach. It was another rough sand road that I barely made it through but luckily I had plenty of practice with that the day before so atleast I made it look easy to all of those watching.

There were only about 60 people out there I'd guess. They all just set up a little commune for a month or so and camp, drink tea, eat, dance, make music, and all that stuff hippies love to do. Really pleasant crowd overall but I just chatted a bit since I arrived rather late. I set up my tent near the beach, drank some tea with them, and then had another perfect night of camping on the beach. 

I woke up and packed up since I knew I had to navigate all of those dirt roads all over again, and then another 30 miles before I was even going to begin my 300 mile ride to Mulege. I must have taken a wrong turn on the way back because I ended up right in the middle of the mining area that was the reason San Juan De La Costa existed. It was a pretty funny scene actually. All of these mexican workers roaming around and big Semi trucks hauling rocks and such and then this blue man on a little green bike riding around in every direction trying to find his way out. I ended up at the inside of the gate that I was told to turn back at the day before. The guy at the gate looked at me very strangely and said something in spanish a few times. I just said "What's up dude!" and then just kept pointing in different directions saying "La Paz? La Paz?".  I think the guy was trying to question me about what I was doing in their mine area but he gave up quickly and let me through. My plan of acting like I'd done nothing wrong worked, and well... I didn't really do anything wrong anyways except for maybe trespass. 

I made it back to the main highway and took down some water and a couple empenada's before I headed out to Mulege. Had another uneventful pleasant day of riding and even stopped for lunch in a place just north of  Ciudad Insurgentes and had some AWESOME carne asada sandwiches for dirt cheap. Chased em down with a corona and then hit the road again. I hope I remember that place.

I made it to Mulege at around 4pm  I think. I set up camp once again in my perfect little beach hut thing. They had renovated it since I was last there I could tell. It now had 3 walls (fancy stuff) and some of the palm leaves were green. I said hello to the friendly canadians and then they said they could watch some of my things for my while I went to get dinner at a restaurant down the road. I took down three MONSTER  fish tacos and a corona and then headed back to camp to relax for a bit. I ended up hanging out with Lawrence and Ricky the canadian couple and had a great time. Ricky told me about how they had been living there for 5 months during the winter for the past 11 years. She showed me their whole home away from home that they build for themselves every winter, pointing out improvements made over the years. This year Lawrence put together a full blown kitchen in the little grass hut next to their RV. The thing was stocked with a fridge, deep freezer (propane powered), stove, pots pans, condiments, and of course some cervezas.  They were also building a makeshift shower right outside of the kitchen because their children are coming to visit for christmas. They even had a big dried cactus out front for a christmas tree when the time comes. There were a bunch of small solar powered lights, as well as two large solar panels set up that I assume charge all of their batteries by the size of them. 

Later on I chatted with Lawrence about Baja, and about the fishing down there. I guess he catches most of their meals which I thought was pretty cool. They have an awesome selection in the sea of cortez since the water is a tad extra salty and is warm year round. Gringos are allowed to catch any sort of fish but no squid, crab, shrimp, clams, pretty much anything with a shell. He fried up some shrimp and calamari that he swore had been swimming that morning. Definitely the best calamari I've ever had. Might have been because he makes it often enough to really excel at it or maybe it is because it was so fresh, who knows. All I know is it was delicious. He told me to stop by for some coffee in the morning and since the sun had gone down they were heading to bed. It was now about 9pm I'd say. The moon was nearly full and the sky was clear leaving the whole beach looking very calm with that light blue glow over it that the moon always gives off on a clear night. Very peaceful.  I headed to bed and slept well.

I woke up just before the sun rose. Lawrence was wide awake next door and yelled over for me to come join them. I sat and had a cup of joe with them and chatted while we watched the sung come over the rocky hills at the other side of the way. I really can't wait to get back to Mulege. After the sun rise, I packed up and said farewell to Lawrence and Ricky, I also thanked them repeatedly for their hospitality and then set off for Guerrero Negro. I only had to ride about 210 miles today so I got to take it easy and slow down my pace. I stopped for lunch in San Ignacio which was good and then made it to Guerrero Negro fairly early. There's nothing to do in Guerrero Negro as it's just a company town. It's actually one of the worlds largest evaporative salt mines. I found that interesting but it was too late in the day to go check them out since you had to arrange it with the company (ESSA) in the morning. It's also a prime whale watching place but again it was too late in the day to arrange a boat to take me out and I didn't want to spend any more money than I had to since it was getting tight. I slept in a cheap but clean hotel near the entrance to town so I could get a quick start out in the morning for my 380 mile ride to Ensanada. I watched some TV (luckily they had english TV, and some shows I like) and went to bed pretty early. I woke up before sunrise and got ready to head out. I passed the 50 foot tall black steel structure resembling an Eagle that marks the 1 hour time zone difference between southern and nothern Baja. Being back in northern Baja it was pretty cold out around sunrise so I rode until I reached what I knew was the last gas station for 210 miles or so and then stopped for breakfast. I had a couple of amazing chicken tomales and some chorizo and eggs for breakfast, filled up on gas, and hit the road. I went through all of the familiar areas. The winding dessert road, the giant boulder formations, and the mountainous area just before El Roasio. It was nice going a little slower this time to check out the giant boulders, endless views, and enormous cactus along the way. I stopped for lunch in an awesome place called Baja's Best which is at the southern end of town in El Rosario right on the main strip. A gringo named Ed runs it with his wife Yoli and they are very friendly. The food is great, and the prices are equally great so I recommend it to anyone who heads through El Rosario. You can even get a nice room for a couple including breakfast and coffee for about 60 dollars american. In the pictures it looked like a nice deal, for a couple at least.

I kept riding and riding, back up into northern baja where people aren't as good at driving and you can tell one too many american tourists have been through there. Other than the nature and some nice roads I'm not too big a fan of northern baja, at least on the pacific side as I haven't been to the east coast. I just rode through it all day, I wanted to check out the beach in San Quintin but I promised the ninja no more dirt on this trip since it had been such a team player and didn't complain the whole time in La Paz. I just kept riding all the way back to Ensanada and stayed in the same hotel. This time I walked around their main tourist strip, checked out a couple small shops, and ate a kick ass dinner at some restaurant. I went back to my room and went to bed since it was dark out at that point. I watched some TV and then fell asleep. 

I woke up around sunrise as planned, got ready to go, jumped on the bike and headed down the street for some breakfast. I had some really good fresh fuit, huevos, hot cakes, and coffee. After I finished I fueled up and then rode to Tijuana. The border crossing itself was easy but all of the traffic and peddlers harrassing you up to the border are a little annoying. I expected it all so it wasn't a big deal. I made it across border by 11am and called a friend in LA to see if I could crash. They didn't pick up so I called another friend to have them google the drive time from San Diego to Petaluma. I'd already ridden about 80 miles that day and it was another 600 or so to get home. I said screw it, jumped on the bike, and iron-butted it all the way back. Only stopping for gas and food here and there along the 5. It was the longest day of riding I'd done my entire trip but it got me home a day early and was definitely worth it. The whole ride back from cabo went by so fast that I can't believe I back still. I can't wait to go back to baja next year and attack all of those dirt roads in the middle of the dessert I was teased by during the last 14 days. I want to go with some friends and this time bring a more dirt appropriate bike. Probably a KLR650 or something like that.

I highly suggest the road trip to the end of baja to anyone whether it be in a car, on a motorcycle, or even a  bicycle. It's worth seeing especially if you live in california since it's so damn accessible. 

I'm home safe, and I just wanted to give a special thanks to my kick ass ninja 250. It exceeded my expectations in every way and I am simply amazed at how tough those bikes are built. Well done Kawasaki, keep em coming.

Thanks to my friends Rey, Cathy, and Victoria for flying down and hanging out in Cabo for a few days. That was a most excellent break in the middle of the road trip. The resort, food, and margaritas were good, but the company was the best part.

Last but far from least would be all the people worrying about me and telling me I'd better make it home safe even when I insisted they not worry. I always kept all of you in the back of my head whenever I really really wanted to do something stupid. I figured I'd piss off a lot of people if I got taken out doing something stupid and nobody even got to watch so I held back.

Cheers,

Erich

Back to La Paz

I love it here in La Paz, I think its the most beautiful city in Baja. The name means The Peace in english and its definitely for a reason. Its a small bay póinting towards the north and the sun floats over the top from right to left every day and gently lands somewhere behind the hills to the west. I could spend many days here relaxing and mixing it up with the locals.

I rode on highway 18 to get here, which goes up the pacific coast from Cabo and cuts back over to La Paz. The ride isnt far and went by fast. The frenchman told me about some large crazy hippie fest about 50 miles north on the beach called the Rainbow Gathering and I wanted camp there for a night because he made it sound so amazing. I rode north looking for it and took a sand road about 1.5 miles to the beach. It was quite a wild ride on the Ninja because its definitely not designed for anything other than pavement. The san got pretty deep when I got clost to the beach and I even got stuck once but I just got off my bike to lighten the load and with a little effort got it moving again. The hardest part was turning around if anything. I snapped some sweet photos of the sandy ninja and headed back. I came back to hotel Yeneka and found that if I kept going I would have ended up at the hippie fest but the sun was sinking so I just grabbed a room for the night. Im here now writing all of these updates to catch up which is nice. I went out to dinner with the owner of the hotel and Martine. Had some awesome marlin tacos for just a couple bucks which was a treat for sure.

Tomorrow Im going to go camp out at the rainbow thing and see if I can have some good times and meet some more cool people. I hope I find the french dude since hes been to a few of these things. Apparently they have them in a different place in the world every time and I just got lucky to find this one. They last for months and they just make lots of food, sing and dance, and all that other hippie stuff I would normally have no desire to do. Being on the road makes you a little more open minded I suppose.

Ill try and put up some photos so you arent stuck with my shitty writing along to entertain you.

Thats all for now, stay tuned!

'e man

Mulege

We rode through a nice winding road along the Sea of Cortez and came to a pretty little beach with three walled huts made with palm leaves. They rent them each out for 3 dollars a night and the locals come to sell bread, water, fruit, and all sorts of little things. They are very polite and dont harrass you if you dont want to buy anything though.

I didnt waste anytime setting up my tent and getting to sleep because I was running a fever and feeling very weak. I jumped in bed right away (probably 7pm) and went into one o those 12 hour fever sleeps where you are drenched in sweat head to toe, moving around all night and not really ever falling asleep. I was having some wild crazy dreams but Im starting to think they were fever induced hallucinations asI never really fell asleep all the way. It was a very uncomfortable night and I was very hot with the fever so I felt terrible when I first woke up. My body had this dirty sweaty feeling all over so I decided to jump in the water for a minute to rinse off. The water felt absolutely wonderful and from that point on I started feeling better. I started drinking water and took some tylenol/ibuprofen so I could hit the road and head to cabo. I said goodbye to the canadian couple who was living there for the winter in their RV and wished my firefighter buddy a good trip. His two friends took off already and he decided to stay and camp in Mulege for a couple of nights.

The road to La Paz was nice, winding through the now half jungle/half dessert scenery that comes with the southern half of baja. A wonderful blend of rich green and deep browns with little specs of yellow dessert flowers here and there. I arrived in La Paz in the evening time and opened up my guide book to find a budget hotel. I ended up finding hotel Yeneka which is a very original junk filled place. There are a handful of men who sit out front in some carved wooden chairs and puff on cigarettes while they drink their home made margarita like cocktail. You walk into the lobby to be greeted by a guy just hanging out around the front desk with his yellow cat thats missing its tale. He happily informs you of the hotel room and bonus accomodations such as a double shot of tequila upon arrival, an hour of internet, and some coffee in the morning. They have about 20 dark rooms that dont feel completely indoors and the shower being hot is hit or miss. Its a little over priced at40 dollars per night but the company of the regulars and the creative decor make up for it. I unpacked and wheeled my motorcycle in so it could be safe and then came out and began chatting with the guys out front. All friendly people. Theres Miguel the magazine director, Jaime the lawyer, and the owner who is a doctor but I dont remember his name. Martine is the name of the guy who runs the front desk, and pretty much everything else in the hotel and he speaks excellent english as he was raised in california before being deported in 2001 or so.

I went out to have dinner by the beach, I hadnt eaten in almost two days because I was sick so I just wanted something light like a salad. I sat down outside at a resturaunt, overlooking the way and ordered a salad. They brought me some chips and to my suprise, they also sent out a mexican girl with one of those corn mashing bowls and small plates of vegetables. The girl hand grinded me some salsa right in front of my table which I could hardly believe. It was delicious of course...

After dinner I returned to the hotel and hung out with the guys out front for a few hours, chatting while Martine translated everything for us. The other guys would try to talk to me in english for practice but it was difficult for them. Wonderful bunch. A french guy rode up on his bicycle and it turned out he had ridden down from San Francisco. I didnt feel so cool anymore, heh heh. I spent the night hanging out with that guy and had some incredibly conversation. The guy just travels. He isnt rich but he has money, he has just been bumming around the entire world for the past ten years seeing and doing all. He works when he has to to make some cash as either a carpenter or painter or whatever he can figure out. The guys lived more life than anybody Ive ever met. Simply amazing. I could write ten pages on the stories he told me but Ill spare you. Maybe if your lucky youll bump into him one day. You will definitely know if you do.

I finally got my regular straight forward good nights sleep on the spongy mattress laid over a concrete slab. I woke up, had a lovely breakfast next to the beach and came back to finally hit
Cabo! I said my goodbyes (not expecting to come back 4 days later) and took off. Another nice ride (this place is full of em) and I had been riding so much the past 5 days I forgot I even had a destination. I came around a hill to find the beach again which sent a wonderful feeling over my body. Id made it to the end and it felt good. I had a huge smile at this point and picked up a slightly more spirited pace. I ended up pulling into the hotel right as my friends arrived from the aeropuerto (airport) and we got all checked in to our kick ass resort apartment sized room. Complete with a master bedroom, living room, full kitchen, washer and dryer, and a nice baja style fancy decor. Good times were rollin just as fast as ever. We got some margaritas, walked down the beach to the downtown area where we could get some food and party a little. It was pretty weird doing a 180 degree shift in my lifestyle. I went some desserted RV parks in the middle of nowhere to the lap of luxury, it was sort of hard to take it all in but obviously I got used to it pretty quick.

The next day we went around town, I bought some shorts and sandals so I could swim and stuff and we hung out by the pool and just relaxed. Nothing really exciting to mension, just a lot of relaxation in the sun. In the night time we had dinner and went out to party a little bit and then ended the night with some room service. The next day we went out to Lands End to see the arch thing and hung out at lovers beach for a couple of hours. Beautiful out there, of course. We went out to dinner at fancy mexican resturaunt that was supposed to be the best around. I wasnt that impressed after all of the kick ass taco stands Id eaten at for just a few pesos. They could do a lot better considering all of the hype about the place. The environment was kick ass and I had a wonderful time though. No complaints in the fun factor area. The resturaunt is called Mi Casa and I guess its worth seeing, I had fun.

The cabo trip flew by and I had an awesome time with my friends. Them coming down to join me was the absolute PERFECT intermission for my ride. I met some cool people and had some more good times down there. I even picked up a small stone off the beach at lands end for a souveneir. Just an ugly little stone, something to commemorate the trip. I did stand at the end for a moment and look off into the ocean to enjoy the accomplishment. I turned around and thuoght to myself that the trips still in full speed and I wasnt going to be home for another 6 days. I enjoyed wondering what sort of unexpected thrills I might find on the way back.

Highway to Hell

"Ew, a puddle of drool... Ew, another one.. Ok, seriously, there's no way I can drool that much and it's flippin cold out." That's what was going through my confused head when I kept woking up in the dessert. Turns out that the fog rolls in there sometimes and everything gets soaking wet at night time in November. Me, my sleeping bag, my boots, my suit, and my bike. I should have put up the tent, and I paid for it. I woke up in the morning as the sun was coming over the hills off to the east and I was a wreck. I had a headache, a cough, my throat felt swollen shut and did I mension everything was wet?

Sleeping outside left me sick which didn't make for good riding. Being sick coupled with wet gear was a real mood breaker but I didn't have too many options. We jumped on the bikes and headed south until we found a place to eat some breakfast. I didn't have any sort of apetite as my stomach hurt as well too now (probably from the machaca) so I stuck with a bottle of water. I decided that I had to keep moving or else I might not make it where I had to get to so I told the guys I'd probably see them later since we planned on camping at the same small beach along the Sea of Cortez just south of Mulege. I felt absolutely terrible and I noticed a fever creeping up on me. I decided to just keep riding it out and drink as much water as possible along the way. I only had about 200 miles to go so I knew I could do it if I kep it up. I went to guerrero negro to refill on money and fuel and headed east to the Sea of Cortez. This was another stretch of nothing and I was careful to take many rest breaks along the side of the road, and even took a few 15-20 minute power naps. I felt terrible but I'd had worse and just had to make it to my camping beach where I could rest up. The road from the west coast to the east coast was a windy road with many elevation changes. Absolutely beautiful riding that I can easily navigate almost instinctually so I just realaxed and tried to take in the view as much as I could. Eventually the Sea of Cortez appeared as I crested a mountain on a section of road that twisted it's way down to Santa Rosalia, just 38 miles north of Mulege. I pulled in for some more water and simply couldnt go on. I fell asleep next to some mexican children playing an arcade game that cost 1 peso per game. You could tell it was their favorite pass time when they could afford it.

I was sleeping with one eye open as to keep an eye on my bike and keep sipping water as I laid there. I snapped out of it when my firefighter buddies rode by and jumped up to get my gear on and catch them. I gave some pesos to the children which they were very thankful for and went on my way. Mulege was only about 30 miles down the road so I caught the guys stopped on the side of the road looking for a place to buy some cold beer. We bought a few supplies and headed out to the beach for some R & R that was MUCH needed.

Run for the border

Sunday morning I took off from LA, I probably got out of there around 8-9am. It was raining most of the way again but once I got to San Diego I was able to dry off a bit.

At the border I made my last stop to make sure I had everything I needed before I went into the warzone (tijuana) like an extra gas can, a belly full of food, some extra water, mexican vehicle insurance. This all seemed to take longer than it needed to and I didnt even cross the border until about noon or so. I forgot to pack a watch so the time of day has been something I haven't even thuoght about much.

Crossing the border all happened very fast and I was cruising through thinking I had to stop somewhere but I just drove right through without any problems which I thought was strange, I was sure I had done smoething wrong but didn't care enough to turn back. The road right after the border throws about a million road signs with different arrows and spanish writing on them so needless to say I had no Idea which way to go. I knew I was heading for Ensanada and spotted it on a sign so I headed that direction and eventually got out of tijuana. I didn't stop in tijuana, and didn't really have any desire to. The whole place smells absolutely terrible, like an overflowing port-o-potty spitting out car exhaust. None of the cars have emission controls and the gasoline they sell called pemex* isn't made to burn clean, it's meant to burn dirty and cheap which makes riding a motorcycle in traffic pretty rough on the lungs. I'll admit that I had a terrible first impression of mexico and was starting to wonder if I could enjoy being in such a shithole.

As soon as I got to tijuana the mood relaxed, the smell faded, and the coast appeared. The roads were nice, probably because they had a toll road every 10 miles or so to pay for maintenance and such. The ride was pleasant and I began to take in the very first little bit of the next 1000 miles of beautiful baja countryside I was about to discover. The one thing I was concerned with was the police because of how many warnings horror stories we all here. I just kept my cool and cruised through, not bothering anyone and keeping to myself. No problems.

Ensanada is about 70 miles from tijuana which was a good place to spend my first night in mexico. It is the most populated city for about 300 miles down the baja coast so I grabbed a nice little hotel room there (that I could bring my motorcycle into, of course) for about 25 bucks. After unpacking, studying my map, and watching some bull fighting on TV I decided to head out and get a feel for the people. I walked around ensanada a bit and went to a small resturant for some authentic mexican dining. I found a clean looking little place on a corner, and picked up the menu to find the house specialty was different varyations of baked potatoes. Not exactly what I had in mind but I was hungry so I just grabbed a cheese burger there and figured I'd hit plenty of taco stands later on.After the sun went down, I grabbed a beer and went back to the hotel room to relax. Drank about half of it and switched over to water before I fell asleep unexpectedly.

I woke up fairly early on monday and tried to get a good solid early start but I noticed in my travel guide that you need something called a "tourist card" to go south of ensanada. Apparently I was supposed to stop at the border to pick one up, oops. The tourist card ended up being a pain in the ass, took me about 2 hours to get, and then after eating something I ended up not getting out of there until 11am. This bummed me out becuase my target town for the night, Guerrero Negro, was 378 miles away and I had no desire to ride in the dark.

I rode and rode along the pacific baja coast, taking in the beautiful oceanside and mountains coupled with nice little mexican villages where the only paved road is the one going right through the middle, the mexican highway 1. I didn't have any reason to stop much along the way except for gas which I stopped wayyy too often for because people had told me a lot of gas station's run out of gas and I should never pass a working one. I know now that I can go much futher than I thought without stopping at a station.

As soon as I passed El Rosario there was literalle nothing for about 260 miles. That includes no gas stations, resturaunts, mini marts, fast food joints, none of that crap. Just pure unadulterated, winding road, rolling hills, and dessert as far as you can see. I rode for hours and the sun began to sink. I was almost out of water and I suspected I was nearly out of gas. I wasn't worried about the fuel becuase I packed an extra gallon on the back of my back so I knew it would get me an extra 50 miles after I ran out.

I began to consider taking my bike into the dessert and finding a hidden place to camp. I wasn't looking forward to it because I had barely any water, and the only food I bought for the trip was a big bag of beef jerky which I left at Max's house back in petaluma. The night was going to suck but I just figured that's why they call it an adventure and looked forward to what kind of critters I might wake up next to, heh heh. I stopped at the side of a road when I saw a man who had a pickup truck with two barrels of gasoline in the back that he sold to people running low on gas and decided to buy a tanks worth off of him. I figured it was cheap insurance just in case there wasn't another gas station since the last two I had passed were abandoned. After I stopped, I snapped a photo of the man and his girlfriend and started getting ready to go. Just as I was doing so, 4 guys rode by on KTM adventures and a BMW. One of them stopped to ask for a place to camp and turned out that the four of them were in the same situation as me so I buddied up with the guy and rode on to find his friends. They had stopped at a tiny market which was across from a resturaunt so we grapped a six pack at the mini mart and headed to the resturaunt for dinner. The "resturaunt" was really just some family's house and the mother would kick burritos, tacos, and shrimp for people on the road if they decided to stop in. I think I had two burritos (the size of an american taquito each) and some rice and beans for about 35 pesos (~3.50 us) and it was pretty good stuff. That's when I learned the word "machaca" which is a salty, sun dried beef. Turned out that the four guys are firefighters from the tahoe area, what a coincidence.

After dinner, we decided to head back to an abandoned RV park we had passed between the gas man and the resturaunt to camp out for the night. We ended up drinking a beer or two in the starlight and camped out on some old cement slabs. It was very nice out and there wasn't a light for miles so the stars were magnificent to say the least. I fell asleep looking forward to whatever the hell the next day would throw at me. I was definitely ready for it (or so I thought)

Cabo Wabo!

Woohoooooo I made it to the end. Beautiful place so far and I've been partying with a couple of my friends that flew down to meet me.
I have about half an hour of internet now so I'll just post up a post for each day and add photos when I'm at a computer that will let me do so.

Whats up everyone, Im in La Paz and this computer sucks so Ill update more when I get to cabo san lucas where I can put up photos. Just wanted all to know that Im fine and its nice down here.

Later,
Erich

Rain, rain, and more rain.

I sure am glad I put all of my stuff in plastic bags. I took off from petaluma this morning at around 8:30am and was riding in steady rain all the way until around stockton. I-5 was actually pleasant with tons of nice clouds making the sunshine more of a warm glow instead of being too bright for me as usual. It was about 70 degrees all the way down so I stopped right before the grapevine to make a phone cal and took out my liner so I could cool off. Turned out that removing the liner was a bad idea because trough the entire grapevine I was riding through freezing ass pouring rain. It was hard to see much farther than 50 yards ahead of me which made it difficult to see all 6 of the car accidents I passed by. I think there was some hail around the top of the grape vine but it was hard to tell.

As far as the ninja 250 that could, it held up great! I'm reallllllly digging those metzler lasertec tires I put on, they handle awesome in the wet and dry. I just need to get to a twisty road so I can get rid of the damn chicken strips, heh.

I arrived here in anaheim at about 4:30pm at a friends house which is awesome because I can just kick back with a beer on the couch for the evening and try and get an early start in the morning. I still don't know where I'm staying tomorrow night, I'm going to talk to some people at the border about my options. I know I want to stay in mulege the second night is all.

Ok I I'm too tired to write up more stuff and I dont have any pictures for you guys so check back tomorrow or the next day.. don't know when I'll have internet again. I'll be crossing the border tomorrow so I'll start taking pictures.

Later!

-E