When I returned to the hotel, one of the maids offered to wash my bike for $2. My bike hadn’t been washed in, ... err... since .. Well it’s been a while. I gave her $5 and ended up with a nice clean shiny bike. Don had his done also.
Then time for a little more shopping before dinner.
I’m being eaten by a shark!
Greg with a fruity drink.
Don’s new girlfriend ! She’s hot.
The next morning, we crossed the Baja over to San Filipe. Sorry, for some reason, I didn’t take many more pictures and now I wish I had.
Because the Baja is a series of mountains and valleys running north to south, the road across west to east was fun. Lots of twisties and an occastional grind of the floorboards on the big blue wing. We stopped for breakfast in Valle de la Trinidad. The local resturant had a Sunday buffet going. Lots of traditional recepies and all delicious. Lots of dirt bikers and off roaders in this area. It’s part of the Baja 1000 course. After filling up, we continued east and eventually crossed the last string of mountains. Before us is the Colorado river delta. The insides of the Grand Canyon are in there somewhere along with sand from most of the soutwest. Heading south, the delta turned into tide basins then turned into real ocean and then we arrived.
After checking in at the hotel, Don and Barry rode with Henry to visit his Tia, who has a beach house just south.
Melanie and I spent the afternoon on the beach. The water here is perfect this time of year, not too cold, not too bath watery. I chatted with some fishermen about what they were bringing in.
We wandered around the shops some, as the prices were much better here than Ensenada. Melanie has more metal and jewels around her wrists.
We had dinner at Don’s namesake resturant, Chuy’s. Nothing better then fish just plucked out of the ocean.
Monday morning, it was time to head home. We grabbed some breakfast at a place near the beach.
On the ride back, the road skirts around the edge of the river delta. The scenery is unusual, with jagged mountains dropping into vast flat, featureless salt plains and mud flats. Part of the road is a dirt causeway, about 1/3 of which is normally covered with sand. We had to hang left to avoid the sand areas.
When the underground water turns from brackish to fresh, farming sprouts up and the next hour or so of the ride is through a farming wonderland. A lot of the crop was green onions and the air carried the aroma. Made me want to do some stir-fry chicken and green onions. After a minor detour, (Don - the GPS had it right !! ), we arrived in San Luis del Rio Colorado. Here we said goodby to David as his home in Yuma was just across the fence.
From there, it was a long boring ride down Mex-2 to Sonoita. The interesting thing here is to see our tax dollars at work on the border "fence". I put fence in quotes. At San Luis DC, the fence is a tall strong steel structure. As you head east, the fence gets shorter. And shorter. Eventually, it is only 3’ tall. I guess it is only intended to stop cars and quads. They catch the walkers by following their footprints. In some places, where the terrain is too tough, there is no fence at all.
At Sonoita, Don left to clear his Banjercito and the rest of us headed for the border. On advice of one of the locals, we lane split our way to the front of the line and go to the inspection area quickly. They were training a new dog and put some "fake" cocaine on Greg’s bike to work the dog. They asked me and I said "No way", as I don’t want the next dog to freak out over my bike six months from now.
After a burger at Ajo Dairy Queen, Melanie and I hit the road back home.
All in all, a great trip, great weather, no problems and lots of fun.
