Post-5
Baja 2016 - The Ultimate Road Trip

One Dog, Two people and Four Wheels

A wild 6-month ride wheeling through Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, Heidi, Tom and Sam here we go…

Sam loves it here. He grew up on a farm and running free is what he likes best. There are a lot of people with dogs here and they all know Sam by now. He is extremely social and well behaved around people and other dogs “normally”. I often brag that Sam never barks unless he’s after Raccoon or Fox. Now Coyote are added to the list. While on a run Sam is off like a shot into the desert while doing his Raccoon bark, it’s not like a regular dog bark. I looked and looked for him but no Sam. I finally gave up and started back along the beach when someone on a porch hollers out “I saw Sam run through here after a Coyote!” Sure enough, he was already home when I got back fully out of breath. Heidi saw the Coyote fly by just after Sam showed up. Sam is the best dog.

I love to be drinking coffee sitting on a beach waiting for sunrise.

Almost every day there are unreal sunrises at the beach.

The sunsets here have also been cool.

Some evenings the sun throws out an awesome hew to the east filling the bay with color.

Heidi backpacked into town with our laundry today, about two miles. She saw a place when we came through last. It’s at a woman’s house, she also cares for stray dogs and cats. She has over ten dogs and eleven cats. Before we returned to pick up the laundry we buy two bags of dog food and some bones, she was very happy for the food, as I’m sure the dogs were.

That evening a group of adventure motorcycle riders came to check out the camp. They know about and read advRider.com. I say “I’m cavebiker and this is cavegirl” The guy on the right, known as TragicOverlander said he has read some of our reports. Way cool. This is their first time riding in Baja and they are all super excited about it. I think they are new to riding together and today had a little difficulty deciding what to do. One guy talked about staying in a hotel in town to watch the super bowl while the other three wanted to camp here.

TragicOverlander sends his biker love to us. These are fun guys. Heidi and I enjoy asking them about where they want to go and for how long. We are excited for them. The last time here we were on a motorcycle. There is a big comradery between bikers who are ‘on the road’ that can be a real high.

This is Jonas from Switzerland. He has been camping close to us. Jonas has been on the road for eleven months and started in Argentina, unreal. Now that’s hardcore adventure traveling. He camped here for four days I’m sure to recharge and get ready for this next stretch, one of the longest stretches in Baja with no facilities. He talked about the difficulty during these types of stretches.

This village has no banks or ATMs. One store lets us get under the table cash from our credit card. But we need to purchase 500 pesos or more for 1000 in cash back. Not a lot but it gets us through the week.

We are heading toward Guerrero Negro, a famous whale watching location where we have stayed twice before. We know they have a bank so obtaining cash is our main objective. We have a few hotels picked out in case we want to spend the night. Driving in the town feels a lot busier then we remembered, I guess we expected that though.

After a careful check of all the street taco places in town we pick a joint. I sit with Sam while Heidi runs for the tacos. She gets Beef tacos just the way we like them ‘tacos de carne asada’ with the fixings in small baggies.

Photo: Heidi brings her own TP (standard practice) but was surprised the gas station had its own.

Its hot and dusty and no hotels were talking to us, so we book-on out of town to the next potential overnight location, somewhere south…

You cannot drive five miles in Mexico without seeing one of these makeshift memorials. Apparently family members build these after a loved one dies on the road. The memorial is located at the site of death. This looks like a truck driver maybe hit a horse.

The paved highways through Baja are desert and mountains with sharp turns, steep drop offs and no shoulders. Sometimes the highway is so narrow we can’t believe two semi-trucks could meet without hitting. It’s a no wonder there are so many memorials here. It really takes nerves to drive here and if you don’t remember that after driving the Baja that’s just a defense mechanism making you forget, otherwise you would remember. I completely forget every time.

Heidi confides in me, she says” I’ve been having repeating vivid nightmares about us stalling and being hit by a truck and flying off the mountain. I can’t let it go. They have turned into day-mares. It’s freaking me out. I think I need to talk about it.” Heidi is paralyzed with fear while we drive along. I say” Yes, we need to clear you” And she knows exactly what that means, ‘clearing’ is a Psycho-Cybernetics technique of ridding a person of troubling thought behavior. It’s worked for us in the past :| .

Stay tuned for more fun in Mexico's Baja Peninsula…

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