Also, full of puppies.

It has only been a few days since we last updated, but we are having so many adventures and new experiences each day that it is worth another update so soon. Also, while we have internet!

Unexpected wine country

We are currently in the small town of El Rosario, about ¼ of the way down the Baja California peninsula. Our overwhelmingly positive impression of Mexico persists. This area is a study of contrasts: the hills are often stark and boulder-strewn, while the towns are lively and packed with businesses. There is a long agricultural valley with fields of tomatoes, prickly pear cacti, brussel sprouts, and strawberries. There are herds of goats in the hills and cows in the valleys. When we camp there are chickens poking around in the dirt, dogs with puppies, cats, and all manner of insect life. When we go shopping we are amazed at the low prices. A mango was 2 pesos here: 15 cents .

Jason at the taco stand.

Remember that last time we updated was in Ensenada, at the beginning of town. We headed away from the tourist strip to find some authentic tacos, and then braved the crazy city traffic to get out of town again. The cars and trucks were all very nice, but the buses were insane! They are privately run, and pick people up anywhere along the route, so they constantly swerve and stop and go again. It was quite an adventure getting out of the city, but we made it.

The tacos.

Crazy bus alert! There were buses in many colors.

That night we stayed in an amazing camping area. It was about $6 US per person, and we were given full run of a swimming pool / resort area with rows of picnic tables, a large pool, showers (that kind of worked, sometimes), and a central camping area. We stayed there again with our friends Antonie and Tyler. Antonie has this wonderful book called ‘Mexican Camping’ that details all of these places. Thank goodness for that book!

Huge pool just for us.

The next day we climbed out of the valley where we had camped and headed back down towards the ocean again. We stopped for lunch in the small town of San Vicente where we again had tacos and also discovered Mexican bakeries and fruit stores. There are so many delicious things for so cheap! We ended up buying 5 small loaves of bread, a large piece of banana bread, and two giant cookies for $4 US. For touring cyclists, this is happiness.

At the end of the day we have salt lines everywhere from the sweat.

That night we camped in another swimming / camping area, but a much smaller one that wasn’t in the book. There was a whole pack of dogs / puppies running around that were very cute, but also very shy. There are so many street dogs here, since no one spays or neuters their animals. It is actually very sad, since none of them are looked after very well and there are just so so many. It makes me miss the service and guide dogs that we raised.

The shelter where all four of us stayed dry during the rainstorm.

Shitos car wash. Looks like the car in front came to the wrong place.

Hurricane Simon passed us over that night. It rained buckets, but we stayed dry under a shelter. The road the next day had flooded areas, and we sometimes had to rush through the puddles to avoid getting seriously splashed by the passing vehicles. In some places the road was completely underwater, and in some places schoolkids were just swimming about in the deep mud puddles! Obviously, this area is not equipped for downpours.

Aftermath of rainstorm.

We had planned to stay for a night in a camping area just outside of the city, but the access road was so underwater that cars couldn’t even get through. After discussing with our camping buddies A and T, we decided to push on to the next town of El Rosario. The riding was great all the way to town: a gentle tailwind, very low traffic, and barren but beautiful scenery. Sure, there was a big hill to climb, but it was just fine!

En route to El Rosario. We caught up to our friends A and T again!

Long, straight roads. Very little traffic.

Bruno, our all-night watchdog.

Last night we camped behind a restaurant on the outskirts of town, and were guarded all night long by the owners tough-looking but very sweet dog Bruno. Today we are resting and enjoying all that this little town has to offer. For example, Jason just used the bathroom in the local jail! Tonight we might even stay in a hotel so that we can take some much-needed showers. The next stretch is through the Vizcaino desert for about 200 miles. Don’t worry though, there are some water stops and campgrounds there at good intervals.

One more shot of Jason with the beautiful Northern Baja scenery.

So far, we love cycletouring in Mexico. Folks are overwhelmingly friendly, the road has been good, the scenery has been stunning, and everything is so cheap! Ok, so we are only on day three now, but these are our first impressions. With any luck, they will hold for the next three months.

The Baja in its stark beauty.

We crossed into Mexico at the small town of Tecate. On the US side, there is no town to speak of, but there is a lively little town on the Mexican side. We were a bit confused at the crossing, but once the guards heard about our trip and how long we would spend in Mexico we were quickly ushered into the tourist office to get our visas. The official there instructed us to fill out forms, pay the fee, and return the paperwork for our visa. Before we knew it, we were proud owners of 180 day tourist visas for Mexico.

Also, the guard who helped us was watching Miley Cyrus videos from years ago when she still worked for Disney. It was hilarious.

Our first hotel room in Mexico.

In Tecate, we found a reasonable hotel room with Wifi and air conditioning for $26. It was so exciting for us: our first hotel of the trip, and in Mexico no less! From there, we explored on foot and found the famous bread store: El Mejor Pan de Tecate (The best bread of Tecate). Inside, there were rows of delicious pastries for about $1 each. So yummy!

El Mejor Pan de Tecate.

We had real Mexican food (no yellow cheese) for dinner, and were quickly back at the room by dark. We were very tired!

The next day was our first day of real Mexican roads. For the most part, there was a wide shoulder. When it disappeared the cars and trucks were courteous, and often gave us a thumbs-up or slowed down to yell encouragements out the window. We were surprised at how enthusiastically we were welcomed. We had heard this road was bad from other touring blogs, but it was nothing like we expected. Perhaps the road has been improved in the last year.

At the top of the climb for today.

Mexican houses in austere landscape.

We even met two more touring cyclists! Tyler and Antony found us sitting in the shade of a convenience store, and they recognized us from our blog. They too have come from the far north, so there was much to talk about. We agreed to meet them in our destination town to camp together.

As I said before, the scenery was great. It was stark and dry, but beautiful. The temperature was hot (93) but not too uncomfortable. We ate tacos in town, bought water, and camped for free with our new friends. After an extravagant day of meals out, we tallied our total expense: $18US. Lucky us!

Evening in camp with our new friends.

A lovely sunrise.

It was a quiet night for us, but I woke up many many times to check on the bikes and everything else.  It is always like this my first night in a new situation.  Camping in Mexico certainly qualifies as such!  In the morning we watched a beautiful sunrise and had breakfast with our new friends before setting out for the city of Ensenada.  The riding was easy – mostly downhill – and we are now taking care of internet things before heading south again.  We hope to meet up with them for camping again tonight in the town of Santo Tomas.  We really liked spending time with them!

Back on the road in the morning. In the background: bizarre hotel rooms on the hill.