It has been a busy weekend. The big news, of course, was watching the Xin Fei Zhou dock in Long Beach. I’m just hoping we have accurate information and our bikes are in fact in the shipping containers on that ship. I’m real sure they are, but I don’t want to give anybody bad information again. The big questions now are when will they be unloaded, and when will they get through Customs? Steve will be talking to our shipping agent on Monday, who probably won’t be able to tell us this information yet, but you can bet we’ll stay on it.
The next big question is when are we going to Baja, and I guess another question is how far down the peninsula are we going on our CSC RX3 Inaugural Run? So here’s the answer to both questions: I don’t know yet. I’ll have a better feel once we see how the freight is moving through the dockside operations area. As soon as I know, you’ll know.
On our Baja scouting trip a couple of weeks ago in the Subie, we got some good info (in addition to rolling smack into the middle of a labor riot). Tonight’s blog is a good news, maybe some bad news, and more good news story.
The first bit of good news is that the labor riots appear to be over. They pay those poor folks $10 a day. That’s probably shameful, but I will admit all my sympathy went out the window when those folks threatened Susie and me, and then keyed my car for good measure. They wanted $20 a day, and the big agribusinesses countered with $10.60 a day. More riots. They bumped it to $11.00 per day, and the unrest continued. Then $12 a day and things started to get calmer. When the owners agreed to cough up $13 a day and the labor unions said no, the workers apparently looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and went back to work. The bottom line is that all is well down there now.
Here’s some mildly moderate bad news: The whales bail out of Baja in April. The whales ain’t stupid, and they know with warmer weather on the way it’s time to swim back to Alaska. The Malarrimo tours stop at the end of March. There are still some whales down there in April, but most of the tours end with the end of March because the tour operators don’t want to spend the additional fees to the Mexican government to go that extra month. But I spoke with Emilio Achoy, who owns the Malarrimo operation, and he told me to email him when we have our dates squared away. He’ll ask around to see if any of the other tour operators are still running when we roll on down there.
Back to more good news: If we don’t take the half day (actually, more like two-thirds of a day) to see the whales, we can probe further south, and that would be my preference anyway. Maybe that’s not fair because I’ve already seen the whales, but I really would like to show you guys San Ignacio and their beautiful mission, and Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez. It all depends on how many miles you guys and gals want to do each day. I’m ordinarily a 500-t0-600 mile per day guy, but that may be a bit much. We’ve talked about 250 miles per day, but I think that would be too little. I think if we target 350 miles or so each day, we can really get a lot of good stuff into this trip.
So, about that little town of Santa Rosalia…it’s awesome. It would be right on the Transpeninsular Highway (again, don’t let the name fool you…it’s just a two-lane country road winding through the mountains and the Vizcaino desert). After we stop for fish tacos in Guerrero Negro from my buddy Tony Lopez….
…we’ll continue diagonally southeast across the peninsula to hit Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez. Every red-blooded adventure rider has to ride to the Sea of Cortez. When the other beer-bellies are talking about their rides to Cook’s Corner and the rest of the cliché moto-stops, you’ll be able to tell them about a real ride…
If you’re wondering about accessorizing your RX3 and what are the best things you can put on your new motorcycle for the Baja expedition, allow me to make a recommendation. You need the sheepskin seat cover. Folks, I’ve done a lot of riding, and my motto is this: Nothing but the best for my butt, and for my money, that’s the sheepskin seat over. These things just flat work!
If you call my good buddy Ryan at 909 445 0900, he’ll hook you up with one.
On to Santa Rosalia…it’s one of Baja’s gems. Baja has a lot of gems, but this little town is unique. It was a copper mining town for much of its life (and the copper is coming back). Think back to the late 1800s and the electrification of the entire world. Copper was king…the power companies and everybody else needed it for electrical wiring. And Santa Rosalia had it. The Mexican government sold a 70-year lease to a French mining company (Boleo), and Santa Rosalia grew up as a Boleo company town. Unlike most other towns in Mexico, the architecture is French, and the homes are made of wood rather than stucco. It’s a cool little place.
One of the neatest places in Santa Rosalia is the Frances Hotel. It’s all wood, it’s old world, it sits high on a hill overlooking the town and the Sea of Cortez, and it’s just flat cool…
If we work it right, this can be our turnaround point, and we’ll spend the night at the Frances Hotel. They have Internet there, and you won’t need an alarm clock or wake up call. The roosters will take care of that!
The French company bakery was owned by Boleo, and the Boleo panaderia (that’s Spanish for bakery) is still in business. Muey cool, my friends. We can wander over there after dinner for a dessert pastry…
The sun will still be up, and an after-dinner stroll to take in some of the town’s sights (and I’m only showing you a few here) always works well…maybe a cup of coffee…
Or maybe just a chance to grab a few more photos…
And of course, no visit to Santa Rosalia would be complete without a visit to the town’s Gustav-Eiffel-designed church…
And that’s it for tonight, my friends. All the Santa Rosalia photos you see here and that one of my good buddy Tony Lopez were shots I grabbed a couple of weeks ago when Susie and I rolled through la zonas de disturbios (that’s Susie you see in the photo above standing in the doorway of Santa Rosalia’s Eiffel church). When you make this trip, boys and girls, bring a camera!
TT250 Enduro
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