CSC Blog

It’s our last day in Mexico on the CSC Baja 2016 adventure tour and all I can say is: Wow! This has been one of the best rides ever.

I was up early at the Old Mill Hotel in San Quintin, and so was everyone else. I thought we would roll north for an hour or so and find breakfast, but J and Mark were out walking around the Old Mill and they had a better plan.  They found the owner of the restaurant on the other side of the Old Mill (it’s Don Eddie’s), and they talked him into opening early for us.   Tony (the owner) called his helpers in early and they prepared, to borrow a phrase, a veritable feast.  We had two kinds of Mexican scrambled eggs, green corn tamales, coffee, freshly-squeezed orange juice, tortillas, Mexican squash, and more stuff I can’t remember.  It was incredible.   I asked Tony to figure it all up (including the tip) and divide the number by 14 so we could all chip in evenly.  He did some heavy-duty calculating and arrived at $8.  I successfully negotiated old Tony up to 10 bucks a pop and everyone (including the two ladies in the kitchen) left in good spirits.

Oh, and in case you are wondering who’s who, here’s a photo of Mark (taking a photo, actually)…

…and here’s one of J…

Here’s a photo of Dan the K (aka Dan 1)…

This is Doina checking out the view…

Here’s one of Doc Juan…

Juan is quite a character. He grew up and went to veterinary school in Mexico, and he is now an American citizen with a veterinary practice in the US.   Juan has helped me a lot on this trip.   I have issues with a pinched nerve every now and then, and back home the quick fix is an expensive doctor visit and an expensive co-pay for the only thing that really works (and that’s prednisone).    Here in Mexico, you can buy prednisone over the counter for $6 a box.   Juan was my translator when we stopped in a farmacia yesterday, and those pills sure did the trick.

This morning, when Juan saw me, he asked me how I was feeling.   “I’m feeling great, Doc,” I said, “but the only problem I’m having is when one of the guys asks me how many miles we’re riding today, I start pawing the ground with my right front foot to count out the number…”

We had another special treat today. As we were tooling north on Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway in Santo Tomas (about 50 miles south of Ensenada), I spotted two motorcycles coming toward us heading south.   Down here, you only see three kinds of bikes.   There are 125cc Honda pizza delivery bikes in the bigger cities.  There are Harleys out on the open road (they are always ridden by German tourists riding EagleRider rental bikes).   And there are adventure bikes.  Usually, the adventure bikes are BMWs with the odd KLR thrown in.

When I first spotted the two bikes mentioned above, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.  The two bikes coming in the opposite direction were RX3s!   How about that?

It turns out the riders were none other than our good buddies Abe and Greg, who rode with us on last year’s CSC Inaugural Baja Run.  They have been following this year’s adventure on the CSC blog, and they rode down from San Diego to meet us!

Here’s a shot of Keith (who rode with us last year and this year), Abe, and Greg.  What a treat!

We rode directly through Ensenada (always tricky, as it’s a big city), and then we picked up Mexico Highway 3 (the Ruta Vinacola) through the Mexican wine country.  We stopped at the L.A. Cetto vineyard.   It was fun.   Here’s a shot of Dan 2, Mike, and Dave…

Willie bought some Gouda cheese and we snacked on it before we left the vineyard.  I told the guys they should eat more of it…you know, it’s “gouda” for you.   I think the folks on this ride will miss my corny jokes.

We have been eating too well on this trip.   Fish tacos, combination Mexican plates, chicken tacos, burritos, Mama Espinoza’s, Tony’s fish tacos (the best in the world), sea bass, and more….I think all of us have put on a few pounds.   We’re in Tecate tonight (right on the border), and there’s a Chinese restaurant across the street.   So, this evening we had Chinese food.  It was good, too.   The buffet was $6.  Wow, yet again.

Everyone is in high spirits.   Cigars and beer appeared and the smoking lamp was lit in front of our hotel a few minutes ago…

Here’s one last shot tonight…my faithful RX3. I sure love that bike and the adventures it has taken me on.   Good times.   I can’t wait for the next ride!

I had no Internet service in Mulege last night, my friends, so my apologies for the one-day delay in posting this latest installment of the Baja Boys Adventure Tales!

And before I forget…Barbara, Keith told me you are a faithful CSC blog follower.   So from the Baja Boys to you, a hearty blog-based Baja Hola!

Yesterday started with a 60-mile blast through the fog and the mist out of Guerrero Negro, headed for the cave paintings.   We’ve made portions of this ride optional, and the route to the cave paintings of Sierra de San Francisco was gnarly….way more gnarly than it was on last year’s CSC Baja Adventure.  Everybody rode out with us to where the dirt road began, and then 8 of our 14 rode the remaining 15 miles or so in the rough stuff.   J took the others on to San Ignacio.  They visited San Ignacio’s magnificent Mission (it was built in 1728!), and we all regrouped for a nice San Ignacio lunch.

Folks, that road our to the cave paintings was rough, but it sure was worth it.   These paintings were done approximately 10,000 years ago by a civilization that vanished from the face of the Earth.   No kidding; it’s real Indiana Jones stuff.   It was a hoot seeing it!

These paintings are awesome.  To see the paintings and realize another human being painted these animals 10,000 years ago is humbling.

Here’s a photo of my good buddy Mike (who rides a fully-equipped and tricked-out orange RX3) posing with one of the more mysterious paintings.   Check out the black-faced human figure on the right.   There are over a hundred cave painting sites in Baja and nearly all have human figures.  Only a very few have a human likeness with a black face.   No one knows why.

The site at Sierra de San Francisco is the most accessible cave painting site in Baja.  Getting there involves a 2- or 3-day ride from the border and, as I said above, about 20 miles or so of the journey is on an extremely challenging dirt road.   There’s another cave painting site in this area, but it involves a 5-hour ride on a mule to get there.   Someday…

My good buddies who made the trek to see the cave paintings…

The guys above are the intrepid adventurers who took their RX3s where few people dare to go.   From left to right, it’s Keith, Mark, Mike, Dave, Gary, and Dan and Dan.

Our next destination was Mulege.   A few of us posed for a photo beneath the arch at Mulege’s entrance…

The “Heroica Mulege” description refers to an action by the residents of Mulege in the mid 1850s holding their own against a numerically-superior invading force.   I couldn’t recall who Mexico’s enemy was in those days and I was telling the group about the “Herioca Mulege” descriptor at our dinner last night.   Our waiter overheard me and he told us the battle was against the Americans in 1848 in the Mexican-American War.   Oops!   I asked our waiter to let the chef know that the RX3 riders in our group had nothing to do with that military action!

We stayed in the Hotel Hacienda in Mulege.  It was a cool place.   The rooms were $17 per person.

The Hotel Hacienda even let us park our RX3s in the hotel’s courtyard.   After dinner, we sat around telling stories.   As you might imagine, a lot of the conversation was about motorcycles.   A lot of it centered on seeing the whales, too.   Everyone was blown away by that experience.  I’m glad we got to do it this year.  It was fun.

After a fine breakfast this morning, the group split up.  J took 5 of our group all the way down to Loreto.   I rode with the rest and we visited the Mission in Mulege…

Father Willie, blessing the RX3s…

Here’s a photo of the church’s interior.

And another, with my flash lighting up the reflective portions of our jackets.

Mulege is another oasis in Baja.  It’s a date-farming region, like San Ignacio.  The Jesuits introduced date farming to Baja in the late 1600s/early 1700s.

The Mulege Mission was also used as a prison for a time, and evidently if you were going to the slammer, Mulege was the place you wanted to be.  The prisoners had jobs tending the date farms.   In order to get in, you had to pledge to assist the prison officials in tracking down any escapees.   From what I’ve read, though, not many people wanted to escape.   Mulege was considered a plum assignment.

Here’s a photo of Mike above the Rio Mulege and the date groves.

This is Dan, who is from Colorado, posing for me in the same spot.

Many of these guys are active on the ChinaRiders.net and other forums.   They all told me their screen names and they all had a good laugh when I told them they seem a lot nicer in person!

Engine guards that were put to good use on this trip!

After visiting the Mulege Mission, we rode south for another 25 or 30 miles to see the northern end of Concepcion Bay.  It was magnificent.   Here are a couple of shots from the saddle of my RX3…

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The weather has been magnificent.  Not too hot, and not too cold.   We turned around and pointed the bikes north after visiting Concepcion Bay, and we’re on the return leg of our adventure now.   We stopped today in Santa Rosalia for lunch at the El Muelle, and like always, it was exquisite.   We’re staying in the Desert Inn in San Ignacio this evening.   J and the Loreto contingent are due in any time now.   Good times.

And that’s a wrap for today, folks.  Tomorrow is a high mileage day…it’s a cool 351 miles from San Ignacio to San Quintin, and we want to get in before nightfall.  The RX3s are up for it and so are we!

A good day, today was.   After a great dinner last night, we had a similarly superb breakfast at Malarimmo’s this morning and then it was off to see the whales.

Here’s a shot of J, Gary, Sara, and Doina, and a group shot of one of our boats as we were heading out to see the whales.

Dave, a very interesting guy from Colorado, on the water.

My friend Keith, who rode with us last year.   In this photo, he looks like the guy who used to be in the Pioneer TV ads.  The boats are very fast.

Thar she blows!   That’s a baby California gray whale “skyhopping,” which means the whale is standing straight up in the water to get a look around.

There were enough of us that the CSC contingent took two boats.   My boat was particularly lucky.  I’ve been to see the whales down here in Baja perhaps 8 times or so, and the whale watching today was better than I’ve ever seen it.  At times, we had 8 or 10 whales within 50 yards of our boat.  One mother and her baby took a particular liking to us, as you can see in the photos below.

Colorado Dave makes a 40-ton friend…

After the tour, it was on to another Baja tradition…Tony’s fish tacos!   They were awesome!

We’re staying in Guerrero Negro again tonight. Tomorrow, we’re off to see the cave paintings of Sierra San Francisco, and then it’s on to San Ignacio, Santa Rosalia, and our destination for Day 4, which is Mulege.

We are having a good time, folks!

Hey, we just received this cool 360-degree video from our good buddy Stephen in Tennessee…seems there are a lot of people riding the RX3 two up!

Thanks for sending the video to us, Stephen! We’re glad you and your wife are enjoying the RX3.

Wow, where to begin…

How does 381 miles, crossing Baja’s Vizcaino Desert, and doing it all on 12 RX3 motorcycles sound to you?

Let me back up a bit.   It was just two nights ago that we had our departure dinner at CSC.   As part of the pre-ride safety briefing, I assembled a PowerPoint presentation to bring everybody up to speed.   While I was riding across Baja today, I thought it might be a good idea to include the slides I presented to our team at that dinner to help you understand what we are doing.   Backing up, this was the slide for yesterday, when we rolled down from Azusa to Ensenada…

Okay, so that was yesterday.   Here’s what we did today…

It was an intense riding day today.  We were up at 5:00 a.m., we found a 24-hour restaurant in Ensenada, and as planned, we were on the road at 7:00.   We covered about 130 miles before stopping for lunch in Baja’s iconic restaurant, Mama Espinosa’s.

Here’s a photo of Fathi, Doina, and Willie.  Fathi and Doina are doing this ride two-up on Fathi’s RX3.

Good buddy Dave, adding a CSC Baja 2016 decal to the zillions adorning the walls in Mama Espinosa’s.

Here’s a shot of the crew at lunch today.  From left to right, it’s Dan, Dan, Mark, J, Dave, Gary, Keith, Mike, Fathi, Willie, Doina, Sara, and Juan.

My favorite at Mama Espinosa’s – their chicken burritos!

We stopped to visit the ruins of the Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá.  It was built in 1769 and what you see below is all that’s left of it.  Getting out there involved some pretty gnarly roads, and quite a few folks dropped their bikes in the soft sand.

You might think dropping your bike would be a source of embarrassment, and when it happens, it probably is.  But that changes quickly and predictably.  The guys and gals at dinner tonight were actually bragging about who dropped their bike the most.   I think we’ve had something like 10 bikes go down so far (and this is only Day 2).  It’s pretty funny listening to the conversations at dinner.  When someone drops their bike, the first reaction is “did anybody see me do this?”  By dinner time (and with a few Tecates), the stories and the laughter start.   We sure have a good bunch of people on this ride.

Here’s Baja Mike’s battle-scarred bike…

We had a great dinner this evening.   I opted for the house fish filet dinner, which was sea bass, and it was delicious.

If you look at the map of Baja, you’ll see that the peninsula forms a hook jutting out into the Pacific Ocean here in Guerrero Negro.  Because of that, a lot of stuff drifting down from points north washes up on the Guerrero Negro shores, and the restaurant at Malarimmo’s has a bunch of it hanging from their ceiling.  It’s a cool display.

After dinner, we walked back the hotel.  I snagged this shot of the bikes put away for the evening…

As I said, it was an intense day.   Tomorrow is laid back.  We’re not having breakfast until 9:00, and then we’re going whale watching at 11:00.  I’m going to help Juan change his oil earlier in the morning.   We’ll get back from whale watching around 3:00, and then we’re just going to hang around Guerrero Negro.  If everything goes well (and I know it will), I’ll have some great whale photos for you tomorrow.   Maybe we’ll even see the Great White Whale.   We’ll see.

That’s it for now.   I’m beat.  It was a good day and I’ll sleep well tonight.

Like always, stay tuned!