Our new Mexican lifestyle
In the last few days, our routine has changed quite drastically from our North American days. In our camping days, here is what our life looked like: get up and check the weather, if no rain we were good to eat breakfast, walk to the far away bathroom and wash, eat, undo the tent and repack all our stuff, ride, eat our picnic for lunch, ride some more, find a camping site if no rain otherwise get a hotel, set up the tent and finally, if no rain, cook dinner. Now that we have shipped our camping gear back, it is more like: get up and look at the sun through the window, wash and repack the bike, buy breakfast, ride, eat tacos on the road, ride some more, find a hotel and negotiate prices, eat diner at a local restaurant. It feels like a much more lazy lifestyle where we don't build our “house” everyday and do not cook. The tiring part of it is the language: speaking and understanding Spanish all day. Hopefully, we will get better at it soon.
From a riding perspective, we have adjusted as well. We have a lot of attention from people here as our motorcycles are quite big compared to what you find locally. Chad has therefore decided to trade in his bike for a smaller one (see picture) and hence look more local; he just had a hard time fitting all his stuff in his new case! Just kidding...but he though about it:) We have also learned to not respect speed limits as the speed posted is 60 Km/h and everyone does a 110 Km/h. Works with us since it is only about 65 Mph. The other change is the crossing of military checkpoints every few hours: we have passed four so far and the soldiers have all been very nice. Actually, they only once asked to look into our cases, and only Chad's. Then, as usual, we are waived to continue. So nothing too bad, just a little odd to see these guys with the big machine guns around.After the desert, a good rest in the Oasis
It reminded us of Alaska, not from a landscape perspective of course but just the absence of signs of civilization. We were riding through the desert on a well paved and sometimes windy road. Temperature was not too hot, about 70F degrees or 20C, but the sun was strong. Baja California has a huge diversity of desert plants and only a few miles into the desert, we felt like we were in a Western movie. Fore sure, John Wayne was going to pop out from behind a cactus any minute now. Our favorite plant was the Cardon, a huge and majestic cactus that can be as high as 20m followed closely by the Boojum tree, that looks like an inverted carrot with tiny small branches that we heard regain their leaves within hours when the rainy season comes. We just loved the desert and its ever changing faces: red dust and numerous plants, big yellow rocks and finally some green bushes. The only sad thing is that we knew when we were approaching civilization when there was a lot of trash along the road or when all the rocks were covered with ugly graffiti. Apart from that, a perfect landscape to ride through. 
At the end of the day, a little tired from our ride but still under the spell of the desert, we reached our first oasis: the little town of San Ignacio. The lush and green town, a big water area, with tons of Palm trees bordering the streets was exactly what we needed. It was a gift from God for a long riding day; after finding our hotel, we went to the cute central plaza and enjoyed a nice meal with other motorcycle riders we had met earlier, under the shade of the trees and right in front of the Spanish Mission. It was the first one we got to enjoy and in such good shape and one of the most beautiful ones left in Baja California. San Ignacio just hit perfection for us: quiet little town in the shade of the Palm trees and where we got to enjoy the company of two British motorcyclists around a tasty dinner.
Hey, where are all the ice glaciers I was used to viewing recently (ha)!!
ReplyDeleteI'll be enjoying the desert adventures through your blog.
Love you,
Mom