Tough as nails, almost...

Intrigued by a sign north of San Ignacio directing towards Cave Paintings, we checked in our guide book to get more information. Almost 11,000 years old, there are three painted caves in the area with paintings of animals and humans, sites now protected by the UNESCO. Baja California has a great number of these sites and these three were supposed to be some of the most remarkable. It was also mentioned that you had to drive on 30 Kms dirt roads to get to the village of San Francisco Sierra, where you could hire a guide to show you the caves. We had seen dirt roads before and toughened up in Alaska so this should be no problem.

This is as hard as it should get

As we started on the road to the caves, it was a brand new beautiful paved road. Our guidebook is four years old so maybe they had paved it since. Well, it turned out to be only the first 10 Kms and then the promised dirt road was there. We stopped the bikes to look at the road conditions: it was worse than we thought, pretty narrow, steep uphill and worse of all, lots of big rocks and plenty of deep holes. Caroline tried first: the start was ok but then she got into trouble as the hill was getting steeper. The bike was shaking all over, losing traction and threatening any second to tip over. She stopped in the middle of the hill, unable to go any further and pretty shaken. Chad took her bike and drove it to the top of the hill: looked like a piece of cake to him! He then drove his up and we continued. The road was a big challenge, but lead us through beautiful desert and green canyons. The challenge was a little too much for Caroline and as the frustration was building up, she also felt less and less confident. We had to stop quite a few times to take a break and for her to catch her breath. Chad was doing much better and he tried to be as encouraging as possible. We did make it, both of us, to the village and Chad stepped up twice to get both bikes through particularly rough patches.

After a lunch and small rest, we went to find our guide: last house in the village we were told. As we are walking there, we were looking around this tiny pueblo with animals everywhere: goats, mules, dogs and even a pig. Small "houses", a school where the kids were playing, a pueblo in the middle of nowhere with 60 inhabitants. We hired our guide and he asked us whether he could ride with us to the caves as it was about 2 Kms away. Chad offered his backseat and the guide got a taste of the crazy ride we had earlier and how bumpy and shaky it was. It was his third time on a motorcycle and definitively the biggest one he ever sat on. A few minutes later, we were all at the Cueva del Raton (Cave of the mouse) admiring the ancient paintings. The cave was discovered by a Frenchman, who had mistaken the painted pumas for mice and hence incorrectly named the cave.

After the cave, the ride back that some of us were not looking forward to. It was actually not that bad as the ride in may have provided some learning and improved our riding technique. The fact that it was mostly downhill made things much easier as well and Caroline was able to ride the whole way this time. See if you can see her in the picture above. Anyways, once our tires touched the asphalt again, we stopped and performed a little victory dance. We had both done it and the bikes did not break down, almost a small miracle. Next time, we will probably turn around instead of taking a treacherous road and look at the paintings in a book;)

How about Mexican food?

This has been a big part of our adjustment since we crossed the border: creating ourselves a new food routine. No surprise there but we could no longer find our oatmeal and energy bars, the peanut butter for our sandwiches and various items for dinner. For breakfast, we have switched to baked goods and fruit, usually bananas or oranges and Chad had even tried an empenada and tacos. Not bad but not really breakfast material. The pastries are actually pretty tasty: a sort of cinnamon roll but with a white sugar and almond paste. For lunch, we usually go to a taqueria where for less than a dollar, you can have a delicious taco. We actually have gone to taquerias quite a few times for dinner too given how cheap it is and how much we like it. What makes the difference is the mini tortilla, soft or crunched up on the grill, corn or flour based and always tasty and the fun part is the "works": 3 different salsas, guacamole, grilled and raw onions, grilled chili and cactus, cilantro, chopped tomato, little limes, shredded cabbage. A whole fiesta on the table! Chad has taken the brave (or dangerous) approach and put all the works on whereas Caroline has gone the cautious (or lame) approach and only puts cooked items or raw peeled vegetables that could not have been contaminated by water. She still remembers when she got sick a few years ago in Mexico. We will keep you posted if anyone gets sick. We also have done some other classics from your Mexican menu, like Quesadillas, stuffed Rellano (Chili Pepper), Burritos and Tortas (sort of sandwiches). Looks like what you can have in the US but tastes so much better, probably due to something the the Senoras put in the food.

In one of her comments, Kristi had asked about the food and so today, we decided to step it up a notch to have more cool stories to tell. We tried a homemade guava jam which was pretty much a sugar bomb with a strong granular guava taste Chad has fallen in love with it. For our tacos tonight, we have tried three new kinds: beef tripe, beef head, and beef eyes! The tripe ended up being our favorite, despite being a little chewy, the head tasted like regular chopped beef and the eyes were chopped but some big pieces were quite wild to look at. It was actually pretty tasteless and the consistency was like soft meat, on the fleshy side. The picture we have posted is of the eye taco. It was fun trying them all and the locals loved it when we said we liked the tripe. Unfortunately, they were out of tongue, next time...

Another highlight of our trip was to finally have reached the Sea of Cortez: we came across some small beautiful little beaches. Hardly developed. The water was crystal clear and warm south of Mulege, in the protected Bahia. Tons of sea shells lined the shore as we walked on the white sand beach. We stopped for a little while, read our books sitting on the beach. We did not go for a swim since we had some more road to cover but have promised ourselves to do so in La Paz or Cabo. The weather is so nice it would be a crime not to give it a try.