beemerguru
Member
Finally back from the land of exposed rebar!
I and Michael, a friend of mine from the China Lake Naval Weapons Lab in Ridgecrest, just spent the last 10 days on BMW R80G/S bikes wandering 3500+ miles all over the Mexican Baja peninsula.
As soon as you exit any of the border crossings into Baja, one of your first observations is that the country is half built. No matter where you go anywhere in the country, there are buildings of all sizes that may have the walls up or the first floor finished and occupied, and then the work just stopped! Just the walls or the shell of higher floors with no doors or windows, and ALL of them have an extra 10-15 feet of rebar sticking up everywhere. Found out later that buildings are taxed differently is there are "work in process"! But a quick look tells you that no work has been done in years if not decades.just some empty shells. Even in the middle of Cabo, on the waterfront, was a 12-story condo project that suffered terminal stoppage about 5 years ago. Excellent economic lesson on what happens to an "emerging" country when the government abruptly switches ruling parties and political agendas.
The Mexican people were wonderful and helpful....and poor. Same little kids still selling the same boxes of Chiclets from the last time I was down here 14 years ago. The country is full of wonderful sights connected by hundreds of miles of sheer boredom and terror to get anywhere. As roadside attractions, we have cows, steers, horses, goats, cows, chickens, more horses, donkeys, steers, mules, a rattlesnake or two, more damn cows, more goats, and still more cows..BUT....we never saw a single deer!. As we came around a curve heading towards Guerrero Negro, Michael started and I finished a short 40-yard sprint with a young bull...with REAL long horns..We won...but he had an eye on us daring for a rematch. I like my steak medium, not running after me.
Sobering reminders of HOW dangerous driving is down there are all the little white crosses and memorials lining the roads...thousands of them. While the roads themselves are in great condition, the road signs are decent but make no distinction between how sharp a curve is going to be..how steep the decent down the hill is..where there is a blind driveway....so you can almost guarantee that there will be at LEAST 1 and up to a dozen crosses or elaborate memorials right after or just before.
I had the rare opportunity of watching a downhill tractor-trailer enter into the sharp right hand downhill curve the same time Michael was going uphill into the turn. Who would have guessed that something that big could do an 18-wheel drift through the turn?!? ALL the wheels were sliding a little and the top of the trailer was actually leaning over Michael. The driver's eyes were buggin' out. Michael said later that it scared him silly...I told him I wish I had had a camera! He wanted clean underwear
Billions of cactus of all shapes and sizes..one rare type only found in a stretch south of Ensenada looks suspiciously like the role model for an old English science fiction film, "Day of the Tripids". Never saw one move...but then we weren't in England.
There was great food everywhere..even little one room shacks on the side of the road or along the beaches had good stuff. Michael's quest was always the search for the best lobster burrito...I stayed with shrimp (humongous) and steak (yummy)...and gained 10 lb..
Tacate, Corona, and Bardohl own 85% of the marketing budget - or so it seemed. All the chairs in the North State have Tacate labels, while in the South, it's Corona. Bright yellow Bardohl signs were painted on anything that didn't move..even a shack 50 miles from ANYTHING was yellow and black.Of course it seems that all the cars had to be using Bardohl instead of regular oil...EPA would have a coronary watching the pollution anywhere in the country. Black smoke streaming out the back..Bardahl in the crankcase. Talk about a planned monopoly for making money.
Cabo San Luca is way overbuilt and now has a Costcolooks like San Diego. La Paz is a dream..boardwalk next to the Sea of Cortez,, restaurants and shops on the boardwalk. Santa Rosalia was wonderful with a French twist, Tijuana you want to get out of as soon as possible..for too many reasons. Ensenada had a fake Starbucks that Michael kept going back toI think it was the waitress..and you could visit the ship from Master and Commander (but no Russell Crowe) at the movie studio just north of townsame big tank they used for Titanic.
The Hotel California in Toto Santos is a complete juxtaposition from what you get used to down there. This place has class and would be fabulous in San Francisco...yet it's 1,800 miles south. That said, all the smaller towns were so much more interesting and friendlier. The Federales would occasionally hassle us to open a saddlebag but that's only because they're stuck at these checkpoints in the middle of nowhere. They're bored, don't speak English and smile a lot...with a nice FNL semiautomatic rifle on everyone's back.
The missions built by the first wave of Spanish are all different and scattered up and down the 2 States. Eiffel (of the Tower) has one down there. ItÔÇÖs metal like his other stuff. There were some elegant missions still in use everyday,,,while others have dwindled down to the foundation and dirt. Some on the town square,,,others in the middle of NOWHERE...what were they thinking!!
Fishing and sailing are heaven. Little coves with a half dozen huts ( Americans!) who live on $6K a yearand fish and sail.and fish and sailand fish. Nothing else around so you.
But to find ANY body of water, you had to go to the coast. The entire trip, we went over 1 bridge that went over water. All 2,000 + miles of Baja and just ONE. Dry country here cowboy!
The weather was wonderful even if we did have to turn on the electric vests each morning..and take them off by noon. roads were clean with good surface,,,,when they had a surface. Dirt was...welldirt. And that's what you had once you get away from the major roads. And Highway 1 is most of the paved stuff..so lots of dirt.
Lots of great vistas and memories. Would I do it again???...not this way on a bike..too much empty nothing and BTDT...but fly into La Paz,,oh yeah....in a heartbeat.
What a trip
Greg
I and Michael, a friend of mine from the China Lake Naval Weapons Lab in Ridgecrest, just spent the last 10 days on BMW R80G/S bikes wandering 3500+ miles all over the Mexican Baja peninsula.
As soon as you exit any of the border crossings into Baja, one of your first observations is that the country is half built. No matter where you go anywhere in the country, there are buildings of all sizes that may have the walls up or the first floor finished and occupied, and then the work just stopped! Just the walls or the shell of higher floors with no doors or windows, and ALL of them have an extra 10-15 feet of rebar sticking up everywhere. Found out later that buildings are taxed differently is there are "work in process"! But a quick look tells you that no work has been done in years if not decades.just some empty shells. Even in the middle of Cabo, on the waterfront, was a 12-story condo project that suffered terminal stoppage about 5 years ago. Excellent economic lesson on what happens to an "emerging" country when the government abruptly switches ruling parties and political agendas.
The Mexican people were wonderful and helpful....and poor. Same little kids still selling the same boxes of Chiclets from the last time I was down here 14 years ago. The country is full of wonderful sights connected by hundreds of miles of sheer boredom and terror to get anywhere. As roadside attractions, we have cows, steers, horses, goats, cows, chickens, more horses, donkeys, steers, mules, a rattlesnake or two, more damn cows, more goats, and still more cows..BUT....we never saw a single deer!. As we came around a curve heading towards Guerrero Negro, Michael started and I finished a short 40-yard sprint with a young bull...with REAL long horns..We won...but he had an eye on us daring for a rematch. I like my steak medium, not running after me.
Sobering reminders of HOW dangerous driving is down there are all the little white crosses and memorials lining the roads...thousands of them. While the roads themselves are in great condition, the road signs are decent but make no distinction between how sharp a curve is going to be..how steep the decent down the hill is..where there is a blind driveway....so you can almost guarantee that there will be at LEAST 1 and up to a dozen crosses or elaborate memorials right after or just before.
I had the rare opportunity of watching a downhill tractor-trailer enter into the sharp right hand downhill curve the same time Michael was going uphill into the turn. Who would have guessed that something that big could do an 18-wheel drift through the turn?!? ALL the wheels were sliding a little and the top of the trailer was actually leaning over Michael. The driver's eyes were buggin' out. Michael said later that it scared him silly...I told him I wish I had had a camera! He wanted clean underwear
Billions of cactus of all shapes and sizes..one rare type only found in a stretch south of Ensenada looks suspiciously like the role model for an old English science fiction film, "Day of the Tripids". Never saw one move...but then we weren't in England.
There was great food everywhere..even little one room shacks on the side of the road or along the beaches had good stuff. Michael's quest was always the search for the best lobster burrito...I stayed with shrimp (humongous) and steak (yummy)...and gained 10 lb..
Tacate, Corona, and Bardohl own 85% of the marketing budget - or so it seemed. All the chairs in the North State have Tacate labels, while in the South, it's Corona. Bright yellow Bardohl signs were painted on anything that didn't move..even a shack 50 miles from ANYTHING was yellow and black.Of course it seems that all the cars had to be using Bardohl instead of regular oil...EPA would have a coronary watching the pollution anywhere in the country. Black smoke streaming out the back..Bardahl in the crankcase. Talk about a planned monopoly for making money.
Cabo San Luca is way overbuilt and now has a Costcolooks like San Diego. La Paz is a dream..boardwalk next to the Sea of Cortez,, restaurants and shops on the boardwalk. Santa Rosalia was wonderful with a French twist, Tijuana you want to get out of as soon as possible..for too many reasons. Ensenada had a fake Starbucks that Michael kept going back toI think it was the waitress..and you could visit the ship from Master and Commander (but no Russell Crowe) at the movie studio just north of townsame big tank they used for Titanic.
The Hotel California in Toto Santos is a complete juxtaposition from what you get used to down there. This place has class and would be fabulous in San Francisco...yet it's 1,800 miles south. That said, all the smaller towns were so much more interesting and friendlier. The Federales would occasionally hassle us to open a saddlebag but that's only because they're stuck at these checkpoints in the middle of nowhere. They're bored, don't speak English and smile a lot...with a nice FNL semiautomatic rifle on everyone's back.
The missions built by the first wave of Spanish are all different and scattered up and down the 2 States. Eiffel (of the Tower) has one down there. ItÔÇÖs metal like his other stuff. There were some elegant missions still in use everyday,,,while others have dwindled down to the foundation and dirt. Some on the town square,,,others in the middle of NOWHERE...what were they thinking!!
Fishing and sailing are heaven. Little coves with a half dozen huts ( Americans!) who live on $6K a yearand fish and sail.and fish and sailand fish. Nothing else around so you.
But to find ANY body of water, you had to go to the coast. The entire trip, we went over 1 bridge that went over water. All 2,000 + miles of Baja and just ONE. Dry country here cowboy!
The weather was wonderful even if we did have to turn on the electric vests each morning..and take them off by noon. roads were clean with good surface,,,,when they had a surface. Dirt was...welldirt. And that's what you had once you get away from the major roads. And Highway 1 is most of the paved stuff..so lots of dirt.
Lots of great vistas and memories. Would I do it again???...not this way on a bike..too much empty nothing and BTDT...but fly into La Paz,,oh yeah....in a heartbeat.
What a trip
Greg
