travisgill
New member
Ever since we discovered adventure motorcycling, a few years ago, my wife, Chantil, and I have dreamed of riding Baja. This was our first motorcycle trip outside the protective womb of the USA and I was a bit nervious if not a little scared. To calm the concerns I planned, planned, and planned some more. The following is just a small glimpse into the planning process. Perhaps it will help other folks who feel the same anxiety but can't shake the desire to discover Baja on your own.
Mission Planning
Baja Preparation:
All the preparation and a little bit of lack of preparation has got us to this moment. I’ve never prepared as much for a trip. Part of the reason for the preparation are the concerns I have about traveling in a country I don’t know much about other than what I’ve read. The US Department of State travel warnings (https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/mexico-travel-warning.html) were a bit scary to read. If you believe the headlines about Mexico you may get the feeling that nearly every American who visits is victim to some act of robbery or violence. There is no shortage of people who warn “I once had a friend who (insert your terrorizing story here)!” Military checkpoint, crooked cops, drugs, Trump's "bad hombres", and chupacabra! What is an adventure rider to do?
The major reason for the preparation was that I have to go through an extensive request process in order to get permission to go to Mexico from my employer - the US Navy. I drafted up a professional looking memo that included my itinerary and all the things I had considered in order to have a safe trip.
We considered:
In addition to the passport issue, I had my wallet stolen on a recent Death Valley trip (Yes, in the great US of A). I needed to wait for a new drivers license that was mailed from Florida. It ended up arriving the day before we left on our trip - how’s that for timing?!
We purchased motorcycle insurance for the 9 days we were expecting to be in Baja. It costed $118.79 USD for each of the mules. Talk about bad hombres. Robbery.
Finally, we pre-purchased the Forma Migratoria Multiple (FMM) online. Technically it’s required for visits to Mexico longer than 7 days. It costed 500 pesos (~$26 USD) for each of us.
Some teaser photos from the trip:
Cactus forests
Super-bloom flowers
Isolated dirt roads
Dry lake beds
Good (and cheap) eats
Fun times
Cold drinks in crazy corners
High winds
Buffoonery
Our two mules
More to come…
Mission Planning
Baja Preparation:
All the preparation and a little bit of lack of preparation has got us to this moment. I’ve never prepared as much for a trip. Part of the reason for the preparation are the concerns I have about traveling in a country I don’t know much about other than what I’ve read. The US Department of State travel warnings (https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/mexico-travel-warning.html) were a bit scary to read. If you believe the headlines about Mexico you may get the feeling that nearly every American who visits is victim to some act of robbery or violence. There is no shortage of people who warn “I once had a friend who (insert your terrorizing story here)!” Military checkpoint, crooked cops, drugs, Trump's "bad hombres", and chupacabra! What is an adventure rider to do?
The major reason for the preparation was that I have to go through an extensive request process in order to get permission to go to Mexico from my employer - the US Navy. I drafted up a professional looking memo that included my itinerary and all the things I had considered in order to have a safe trip.
We considered:
- The route: A HUGE thanks to gpsKevin for publishing the routes of his previous trips. I did extensive research on each day of our trip using gpsKevin’s routes as a guide. Having a red line to follow in a new world was a humungous comfort. Link: https://sites.google.com/site/gpskevin/gpskevin-ride-calendar/baja-california-discovery-route-2016
- Our two mules: Both BMW G650GS. My 2012 Sertao, named Apache, has about 20K miles and Chantil 2011 mule, Chocolate, has almost 30K miles. They are outfitted for overland travel. My gear and bags weigh almost 100 lbs. I weight, with all my riding gear, 220 lbs.
- Gear: We have always been proponents of All The Gear, All The Time (ATGATT). I even wear a neck brace.
- Night: No riding at night. We heard horror stories of stray animals and loco semi-truck drivers. No, gracias.
- Fuel: Each of our mules has a range of about 185-200 miles. An extra 1.75 gal RotoPax gets us another 50 miles each. We heard you can buy gasolina from almost anyone so we should be ok.
- Water: We each carry a 3-liter Camelback and another 1.75 gal RotoPax between the two of us. It should be enough for a day or two of riding off the beaten path.
- Spanish: My Spanish is poor. Chantil’s is even worse. I took two years in high school so I know how to pronounce words and I can read a bit. Understanding spoken Spanish is another level that I don’t feel comfortable with. Downloading the Spanish dictionary into the Google Translate app proved to be a blessing. We also had a small pocket phrasebook but I never even opened it during the entire trip.
- Documentation: Passport, Driver License, FMM tourist card, and insurance were with me in my motorcycle jacket pocket. Other documents stayed in the tank bag.
- Pesos: We didn’t use an ATMs or credit card the entire trip. We exchanged about 19,000 pesos ($1,000 UDS) before the trip. Believe me, 19,000 pesos is a big wad of cash. We distributed the money between the two bikes. I carried less than 1,000 pesos in my pocket. I also had a throw-away wallet with some old ATM cards, an old ID, and some pesos just in case all the horror stories were true.
- Communication: Although I had the option of using Verizon wireless it turned out that everywhere I checked for a signal there was none. All towns had restaurants with WiFi. We activated our Garmin inReach for the duration of our trip but never even turned it on other than to check that is was functional before leaving on the trip.
In addition to the passport issue, I had my wallet stolen on a recent Death Valley trip (Yes, in the great US of A). I needed to wait for a new drivers license that was mailed from Florida. It ended up arriving the day before we left on our trip - how’s that for timing?!
We purchased motorcycle insurance for the 9 days we were expecting to be in Baja. It costed $118.79 USD for each of the mules. Talk about bad hombres. Robbery.
Finally, we pre-purchased the Forma Migratoria Multiple (FMM) online. Technically it’s required for visits to Mexico longer than 7 days. It costed 500 pesos (~$26 USD) for each of us.
Some teaser photos from the trip:
Cactus forests
Super-bloom flowers
Isolated dirt roads
Dry lake beds
Good (and cheap) eats
Fun times
Cold drinks in crazy corners
High winds
Buffoonery
Our two mules
More to come…