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Baja – Part I
Loaded up, suited up, and ready to head out… San Diego, here we come!
132 miles later, we arrived at the Ramada Gaslamp Hotel. Those front desk asshats had somehow screwed up our reservation, and we ended up at the Comfort Inn a few blocks away. Ah well, time to have a cocktail!
Fortunately, there is no evidence… err… pictures of the evening. They’d mostly be blurry anyway. The Gaslamp District in San Diego is a fun place to kill brain cells.
Every true adventure begins with a hangover, and this one was no exception. The next day we headed for Tecate, and our first ever Mexican border crossing.
Border crossings are usually a nerve wracking experience, something about the uniforms, the guns and the bad attitudes always makes me a bit nervous. We drove up to a little hut, with nobody inside. No uniform, no gun… nothing. A light turned green, and that was it, we were in Mexico! I guess they don’t really care when people cross the border INTO Mexico….
First pics in Mexico!
We spent the night in Ensenada at the very nice Corona Hotel, a little expensive at $100 a night, but worth it.
In a small restaurant in Ensenada, Abi tries to think of the Spanish word for ‘Vegetarian’
Here is what he got to eat… I’d say he failed.
The Black Pearl, from Pirates of the Caribbean was docked at a marina right behind our hotel. I guess another sequel must be in the works?
One of the many Mariachi bands going to work. These ‘bands’ consist of a few guys with instruments – most not tuned to each other – that come into restaurants and charge $5 for a song. If you try to wave them off, they just stand around and stare at you while you eat. I eventually learned for $5 these guys sing LOUD!
Ensenada is fun. And a great place to go if you need a ‘Muscle Rexant’, whatever that might be… or anything else for that matter.
A lovely view of a valley somewhere between Ensenada and San Felipe. The thing in the lower right corner is a used car air filter, with a few flowers growing through it. For some reason it made me laugh.
A look down into that same valley. There was garbage ALL OVER, mostly at the bottom of the hills, I guess the local attitude is, If I can’t see it, it ain’t there.
The ride from Ensenada to San Felipe was incredible, other than the garbage strewn hills. I’d heard the roads were something to be feared, but these roads were tremendous, with fast sweeping curves and well maintained surfaces. At one point we crested a hill and slowed down to enter a small town. Good thing we did too, because there were three policemen standing on a hill with automatic weapons in hand. Not sure if they were waiting for speeding gringo bikers or not, fortunately we didn’t have to find out!
Abi, a native of Trinidad, feels a touch of homesickness come on as we pressed on to San Felipe.
Author: frenchy
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