Completed Tagteam Cycling Routes



WHERE WE HAVE BEEN. The colored lines on this map represent where we have tagteam cycled since 1 Aug 2015. BLUE lines = 2015, YELLOW lines = 2016, RED lines = 2017. We will continue to update this map as we complete additional route segments (we are not done yet!).

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Leaving Baja California Sur

We left San Ignacio after getting a few groceries and some purified water.  On our way north we overtook Didier and his father, Robert, so we stopped and chatted with them for a while.  It seems that Didier was overly optimistic about the distances that they could cover.  While his father obviously trained for riding this final leg of Didier's journey, no amount training adequately prepares you for bicycle touring - you don't get that final bit of fitness until after at least a week on the road - especially in some of the more mountainous areas where they will be riding, and in the near constant headwinds.  But it was good to see them and to have a chance to wish them well on the remainder of their journey.  There is a small chance that we might overtake them again in several days time.



Our plan for our first day was to go out to the Pacific Ocean to camp at Bahia Asuncion.  But when we arrived at the campground we were greeted by five loose dogs, whose clamor invited a few other neighborhood dogs to come runing and investigate.  We quickly figured that it would be a difficult place to keep Lana out of trouble, so we moved on (barely avoiding getting stuck in the soft sand in doing so).  We stopped and had lunch overlooking the ocean, and decided to return to Vizcaino, from whence we had departed Mex 1.

Bahia Asuncion.
(Bahia Asuncion is primarily a fishing and whale watching destination, and we were too early for the latter and we aren't fisher-folk.  There was the prospect of doing some beachcombing, but the high bluffs would have made that a serious challenge for Alea's bad knee.)

The drive out to the ocean was worthwhile enough.  The Desierto Vizcaino had a different look than most of Baja, plus we skirted the southern edge of the Guerrero Negro Salt Flats.  And driving through the dune country had its challenges, as there were drifts halfway across the road in several places.  Fortunately the traffic was light, so having to avoid swerving oncoming traffic wasn't an issue.



Once back at Vizcaino, we camped at Hotel Kadekaman (300$: 100$ per person + 100$ for power], power, water, hot showers, free wi-fi), which is a quirky, artsy sort of place.  They seem to add new hotel rooms as the cash becomes available, and each group of rooms has a distinctive look to it.  It had easily the nicest restrooms that we have encountered, but they are located on the opposite end of the property.  But at least on every trip across the property we seemed to notice some other interesting detail that they have added to a planter, courtyard or other outdoor space.




We opted to stay two nights, as not staying at Bahia Asuncion has put us ahead of schedule again.  If there was a bit more to do here, we would have stayed longer.  But it was an enjoyable stay all the same.

When we first arrived, we met a couple from Vancouver, B.C. who had been bicycle touring down the coast, having left home two months ago.  We tried to engage them in conversation, but without much luck.  As they were packing up to leave in the morning their body language suggested that they were having some issues with each other.  My speculation is that she wasn't happy about the narrow roads and the resultant peril from passing vehicles.  I suspect he intended to make it to La Paz, regardless of the white-knuckle riding experience.

We opted to dine in the hotel restaurant, and were quite impressed by the Christmas decorations, particularly the red felt slip covers on the chairs...



Our next stop was a return to Malarrimo RV Park in Guerrero Negro, also opting to stay two nights.  This time around they charged us more ($10.75, power, water, hot showers, free wi-fi), the wi-fi wouldn't work (it continually said we were out of range no matter where we were on the property) and the door knob was missing from one of the men's toilets, whereas the other had no light and a broken flush handle.  But we made do.

Curious phrasing at Malarrimo...
We had driven through Guerrero Negro probably a dozen times, looking for cash, stationary stores, water purification stores, laundromats, etc.  On our first day back in town, after having already made a half dozen trips up the main drag, we were trying to find a place to make a U-turn, in order to reach a mini-mart and grab a few groceries.  As we are doing so, at the last minute I notice a power line right in front of me, hanging about five and a half feet off the ground.  I braked, but not quite a panic stop, since there were cars beside and behind me.  Too late.  The cable got snagged on our ARB awning, yanking the line off of a building on the north side of the street, and bringing half the ceramic insulator with it.  That got wedged under the awning, but not before put some small dents and scratches above the curbside cargo door.  When we stopped in traffic to inspect things, the wire was completely severed and laying in traffic on the south side of the street.  There was a chunk of frayed cable and the ceramic insulator wedged under the ARB.  When I removed that, you could see where the wire was shorting out on the aluminum bracket that I had made, and was starting to scorch and melt where the bare wires had made contact.  The good news was that my improvised awning mounts proved to be very robust.




Aside from the dents and scratches, there were vinyl marks all over the passenger side of the van.  I took some scratch remover to it, and almost everything came off, except for a few places where there are very faint brown burn marks from where the live wire arced against the paint.

Later that night a storm blew through, with high winds and rain.  Fortunately our fantastic fan shut itself, so we didn't end up with a wet comforter in the middle of the night.

The next day we did laundry, more grocery shopping, gassed up and got another garrafon of water.  It was a fairly cold and windy day, but it started to seem to clear up toward evening.

We awoke the final morning in Guerro Negro to calm winds and temperatures in the 40s.  But it stayed cold and the wind picked up considerably after leaving Baja California Sur.  It's time once again to get out the jeans and wool shirt, and to put the sandals away for a while...

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