Dos Amigos explore Baja

I totally hear ya about Applebee's.....I absolutely HATE that it's so hard to truly leave "America" behind when you take vacation. I love going places where people speak no English, and I'm forced to learn their language. I love not being able to eat "regular" food - I love trying new stuff - especially when I like it! it makes it even more fun when there are fun loving, non-politically correct folks around who couldn't give two cents about your feelings or being "proper" - although that's really getting harder and harder to find.

By the way - have you done a thread on your travels to Vietnam? If not, maybe you should......

I did. it's not much of a ride report as it's just about our travels throughout the country. We did get a chance to get out onto a bike for a day or two but it was just around Dalat. We have plans for when we go back in a year or two to actually do some touring on a bike.

I'm horrified to report that upon obtaining the address for the thread I've learned that the free photo service that I was using three years ago has changed and it's spoiled every single picture link of the entire six week trip.
It's incredible how much time these things take especially if you put forth the effort to do them well and I just dont have time to fix it. The good news is, all of our videos are still up because they are posted to youtube..... so you can get some of the images. The words are all there as well.

anyways - here is the thread. There is plenty of opportunity to have a laugh at my expense for this trip because; I sweat a lot and because I'm 6'4 I don't fit ANYwhere. Don't fit in the plane, the car, the scooter, the beds etc

so the video on me on the back of the scooter with the tiny helmet....



I cant really do much but just laugh myself

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=486318

Love you trip report!!!!!!!

EP,

My earlier comments were not meant to be snide....

I fully grok the feelings you expressed regarding the intrusion of amerikan culture contaminating our travels abroad....aside from the need to ground ourselves with a Costco Polish dog .

Those of us who frequent Baja have probably worked our way through those initial shocks/disappointments.

Too bad you didn't get to ride the East Cape road...it is a world class ride along the ocean....but you may have been surprised with the BIG money invested along the way :eek1

My travels to Baja have always presented me with a variety of hoped-for experiences as well as those surprises.

I have been That Guy on the beemer a few times.......but have found that off-road bikes are really the weapon of choice for really getting into Baja....(wife would need her own ....)

You have had your introductory taste of Baja....I doubt it will be your last trip there.

Some of what you missed on the East Cape ride....

oh it wont be my last trip down there for sure.....im frothing at the mouth to get down there with a dirtbike to really get to see REAL Baja. Backcountry Baja.

Someday....

Rode the same route back in Oct 08. Doesn't seem to be as many Baja RRs these days. Gotta head back down, maybe next year.

I rode the Ba Ha over 35 years ago first time on a Honda SL125, next time on a XL175 and the last time on a XL250.
From your pictures the roads are now much better, 35 years ago the were just very narrow blacktops with the trucks using the middle. We never stayed much in Hotels, just camped in dry washes away from the road a little ways. Lots of time we just stayed with the locals as there is always someone in the small towns who wants to make a buck or two for letting us have a place to sleep. It's lots more fun to just stay with the locals, you should try it sometime. I don't suppose I will ever do the Ba Ha again as I'm getting along in years, but it was fun back then.

I now have a KLR and I'm seeing the local country here in the mid-west.

Thanks fr bringing us along with you .Love those pic's ,makes me wanna dig my bike outta the snow (Toronto ) and get moving !

You should! It's easier to get around down there than it ever has been. There is even more good food to eat and it seems that the people are as friendly as they ever were.....
Sounds like you need to make at least one more trip!!




Im sure you have tons of great stories about traveling down there back then. My preferred method of travel would have been camping if I didnt have the wife in tow. She very much prefers to stay in hotels and have a hot shower at the end of the day.... and if that means it keeps her happy and we get to travel on the bike more often, then that's what we do.
Ill get teh chance to travel down there, dirtbike style sometime and get more of a raw feeling for it.

90% of the people we met down there on the road were Hosers. I had never heard the phrase "Snow Bird" before, but now it makes so much sense.....

More?

Bruce

Enjoying this TR and your 'tude! WTF, some want to lecture you about how to write your own TR!!!???

Whether I agree or not, a guy can express himself on a TR- do ya think? Nice photos and prose. Thanks!

Yep, I live in a mountain tourist town. Tourists from west of the mountains invade for the sunshine and bring their city-ness and city culture....so yea, I get it about the touristas....Here one can walk into Starbucks and just pick out the city folks based on their behavior in the queue and dress! (so I avoid Starbucks and most of the tourist-clogged places in this tourist town, as well in the mountains).

Good stuff, heading that way next week. Great report & pics.

I grew up in a tourist town, so maybe that irks me more than it should when people act like tourists.....because I know from experience that you can travel and not ACT like a tourist even if you are.

Sorry I dropped the ball here guys..... im super busy. Ill try to get another entry up today

What's the worst part of the trip?

The moment when you've turned your wheels toward home. That is, unless you've had the good fortune to be able to finish the whole dammed continent and moved onto the next one and kept going and just kept on going in that direction until you've been all the way around. In which case screw you because that would be awesome.



anyways. The experience we had in Cabo was being swamped by tourists who had no intention of leaving the resort property. Not only that, many of them were consistently rude to the staff. Disgusted by this, we packed up a day early and got back on the bike and turned out wheels toward home for the first time.

Bittersweet.

our first day heading back we really kind of just went for it. We got on the road early and made it to near La Paz before lunch so we just gassed up and headed toward Loreto.



for the return trip we took significantly less pics on the road.....because A) we were going back the same way and B) lets face it, most of it looks the same.

I probably already said this once, but it bears repeating. The road from Cuidad Insurgentes to Mulege is an astonishingly beautiful ride. I've already done it twice and its still on my bucket list.





we stayed in Loreto one more night.



we said goodbye to the friends we had met there, did one more round of Karaoke and took off.....



you get so close to the water sometimes that it seems as if you can drag your boot in the water









we really wanted to camp on the beach somewhere in here but it just wasnt in the cards. Next time for sure.





I really wanted to stop and get the obligatory photo, but I missed it



the ol' GS turned 80k right under my nose!



I cant think of a better place to turn 80k on a bike

we were goin along when I saw a bike on the side of the road. I slowed way down and he gave me the thumbs down, so of course we stopped.



it was a really nice couple from BC in the middle of their trip. They had pulled over for something and the guys 'Wing wouldnt start. He was kind of freaking out - on his phone trying to arrange a truck to come get the bike to take it back to the border and how was he going to load it etc etc
The Wing looked brand new - and those things are dammed near legendary for their reliability. Im no mechanic but it seemed strange.....

I asked him what the deal was and he said something about the transmission was locked up and the engine wouldnt turn over..... so i asked him to take me through his start up procedure.
He turned on the key and looked at the dash and started cursing a blue streak.

The bike was in reverse.



poor guy forgot to take it our of reverse, so it wouldnt start.



a super nice couple, happy to have their bike quietly idling on the side of the road in Baja.....pride slightly bruised....

Thanks for sharing. I know how much work goes into posting these reports.
So, what was the deal with the Nuvi ( which I have)? Were you supposed to buy a Garmin CD of Mexico?
I couldn't tell if you had paved road options all the way down. I'm thinking of riding my Concours down that way and camping about half the time.
When I last toured in Mexico I was on my brand new 1975 Norton and spent some time bitching about the Americanization of Mexico.

Im pretty disappointed with the Nuvi. Even in the US you can be on a two lane road that doesnt even show up on the map. Yeah it does some topographical stuff but thats pretty cool but what good is it if it cant help you navigate?
I updated the maps just before we left so I was really hoping this wouldnt be an issue. My old GPS (2720 I think?) you could be in the middle of freaking NOWHERE and there would be a deer track off into the woods and it would show up on the GPS. This one.....hell half the time we were in Mexico we weren't on any "road", but usually which was more maddening, the "road" was a half mile to the left or right and it was telling us we were either in the water or in the mountain.
This is why I never put too much trust into these

Tooling aroung Baja in the 70's on a Norton must have been a blast!!!



I wasnt even an idea in '75...... do you have any pics from that trip? You should do a retro-ride-report

The Nuvi 50 did okay on a recent ride from Colorado to the Oregon coast and then down to SF before returning across Nevada and Arizona. The thing is, I can read the screen without needing to put on my reading glasses. The first one I bought froze the second time I used it.
I had a 2720 and I remember it leading me to a remote two-track in the middle of the prairie in SE Colorado but it got me to my destination. It was a great unit.
I did post kind a report of one of my adventures on the Norton.
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=710255