|
|
|
Bahia de Los
Angeles
My old motorcycle partner John Welker and I
did a quick 1100-mile weekend to Bahia de Los Angeles in the Baja
peninsula in October 2006. John has a house on the Sea
of Cortez down there. I took my Triumph Tiger for its first long
ride, John took his Yamaha Virago, and we had a great time.
|
|
 |
Yours truly with my Triumph
Tiger in Palomar, about 200 miles south of the border along Baja's
Transpeninsular Highway. |
|
A Mexican truck driver, who was
actually pretty friendly.
|
 |
 |
I saw a guy trying to buy beer
in the restaurant in San Vincente on Friday night. There was a BMW GS in
the hotel parking lot and I asked if it was his. Yep, it was, and Peter
introduced himself to me. The restaurant didn't serve beer, but I
went across the street to pick up a couple of six-packs of Tecate. |
 |
I asked Peter to join us for
dinner, and he did. He's from Canada, and he was touring Mexico and
the US for a month or two. That's Deema, Annie, and John. |
| On Saturday, the next morning,
we ran into a fog bank about 250 miles south of the border.
Visibility was so bad I couldn't see the ground beneath me, so I pulled
over to wait it out.
I grabbed this shot of my Triumph.
There was nothing else to do until the fog lifted.
|
 |
 |
Mexico's Highway 1 (the
Transpeninsular Highway) follows the Pacific coast and then turns inland
at El Rosario. Mama Espinoza's is a classic Mexican restaurant known
for their lobster burritos. I have to watch my cholesterol, so I had
a chicken burrito. Best one I ever had. I made it a point to stop
there on the way back the next day and I had the same thing. |
|
A sculpture outside Mama
Espinoza's. |
 |
 |
South of El Rosario, it gets real desolate real fast.
This is a typical scene in the mountains.
The roads are incredible. Fast
sweepers, long straights, and no traffic. Just the odd cow or wild
burro in the road...
|
| Another shot at the same
location.
The Tiger is a great machine for this kind
of riding, especially with its comfortable riding position and over 200
mile range. |
 |
 |
A truck stop out in the middle
of nowhere. |
| We stopped briefly in Catavina,
where John couldn't tear himself away from this rather talkative guy.
John and I have put a lot of miles on our
motorcycles in Mexico. |
 |
 |
At Punta Prieta, after traveling
on Highway 1 for about 360 miles, we made a left turn and headed east
across the Baja peninsula. This was our destination...Bahia de Los
Angeles.
Triumph calls the Tiger's color Caspian
Blue, presumably named after the Caspian Sea. This wasn't the
Caspian (it's the Sea of Cortez), but I'd say the color match is pretty
good... |
|
My obligatory Artsy Fartsy
shot.
|
 |
 |
John's house on the Sea of
Cortez. John picked a moonless weekend so that we could take in the
stars. There's no light pollution down there.
I slept on the roof and it was really
magnificent. I've never seen stars as vivid nor as plentiful as they
were that night. |
|
John telling a fish story in
his front yard. |
 |
 |
Deema, Annie, and Candy. |
| John keeps an old VW microbus
down there in Bahia de Los Angeles. The lights on it don't
work.
We had dinner in town and realized the sun
had set. No lights. No moon. Dirt roads through the Baja
desert. We realized we were in a pickle.
Annie and John bought a flashlight.
Annie hung out the window with that flashlight. This was a fun
evening. |
 |
|
A sculpture on John's house. |
 |
 |
Candy, the Chihuaha from Peru. |
| A typical Mexican restaurant in
Bahia de los Angeles. I've spent enough time and had enough meals
down there that I can eat in places like this and do okay. The
food and the Tecate always taste great. |
 |
 |
I woke up with the sun on Sunday
morning. This is a shot from John's roof looking east over the Sea
of Cortez. |
| I rode back the next morning by
myself...John was staying at his place a couple of extra days, but I had
to get back for work. It was a nice ride. I grabbed this shot
in one of the agricultural towns along Highway 1 on the way back to the
US. |
 |
| I shot all of the photos on this page with
my F5 Nikon, and the 24-120 Nikon and 17-35 Sigma lenses. |
|
