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Baja 2004
This trip was a quick, 1550-mile, 4-day motorcycle tour from LA to Mulege in the Baja peninsula in January
2004. Mulege is about 650 miles south of the border. This
was my fifth or sixth trip into the Baja's interior, and I have to tell
you that it just keeps getting better. The roads are fantastic, the
scenery is awesome, and, well, read on.... |
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We stuck to Mexico's
Transpeninsular Highway (Highway 1). Here's a typical restaurant in
one of the northern Baja agricultural towns. Bryan and Marty are
getting ready to continue south into the Baja.
Picking the good restaurants was easy...we
just looked for the ones with lots of cars parked out front...
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Bryan and Joe, stopped at a
deserted Baja structure.
Most of the Baja peninsula is
very desolate.
The roads are awesome, with
long, flat, high-speed straights, and lots of twisties through the
mountains.
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We stopped for gas in Catavina,
but the town's generator was shut down for maintenance (as it is nearly
every day). Marty is getting his BMW filled up the old-fashioned
way. This was an adventure...real Indiana Jones stuff... |
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Marty and Joe, just before
getting on the bus to see the whales. |
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This is Victor, who talked to
us about the whales on our way out to Scammon's Lagoon. Bryan shot this
photo.
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Another one of Bryan's photos,
showing the boats we used for watching the whales. |
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Our first destination was
Guerrero Negro to see the whales in Scammon's Lagoon. We took a tour
with Marrallimo's.
That is a big whale, one of many we saw on this
excellent tour.
I shot all of the photographs
on this page with the Sony Mavica CD400. It's a great camera, but
it's not so great for fast-moving action. In those cases, 35mm film
is still the king. If you want to see better shots of the whales
from an earlier Baja foray (shot with the Nikon F5), check out the Baja
2003 page.
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Antonio's has been selling fish
tacos in Guerrero Negro for 11 years. I stop there every time I go
by. Bryan, who never eats seafood, changed his mind after trying one
of these tacos (actually, after he bummed a bite of my fish taco).
Bryan is now a convert. In fact, he made us stop on the way back through
Guerrero Negro just to get another fish taco.
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Antonio, taco chef
extraordinaire...
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The real McCoy. Wow, are
they ever good... |
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One of the many roadside shrines
erected in memory of someone who died along this route. You see
these every few miles along the Transpeninsular Highway.
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A typical roadside spot where we
stopped to take a break. |
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Yep, the roads were
awesome. We were really able to crank out the bikes on these
roads. Running at over 100 mph was no problem.
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Bryan and Joe, stopped just
north of San Ignacio. Bryan rides a Honda VFR. I ride a Suzuki
TL1000S. The Suzuki is not really a touring bike, but I've done a
lot of miles on it, and I have the sore muscles to prove it... |
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The mission in San
Ignacio. This building is over 300 years old.
San Ignacio is a small town just off the
Transpeninsular Highway. If you are ever driving this route, you
really have to stop in San Ignacio to see the mission. It is one of the
Baja peninsula's most interesting areas, and every one I have ever taken
there has fallen in love with the place.
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The entrance to the San Ignacio
mission. |
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A macro shot of the door to the
San Ignacio mission.
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The Virgin of Guadalupe, at the
San Ignacio mission. |
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Our next destination was Mulege,
where we spent the next night. Bryan and Marty are taking a break on the
Sea of Cortez. We had just driven several miles down a very rough
dirt road to get to the Sea. It was worth the drive. |
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Checking our route for the next
day with the Sea of Cortez in the background (this was a staged shot...). |
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We stayed at the Las Casitas
hotel in Mulege, which is a hopping spot. This is a painting that
hangs in Las Casitas' restaurant.
Mulege is a fun town, and the
tiny Las Casitas hotel is just outstanding. The rooms were great,
and the margaritas and dinners were off the charts.
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Joe and Bryan, with the first of
many margaritas and Negra Modelos.
The first of very many.
Actually, the first of too many...
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Marty and Bryan enjoying their
dinner...
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Our hotel in Mulege, the Las
Casitas. |
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The mission in Mulege.
This building actually served as a prison at one point during its life.
Life was so good there, though, that the convicts were released during the
day to go to work and none ever tried to escape. |
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Another shot of the Mulege
mission. |
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The river running through Mulege.
The date palms were introduced by the Jesuits. Mulege is one of
several oases in the Baja's Vizcaino desert. It is an incredibly
scenic, largely-undiscovered spot. |
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Joe and Bryan, taking in the
Mulege
scenery.
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On our way back north, we
stopped in Santa Rosalia. Santa Rosalia is a bustling fishing town
on the Sea of Cortez. |
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Here's a shot of the stained
glass windows in Santa Rosalia's interesting, Georg Eiffel-designed
church. The little Sony did a pretty good job here, with the meter
set to the spot-metering mode. Like all of the shots on this page,
this is a hand-held photograph. |
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Another of the stained glass
windows in the Santa Rosalia church.
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We had a pretty rough drive on
our third night in Baja. All of the books I've read advise not
driving at night, and all of these books are right. We rode about
130 miles on a moonless night to get back to Catavina, and it is not an
experience I would recommend. The roads are not lit, and it's
amazing how dark it gets out there. Then, just to make things more
interesting, the white lines marking the road's edge disappeared about 20
miles before Catavina, on winding mountain and desert roads. Throw
in stray cattle on the roads going around blind corners, and, well, you
get the idea.
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last night in the Baja at the La Pinta Hotel. It is a beautiful
hotel. By this time, though, we were all pretty tired and my muscles
were pretty sore from riding an edgy sports bike for three solid
days. The photo above shows us mounting up just as the sun was
rising, with a solid 400 miles to go. It would have been nice to
show more photos as we continued on through Tecate, but we were tired and
just after crossing the border we were caught in a rainstorm near San
Diego. We waited most of it out in a McDonald's, so that's about it
for our Baja photos from this trip. |
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