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San Felipe
Carnival 2007
This was a quick 2-day, 750-mile weekend
hop down to San Felipe, Mexico, to visit the Carnival and enjoy some of
the best riding in the world. We had two fabulous days of great
riding, great food, great photo-ops, great weather, and incredible
conversation. We had a great bunch of guys and a great
weekend.
All the photos on this page were shot with
my D200 Nikon and the 12-24 Tokina lens, a super combination for this kind
of travel photography.
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Three of my good friends who
made this trip...Marty, Dave, and Bob. |
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My ride for this trip, the
Kawasaki KLR 650. I had just put new Shinko street tires on
it. They worked well. You can see in this photo that they have
a road tread, unlike the OEM Dunlop knobbies. There's something really cool about a
small, simple motorcycle like the KLR 650. I like the idea of a
single-cylinder motorcycle. It's simple, fun, light, and it reminds
me of the first motorcycle I had when I was a kid. I took a bit of a ribbing from some of the
guys. One of my riding buddies called my KLR a mini-bike. The other motorcycles on this trip cost 2
to 4 times as much as the KLR, they each have about twice the
displacement, and each has 2 to 4 times the horsepower. That little
Kawasaki only makes 34 horsepower. The KLR is a wonderful motorcycle, though,
and it is ideally suited for riding in Mexico. The bike gets over 50
miles per gallon, and it runs on regular gasoline. |
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Dave's R1150RT
BMW. This is a beautiful machine,
and it is fast. The dark blue really works on this bike. One of these days I gotta get
me one...
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Yours truly, on
the road to San Felipe, with the KLR 650 Kawasaki.
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We stayed at the El Cortez in
San Felipe (a hotel Dave found on the Internet).
That's the view from our room
looking at the Sea of Cortez. |
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The El Cortez folks let us park
the bikes right in front of our rooms.
Did I mention that I really like that KLR
650? I bought mine from the Montclair Yamaha and Kawasaki
dealer. Art Wood gave me a great deal.
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Dave taking aim with his Nikon,
with the Sea of Cortez in the background. Bob grabbed this shot with
his Sony. |
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Dinner at the El Cortez and
my obligatory food shot.
Corvina, Vera Cruz style.
It was great. |
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Shrimp. They could have
been little lobsters.
A couple of the guys ordered this for
dinner and they said it was...well, great. |
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We walked downtown after
dinner, which was a good idea after knocking off a couple of pitchers of
Margaritas (I sure didn't want to try getting on my motorcycle after
belting down a few of those).
Did I mention that the
margaritas were great?
San Felipe had their Carnival
this February weekend.
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Miss 5 Rita Fiesta something or
other... |
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More people in the Carnival
parade... |
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The Red Hats...
We had bumped into these folks on another
San Felipe visit. They must get down here pretty often.. |
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A colorful costume... |
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A nice photo of a couple of
carnival participants. |
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Check out the cashews.
I don't know what the red stuff in the lower right corner is... |
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Mexican chotchkas...a lion on a
velour blanket... |
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More Mexican chotchkas... |
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...and even more San Felipe merchandise... |
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Still more... |
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A nicely-embroidered
hat.
Dave and Bob bought a couple
of hats. |
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Marty and I got up early Sunday
morning and walked back into town.
The sun was just starting to come up,
obscured by the clouds out over the Sea of Cortez. |
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The next morning, San
Felipe's main street looked like a hurricane hit it.
There was a serious party
here the night before. |
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Another photo looking east over
the Sea of Cortez at daybreak. |
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After finishing breakfast, we
went north on Highway 5 until we hit Highway 3.
Highway 3 runs from just north of San
Felipe up over the mountains to Ensenada.
This is a fairly typical road photo.
The riding was awesome. |
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Rock art on the way from San
Felipe to Ensenada, this one portraying a California gray whale skeleton.
Whales are an important part
of the Bajaeno culture. This is clever portrayal of one. |
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Everyone on this trip had a
digital camera.
That's Dave with his Nikon.
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Bob and his
R1150RT-P.
At one point on Highway 5 I
had my little Kawasaki cranked out to an indicated 103 mph. That's 3 mph faster than my
Kawasaki had ever gone before.
That's all she had,
but I picked up that extra 3 mph (I think) from the new Shinko tires I had
put on the bike. The rear tire has a slightly larger diameter than
the original equipment Dunlop tire.
My KLR was pulling exactly
6500 rpm at that speed, which meant I had another 1000 rpm to the
redline. I briefly thought about downshifting to see if I could eke
out a bit more top end, but I decided against it.
While I was doing my
"World's Fastest Indian" impression down there in Mexico, I
looked in my rearview mirror and Bob was right behind me on his police
Beemer. Even though we were in another country, and even though I
knew it was Bob, I skipped a few beats when I saw that black-and-white
police motor right behind me... |
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The Bobster on his R1150RT-P,
another of Dave's shots. |
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Me on my KLR...
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One of the interesting spots at
Los Naranjos, on Mexico Hwy 3 between Ensenada and Tecate. My friend
Dave shot this picture with his Nikon D70. |
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