A cat woke up today in Loreto wondering, like most cats do, what am I going to eat and do today? Before you could say Cacalaka (the cats name) or offer up a formal introduction, he now finds himself caged. The formal adoption process was arranged and officiated by non other than Yoda Roberto. Yoda Cacalaka is now on his way to America to the gpskevin household.
I’m fairly certain that this Baja cat is now puzzled, and probably a wee bit traumatized but, soon though, this cat will draw the correct conclusion and realize that he is on his way to the promise land.
Lately Baja has inspired me, and it also seems to lite up every rider on a either a bicycle or motorcycle. Inspire means to excite, to encourage, or to breathe new life into something.
We are now in San Ignacio where miles earlier everyone fought the Santa Ana type winds getting here.
If you wanted to see the grey whales in the nearby lagoon this is where you come. They arrive from December to April every year probably since man first started hunting them to near extinction. This little town probably exists because of the water oasis in the desert. The water flows out of the ground and forms a rather nice size lagoon nearby. There’s date trees all around and it hasn’t rained here in three years. Seriously! Three years ago it rain.
I asked several riders recently what inspires them on this ride? Is it the scenery, the future, the past or knowing that there are other like minded riders all around you, as you ride? That’s a tough question to answer? Riders like the idea to, at the end of each day stop, reflect, share by verbalizing the present day experiences and then internalizing those into memories. I also found that we are not just content with today or just this ride; everyone likes to always plan for and look ahead to the next big adventure.
I like being a quote user. Perhaps the words in the picture above have a deeper meaning for you. Are we really all broken up in some way or other? And is what we do now, just another way of searching for some higher form or meaning? Probably not. Maybe it’s just the afternoon margarita now talking. The girl just brought me the bill. A well blended frozen Margarita, a bottle of water, ice in a glass, chips and salsa. 70 pesos or around three US dollars. The floors are marble the mission built in the 1700’s is walking distance away and running the Baja 1000 is in the thoughts of many gringos we see all over the place.
As I rode through La Paz traffic yesterday I finally said enough of the fumes and traffic. I’m outta here but, I was now surrounded and trapped. Suddenly a small dumb and dumber scooter appears out of nowhere, two Mexican college looking kids are riding it like they stole it. One of the kids was sporting a rather large round ear piercings and the other was clean cut.
They didn’t bother wearing helmets so I could see the kids round pierced ears just flapping away in the wind as they flew by me.
This is when I made my move. I quickly switched to the side walk side of the road, jumped over a curb or two and followed them all around smoking buses, walking pedestrians and every banged up Baja car imaginable that was still running. Picture yourself driving through a wrecking yard with people sitting in cars and trucks. Everything goes here, no windshield no problem.
Now add the damage and place the vehicles all askew this way and that. That was now my reality. When I stopped in an open lane spot a woman with three uniformed workers pulled up so close to me I could touch her head. The occupants all wore Covid masks and non dared look in my direction. This is their city normal I thought?
Later a few towns away from La Paz I pull up to refuel. A young girl attendant, maybe sixteen years old instead of flipping burgers somewhere was now refueling riders like me. The girl uses her cellphone to activate the gas pump, pump your gas with the other hand, then makes change or hands you back your credit card.
The girl had a very large and obvious tattoo of the words Santiago written across her arm. I smiled and said I have one too. I said to her that I walked the Camino de Santiago across Spain. She acted like a US kid asked to point to Alaska or Hawaii or Puerto Rico on a map. Confused. Then she said that Santiago was her nieces name. Now I was the confused one.
I looked at her name tag and honest to god, her name is America!
This gpskevin ride I knew would work wonders on my body. For some like Joey, Phil and David Montezumas revenge also worked wonders on them too. I told them that Anthony Bourdain said never to eat pizza in Baja. I don’t think they believed me.
Inspiration is a subjective thing, as different people will find different things to be inspiring. However, I dare most anyone to step into any Baja mission along “the way” and see for yourself if you are not inspired what these people did in places like the Loreto mission built in 1697.
Copper Canyon photo above. You gotta love the roads.
Trawlercat
Trawlercat Blog Dispatches 