Baja GPSKEVIN Day 6

There’s not allot to do in San Ignacio, Baja California but, if you visited, you could spend a little time walking around the Zocalo buying souvenirs or visiting the mission or the museum or go out to the cave paintings or; whale watching! Every Mexican town has a Zocalo. The large courtyard in San Ignacio has around a dozen stately looking 100′ tall trees planted and nourished by the Jesuits. The mission was built in 1723, so I’m probably not far off saying these trees are close to two hundred years old.

The Kukamana indigenous peoples run a tourist store where for $100 a person you could buy a voucher for a spot on a panga to go out and have a 45′ grey whale come out and greet you in the nearby lagoon.

There’s no grey whales out now to see but the season is December to April. The restaurant in town treated us well and the food was fabulous and so was the service. We stayed at the Hotel La Huerta and we ate at the Rancho Grande grill.

After your meal walk next door to the Edson ice cream shop for homemade ice cream or enjoy an authentic date shake. Look at all the Baja racing stickers, maps and maybe support the local racers and but a t shirt.

At nearly five thirty the next morning I found David outside and we both decided to I walk around the entire town. We saw decrepit old former historic buildings with dates like 1927 and 1929. The homeless sleeping dogs on the street didn’t even bother us. I also got to thinking about home. Would we feel as comfortable doing the same in most US cities or towns on a first visit? Probably not.

My laundry probably needs fumigating before I head home. I’ve gotten better on this ride at laundry management unlike a previous ride whereby, dirty clothes mix in with clean clothes and you soon can’t tell the difference.

We rode around a two hundred mile stretch of Baja at around 94 mph until someone needed to pee. That’s when I saw the state of my rear tire. It’s almost worn all down and I still have to get home. That’s when I waved the others off and proceeded at a saner pace. I start seeing what looked like a migrant caravan of about 150 people. They are all wearing REI type clothes and carrying hiking poles. I pulled over and asked what was going on. The Mexican guy told me they are on a walking mission of 150 miles to the mission in Bahia Los Angeles. Impressive I thought as there was now a headwind blowing at around 25 mph. I almost parked my. BMW and joined them.

At times the bike was leaning at a 45 degree angle. Crews carrying $500,000 plus trophy trucks for the upcoming Baja 1000 race were now heading in my opposite direction.

Joey is back to riding today as Montezuma has thankfully left the house for good. Three bikes went down today; one with a hole cut by a rock through the oil pan. One BMW GSA 1200 went down on account of a broken battery terminal and another BMW had a temporary problem turning off – operator error. Not me. The battery was purchased at the towns tire repair shop and the oil pan hole was plugged up by Yoda Greg with two part epoxy from Harbor Freight. The guy is truly in his element when any problem arises. We are all extremely glad to have Yoda Greg and Yoda Roberto with us.

Gpskevin’s cat Catalaka is now a well seasoned traveler since leaving his hometown of Loreto. The hotel dog Blackie came over to check the cat out and they came to a mutual understanding that as long as Catalaka leaves either in a van, motorcycle or caravan, he won’t be overstaying his visa.

At nearly five thirty in the morning David and I walked around the entire town including all the dirt roads. We saw decrepit old former historic buildings with dates of 1927, 1929. The fact that even the sleeping dogs on the street didn’t bother us also got me thinking about home. Several goats trim the hotels trees and next door wild horses run around. A pitbull with a collar followed us back to the hotel and then played with the local dog before wandering back home.

We are our own man in Baja and so is Chakalaca. In two days we cross back to the land of the free and the brave and all the restrictions and regulations that we can choose to take or ignore now.

Most people vacation in the same places year after year, as they love the sense of security that comes with that decision. Others like this little group of fourteen riders that Gpskevin assembled together come here just to get out of our comfort zone.

Every day we face extremely taxing new decisions like for example where is Nick with the room keys. Are the drinks and snacks out? And probably the most difficult one; did I draw a snorer tonight as a roommate?

Every day a new peril exists on and off the road. Perhaps a cow might take one of us out. What an extremely terrible way to meet the local fauna. Yesterday Roberto nearly met head on a trophy sized ram running at a 45 degree angle on a sloping hillside so far away that he thought it was trying to get away. Somehow physics and a sense of humor caused a trajectory of Baja proportions, similar to the people, whereby the two nearly intersected. In our western culture not knowing what might happen later today should be avoided at all costs.

We must stay informed with the latest news. Everything should be neatly organized and structured. Not in our world these past seven days.

Now if I could only get some reliable WiFi.

Trawlercat