July 6
What day is it? Ernie and I really can’t say. We know it’s July 6, but day of the week?!? We’ve narrowed it down to Wednesday or Thursday without actually sitting down and plotting out what day matched up with what date. We love having this problem.
So last night camping on the Sea of Cortez... Just after sunset the breeze stopped. Dead, still air at 90+ degrees with 90% + humidity. No bueno. No sleeping. Just sweating and being uncomfortable. When we chatted this morning about if and when we had experienced such discomfort from heat, my answer was the time I spent at a shack/dorm room in a marine station in Port Aransas, Texas and his answer was the time he spent in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. I had hoped neither of these two places would come up on this trip in the sense that “this reminds me of…” This talk was probably about 4 am - which is when the fishermen got up and since we were the only non-fisherman within a few km radius they didn’t see the need to keep quiet (and no blame on our end - majority rules).
By 5 a.m. or so (and yes to my Final Four, AM) we had our Keene’s on and headed to the tide pools! My very first sighting was Hemigrapsus nudus - ha ha! (For those who may not know, that is the species I kept at UP and have been studying for the past seven years). Little fella, with two regenerated legs. Onward we went to mid-tidal zone - there was just so much more of everything. And as Ernie noted right away, everything moves so much faster. There was one rock we flipped that revealed half a dozen brittle stars (huge beasties - the size of a babies head), a few sea cucumbers, two flatworms, and 3-4 juvenile sunflower stars. In Oregon, 1) there would not have been that many, and 2) they would have just hung there motionless. These guys and gals got a move on! Even the sunflower stars were speedy. No nudibranchs, but we found every major phylum and class that one can expect. Exception being chondrichthyes which only Ernie got to see - he went swimming while I blogged last night and he had a bat ray pay him a visit. Lucky duck! If you remember that tid-bit months from now, please ask him to do his impersonation of the ray revealing itself to him. It is quite humorous.
By 8 am it was hot and humid enough to cause anger, so we packed up as quickly as possible to begin our ~200 km trip to Guerro Negro on the Pacific side. Upon arrival we stopped at an internet cafe for a real lunch and to do some homework about where we might be able to do some camping (as it’s less tourista between here and La Paz). Found a great spot just 25-30 km away but then found the road to take us there… no bueno. It was thick sand and gravel, which with our heavy bikes for that distance - no gracias! I sure hope the roads in mainland Mexico don’t have so much sand… the gravel we can do - as long as it isn’t too far we can go slow and get there. But the sand is too difficult and unsafe for us and our bikes. So back to the internet cafe we went, as they had a “campground” out back of the restaurant (Mario’s Camping). The owner is very nice, and I think rather curious about why we are here, and then of course why we were here twice. I’m sure his place fills up during whale watching season (that is the big tourist attraction around this area - Jan to March), but for today and tonight it is just us gringos and a lot of sun and wind in an empty lot. We created our own shade with our tarp, purchased some Tecates in town, and are ready for an evening of reading and listening to the wind. Just took a break to eat a fresh pineapple and our leftover lunches for dinner (I mentioned to the owner when we came in that we were hungry, so I’m hopeful that is the explanation for the mass amounts of food we were served - including alphabet soup… huh?). Even after two meals between the two of us, there was still too much carne asada, and most of you know how strongly I feel about never throwing away meat… There are three resident dogs on site and we tossed the carne to the largest female. Within about five minutes she came over and sat right next to our tent. :)
Not sure why or how it came to be, but all the paths/roads/off the highway places to drive around this place are made of scallops. Crushed scallops. On the edges of the property they are still whole scallops about 6-8” across. Was cool to think about until I thought of them all swimming. And there is a bizarre ground plant that looks dark red, almost maroon, from a distance but upon close inspection seems made of beads - small glass beads. Lovely. Toxic? Perhaps.
Saw our best grafiti yet today - “MAKE AMERICA MEXICO AGAIN”. (oh hi to Dad :)
While I was just in the shower Ernie became a fire god. Against all odds with the wind, he dug a perfect hole and made kindling fall from the sky. We still have some of that La Bufadora firewood, and it is burning como los diablos.
July 7
Crossed Baja for the third time today (still have two more crossings to go). Was mostly flat and straight with a few cacti, but there was a 15km or so of Hwy 1 that stunned us today. From “Volcanos Tres Virgines” east to where the Hwy hits the Sea of Cortez. We dropped into what felt like two valleys, heading towards the water with big sweeping turns. The geology was unlike most of what we have seen. Shout out to Kristin - we have so many questions for you! We blame everything on glaciers and exotic terrains but honestly don’t know what we are talking about. I wish we had a Kristin app on our iPad (that required no wifi) that we could ask about all the formations we are seeing.
We are stopped for the evening at Santa Rosalia, a town built up by the copper mining industry. There is no camping here (or at least no safe and obvious camping), and to keep the next few days at a reasonable number of kilometers were are at a hotel. It is very quaint. After arrival (ok, after cooling down after arrival - it was again around 100 degrees today), Ernie and I did a stroll through town. Adorable! Tiny tiendas and giant sounds. Lots of stares as the gringos are few and far between down here. AND! Best part of today: it has begun. And by “it” I mean the good food. It started today at a street venue. Tacos al Pastor. Cinnamon and chile. Twirling at the perfect tempo to get perfectly crispy around the open flame. I think my mouth was open the entire time I watched the young woman make our tortillas for us. Perfect little hand-sized scoop of maiz, pat - pat, press - press, heat - heat. She saw me watching and smiled (and which point I think I closed my mouth and smiled back, but I’m not sure). Fueled by taco magic, when we got back to the hotel Ernie did a few things on the bike while I did some laundry (which is now hanging on our Andy & Bax straps from one corner of the room to the other).
Some more good wildlife today. Need to start keeping a list of the species we are seeing. Got the stink eye from a male Harrier hawk as we drove by. Very intense looking animal. Very large, very puffy in the wind, and piercing forward facing eyes with a pointy beak. Oh - and while packing up this morning we got a visit from a very large scorpion - beautiful lime green color. If one were crazy enough to elongate it, it was probably 6” long. Despite the heat, I was all of a sudden ready to trade in my flip flops for my motorcycle boots.
“Ernie, what would you like to note about the last few days?”
“I’d like to mention the little man that goes around and waters plants with his five gallon bucket of water at Mario’s camp. He waters his tomato plants that are scattered around the property (although it’s so desolate to call it anything/”property”). And he would whistle while he did it"
What day is it? Ernie and I really can’t say. We know it’s July 6, but day of the week?!? We’ve narrowed it down to Wednesday or Thursday without actually sitting down and plotting out what day matched up with what date. We love having this problem.
So last night camping on the Sea of Cortez... Just after sunset the breeze stopped. Dead, still air at 90+ degrees with 90% + humidity. No bueno. No sleeping. Just sweating and being uncomfortable. When we chatted this morning about if and when we had experienced such discomfort from heat, my answer was the time I spent at a shack/dorm room in a marine station in Port Aransas, Texas and his answer was the time he spent in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. I had hoped neither of these two places would come up on this trip in the sense that “this reminds me of…” This talk was probably about 4 am - which is when the fishermen got up and since we were the only non-fisherman within a few km radius they didn’t see the need to keep quiet (and no blame on our end - majority rules).
By 5 a.m. or so (and yes to my Final Four, AM) we had our Keene’s on and headed to the tide pools! My very first sighting was Hemigrapsus nudus - ha ha! (For those who may not know, that is the species I kept at UP and have been studying for the past seven years). Little fella, with two regenerated legs. Onward we went to mid-tidal zone - there was just so much more of everything. And as Ernie noted right away, everything moves so much faster. There was one rock we flipped that revealed half a dozen brittle stars (huge beasties - the size of a babies head), a few sea cucumbers, two flatworms, and 3-4 juvenile sunflower stars. In Oregon, 1) there would not have been that many, and 2) they would have just hung there motionless. These guys and gals got a move on! Even the sunflower stars were speedy. No nudibranchs, but we found every major phylum and class that one can expect. Exception being chondrichthyes which only Ernie got to see - he went swimming while I blogged last night and he had a bat ray pay him a visit. Lucky duck! If you remember that tid-bit months from now, please ask him to do his impersonation of the ray revealing itself to him. It is quite humorous.
By 8 am it was hot and humid enough to cause anger, so we packed up as quickly as possible to begin our ~200 km trip to Guerro Negro on the Pacific side. Upon arrival we stopped at an internet cafe for a real lunch and to do some homework about where we might be able to do some camping (as it’s less tourista between here and La Paz). Found a great spot just 25-30 km away but then found the road to take us there… no bueno. It was thick sand and gravel, which with our heavy bikes for that distance - no gracias! I sure hope the roads in mainland Mexico don’t have so much sand… the gravel we can do - as long as it isn’t too far we can go slow and get there. But the sand is too difficult and unsafe for us and our bikes. So back to the internet cafe we went, as they had a “campground” out back of the restaurant (Mario’s Camping). The owner is very nice, and I think rather curious about why we are here, and then of course why we were here twice. I’m sure his place fills up during whale watching season (that is the big tourist attraction around this area - Jan to March), but for today and tonight it is just us gringos and a lot of sun and wind in an empty lot. We created our own shade with our tarp, purchased some Tecates in town, and are ready for an evening of reading and listening to the wind. Just took a break to eat a fresh pineapple and our leftover lunches for dinner (I mentioned to the owner when we came in that we were hungry, so I’m hopeful that is the explanation for the mass amounts of food we were served - including alphabet soup… huh?). Even after two meals between the two of us, there was still too much carne asada, and most of you know how strongly I feel about never throwing away meat… There are three resident dogs on site and we tossed the carne to the largest female. Within about five minutes she came over and sat right next to our tent. :)
Not sure why or how it came to be, but all the paths/roads/off the highway places to drive around this place are made of scallops. Crushed scallops. On the edges of the property they are still whole scallops about 6-8” across. Was cool to think about until I thought of them all swimming. And there is a bizarre ground plant that looks dark red, almost maroon, from a distance but upon close inspection seems made of beads - small glass beads. Lovely. Toxic? Perhaps.
Saw our best grafiti yet today - “MAKE AMERICA MEXICO AGAIN”. (oh hi to Dad :)
While I was just in the shower Ernie became a fire god. Against all odds with the wind, he dug a perfect hole and made kindling fall from the sky. We still have some of that La Bufadora firewood, and it is burning como los diablos.
July 7
Crossed Baja for the third time today (still have two more crossings to go). Was mostly flat and straight with a few cacti, but there was a 15km or so of Hwy 1 that stunned us today. From “Volcanos Tres Virgines” east to where the Hwy hits the Sea of Cortez. We dropped into what felt like two valleys, heading towards the water with big sweeping turns. The geology was unlike most of what we have seen. Shout out to Kristin - we have so many questions for you! We blame everything on glaciers and exotic terrains but honestly don’t know what we are talking about. I wish we had a Kristin app on our iPad (that required no wifi) that we could ask about all the formations we are seeing.
We are stopped for the evening at Santa Rosalia, a town built up by the copper mining industry. There is no camping here (or at least no safe and obvious camping), and to keep the next few days at a reasonable number of kilometers were are at a hotel. It is very quaint. After arrival (ok, after cooling down after arrival - it was again around 100 degrees today), Ernie and I did a stroll through town. Adorable! Tiny tiendas and giant sounds. Lots of stares as the gringos are few and far between down here. AND! Best part of today: it has begun. And by “it” I mean the good food. It started today at a street venue. Tacos al Pastor. Cinnamon and chile. Twirling at the perfect tempo to get perfectly crispy around the open flame. I think my mouth was open the entire time I watched the young woman make our tortillas for us. Perfect little hand-sized scoop of maiz, pat - pat, press - press, heat - heat. She saw me watching and smiled (and which point I think I closed my mouth and smiled back, but I’m not sure). Fueled by taco magic, when we got back to the hotel Ernie did a few things on the bike while I did some laundry (which is now hanging on our Andy & Bax straps from one corner of the room to the other).
Some more good wildlife today. Need to start keeping a list of the species we are seeing. Got the stink eye from a male Harrier hawk as we drove by. Very intense looking animal. Very large, very puffy in the wind, and piercing forward facing eyes with a pointy beak. Oh - and while packing up this morning we got a visit from a very large scorpion - beautiful lime green color. If one were crazy enough to elongate it, it was probably 6” long. Despite the heat, I was all of a sudden ready to trade in my flip flops for my motorcycle boots.
“Ernie, what would you like to note about the last few days?”
“I’d like to mention the little man that goes around and waters plants with his five gallon bucket of water at Mario’s camp. He waters his tomato plants that are scattered around the property (although it’s so desolate to call it anything/”property”). And he would whistle while he did it"