Life has changed since the leaving the USA and entering Mexico. Supermarkets are a thing of the past and towns can be few and far between. The land is, for the most part, barren and unpopulated. All the river beds are dried up (I have yet to see flowing water), lots of cacti (and even places where cacti won’t dare grow), and dry fine dirt everywhere. The roads range from good to bad. Most of the roads are dirt, and only the main road (the one we’re travelling on) is paved (though sometimes even it reverts to dirt or bumpy gravel). Baja California is definitely a place where you can escape from it all, but you need to be tough or a little crazy to survive Baja. Here’s a day in our lives riding down Baja California.
***
August 8th, 2011 – Started about 15km before Punta Prieta
5:10am – Kevin’s alarm goes off.
5:17am – Kevin starts to pack up.
5:26am – Trevor starts to pack up.
5:35am – Kevin gets out of his tent, first checking his shoes for creepy crawlies.
5:41am – Trevor gets out of his tent, duct tapes his ankles (to keep them from getting scrapped by the dirt that’s accumulated in his socks), and checks his shoes for creepy crawlies before putting them on.
5:51am – Trevor finishes packing up camp and takes a leak.
5:53am – Kevin finishes packing up camp.
5:54am – Both of us take the tarp off the bikes and fold it up.
5:56am – We eat the remainder of a 1/5 full bag of some left over Coco Puffs. Kevin’s a messy eater and drops some on the ground which Trevor picks up and eats.
5:59am – We finish eating, flip the bikes over and load them up.
6:05am – Trevor finishes packing, drinks the remaining third of a 1L lemon Gatorade he found on the side of the road the night before. It’s still good!
6:10am – Trevor turns on the GPS and applies some lip balm.
6:12am – Kevin finishes loading his bike.
6:13am – We head off to the road through all the cacti.
6:16am – We make it out, Kevin cleans the sand out of his shoes, and Trevor checks his socks for cacti needles, finding none.
6:18am – Kevin drinks some water.
6:19am (0.00km) – We start cycling.
6:45am (10:35km) – Speed bumps knock the 4L jug of water he’s carrying off his rack. He curses as he repositions the jug.
6:47am – We walk our bikes over to the mini-mart that’s nearby.
6:50am – Kevin talks with the mini-mart owner (in Spanish) about the distance to the next town. He says the next town is Villa Jesus Maria and it’s 50km down the road (currently we are in Punta Prieta.
6:52am – Trevor talks to another local (who knows English). He just asks where we’re headed and how long we’ve been travelling.
6:53am – Trevor throws some garbage out.
6:54am – Kevin comes back with 4 bananas that cost 11 pesos.
6:55am – We eat 2 bananas eat (calories ???). Kevin mentions that the shop owner he just chatted with was nice and that I should mention that in this “A Day in the Life” post.
7:00am – We start cycling again.
7:07am (12.91km) – Kevin stops to adjust his rear bags. They are falling to the right on account of the 4L jug of water.
7:08am – We start cycling again.
7:56am (26.79km) – We stop to eat some Gameasa Marias Crackers (896 calories total). Kevin takes a leak on the side of the road.
8:09am – Both of us take a big drink of water.
8:13am – We start cycling again.
9:05am (42.50km) – Trevor jumps off his bike to grab a 1/3 full Fanta grape drink he’s spied on the side of the road. He packs it away for later.
9:08am (43.18km) – Trevor catches up to Kevin who’s stopped to adjust his rear bags which are slipping again due to the 4L jug of water. Kevin takes a drink of water from another 2L jug of water he’s been carrying and uses it to replenish his empty water bottles. Trevor drinks the remainder of the 2L jug. A Californian couple stops to ask if we’re okay and need anything. We tell them we’re fine and they drive on.
9:12am – We start cycling again.
9:22am (46.83km) – Kevin stops to take a picture of some roadkill (he thinks it’s a puma). Trevor thinks it’s as interesting as a housecat.
9:24am – We start cycling again.
9:33am (49.04km) – We stop in Rosirito (a town not on the map, so it’s a nice surprise). Trevor throws away some garbage and checks the trashcan for food—nada. Kevin goes to buy some food from the mini-mart. He enters one shop but finds that it’s actually the mechanic’s shop and is directed next door.
9:42am – Kevin comes out with 33 pesos worth of food:
- 1L Lala milk (13 pesos) – 460 calories total
- A carton of 18 Daddy Ray’s fig bars (20 pesos) – 1620 calories total
We sit on some chairs and eat it all. Kevin drinks ¾ of the milk while Trevor drinks the remaining ¼ (Trevor still has plenty of yogurt drinks from his find in the trashcan days earlier).
9:58am – We finish eating and throw the garbage away.
10:01am – Kevin applies some sunscreen.
10:05am – We go look at a map on a nearby billboard.
10:09am – We start cycling again.
10:15am (50.45km) – Kevin stops to repack the bags on his rack. The bumpy road has knocked loose the 4L water jug once again. Trevor waits and scans the roadside for food—nada.
10:21am – We start cycling again.
10:51am (60.60km) – Trevor stop to pick up two half full 600ml Coke bottles and packs them away for later.
10:58am (62.60km) – Kevin waits for Trevor who’s already caught up. Since we’ve stopped Trevor runs back to pick up 600ml lemon Fanta that’s half full. He packs it away for later.
11:01am – Kevin has some water.
11:03am – We start cycling again.
11:08am (64.26km) – Trevor stops to pick up yet another 600ml Coke bottle that’s 1/5 full.
11:16am (66.40km) – We stop at a military checkpoint. The officer looks in Kevin’s left from bag and glances over Trevor’s bike, tapping the many bottles with his pointy stick.
11:18am – We are waved through. We start cycling again.
11:25am (67.90km) – We stop at the top of a hill, out of site of the checkpoint, so Trevor can make notes for this “A Day in the Life” post. Kevin takes a drink of water and adjusts the 4L jug of water that’s slipping again (cursing while he does so).
11:29am – We start cycling again.
11:34am (69.54am) – Kevin stops to adjust his rear bags which are again slipping due to 4L jug of water he’s lugging. This time he beats the bags up while he throws curses at them. It’s been a bumpy road since the checkpoint.
11:36am – Trevor drinks his lemon drink which may have actually been an orange drink—it was good. Kevin curses at his bags some more. Trevor laughs.
11:42am – Trevor goes to retrieve the empty 2L water bottle that Kevin was carrying and blew across the road.
11:43am – We start cycling again.
11:50am (??km) – Kevin waves as a Mexican family drives by and takes a photo of him.
11:54am (??km) – The bumpy gravel road knocks the still full 4L water jug off Kevin’s bike. He stops, curses, and repacks. Trevor waits.
11:59am – Kevin takes a drink of water.
12:00pm – We start cycling again.
12:09pm (??km) – Trevor catches up to Kevin who’s stopped in the middle of the dusty, bumpy gravel road surrounded by a large wet patch. Kevin asks, “Did you see the show?” Trevor responds, “What show?” It turns out the completely full 4L jug of water popped complexly off and fell to the ground spilling all over the road. In disgust Kevin picked up the jug and what water remained within, and smashed it on the crappy road in disgust. The water jug is now split open, void of all its contents which have now formed the large wet patch on the road. Kevin yells, “I can’t believe I lugged this piece of shit jug around for nothing.” We have a good laugh. Kevin straps the busted jug to his bike.
12:16pm – We start cycling again as $1.10 US evaporates into the air.
1:08pm (92.11km) – We stop in Villa Jesus Maria for something to eat. Kevin looks around.
1:10pm – Kevin goes to the gas station and takes a leak.
1:13pm – Kevin returns and Trevor goes to the gas station to take a leak.
1:15pm – Trevor returns to see Kevin dancing to “The Bird is the Word” which is playing on the radio of a guy with a burrito stand nearby—memories of Family Guy. Kevin goes into the store to get food.
1:22pm – Kevin emerges with nothing and says he’s going to get some burritos from the guy with the radio. He’ll get drinks from the store later (to keep them as cold as possible). He gets two burritos for 30 pesos. He reenters the mini-mart to get the drinks.
1:25pm – He comes out with two Fanta drinks each 12 pesos. One is a strawberry Fanta for Trevor and the other is an orange for himself. He also brings out a 6 pack of Donita Donuts. We start eating:
- Strawberry Fanta (104 calories)
- Orange Fanta (96 calories)
- Donita Donuts (7296 calories total)
1:40pm – We finish eating and just sit, relax and listen to the 50’s hits playing on the radio.
1:53pm – We start cycling again.
3:16pm (124.4km) – We stop to take a photo of Kevin under the Baja California Sur sign (we’ve just crossed state lines from the state of Baja California to the state of Baja California Sur).
3:18pm (124.7km) – We stop at the state line checkpoint.
3:20pm – We are waved through. It looks like we didn’t need to stop.
3:35pm (129.9km) – We stop in Guerrero Negro at a market. Kevin goes shopping.
3:52pm – Kevin comes out with 107.80 pesos worth of food:
- 1L apple juice for Kevin (448 calories)
- 1L pineapple juice for Trevor (432 calories)
- 1 banana each (?? calories)
- Lemon cream cookies (1280 calories total)
- A carton of 16 fig bars
- Tortillas ingredients for later: tortilla bread (22 slices), 3 packs of tomato paste, an onion, and 3 tomatoes.
Kevin is pissed he paid 10 pesos more for the juices than he though they were. The price tag was smudged and he didn’t see the 1. We eat the cookies and bananas, and drink the juice. The rest is saved for later.
4:11pm – We finish eating. Kevin goes to the throw away the garbage and buy some water.
4:14pm – Trevor fixes his front bag (the button popped off).
4:16pm – Trevor picks up a ¼ full 600ml Sprite bottle he’d been eying.
4:17pm – Kevin comes out with a 4L jug of water and peanuts. Kevin fills up the water bottles and drinks from the 4L jug. Trevor tops his water bottles up too and drinks some of the water. Kevin drinks what remains and tosses the jug in the trash.
4:21pm – We eat the peanuts which are coated with some red sweet stuff (good!).
4:28pm – Kevin packs up the remaining food.
4:31pm – We start cycling again.
5:36pm (162.6km) – We haul our bikes through the sand of the road to find a camping spot.
5:41pm (167.7km) – We park ourselves behind a bush and unload our bikes. Still exposed to the road we choose not to setup our tents yet as we don’t want to attract attention.
5:50pm – Trevor lays out the solar panel.
5:55pm – We sit on the tarp and wait for it to get dark. Kevin looks at the map.
5:57pm –Trevor drinks one of the Cokes he found earlier finding it to be a little flat but still okay.
5:58pm – We wait.
7:04pm – Kevin goes to see if there’s a better camping spot further from the roadside. There isn’t and Kevin takes a leak.
7:06pm – Trevor gets the hand sanitizer and Kevin starts preparing tortillas for dinner using the tomato paste, tomatoes, onion, tortilla bread and some garlic (bought several days earlier). We each get 5 ½ tortillas.
8:00pm – We finish eating and watch some vehicles on the side of the road near our camping spot. The vehicles have flashing lights. One looks like a police truck. They are moving slowly along the frontage road (are they looking for us?). We wait motionless for them to pass.
8:07pm – They eventually pass. It looks like the (police?) truck was hauling something that wasn’t securely attached. It was followed by another car with amber lights that would trail at a distance and rush to catch up once the load fell off.
8:10pm – Trevor takes down the solar panel and then brings out the cookies for desert. Kevin starts setting up his tent. Trevor also starts setting up his tent. The tail wind that was helping us go 30+km/h shortly before is now giving us a headache trying to setup our tents. It doesn’t help matters that the sun has gone down completely and all we have is the moonlight to see by. Kevin throws curses at the wind (as if it’ll listen) as it blows his tent every which way. Finally we both get our tent shells up and begin throwing our bags inside to weight them down. Kevin gets his weighted down and then gets some of Trevor’s bags so he can throw them in his tent. After throwing in the first bag Trevor notices something crawling around in his tent. In the moonlight he can’t quite make out what it is, but it is definitely crawling and it looks to be the size of two thumbs put together. He starts freaking out as it looks and crawls just like a spider (Trevor hates spiders, especially when they are in his tent). He gets Kevin to get a light. With the light in hand Trevor takes a look inside. Luckily it isn’t a spider, rather it’s a large black beetle (those Trevor can tolerate). Kevin gets the garbage bag so Trevor can coax it out. After several minutes of the runaround the beetle is final kicked out of the tent.
8:41pm – We eat 5 cookies each and save the rest for tomorrow morning.
8:43pm – Trevor pulls out the toilet paper so Kevin can go to the washroom.
8:44pm – Trevor goes to take a leak.
8:49pm – Kevin returns and we both floss and brush our teeth.
9:00pm – Both of us are finally in our tents unpacking and preparing our sleeping quarters.
9:05pm – Kevin finishes and sets off to sleep.
9:10pm – Trevor finishes and opens laptop to charge the GPS and write this A Day in the Life post.
10:22pm – Trevor shuts down laptop and goes to sleep.
***
That’s pretty much an average day (some are tougher, like yesterday was; and some are easier, like hopefully tomorrow will be).
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