Waking up the city looks complete different from the night prior. The street which were full of drunks and thumping club music are now cleanup of an busy with the hustle of tourists and people daily lives.
Out our hotel window
We head out to explore Ensenada a bit, get some good Mexican breakfast and strong coffee.
Largest Flag in Mexico
South of Ensenada the traffic dramatically trails off and the scenery returns to arid desert
Eventually we stumble across the Pacific Ocean for the first time on this trip – stunning amount of totally empty beach front.
The road was in great condition, but locals often hug the inside of a blind corner, possible to ensure their truck will make the turn, unfortunately that means that going around a corner you may have a transport truck in the oncomming lane. After a close call that sent me into the ditch I just took every corner assuming there as something coming into my lane and it was fine. Motorbikes have enough space and agility to hug the shoulder, had I been in a car I’m not sure what I would have done.
Many of the corners had memorials for truck drivers that had taken the corner too fast and plunged off the cliffs that dropped off the soft shoulders. Looking over the edge you could see all sorts of trucks, cars and produce crashed and burnt out over the other side. Authorities dont bother to pull them out, but leave them to rust away in the sun. Interesting to see many of the cars being old Volkswagen Beetles which were still common in Mexico. Lots of produce littered the corners which indicated how fast trucks were taking the turns to have produce sloshing out the top.
For lunch we stopped at a little roadside Fish Taco stand that litter the Baja highways. The food was amazing and we were told to pay after eating. Not thinking after we ate we walked over to our bikes and started packing up to leave. Just before we pulled out a guy ran over and politely asked if we had paid. He said the lady who runs the fish taco stand said we didn’t pay yet, and she was correct, we forgot. Embarrassed and glad we were stopped, we walked back over to pay. The bill for 4 tacos and 2 drinks was around $5. We gave her $10 for almost ditching on the bill and although she didn’t speak English was very appreciative.
Fish Tacos
Our destination was Guerro Negro a hook shaped peninsula on the Pacific coast that is the winter breeding grounds for whales. We arrived just as the sun was going down and the town was dead and appeared a bit sketchy. I slow down to around 20 looking for a motel and a pack of dogs runs out on the street after me. I stop not wanting to run them over and one takes a nip at my leg. I’m wearing high motorcross boots so it doesn’t hurt but startles me into getting going again. The dogs chase me nipping at my wheels. At this point I figure f**k it, if one gets in front of me I’m just going over it, better than then be mauled.
Abandoned Pemex Station
Escaping the dogs I just wanted to find a place and lay my head down. The fist motel was a dive and wanted a lot for Mexican standards. Its difficult to walk into a motel as a gringo and not get pegged as a pigeon willing to pay whatever. On principle we hop to a few places playing the prices off each other until we get what we perceive as acceptable but likely double the locals rate.
The place was one of those where you sleep in your clothes on top of the sheets and shower in your sandles – welcome to rural Mexico.