Gracias a la guapa y super simpatica Señorita Carla y al muy amable Señor Milchis, we’re crossing the sea of Cortes from La Paz to Mazatlan in a comfortable cabin onboard the Chihuahua Star of Baja Ferries (we’re working on getting a special discount-and bicycles travel free-for cyclists, stay tuned).
Chris is with us again, we met last night in La Paz for a few Pacificos and tacos (and some delicious ice cream watching the absurd “parade” of big loud cars cruising along the Malecon).
We stayed in Pension California: 250 Pesos for a room with 2 big comfy beds with a nice warm (not hot) shower, free wifi, cooking facilities. A very cosy small hotel very well located near the waterfront (and next door to the Hermanos Gonzalez Fish Tacos stand) and very interestingly (and weirdly) decorated.
There we met some cool people, like Ricky, the local poet who helps out in the Pension, or the french guy who played online poker all night long, the Spanish couple traveling around Mexico, or the swiss guys traveling also down south.
And we’re meeting lots of specially nice people along the way:
Therese and Kyler from Salt Lake City (thanks for the awesome breakfast), Olivia and Mark who own the lovely restaurant in Playa Buenventura (gracias por todo), Los Señores Luis y Beni de Tijuana (mucho gusto de conocerles y gracias por “el paseo”), Martin, Pete and Gary also riding their fully loaded bikes south (nice to meet you guys, tailwinds!), … and now I’m looking forward to arriving to Puerto Vallarta as soon as possible where we’ll meet up with Bryan’s brother John and his fiancee Jessica, buena gente.

I’ve just washed my Keen Commuter Sandals for the first time and they look and feel like new.

2 weeks riding down Baja California, 900 miles, pushing my bike through sand and rocky trails, walking among cacti, under water in the sea, heat and sweat, with or without socks, cold nights in the desert, walking around towns, cobble stones, warm nights by the campfire, just pushing the pedals, and my feet are so happy. 

I love it and so I keep going…

They belong to Faustino, the guard of what used to be a campsite. We´re free camping on the beach near Cielito Lindo. This is beautiful. And it feels so good to be back on the road.

We left Ensenada on El Dia de Los Muertos, and felt a bit sad to say goodbye to Delia, Jose and Canica, but it was great to finally keep going. The first day back on our bikes was hard and the hills made the 71km very difficult. That night we stayed with El Señor Pancho and his wife, a very nice couple who own a cheese store near San Vicente.

My legs felt better on Tuesday riding 61km to a campsite near Ejido Ruben Jaramillo. It was so hot when we got there, we jumped in the swimming pool straight away. Sometimes I forget it´s November.

We´re back along the coast now until El Rosario, just before the hills, the big ones, and the desert. And then we we´ll be on the east coast, the Sea of Cortez.
While I write this, the moon is coming out above the mountains; it´s big and yellow… preciosa. Paco and Lola have fallen asleep next to us, on the sand, and all I can hear is the waves.

Thanks to our Tour Dad and most valuable member of the True Wheel Society now we have our package with my shoes and some more stuff we needed and we can get back on the road.

About a month ago, for some unknown reason my feet started to hurt way too much, so after riding over 5 thousand miles on my Sidi’s, I realized I needed new cycling shoes. Luckily we got a sponsorship deal with Keen Footwear, so I ordered the Commuter sandals. Matt took care of the shipping and after paying the stupid import duties (I call it theft) and a very long delay in Tijuana, finally the shoes arrived yesterday.

We love it here in Ensenada, we really do. Delia makes us feel at home in La Casa del Ciclista. But we need to keep going: in almost 3 weeks, we’ve watched over 26 movies (Julio from the DVD shop is our best friend now), we’ve eaten all the donas, fish tacos, adobada and asada tacos, tortas, enchiladas, tamales, ice cream and birrias; we’ve been to La Bufadora (a very nice ride to a rather disappointing tourist trap: a tidewater blowhole in a rock); we’ve read all our books and done a lot of drawing; and we’ve seen the big grey whales.

We’ve had a lot of time to think and reconsider what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. This is it. This is our lives now. This is what we do for a living: we ride our bicycles, we keep going. Because we do.

Now the Santa Ana wind has calmed down and my feet are very happy.

Thank you Matt.

4 Ortlieb Roller panniers, 1 saddle bag and one handlebar bag.
1 coffee travel mug and 2 water bottles (plus 6 more, one in each pannier and 2 in my Pac Ultimate messenger bag, which goes on my rear rack)
Reload hip pouch
Lights
Lots of socks
3 pairs of underwear
Adidas Samba shoes
2 Dickies shorts
Jeans
Pearl Izumi (water resistant) shorts
2 padded cycling shorts
Swim shorts
Leg warmers
Rapha arm warmers
Endura (winter) tights
Sealskinz gloves and socks
A few cycling caps (House Of Pistard, LCEF, Campy, DeOro, …)
7 tshirts
2 shirts
Rapha stowaway jacket
Gore Tech waterproof jacket
3 cycling jerseys (Tserv, Freewheel, Trackstar)
Swobo long sleeve wool jersey
Half of my broken heart
Howies base layer
Devold base layer long sleeve wool jersey (thanks Grant!)
7 tubes, 1 spare tire
Pedal Revolution hoodie
Rin Project wool jersey
Canon G7 camera
Iphone
Vango Cooking pots kit
Military cutlery/knife/corkscrew kit
MSR whisperlite internatinale multifuel stove
REI towel
REI sleeping pad
Big Agnes Lost Ranger sleeping bag
Big Agnes Seedhouse 1 person tent
1 (big) map of the world
1 tarp
Lots of dreams
Brake/shifter cable/housing set
Spare chain
One bag with lots of bolts and nuts
Another bag with zip ties
Extra SPD cleats for my Sidi’s
Toilet paper
More maps
Small shovel
Spokes
Water filter/purifier pump
Some tools: Topeak Alien multitool, Parks spoke tool, Parks chainbreaker, chain whip, Pedros cone wrench, Swiss Army knife, puncture repair kits, tire repair kit, pliers/cutter, adjustable wrench, electrical tape, shoe goo, …
Boneshaker (a bicycle almannac BA 42-300)
Adventure Cycling Handbook
Polar Bear pipe
Food (beans, rice, pasta, nutella, …)
Moleskin(grows back)
External hard disk
Things I forget
Postcards
Mini U-lock and Kryptonite cable

Great ride with Tyler and Ryan, our awesome Craigslist rideshare hosts. Tyler provided a spacious pickup truck for our too numerous panniers and bags (Need to do some baggage editing.) Thanks for driving, guys.

Staying at Ashira and company’s hospitable home here in Los Angeles. Camping out on their back patio. Looking forward to starry LA skies tonight.

Dare to dream.

Bryan

Got a dollar or five (or more?) that you’d be interested in donating to our South American exploration? We sure could use it. Just takes a second. Every little bit will help us by food, bike parts, and keep us connected on the interwebs.

Spread the word! Email your friends with a link to the blog. If everybody gave a little we could do a lot. And we promise to donate to your bicycle tour in the future. It’s only fair.

We’re finishing preparations here in San Francisco and plan on departing for Los Angeles soon for the official launch. Los Angeles is where we ended our cross country ride from New York. So it seemed fitting that we would start our next ride from there. We’ll keep you posted!

Thanks in advance!
Bryan and Jo