(I haven’t had internet access for the last few days, so I wrote these posts offline and am uploading them now. The previous post is also new)
I took the ferry from Guaymas to Baja California (Santa Rosalia, to be exact) last night. It was supposed to be a 9 hour voyage, but due to bad winds or something it ended up taking a total of 13 hours. I spent a full night on the ferry and finally disembarked at 9 AM this morning. It was a pretty interesting ride. As far as I can tell, there were only about 6 civilians (including myself) aboard – the rest of the passengers were all military. The parking bay of the ferry contained my motorcycle, three humvees and a large truck carrying some kind of military boat. I had a fun time trying to talk with some of the military guys! Most of the soldiers fell asleep quickly, and I finally settled in for some rest at around 11:30 PM.
Parked on the ferry with the only other vehicles.
I woke up at around 5 AM extremely sick to my stomach. I had taken an anti-nausea pill before going to bed, but apparently it’s effects hadn’t persisted throughout the entire night. I threw up a couple times before falling asleep on the top deck in the warm light of the rising sun. It sounds bad, but it really wasn’t – I only felt sick for an hour or so. However, I am definitely going to stock up on dramamine before taking the ferry from La Paz back to the mainland..
See, it's not so bad. Taken in the morning just before arriving at Santa Rosalia.
So we arrived in Santa Rosalia at around 9 AM. The “customs” was a joke – I accidentally rode right past the office, which was easy to do since the majority of the passengers were military and did not need to go through customs. I was actually already on the road when an customs officer motioned me to come back.
They had a dog sniff my bike, and then I was asked to go into the customs office with my identification. However, the computers in the office were down, so they didn’t even look at my passport! Gotta love Mexico!
After leaving Santa Rosalia, I quickly realized that La Paz (my destination) was much farther than I thought (400 KM). I had planned to have a leisurely ride, but in order to make it to La Paz before dark, I pretty much had to book it. Still, I enjoyed the ride immensely. The Baja countryside is just gorgeous, and the roads are twisty and reasonably well maintained.
Taken on MX-1 in Baja California.
I arrived at La Paz a little bit after dusk, which was unfortunate. I did not want to ride at night, but I had misjudged the time it would talk to get down here, and there were no hotels for the last ~200 KM! What’s done is done, but I will definitely keep better track of time in the future.
Yeah, it's alright here.
I’m now in La Paz, and I’m staying in an incredibly cute little hotel. It’s very dark now so I can’t really take any pictures, but I’ll get some tomorrow.
OK – I’m going out to explore my new city!
