Down Mexico Way

Arriba! The Flaming Bike is Taking On Mexico! Please I must be brief as I’m now live- blogging from San Jose del Cabo, a busy playa-side town at the southern cape of Baja California.

After reassembling my mighty steed, NOVIO, in the airport parking lot, I right away broke the first and only rule I had for my Mexico bike tour, ie NO CYCLING AT NIGHT! Oh well. The shoulder was pretty wide until it turned to sand in my way into town.

My guidebook for Baja is a 1998 version Lonely Planet. Eight miles out, I pedaled into Pueblo la Playa, which fourteen years ago was a sleepy town offering beach camping. Today, it’s a palm tree lined roundabout kinda place and a quay for mega yachts. Still, a sandy track to the old town of La Playa remained. It ran past a marina full of pangas, to the water’s edge where pickup trucks blasted banda music.

Undeterred, or rather exhausted (I’d only slept an hour the night before), I pitched camp under starry violet skies and passed out, oblivious to nearby sounds of gun cracks and the sounds of beer cans crushed underfoot. Oh! I only mention this for every one who’s worried! Yes, I heard gun shots, but they sounded like the general merry making of a semi-rural town and not at all out of line of the rooster crows at 4am the next morning.

Protips: there’s a Specialized bike shop in town and the early morning roadies all rub carbon fiber time trial bikes. Naturally, I leaned on my aero bars and tried to keep pace, but my excuse for being dropped is that my bike weighs just under 90 lbs.

Also, Baja roads are SANDY! Before heading out of town, I’m working on cutting my front fender in half (clearances are too tight and it’s trapping sand and gravel). Next stop, La Ventana!