I’m here at Casa del Beau on the beach in Chacala in the Mexican state of Nayarit. There’s sand everywhere and the insects bit up my legs and I’m doing as best as I can not to scratch at them. The silver lining was the sunset. I was so intent on catching the sun as it went over the horizon that I didn’t look up at the clouds for a couple of minutes later and saw probably the most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen.

I went and talked to some eco-folk from Portland, here on a week-long vacation. I talked to some Canadians and a Londoner by way of Michigan. The Canadians traveled here in an RV from Arizona and the Londoner owns a house on the hill here. The Canadians brought along a cute dog named Amigo who likes to travel in RV draped around the woman’s neck. He jumped up on my lap. I wonder how big of a problem fleas are down here with all of the street dogs.

Last night I stayed at the Villa Varadero just North of Puerto Vallarta in Nuevo Vallarta. I took too long getting to Puerto Vallarta and it got dark, hence the hotel instead of the beach. I feel like I should really get rid of some gear. The guitar is fun but I’m not playing it as much as I should to really warrant having it here and the extra weight it presents. Ditto for the solar panel, which I’ve used once and then only to test it out. I guess it might have made sense in Africa.

Webster inspired me to live cheap so I bought some rice and some noodles and I’ve been cooking that on the stove lately. I cooked chicken noodle soup in my hotel room last night and again at camp a couple of hours ago. Vibeke says I should share the story I told her with you all; I told her I’ve reached a new height as a cook by managing to burn chicken noodle soup. The stove I have burns very hot which necessitates more stirring. I stopped for a minute and burned some of the noodles. It was still good, though.

Tonight the waves really are soothing because I’m surrounded by Mexican families camping out under the ramadas on the beach. I paid $7 for the privilege of the shade and use of their bucket-flush toilets.

The drive down to Puerto Vallarta and back up consists of long stretches of being stuck behind a semi or bus and then a leapfrog dance as everyone passes it and each other in a mad dash to get ahead as soon as a straight stretch of road that’s long enough presents itself. This is all repeated once everyone catches up to the next slow vehicle.

In towns there are topes, speedbumps in every shape, height, and multiple. There are some signs for topes that don’t exist, and some topes without signs, in a kind of conservation of nonsense. The only ones I despise are the rows of 5” metal domes that case my bike to slide a few inches as I go over them. It’s pretty disconcerting.

I miss everyone back home. In a lot of ways my whole life I’ve always kind of played the role of observer, but this is taking it to new heights. I seize on the opportunity to talk to the gringos I meet just to be able to talk in English for a bit.

My new favorite store is the ubiquitous Oxxo. They’ve got rice and noodles, Coke, water, sweets, and Golden Delicious apples from Washington, and they’re abierto 24 horas. I surreptitiously took a picture of the Coke display featuring writing of different languages with slogans such as “Mexico y Korea”. I’m not quite sure what the campaign is about.

The next day: I woke up got out of the tent and saw a gigantic spider on the ground. It broke the spider peace treaty by running into my tent and climbing up onto the ceiling so I had to dispatch it. It was slightly terrifying in size.

I packed up and coaxed the bike up to firmer ground which left me sweating. It was a hot ride behind many slow trucks to get to the cuota (toll) road to Guadalajara. The first toll was 30 pesos ($3) but after a while I decided to try the libre (non-toll) road. I think it was more rewarding in terms of sights but it was slow going behind all the trucks. There are agave fields from beginning to end all the way to Guadalajara. The libre road passes through the city of Tequila, replete with liquor stores, many with the standard licores y vinos sign. The cuota I took down to Puero Vallarta was ridiculously expensive. One small stage was $16 for my bike!

Coming into Guadalajara I made it quite some way before I was stymied by a 5-way roundabout. It took three tries but I finally made it to the right exit without being run over by traffic. After that I meandered while looking for hotels and the historic district and someone dumped water on me when I drove under and underpass. The joke’s on them though because it felt great to have a small respite from the heat.

I burnt the top of my hands the other day by riding without gloves on for a few hours. I didn’t even think about it because I hadn’t got burned anywhere else yet. My neck is a little red now and so are my legs from the beach but my hands faired the worst.

I left the hotel for dinner a while ago and the streets were madness, everyone was honking and screaming. Everyone was wearing the local Chivas team jersey, they won their match today 3-2 and everyone is very excited about it.

The one other picture I should explain below is the power plug—it shows the use of my APC multi-country power adapter to mimic the functionality of the 3-prong to 2-prong adapters we use in the US in older houses without ground holes. Definitely glad I brought it.

I’m thinking of making a photo book with Blurb with profits to benefit the charities I’m raising money for. Does anyone know if there are any better options than Blurb? They seem pretty top of the heap to me.

A small panorama from the smaller Canon. Exposures were way off and so were the angles, but I cropped it so you can’t tell. Click to enlarge.

Got on the ferry without incident. Met a guy named Webster who speaks much better Spanish than I and helped me talk to one of the dockworkers. Interestingly enough, no one ever asked to see my tourist card, just my passport and vehicle papers.

The bike is tied down below and the seas are pretty calm so I don’t think anything will happen to it. I should have put it up on the center stand before they tied it down but everyone was in a hurry to get going. We made a couple of big turns that made me worry about how it was holding up but I think the worst that will happen is that it falls over and I have to pick it up. Facil (easy).

I’m looking forward to Mazatlan, I looked at pictures online and it looks pretty beautiful. My plan is to spend the night there and then head down the coast on the 150 to Purteo Vallarta and then East to Guadalajara and on to Mexico City. It might be interesting to see Lake Chapala, which looks like it’s about 50 miles wide on my map.

The ferry is interesting. It’s apparently a Danish boat from the 70s. There’s a discoteca and two restaurants and the level I’m on has salon seating arranged like an airplane (though with far more leg room). There aren’t many people on the boat and I’ve got probably 60 empty seats around me before there’s another person. There’s a TV that’s playing a movie. I’m looking forward to the sunset, I took some pictures earlier and will take some more of the sunset when it happens.

I’m wearing my glasses today because my left eye was irritated again. It could be the dust, there’s lots of wind in La Paz and many of the streets I rode on weren’t paved.

I finally finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It had a lot to say about quality and what we should strive for in our daily lives and it was a very interesting read. I took pictures of the pages I bookmarked on the bottom and will type up the quotes from them later. I gave the book to Phil, Joe’s uncle.

I also finally read Death of an Innocent, the magazine article that later inspired a book and the movie Into the Wild. I’ve been carrying it around with me for more than three months and finally had time on the ferry to sit and read it all. It’s a similar telling to the movie but it was interesting to think about it again.

Later: The sunset was great, very beautiful. I took some pictures and then stood there for a while, thinking deeply about why I am where I am. It seems like the reasons change as I go on.

On the TV now they’ve got Shrek playing in Spanish; before that they had Spiderman. Shrek’s voice is pretty good. I’m going to brush my teeth and then try to get to sleep in this chair.

Later: I slept but didn’t feel rested when I got up this morning around 7am. The GPS maintained a signal through most of the trip so it should be interesting to see our actual route vs. the nice straight route on the ferry map. I brushed my teeth and then watched a Disney movie about owls twice. I talked to Webster again before we went to the lower deck and he asked if I wanted to follow him to Hotel Belmar where he and his girlfriend were going to stay. I said sure and he went down to his car. I got down to my bike and everything was fine, one of the crew took the straps off for me and I got to leave ahead of most people; they were stuck behind semi trailers. Webster must have gotten off before me because he never pulled out of the boat after the semis were unloaded. I took off, took some pictures along the way, and eventually found the beach. Up ahead was Hotel Belmar, and as I passed I saw Webster and his girlfriend eating at the restaurant out front; they waved. I pulled around to park in the hotel parking but no one would open the gate. I finally got my bike inside after checking in (cheap!) and then went walking around Mazatlan in Centro Historico, the historic district.

There’s a thriving stencil graffiti movement in the city and I took some pictures of that as well as some architecture that interested me. In a while I’ll head over to the Internet cafe and upload this and the pictures and check in with the rest of the world.

Later: At the Internet cafe now, about to upload pictures. The Spongebob stencil is in opposition to telebasura, a derogatory term for trashy TV. Keir called Mazatlan “Mexico Disney” and I think it’s pretty accurate. Very touristy. A parade just started outside, judging from the music… I’m going to wrap this up and find out what’s going on.

Heading down to the ferry to Mazatlan in a few minutes. It takes about 15 hours to cross so I’ll spend the night on the ferry and then tomorrow night in Mazatlan. Possible pictures update tomorrow as well.

I passed a flipped semi truck (tracto?) in a mountain pass yesterday, it was laying nearly upside down in a ditch with the load pouring out of the broken wall of the trailer. I guess those passes are pretty dangerous for trucks. I wanted to take a picture but I think I’d feel guilty… I still lack the journalistic edge there.

I’m at a Sky Wireless store on one of their computers. 7 pesos for 15 minutes of time, not a bad deal. I’m in Del Cabo San Jose. I drove down past Todos Santos and Cabo San Lucas to get here. I met up with Mike and Chuck from the other day for lunch. I had just stopped to eat at Shut Up Frank’s when they both pulled up. They ate across the street and I went over there after I was done eating. Chuck gave me his Mexican Spanish guide book after I told him I had accidentally bought one for Spain, which I greatly appreciated. I won’t have to guess at some of the pronunciations now. They both seem like great guys out for an adventure.

I’m going to camp at the beach tonight near town where I saw some RVs parked. I’ll have time to finish up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which has been an interesting read so far. It’s getting more exciting towards the end. Pictures coming tomorrow…

Update: I got out to the beach, drove through deep sand, got stuck, walked my bike through some more deep parts while feathering the clutch and throttle and pushing alongside it, and then realized that I left my tent and sleeping bag in La Paz so it wouldn’t get stolen. My original plan was to go to a hotel in Cabo but it didn’t impress me enough so I figured I’d camp. Oops. I did stop by the Hilton to see how much rooms are there, if you’re curious they’re $349.00. I talked to one of the valets, he asked if he could valet my bike for me. He’s got a Honda CBR 600 and we talked about bikes for a minute before I headed back to Cabo and the cheaper Best Western here that he recommended.

Going to go check out Cabo Wabo though, so at least there’s a silver lining….

I forgot to write about how the electrical problem I encountered the other day is fixed now. I looked at the fuse for the gauge unit and it was burnt out. I was going to go look for one at the auto store in town but the BMW toolkit had an extra of each so it was an easy fix. The heated vest must have a short in it, though. I will probably end up mailing it back to Aerostich.

I met a man named Bill Conner at the Hotel Oasis, he asked about my bike and told me he raced the Baja 1000 in 1968. He still races vintage motorcycles and rides with his son on dirt trails around the Northwest. I also met two BMW riders, Mike and Chuck, who I talked to for a while at a Pemex in Cuidad Insurgentes. They were on an 1150 GS and a 1200 GS and heading to Cabo. They were taking a sprint from Seattle to Cabo and back. You can see them in the picture below; Chuck is in the hi-viz Aerostich two piece. Chuck also told me that the Paris-Dakar race will be running through South America this year…

I passed a couple on a tandem bicycle who waved, based on their jerseys I think they were Swedish. Soon after that I overtook a truck pulling a trailer full of junk (yonke) that was all balanced precariously and looked like it was about to fall off. I was overtaken several times on blind corners by drivers who seemed interested in testing the limits of impatience. In opposition to these are the thoughtful drivers who flash their brights or hazards to let you know of upcoming cows (ganado).

The bird in the pictures from the other day is a black vulture. Joe’s uncle Phil explained this to me as he listed the many birds that visit the garden here in La Paz. It’s built around a central courtyard with a flower and cactus garden. There’s a large palapa, which is a palm frond-roofed structure, and lots of bougainvilleas. Phil made excellent quesadillas and I stayed up late organizing pictures on the laptop. Today we went to Pichilingue to see the ferry terminal and have a bit of a tour of the area. Tomorrow I plan on doing half of the loop to Cabo San Lucas and staying near there for a night before returning here the next day and staying for another night. The day after that I’ll catch the ferry to Mazatlan, which should cost less than $100 total.

The riding in Baja has been nice, there are lots of mountains to drive through which provide lots of variation and curves. Along many flat portions near the road you can see litter, there are many signs imploring people not to throw their trash on the road.

The morning I left the Hotel Oasis I thought I was late due to the time zone change to Mountain time but Mexico changes their daylight savings time at a different date so I was fine. I ate at the hotel restaurant and it was there that I realized what a “resort” hotel it was. I had an hamburguesa con queso on the advice of the waiter. You can see my room in the pictures below.

I asked Phil about the rebar showing on the houses that were being lived in and about the abandoned structures I’d seen. He told me that he had heard that the rebar was an attempt to get out of paying taxes on a completed structure and that the abandoned structures might be due to individuals just saving up more money to complete them.

I had every dog in Loreto chase after me today as I drove through the residential areas looking for the beach and hotel district. I'm staying at the Hotel Oasis, which is clean and overpriced but offers wireless Internet. I almost stayed in one of the beach bungalows you can see in the pictures below but I didn't have any food. On the way down to that beach I had to go down a sandy hill and the bike started to lose control near the bottom. I had my feet out and kicked to stay upright; I didn't think it was going to work. That was the other reason I didn't stay there, I didn't want to go up that hill first thing in the morning.

I didn't wake up very early this morning but I still made it the full distance to Loreto before dark. I saw lots of cows grazing near the road but none actually on it. I scared a calf down a hill as I went by a small group of adult cows. There's a custom in Mexico of using your left turn signal to alert the driver behind you that it's OK to pass, many slow-moving cars and trucks did this for me today. Every time I pass a road crew all of the younger guys give me the peace sign. For breakfast I had huevos rancheros at a very new-looking restaurant (Restaurant Marthita) and for dinner I had beef brisket at a Texas BBQ place near the beach here. They put on a Ricky Martin live DVD. He's got Mexico on lockdown. After that a Mexican customer came in and asked them to put on a Roy Orbison DVD; he sang along to Only the Lonely. It was projected onto a wall of the building one story up and was kind of bizarre. Hanging out in a Texas BBQ joint in a tourist town in Baja Mexico watching Roy Orbison projected 12 feet high while a Mexican man behind me repeats the chorus over and over again.

It was at that point that I thought about how experiencing all of this alone is good for some things and bad for others. Sometimes I wish I had someone to turn to and say, "What the..."

Tomorrow I'll be in La Paz at Joe's grandma's house. After that I take the ferry to Mazatlan and from there make my way to Mexico City and eventually Guatemala. Very tired from the ride today... I think I'm going to sleep very well.