Bahía

I'd forgotten what a real riding day felt like. I spent so much of the 48 States trip doing 5-7 hours of riding a day, every day, and I hadn't done that for a bit.

But yesterday I got ready to go nice and early (ok 9:00, I slept in a little bit), and took off for Bahía de los Ángeles. And man was it a fun ride.

I left San Quintín after a little food, and hit the road, with no planned stops until I got to Bahía, about 5 hours away. I popped in some headphones and put on an episode of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" and just sat back and rode. I'm getting more and more used to this bike as I spend more time on it - I may even know it well enough to give it a name at this rate.

I stopped in a tiny little town of 450 people to get some food, and decided to top up on gas just in case - I don't quite know the bike well enough to know it's actual range yet, because I haven't hit it. It's definitely more than 200 miles, and that's all I know so far. So I got some gas and food at this place:

Seems legit.

Got some darn good flautas from this guy.

As soon as I was done, it was straight back to the road. And being diligent about it paid off, because I made good time in getting into Bahía de los Ángeles. Coming over the hill and seeing the bay for the first time was gorgeous. I made a quick trip through town to check out how big it was, and then circled back to find a place to stay. The first hotel I went to said they charged M$750 (US$45), so that was immediately a no-go. I circled by another hotel, but after seeing what it looked like, decided to pass. As I was coming down the hill from there, I saw two guys on motorcycles pull into the store across the street, so I swung over there to see what they were up to.

I chatted with them a bit, and they told me they were camping on the beach in a little hut for US$8 a night... and I was immediately sold. I talked to them a bit, and we ended up splitting some tortillas, beans, tomatoes, cheese, and peppers for dinner, and each picked up a bottle of tequila too.

When we arrived at the site, I have to say I was pretty happy. A quick few minutes to get the hammock set up (well maybe longer than a few, since it was my first time doing it), and I had a home:

After getting that set up, I went next door to the other guy's hut and met their third buddy. Otto, Greg, and Adam were on their way south through Baja, having come from Utah, Washington, and San Diego. We spent the evening drinking beers and tequila and sharing stories. They'd gone spear fishing earlier in the day, and we even boiled up a crab they'd caught.

After stumbling in to the hammock and having an extremely restful sleep, I happened to wake up at sunrise, and decided it was worth getting out of the hammock and taking a few pictures.

The other three's bikes

Another night of "stumble into something amazing" in the books. Bahía was amazing, with beautiful views, and my only regrets are that there weren't whale sharks there to swim with right now, and I didn't get enough good pictures of some of the interesting buildings in town. But I think I can mark this one down as a successful day nonetheless.