Day 92 – The end: Limping from Loreto to the tip of the Baja for a well earned holiday

Admittedly – the heat killed us and we ended the trip with a few more bus rides than we’d intended! We jumped on in Loreto, taking the bus down to El Pescadaro, where we would stay at El Pescadaro surf camp – the on-going wave search continued!  A bit of a disappointment as the beach was abandoned with a new weather curve ball was now being thrown our way a hurricane was hovering just offshore and threatening to hit the south and west coast of the Baja peninsular.  The night was very windy, and the it felt like the thatched roof of our cabana was going to blow off, but luckily we survived the night!  Sadly that meant another planned leg of cycling spent on a bus, down to Cabo San Lucas – part one of two of our planned holiday.   We arrived to find a town full of American tourists and on hurricane lockdown, a weird setting of daytime drunks in sombreros wandering between with sandbags everywhere and boarded up windows. The weather didn’t put a stop to the partying though, and we decided if we couldn’t beat them we’d join them and spent a suitably drunken night experiencing all the “wonders” of this bizzare little American outpost.  Imagine Magaluf, with more Tequila!

We survived the hurricane again, and woke up to clear skies and calm waters, with the sandbags packed away.  Our final day of cycling of the trip was part two of the holiday, 20 miles to Cabo San Lucas quieter cousin – San Jose Cabo.  We were both glad that we were able to get one more day of cycling in to arrive final destination and I enjoyed being back on the bike.  Just as I was thinking “maybe I could carry on cycling” fate decided to send me a signal that it was time to stop, and I narrowly missed being squished by this car as it lost control coming around the corner and flipped over!

Shaken but fine, I was now more than happy to get off the bike after 2 more miles to our amazing all inclusive hotel in San Jose and pretty relieved to be alive! 3,000 and odd miles of cycling and a few hundred more by bus, train, boat and hitching. I loved every minute.  We also were incredibly lucky to have avoided Hurricaine Oldie which sadly seems to have ripped through the beautiful places we stayed in the south of Baja, merely 2 days after we left.  http://news.yahoo.com/los-cabos-struggles-devastating-storm-odile-153513710.html

We spent a great 4 days there, relaxing, recouperating, taking full advantage of the poolside bars Pina Coladas, and spotting all the hangovers from the hotels previous life as a swingers resort!

I loved cycling down the Baja, and am so glad we decided to do it.  We took a few more buses than I would have liked, and definitely want to come back and do thisride again one day.  Just never again in the middle of summer!!

The end of the trip – hurricanes, partying and a car crash but we did it! (Lulu)

Loreto felt like a little bit of paradise or to be more precise the hotel room was the haven, as even spending 1 Min outside was too much and resulted in being very sweaty.  As I was still feeling pretty awful I spent the first day mainly inside and only ventured out in the evening where we had a nice dinner by the marina.  We also met up for a drink with Ben, but I turned in early as wanted to make sure I was fully recovered for the day trip we had planned. 

Next morning we headed into town to the marina as we were taking a boat trip over to Coronado island which was the National park.  Ben was also coming with us and 2 other american ladies.  Went out on a small boat to Coronado island. Such a great trip – below are a couple of photos that illustrate the day.

That evening we had a fairwell dinner with Ben and Christian as we were heading off the next day so wouldn’t see them again.

We’d decided to get the bus to El Pescdero rather than cycle. There were a number of reasons for this: The road was not meant to be that great, there didn’t appear to be anywhere to stay so it would have been camping (and although I’m normally keen for that in 50degree+ heat it is not fun or at all enjoyable) and the heat which was probably the biggest reason for not cycling.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt heat like it, even in the morning at 7 am it was too hot,  I know I’m going on and on about this but it was very unpleasant and was making the trip feel more like a chore.  So we got on the bus and I was very happy to not be cycling and heading to a place that would be more bearable.  I was dreaming of being able to sit outside and not melt.

We arrived in El Pescadero and were greeted by rain and flash floods and the roads had turned to muddy rivers.

  It appeared that our prayers had been answered,  maybe too well.  We got to our hostel which was a ‘surf camp’ although it was conveniently 2 miles from the beach and up a hill so not sure how it could sell itself as a surf camp.

There wasn’t much of the day left so we went and got some tacos and then headed back. There appeared to be rather a lot of wildlife in our bathroom…lizards and cockroaches galore urgh!!!! Not nice.  I was really struggling to find anything positive about the accommodation. (Wow I sound miserable…I’ll blame the fact that I still didn’t feel 100 %)

Next day was bleak and it was raining on and off.  I donned  my poncho much to Charlotte’s embarrassment and we walked to the beach or it was more of a squelch on a very muddy path.  After breaking both flip-flops I had a barefoot exfoliation through the sandy squelchy mud sooooo gross.  Finally we arrived on the beach and it was…. All shut up. 

The sea was too rough to surf, oh well at least we’d had a walk and I’d had a mud exfoliation (some people pay good money for that). 

We then had an afternoon of cards and Charlotte was a Dr as she had to remove a porcelain splinter from my hand – no wooden splinter for me, only the best. 

We then had a scrummy dinner at a local restaurant and met up with some Ozzies which lightened the mood.

Was looking forward to a cycle the following day…unfortunately that was not to be as we were woken in the middle of the night by a loud crashing and the power going out, a huge storm was raging outside.  This lasted the whole night and was still going strong in the morning.  Apparently we had caught the edge of hurricane Norbert.  So no cycling for us 😦 on the bus we go.

We arrived in Cabo and were feeling slightly deflated as we hadn’t got to cycle but never mind. 

I realised I’ve been very negative since Loreto so was hoping Cabo would shock me out of my doldrums.  And it did!!! The run of weather / sickness issues that we had had, they were a mere distant memory – a bad dream.

The morning of the final day arrived we were all prepped to go. 

The cycle was hilly and on a highway so not the pleasantest but it was quick.  Just as we were coming into San Jose I stopped to take a photo of our final stop. 

Then we were back off only 5 mins left, seconds after we pulled away there was a huge screeching behind us and I turned around to see a huge Jeep flipping over right behind Char.  So scary,  very close to Char and could have been a lot worse. Slightly shaken we set off again to finish the final miles. 

We had finished and arrived at our final stop!

THE END of the trip.  Now a couple of relaxing days before we go back to the UK.  Its been amazing such a great experience. 

Melting in the Baja – cockroaches, paradise and a hitch!!! (Lulu)

Had a great evening in San Ignacio although ate too much food!!!

Had another early start in the morning and a shorter day as well of about 46 miles or so we were heading to Santa Rosalia which was on the coast.  As we left the Oasis we had some beautiful sunrise views over the lake.

As the day progressed we went through a variety of scenery from cactus plains with mountainus back drops to more reddy/arad mountains then to the sea.  It was a real day of changing scenerys with a couple of big climbs thrown in just to liven it up.  When we hit the real hilly area just before we got to the coast the temperature reached 112 degrees!!!! (that’s 45 degrees in english terms) Pretty damn hot…

We had finally reached the sea of Cortes and on first impressions it was beautiful although we did pass through a couple of industrial villages/towns before we got to Santa Rosalia.

We got to Santa Rosalia in good time and had our usual afternoon nap.  We were staying in Hotel El Morro just outside of the town and we had a seaside view which was beautiful.  The 2 boys that we had previously bumped into in San Ignacio also came to this hotel and were next to us so was nice to have some company.  By about 7pm in the evening the temperature had just about cooled down enough for us to go on a trip to the shops to get some dinner.  I innocently put my trainers on and then felt something in my shoe, I removed it and thought I felt something so I tried to look again and tipped my shoe out, and a HUGE cockroach fell out of my shoe it was enormous.  I abandoned my shoe, screeched and rushed back indoors feeling pretty shook up!!!. URGH gross…

After I’d recovered from this horror we headed to the shops – even the 5 min cycle was enough to work up a sweat sooooo hot.  On returning we got to see our first sea sunset which was beautiful.

We had a slightly delayed start today so that we could make use of the free breakfast – that said we had still left by 7.20 am. 

It was pretty warm already but it was not too long a day.  The scenery consisted of cactus (I know what a surprise) with mountainous ranges in the back drop.  I tried to capture in photos but it really doesn’t work!!!

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We were headed to Mulege which was a little town on the river it was very pretty.

 As we had started so early we made it before mid day and arrived at a little hotel called Las Casitas.  After the standard nap, Char discovered that she had lost her flipflops so I went on a flip flop hunt which involved entering multiple shops to find out where I could by shoes and being given different directions each time…or maybe my spanish is so bad I just misunderstood their directions.  But finally I found a relatively non offensive pair.

Once Char had a pair of shoes we had a quick walk round town – which was still bloody boiling and then had some dinner.  I wasn’t feeling that great so headed to bed pretty early. 

Our shortest day yet a nice 27 miles from Mulege to Playa Buenaventura – easy… Well that’s what you think!  Cycling fatigue seemed to have set into my bones and the constant 100+ degree temperatures, early starts slightly nauseous stomache that I constantly had was really taking a toll.  Saying that despite being hilly as we were following the coast the scenery really was beautiful and the fact that I could appreciate it while dripping in sweat is saying something!!!

On arriving in Playa Buenaventura it was stunning a little beach with a restaurant and a couple of beach houses. 

There was only a solar powered generator that ran at night which meant we had to last through the heat of the day with no fans/AC arghhhhhhh… I’m seriously slave to the AC at the moment.  Luckily there was the sea which OMG stunning but was still slightly soup like.  On arriving at Playa Buenaventura I went straight in with all my clothes on just to feel slightly cooler.  The water was so clear and calm.

We manage to survive the heat of the afternoon my swimming in the sea and trying to move as little as possible.  Char put the Garmin in the sun to see what the temperature got too and it reached 132 degrees (thats 55 degrees celscius)!!!

In the early evening Ben (the English cyclist who we’d met) was diving for clams and him and Char went off foraging for them in the sea as Ben was collecting his dinner and he managed to find quite a few. Post Ben’s clam dinner we sat around and had a chilled evening but again feeling a bit under the weather so headed to bed pretty early.

Awoke to feeling very ill but it was the last day of cycling before our 4 days of rest … just one more day to get through.  As we headed off the humidity added to the heat and the feeling of wanting to vomit was not really making me feel that much love for the cycling!!! After a particularly hilly section I started hyperventilating and had to sit down for a couple of minutes to pull myself together.  I think I became slightly childlike but all I could think of was lying down and curling up into a ball as I was feeling so awful.  We had done over 20 miles and I really could not go any further so we decided to hitch a ride.  Char was brilliant and put up with all my complaining and managed to pull over a pick up truck.

In a trice we were in Loretto, Ivan and Berto who were the owners of the pick up truck very kindly dropped us right outside the hotel which was amazingly kind of them.  

Looking forward to a couple of day in Loretto to recover.