After a few days of fun with Paul (Barney) and Yvette, exploring San Felipe and its beaches and bars we were ready to start moving again today.

We had been told to take Mexico highway 5 from San Felipe for about 100 miles or so, and then to take the 15 mile section of easy hardpacked dirt road to connect up to Mexico Highway 1, which runs down the West side of the peninsula before cutting across the centre, and back to the East side. From where we stayed this was the only route, unless we were to retrace our steps.

The 15 miles was more like 25 miles of what turned out to be long stretches of gravel with stones and rocks still embedded in the ground, and large potholes.  There were also some big patches of very fine sand almost like fesh fesh with large holes to avoid. The journey across the gravel took us about two hours to ride, because we had to go so slowly.  It was pretty hot, and quite tough going, but halfway through  there was some respite  at a section of the road that invited you to enter ‘Cocos Corner’, in fact it appeared that this really was the only place to go.

Now legend has it that Coco was a security guard for years up in Ensanada on the West Coast, but got fed up with the stresses, so moved himself to a tiny shack in the middle of nowhere, to sell drinks to people passing by. In those days the Baja 1000, a famous car and bike rally race passed right by his door, and apparently when maps were made for the route, there was a dot by his place marked ‘Coco’s Corner’.  Over the years Coco has been there,his notoriety grew, the whole valley is known as ‘Coco’ Valley’ and his place has grown into a larger shack, stocked with every type of cold drink you could want.  Coco appears to have had trouble with diabetes or similar, and has lost both his legs, so he’s in a wheelchair.  This doesn’t stop him, he was outside directing operations when we arrived, and whilst we were there about 20 or so people dropped by whom he managed with ease.  Some of the people he clearly knew, others like us, not so much.  He told us that he had not seen a sidecar passing by for 15 years, so I think he was quite excited.  We gave him our card, which he made Paul hammer into his special poster. We were made to sign his visitors book, and were given a sticker for our bike.  

The walls of his building were covered in racing memorabilia, plus every imaginable gift from visitors, cards, paintings, photos, hats, socks, bootees, and rows of bras and knickers whch dangle above the bed he sleeps in every night.  I think he must have very sweet dreams, and he seems very impressed with his fame.

After leaving Coco, we managed the rest of the difficult terrain.  The payoff for this was the beautiful scenery we rode through today- crystal blue seas to begin with, with silhouetted islands dotted around, then through mountains lined with all manner of cacti, riding through a dried river bed. Just breathtaking and wonderful.

Tonights stop is at ‘The Halfway Inn’, which is halfway between the top and bottom of Baja California, and means we have entered Baja California South, and changed timezone again. We are now 7 hours behind home.

So we woke with excitement and trepidation this morning, we were off to Mexico!

After the days of waiting for the documents to arrive, it has almost seemed like a full stop has been made at the end of the USA trip, and we are now into a new one. There is some trepidation, as there always is when entering a new unknown country by road- making sure we have all the correct paperwork, thinking about what the roads will be like, and the driving will be like- will they be courteous like in the USA, where everyone drives and rides respectfully of each other? Or will they drive like the other Latinos? Like Italians, who are all grand prix racers fighting for their spot on the tarmac?

We had a sixty mile ride to the border, and left around 9.30.  There is a US government website that shows wait times at the border, and it had stated a 60 minute wait, which we hoped might be cleared by the time we got there.

In actual fact, when we followed the signs around to San Luis border, we nipped through past a customs officer, turned right, and Paul said to me ‘we’re in Mexico!’- no fuss, no wait, or anything! Although once we got off the bike, a border patrol officer came around the corner and was telling us, ‘here, here come back here’, we had completely missed where we were meant to stop and have eveything checked (there were no clear signs), so we just turned on around and went back to where he was guiding us.

The officers there could not have been more friendly, Paul went straight in to get his passport checked, (and to see how it all worked so he could tell me), whilst I quickly had to summon up my very rusty Spanish, unused for three months, and have a Spanglish conversation about where we are going.  Before we knew it, both passports had been checked, stamped, the vehicle was temporarily imported and deposit of $400 US had been paid, in order to ensure that we take our vehicle out again.

Then we were off, the first 10 miles or so was straightforward with Paul following the Sat Nav. Like a lot of border towns, once you leave the main thoroughfare, it was all rather shabby and run down, and there was a lot of rubbish lining the streets. The landscape though remained desert like, and very similar to the last 200 miles or so of Arizona.

We found ourselves following a tanker lorry along the main road, and it was time for a right turn, stll following the Sat Nav, on what were supposedly paved roads, we soon found ourselves riding on sand covered roads (not too bad), potholed roads (slightly worse), and then alongside a river on 5 ½ mles of washboard ripples (our least favourite, as you will all remember).  We have to go so slowly, but even then the whole bike and sidecar clatter up and down, constantly shaking, and it feels like everything is going to fall apart.  By the time we reached the sanity of the blacktop at the other end, and stopped for a drink, we were both extremely red faced and stroppy.  Paul even told me that he had hoped the bike would break in two, so at least he wouldn’t have to ride on that anymore!

As we started off along the highway, the breeze was quite pleasant, there were some beautiful mountains, and alot of Mexicans overtaking us!  Some went past waving, and a guy in a Jeep gave us a huge thumbs up.

As we began to slow for our turn, the guy in the Jeep was stopped at the side of the road, and he was gesticulating for us to pull over. We duly obliged, and he was soon speaking in his perfect English asking us where we were going, advising us about the road conditions (better than before), that there would be a military checkpoint a little further on, and that we would have a fantastic time. Welcome to his country, Mexico!  How lovely, so different from what we had been told by so many people. But, this backs up what we learnt when travelling two years ago, wherever you are, if there’s a border to be crossed, the people either side of the border will be very afraid of those the other side, and tell you ‘they are bandits, don’t go there’- of course, it’s very rarely true.

Anyway, there we turned onto highway 5, which would take us all the way to San Felipe, where we were heading to stay with our friends Yvette and Paul.  They have been in the USA exploring for a couple of weeks prior to Paul doing the Baja rally which starts on Monday in Ensenada, Mexico.  

The road was clear, straight and running alongside desert, which turned into salt flats, and the waft of the sea.

We passed a few broken down vehicles, but the best one was a truck with a few cones around it, which on closer inspection, we saw had the driver, suspended, roadside from the side of his truck sleeping in a hammock!  Of course, he was in the shade- but even so……..

We arrived at San Felipe about 3.30 pm. Paul and Yvette had given us the address to head to, and hopefully we would all arrive about the same time. As we rode through the town Paul suddenly turned right into the supermarket, and I thought, oh, are we shopping?  But no, he had spied Paul and Yvette in the car park- they were waiting for Juan, the guy to take them to the Airbnb they had booked.  So off we went in convoy until we reached our destination, a lovely house, with a small pool and an ocean view, what more can we want for now?  

Welcome to Mexico!

At last! We can leave, the documents we were waiting for turned up last thing yesterday, making us wait til the very last minute, but oh boy, were we relieved to see them. Thanks Mum and Alan for your joint efforts in getting them to us.

As we intend to head over the Mexican border tomorrow morning, this meant we only had a short ride of 130 miles down the Interstate today. Accompanied by clouds of dust rising either side of the road where cars were driving quickly through the dune roads.  It was hot, dusty and very dry, so we made sure to stop and drink plenty.

It seems like a real no man’s land we’re heading through here, and the motel we are stopped at for the night seems to be full of the military, homeland security and the various contractors they employ.  It must be a huge source of employment manning all the many Mexican border crossings, plus keeping an eye on the mountains that surround us here to the South.

We are feeling ready for the next stage of our trip, if all goes to plan over the next few months we shall be crossing up to about 10 borders.  We are trying our best to be organised, ensuring all the paperwork that is required to leave the USA, and enter into Mexico is ready.  The most important thing is to have the bike stamped in and out of the countries, to ensure we don’t have to turn back and ride a reverse route because of a missed stamp.

We are currently following on Facebook a few people that are ahead of us by a few weeks/ a week and a couple of days, so we can see the beauty that is ahead of us, and they all have very positive things to say about Mexico. Exciting!

We awaited our parcel from home eagerly yesterday, with those very important documents.  We had found out that the UPS store, opposite where we’re staying remains open until 4pm on a Saturday.  Paul popped into the store about 11 am, and was told that the delivery normally comes about 3.45pm on a Saturday………..

Sometimes the great thing about being stuck somewhere is what other things come your way instead.  We knew that Sam Manicom was to be in town, 30 minutes from where we are staying, doing a presentation.  Sam is a guy who writes tremendous adventure travel books, and has travelled around the world by BMW motorcycle. We had previously been close to where Sam has been travelling in the U.S a couple of times, but not managed to see hm, so we were very glad that we had the opportunity to go and hear him speak.

We rode across, in scorching weather, back on the busy highway (now with the added pleasure of being down to only one lane for roadworks!), and found our way to GOAZ in Peoria for the 1pm start. As soon as we went through the doors, we bumped into Al Jesse, who we met the other day, and his wife Julie.  They were supporting Sam, and in fact Sam was staying at their house.

The presentation was fabulous, Sam is an interesting speaker, and the photographs brought to life the places he has visited.  We both find him extremely inspiring.  

We had thought we would have to make a quick getaway from the presentation, to collect our parcel, but when Paul checked, he noticed the estimated delivery date was now put back to Monday. Disappointing, yet actually, brilliant, as it meant we could stay and chat to Sam after the talk.

What actually happened was beyond exciting for us, as Al and Julie invited us back to their house for a BBQ with Sam and also Iain Harper, a lovely guy who runs a company for Overland Travellers, called Overland Junction.

It turned out that Julie and Al were outnumbered by the English folks around the kitchen table, 4 to 2!

We spent a wonderful evening swapping stories, receiving great tips (us), and generally having a great laugh. New friends made. We even got Sam to sit in the sidecar for a photo, his first time ever in a sidecar!

So, although we are stuck for another day or so, we are feeling inspired, and excited by what comes next.  It is truly wonderful to feel a part of the overland travelling community, which is a new concept for us, but makes us feel supported in a different way.