Waking up this morning we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Also as we were leaving Bahia Concepcion I found myself (Malin) feeling somewhat sad having to say good bye to so many people in such a short time. Just last week I dropped off my parents at the airport the same day as Jess and I left our apartment for Ventura to say good bye to his mom Nancy. The following day we stopped by the Loder's in Hermosa Beach to say good bye to most of our friends. (Thanks again to the Loder's for awesome food and to Mara for her enthusiasm and great advice!)
As we started this trip I was sure we would meet interesting, likeminded people but I guess I didn't realize how hard saying goodbye every day would really be. Anyway I see it as a blessing that we are only a few days into our trip and we have already met such amazing people!
For some reason the days on the bike get kind of blurry for me at times, I'm sure Jess can fill you in on the details of our ride to La Paz. However, once we got closer to the city we were both tired, hungry, hot and my butt hurt like hell!! Entering town we drove close to the malecon (seaside boardwalk) and found a cute B&B called Casa Tuscany run by an Aussie-Kiwi couple named Patricia and Ken. The place was gorgeous and it had a fast wireless internet connection and awesome breakfast (and coffee!!). The entire place only had 4 rooms and only one other was occupied by a young Italian couple celebrating their honeymoon.
La Paz is a pretty big city by Baja standards and it felt great to be able to just get some stuff done...like laundry and calling my mom! We had dinner at this great family owned Mexican restaurant called La Fonda where son Jorge gave us important intel on where to watch the Final of the Euro 2008 Soccer championship tomorrow! It's a huge thing for us in Europe although Sweden did not even qualify out of group play... But I was still happy to find out that Mexicans are as excited about soccer as us and that everyone was eagerly anticipating the Spain vs. Germany final.
Tired and full of delicious home cooked Mexican food we went to bed early. Pat and Ken kept encouraging us to go out to experience the malecon in La Paz, but the long day of traveling had us beat and we were headed for bed early.
Hey! Jess here, the road from Bahia Concepcion was pretty high-speed with an increasing amount of commercial traffic serving the tourist destinations of Loreto, La Paz, and Cabo San Lucas. The bike has ran great and has only drank about 4oz of oil in the past 2000 miles...not too bad for a 1200cc BMW boxer engine!
Entering La Paz, it was already getting a bit late in the afternoon so we took the first place we found - Casa Tuscany - a bit pricey for me at 105 bucks a night, but it was really nice and Malin's butt hurt so this would be our home for awhile.
It's the weekend and cars are already bumper-to-bumper on the malecon - you'd think that "cruising" was a lost art from 1950's middle-America, but it's alive and well in Mexico!...anyone with four wheels and a little gas drags their sled down to the malecon to be seen and represent their favorite flavor of mariachi music played at speaker-cone destroying decibel levels...it's pretty hilarious. La Paz is a pretty affluent town, so we saw Hummers with neon ground effects, tuner-cars, as well as the beat up Cheby truck with about 10 people in the back...the Baja version of Saturday night hayride.
The next morning Malin was showering and screamed that there was a gecko staring at her in the shower! Immediately I jumped out of bed...for this is a drill I know well...I reached for Malin's flip-flop and prepared for amphibious jihad...but then I thought...geckos are kinda cool right? So I laid down my arms, befriended the little barking creature, and aptly named him Bleep, the name I give to every creature I've ever caught since I was 5 years old...caterpillars, frogs, lizards, etc.
Next task - get ferry tickets to the mainland. I rode to the Baja Ferries office and found the Lonely Planet guide was utterly and completely inaccurate. Ferries to Mazatlan left only twice a week at 2am, arriving at 2pm! That sounded about as appetizing as a crap-sandwich to me, so I opted for the 6 hour ferry to Topolobampo - about 300 miles north of Mazatlan...it left daily at 8am and arrived at 2pm...so 315 bucks later we had passage booked for the two of us, as well as Thunder Bucket (the bike), all housed in a luxury suite complete with beds, a private bath and shower, and swimming pool access! I can't wait to be greeted by the Captain as we board...before he invites me up to the wheelhouse to present me with my official Junior Captain badge like they give kids on Carnival Cruise Lines....Good bye La Paz....hellllloooo Love Boat!
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