Wednesday, February 8th, 2017 – Mulegé, Baja California South to La Paz, Baja California South: ~300 miles.
I hit the souvenir jackpot.
Missed Day 4? Tuesday, February 7th, 2017 – Bahía de los Ángeles, Baja California North to Mulegé, Baja California South: ~300 miles
Seeing as we didn’t get into Mulege until late last night, we figured we should spend some time in the area before heading south. We left the bags at the hotel and headed back to the beach.
Photo by Spurgeon Dunbar.
The trend of me taking photos of Spurgeon while he takes photos continues.
I loved the way my windshield lit up in the sunrise, brief as it was.
Doesn’t matter how beautiful something is, there’s a good chance it’s been ruined by a dick.
Photo opportunity taken care of, we headed back to the hotel to pack up.
Someone had traveled quite far from home.
Mulege is best known for its fishing and the local mission: “Mission Santa Rosalía de Mulegé”. It was founded in 1705, the stone building was built in 1766, and it stopped functioning as a mission in 1828.
A quick hike rewarded us with a beautiful view of the river that feeds the town.
Time to gas up and hit the road!
Mulege’s substation for volunteer firefighters/paramedics in Bahia Concepcion.
It’s a beautiful bay just 20 miles south of Mulege. I parked near the water and could have spent all day here.
Spurgeon backtracked a bit to get a wider shot, and he caught me placing Baby Jack for a photo.
Eventually Spurgeon joined me, but he grabbed a GoPro on a stick and ran straight for the water.
A few hours later, we pulled over on the side of the highway for a bathroom break, and Spurgeon noticed an open gate. Tired of our pavement slog, we figured a dirt diversion would add a little spice. I’m glad we took the detour, because within a few minutes we had stumbled upon a skeleton – and this time there was a skull!
I was very excited about this.
I tried to find a way to mount it to the front fender, but I couldn’t find a method I was confident in.
So instead, I ended up strapping the skull to the back of the bike for the rest of the trip, which meant Baby Jack had to make a new friend.
A few more minutes down the trail and we came to a T. Spurgeon took the opportunity to set up a photo, and I took a closer look at a cactus which was adorned with an unexpected souvenir.
Spurgeon loves ice cream, so we stopped in Loreto for him to indulge. While the bikes were parked, I noticed a nail in his rear tire. Thankfully it did not appear to be leaking badly, so we rode to the near gas station so he could plug it.
While I was waiting for Spurgeon to fix his tire, a gas station attendant fell in love with Baby Jack. Hard to blame her.
This attendant was much less interested – I’m not convinced that he wasn’t asleep.
220 miles later and we were in La Paz.
La Paz translates to “The Peace”, but the city was originally made famous for its pearls in the Sea of Cortez. This statue commemorates that fact, though pearl production has plummeted in modern times.
This is just a few decals away from an excellent Marlboro rally-inspired livery.
Spurgeon and I were inspired by these skeletons, so we found a restaurant of our own. We ended up at a sushi joint enjoying fresh fish caught only a few miles away and some Pacificos. Life could be worse.
Spurgeon indulges in his love of ice cream again. one interesting flavor I spotted was elote (street corn). I had to try a sample, and though I love elotes I decided that a sample was enough.
Across the Bay of La Paz is the Mogote Peninsula, a reminder of the last time I was in this city on a motorcycle (back in 2012). It was the destination for the trip Vy and I took on my BMW R1100S as we met up with some friends to spend New Year’s Eve at this resort.
Speaking of pearls, we ended up staying at Hotel La Perla, and they were kind enough to provide secure parking for our motorcycles. We only had one more day of riding before we dropped the bikes off to MotoQuest, so it’d be pretty bad timing to have the bikes stolen now!
Pages from the Hotel La Perla guestbook in 1941 – they opened in 1940 and call themselves “the most traditional hotel in La Paz.”
On to Day 6 – tomorrow we’d make it down to the bottom of of the Baja Peninsula!