From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

After the rains, the sun returned and once again the temperatures rose to over 25°C. We ran into two other cyclo-tourists: David (Canadian) and Eckart (German). David had started out from San Diego and hoped to reach Ushuaia, Argentina, in seven months. When we met him in Guerrero Negro, however, he was so disenchanted by the all problems that he had had that he was thinking of going home to Calgary. Eckart is just on a three week bike trip through Baja California.

Two new encounters and two new cyclo-tourists who had traveled the same route that we had but who had very different experiences. It’s very interesting how differently people perceive and respond to the journey.

It’s also interesting to see the wide disparity of cartographic information that is provided to us by our maps. Between the five of us (Anja is still with us), we have four different maps and it rarely happens that they say the same thing, especially in terms of distances. Just recently, one map showed 80 km between two towns, while another said 100 km. And often, the order the villages along a stretch of road is entirely reversed from one map to another.

In the town of Vizcaino, for the first time since we arrived in Mexico, we didn’t feel safe. For the first time we found that the people of the town weren’t very welcoming and lacked the usual smiles. As we looked for a place to sleep, we were approached by some people clearly under the influence of mind-altering substances. A few minutes later, a caravan of military vehicles raced up and soldiers jumped out, faces covered and weapons in hand, and surrounded one of the houses…

The next day in San Ignacio, it was like a whole new world. All of the cities that we have passed through up so far looked like standard North American cities – wide roads, straight and perpendicular to each other, without a real centre to the city. But San Igancio was like a European city – it had a central square with a mission (church) that dominated one side, and narrow, winding roads. We were simply delighted! We camped under the palm trees and ate dates for breakfast.

Mulege, where we rested for a day, was as warm and welcoming as San Ignacio.

Sébastien

Since Sara’s fall, we’ve made good progress. In 12 days we’ve biked through Baja California and arrived in Baja California Sur Wednesday night after crossing the 28th parallel. We’ve changed time zones – now we’re only 8 hours different from France. We’ve been traveling with Anja, who is now a good friend of ours.

After following the Pacific Coast, we crossed the central desert of Baja California. We had to climb some steep hills (higher than 15% grade and 879 meters up) in stifling hot weather (more than 30°C) to get to the Los Cirios Valley. But all our efforts were rewarded by stunning desert landscapes and whole forests of cacti by the side of the road. We were surprised by all the different kinds of cacti – go check out our pictures to see for yourselves!

Partly because of the severe heart, we’ve changed our daily routine. We get up now at 5:30, half an hour before the sunrise. We set out at about 7:30, and stop for the day usually before 4:00, only about a half a hour before the sun goes down. And bed time is at 7:00 or 8:00. Luckily, the further south we get, the longer the days are.

This past week we’ve camped at the side of the road, right in the middle of the cacti, but also on some ranches, where we asked if we could pitch our tent and where we were warmly (and happily) received. It’s nice that we got to interact more with the population, have a few conversations, and to see more of the daily life of the Mexican people. Most of the time we eat in Taqueria, little stalls by the side of the road with tacos and other Mexican specialties. And we are finding them still just as delicious!

After all that heat, the rain took us by surprise. It actually hadn’t rained here for more than a year, and the heavy rains surprised everyone and flooded everything. The houses here are not built to deal with that kind of precipitation – it only rains like this in the interior!

Sébastien

The Mexican state is known for its wide variety of culinary delights.

We’ve tried lots of little restaurants both in the towns and at the side of the road. It’s about 2€ each… burritos, quesadillas, tacos, tortas… Except that all these Mexican specialties involve a tortilla of varying size and crispyness, meat (mostly beef) and guacamole, and are often accompanied by beans. “Where is all this supposed variety?” you may ask. Good question… we have no idea! It might take us a little while to figure that out. But not to worry… every day we eat well.

It’s known for its warm climate.

Since we arrived 6 days ago, the temperature has only gone up – during the day it’s about 30°C in the shade! So we need a lot of water (bottled, of course) – about a litre each for every two hours of biking. But there are lots of stores by the side of the road, and so it’s easy to replenish our supplies.

It’s known for the people.

We’ve received a warm Mexican welcome, and along the road people say hello and honk their horns to support us.

It’s known for its tourist prices.

We’re just now starting to know the prices we should be paying. We often end up negotiating the rates at motels, which might seem uncalled for, but is actually quite necessary unless we want to end up paying the inflated American tourist prices!

It’s known for its fearless drivers.

Drivers who pass us on the road regularly move all the way over the left – whether or not they can see up ahead. While it’s nice for us, it’s also very scary since we know that there isn’t much choice for the drivers between another car coming head on and two cyclists on the road… We try to make sure we always have an out, just in case the driver has to suddenly move back over to the right side of the road.

It’s known as a great natural playground for the Americans.

Baja California is quite a popular destination for Americans, a little too popular in our opinion. American drivers don’t pay any attention to us, they just barely miss us as they skim by acting like they own the place in their RVs, towing their pick-up trucks often loaded down with ATVs or motorbikes.

In the end, it’s been scary but not too serious…

A long line of cars, a truck behind us and a right turn coming up. The truck had no visibility ahead but wanted absolutely to pass us, and wouldn’t shift even a centimeter to the left to give us some space. All the sudden, Sara saw herself leaning left and getting pulled under the wheels of the truck. Her immediate reflex was to move quickly over to the right, on to the sandy shoulder. The front wheel sunk into the sand and Sara flew through the air. Sébastien was behind her and leapt off his bike to help her up, badly shaken but not injured. Fortunately it was nothing serious, Sara had only some bumps and bruises, and the bike was fine, but it could have been a lot worse!

Sara & Sébastien

All we’ve been hearing about is Mexico, and now we’re here!

We met up with Vera and Uli about 20 km from the border. They were with Anja, another German cyclo-tourist, and we set out together to take on Tijuana, the dangerous city that everyone had been warning us about since we first arrived in California.

We crossed the American border without stopping at customs, and were able to continue straight on to Mexico without speaking to a single customs officer or any other administration: it’s not easy to find out where to get a visa.

We tried the Immigration Office, and got two forms to fill out, all in Spanish. Fortunately, Vera speaks Spanish and was able to translate for us. We paid for the visas, and were happily surprised to find that we had been granted a six month stay – we had only hoped for 90 days! We probably won’t stay that long, but it is still a bonus. This way, if we need a couple extra days to get across the country, we can have them.

Then there was the question of the American visa. We still had the American visas in our passports – we were supposed to give them back when we left the country, but we hadn’t seen any customs officers! The Mexican officials at the Immigration Office didn’t know what to do with the visa, and we certainly had no idea. But it was essential that we turn in the paper to prove that we had left the country; otherwise, the Americans could refuse to grant us entry for 10 years. After asking everyone we could find, a young Mexican women called the American customs agency. They confirmed it: we absolutely had to give back the exit papers. To do so, we had to turn back towards the US office, but the line was several hundred meters long. They told us we could jump ahead, and we did, feeling a little guilty about it. We handed the papers over across the barrier at the border, including the ones belonging to the two guys watching the bikes, and that was it. But we really had to work for it!

So we’re in Mexico now, and all squared away with the US… finally! It had taken us at least two hours. We’ve received a warm welcome in Mexico: drivers honk their horns and give us an encouraging thumbs up, and even stop the traffic on the highway so we can get across. What more could we ask for? We’re a bit wide-eyed at the difference in culture, having just stepped across the border (although it’s still apparent that the US isn’t far away). The symphony of honking horns reminds us of South American countries. The food is terrific, and we stayed in a great motel for US$25 (15€) per night (which is actually expensive by Mexican standards).

In the end, crossing Tijuana wasn’t that dangerous. We had heard so much about the city, and had particularly been warned about the drug gangs and turf wars going on. But we didn’t see anything like that.

Sara & Sébastien

Getting through Los Angeles turned out to be a lot easier and nicer than people had told us it would be. We travelled along beaches and the wide streets with bike trails. Then, at a bend in the road, a gigantic 4x4 passed us. As they drove by, the passengers in the car sprayed us with a liquid that seemed related to water… It was 5:30 pm, 75 km biked that day, and no camp sites in site, but we knew that already. We arrived at Huntington Beach and a police officer came up to us to ask where we were planning to stay the night. Sébastien answered, “No clue,” before biting him tongue… you’re never supposed to say “I don’t know” to a police officer in the US, especially in a city only 150 km from the Mexican border. We told him about a youth hostel and gave the address. He starts up his motorcycle and says that he’ll join us… But the youth hostel doesn’t exist anymore, it was sold two years ago, and is still apparently on the internet. The police officer gave us the news, then asked us where we’re planning to sleep… On the street?? No, No!! Definitely not!! He leaves, but we’re sure that he’ll be back to check up on us later.

We’re out of options. It’s already dark (the sun goes down at 5:00 pm now). We settle for the cheapest motel we can find (still $75 and no breakfast !!!include!!!d!). We take all our bags upstairs but leave the bikes down in the parking lot like the owner told us to… securely locked.

We slept well and woke up !!!refresh!!!ed. Sébastien went downstairs first with the first load of bags… and found four connector wires lying on the ground beside the bikes. Strange… “I should ask Sara whether they were there last night…” Then 2 seconds later: “Oh no!” Some thieves had seen our bikes and had tried to unscrew the speedometer on Sara’s bike and her front lamp. They must have been interrupted right in the middle of the job… but still managed to get away with the bag of bear-spray that had been attached under the handle bars. All in all, nothing too serious, and everything is fixed. But we realized just how vulnerable we are… and we are a little more apprehensive about the rest of the trip now. From now on we will always take the bikes into the rooms with us, and make sure to take off all the accessories when we’re camping. Fortunately the bikes were securely locked up… but our morale still took a bit of a hit.

We had a good breakfast in a little cafe on the main street to re-motivate the troops. We met a lovely lady there, who when she heard about our trip, invited us to her house for a shower! Another biker wanted to buy us coffee and give us some advice for the road ahead. Unfortunately we didn’t have to time – we had a meeting with Steve in Newport to discuss microfinance.

After the meeting, which went quite well, all the people we met afterwards on the road were warm and friendly, and full of encouragement. The morale began to creep back up… !

Tonight the border is only 70 km away. Vera and Uli, the two Germans we met two weeks ago, are waiting for us so we can all cross together and get out as quickly as possible of Tijuana, the city on the border, because it has been increasingly dangerous these last couple of months.

Sara & Sébastien