The first day’s cycling route (for 4 riders–Don, Ken, John and Tony)) is outlined in blue (below); it cut through the heart of Tijuana before turning onto Hwy 1 toward the coast and Rosarito, the first meeting point. Ross and Mark drove the support van across the border, turning immediately due west to follow the border wall to access Hwy 1D, a scenic coastal toll highway to meet the rest of the guys in Rosarito (the blue line, below right–the toll was US$2.05). Apparently cyclists are not supposed to be using toll roads (I guess if you pay money to drive the road, there would be a backlash for those who don’t want the obligation to watch for cyclists), even though there is a wide, clean shoulder on this highway. This post is the play-by-play for our first week on the Baja Peninsula.
Day 1: San Ysidro CA to Puerto Nuevo, B.C., 48K
Tuesday, January 7, 2020: Our adventure had an early start from the Valli Hi Motel in San Ysidro, just 3 miles from the Mexican border. While Mark and Ross drove across early, at 6:30AM, to beat the traffic (which they did pretty easily), The Golden Arches next door became the site of the breakfast of champions for the four who would cycle across the border separately to start the day. The crossing was unremarkable for both those cycling and those driving. The only step was to provide our passport information on a Mexican immigration card (along with US$30), good for 6 months (we will have to hang on to it, to present it on leaving or risk a fine).
While Mark and Ross took the scenic toll highway (the initial stretch parallelled the border walls, and then continued along the coastline), the cycling group took Highway 1, which proved slightly more challenging to navigate, especially with traffic.
We decided to make the first meeting point in the town of Rosarito, where we would all buy inexpensive SIM cards for the month at either one of the many OXXO convenience stores along the main drag of Rosarito. Since there is a Telcel office on this street as well, it was easy to iron out any cell phone issues before we continued on our way. Here is everything you need to know about getting a SIM card in Mexico: https://www.traveloffpath.com/sim-card-mexico/
After John had the first flat of the trip (on his “super durable” tires, no less, and on the very first 20k!), the second leg was an easy shoreline ride to our first day’s destination: Puerto Nuevo. This first ride of our trip was short and sweet, and otherwise without hitches–and tere were no complaints of saddle-soreness!
Puerto Nuevo was a small, touristy, rectangular village of more than a dozen seafood restaurants, all seemingly starving for business. We picked one at the south end of the village (Villa Ortega’s) that had a lovely seaside view as well as a large area in plain sight to lock up bikes.
We had a great lunch there, and we had the place to ourselves. Massive American-sized portions–Tony couldn’t get through half of his meal! But for all of us, the beer all went down easily somehow–the body just knows what it needs in the form of electrolyte replenishment–even for those driving!
Just a few hundred meters down the road, the beachside Puerto Nuevo Baja Hotel was our stop for the evening. It was almost deserted, but with a gentle ocean breeze and poolside seats in 23°C weather, it was nice to relax there. Mark tried the outdoor, unheated pool–brisk, to say the least!–which could not have been more than 15°C (nights there are only 10°C), but he had no problem with their 37°C hot-tub.
With lots of time left in our day, it was a good afternoon to get organized and set our routines. We created a WhatsApp group with our new cell phone numbers, and started strategizing the next day’s ride–when to leave, who would be driving, where will we stop, etc. While John sorted things out on his phone poolside, Ken…took a nap.
Day 2: Puerto Nuevo to Maneadero, 83K
Wednesday, January 8: On our second day riding, we continued south on Hwy 1. John and Ken volunteered to drive the van 53 k to El Sauzal, a small town just before Ensenada, where they could park the vehicle on the main drag, and then ride back to meet us.
For the riders, the route from Puerto Nuevo started on a quiet seaside road (Highway 1), which turned inward, under the toll highway, where it climbs about 800m on a highway that is super quiet and in great shape. A long winding downhill was a welcome relief after 3+ hours and 55k of riding.
El Sausal also proved to be a good spot for lunch–traffic noise notwithstanding, we found a traditional open air Mexican restaurant well attended by locals, due to its convenient location and variety of traditional dishes. Hot tip: Check out the noisy roadside taqueria in El Sauzal called El Trailera–great fresh food, made in an open air kitchen right in front of you, with very reasonable prices.
The ride after lunch was a significant contrast to the morning’s route. As we approached Ensanada, traffic increased, becoming a very busy, noisy 4 lane highway, and with almost continuous ruts and potholes. There were virtually no shoulders and lots of dirt and sand on the road as well, making for a challenging ride. Most of the next 30k going through the city of Ensenada was also daunting, dodging parked cars, big semi trailers, and local buses stopping frequently.
The traffic only seemed to ease as we reached the town of Maneadora, a gritty working town with large sort dirt shoulders.
The Hotel Hacienda de Choix was just outside the town, up a sketchy (for cyclists)dirt road, but was otherwise clean and comfortable, A warm shower and a cold beer were welcome rewards by the end of this day. A visit to the freshly filled cooler in the back of the van had become a vital part of our daily arrival ritual!
Since John and Ken drove from EL Sauzal to our days’ final destination at Maneadero, they opted to replace some of the missing saddle mileage by doing an out and back to the coastline. This is their description of it:
“After the main ride arrived at the hotel, we two van drivers rode from the hotel back down to Highway 23, which took us westward along a very nice flat road with wide shoulders through an agricultural setting and along the shoreline to the point at the tip of the bay looking back at Ensanada. This out-and-back was approximately 40 km. Definitely a pleasant ride with very little traffic.”
Our Mexican night was again cool–perhaps 4-5°C outside, without any heat source in the hotel room–so we slept in our clothes! Since it gets dark–very dark–early in rural Baja, we were all in bed early, to rest for a bigger day tomorrow.
Day 3: Maneadero to Hotel Paraiso Colonet, Punta Colonet, 103K
Thursday, January 9: This day would prove to be the longest ride so far. The first 25K had light traffic on good quality roads and wide shoulders. This section of Hwy 1 was known as a “ruta vinicola”, with lots of vineyards in a green valley. A mountain pass with lots of construction followed, and slowed progress somewhat, but it was otherwise a fine morning despite rain in the forecast. The highway’s shoulder, generous in the early going would disappear completely for most of the rest of the day. fortunately, traffic was sparse, and most accommodating when vehicles passed us.
Mark and Ross drove the vehicle all the way to the final stopping point, The Hotel Paraiso Colonet just outside the town of Punta Colonet, another dusty working town with minimal paved roads. From there, they rode back to meet the rest of the group doing the whole point-to-point ride. Rain which had been forecast for the early afternoon and evening, affected our ride with a light drizzle for the last half hour only.
The hotel proved to be very quiet, and arguably the best made building in the whole community. It had a restaurant, but no chef, so, after another beer, chips and nuts afternoon replenishment, we ventured into town to find what was available for dinner, although nothing had jumped out at us when we first rode through the town.
And it was Tony who let his Italian biases come out when we saw a sign for Benny’s Pizza. It turned out our dinner stop here was much better than expected–if you ever you are driving through, their house specialty pizza is one of the best pizzas you will ever have! We brought our own beer in, and Don and Tony, ever the wine aficionados on our tour, found some rosé at one of the few local stores that sold alcohol. We ate our fill, and drove back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep, again in a wonderfully quiet, dark setting just beyond the town limits.
Day 4: Punta Colonet to Misión Hotel Santa Maria, San Quintín, 84K
Friday, January 10: Contrary to how the previous day ended, the morning was clear and sunny, although, once again, cool. Mark’s recurring sciatic symptoms were enough for him to volunteer to drive to the next hotel destination, and dropping his laptop on the rock-paved parking lot just added to his day (It would fail to work properly for the rest of the trip, impairing the ability to keep this blog up to date).
On the highway, five riders wearing several layers took on a very flat, straight ride, first through a significant agricultural area, spotted along the way with a few more small dusty towns. The road shoulders were again minimal (and sometimes no existent) throughout this section of Hwy 1, while the towns provided enough traffic to make this ride more work than pleasure.
San Quintín was the most notable town we passed through, advertised as the hub of a tourist and recreational destination in the middle of Baja Norte, boasting lots of points of interest, restaurants and hotels nearby, yet itself looked like just another dusty Mexican town.
At the end of the ride, and well off the highway, through a lovely boulevard of trees, the Misión Hotel Santa Maria was a welcome sight–it was situated behind the large greenhouses of Rancho Los Pinos, and right in the middle of an expansive, almost empty beach that stretched for miles in both directions.
The rooms were great, complete with a balcony sitting area (that we hung our washing on!) and a lovely view of the water as we coiffed a couple of “recovery” beers in our rooms.
The beach was all but empty, but a few of us strolled out to touch the water with our toes as the sun was setting. Except for a few trucks owned by clamdiggers parked on the hard packed sand, we had the place to ourselves.
By sundown, we found the hotel’s onsite restaurant, where we had some standard choices, along with beer and our first margaritas of the trip.
Day 5: San Quintín to El Sacrificio, 95K
Saturday, January 11: After an unremarkable night at the La Misión Hotel Los Pinos south of San Quintin, we set out just after 8AM from this beach property to return to Hwy 1 anticipating our longest and most demanding ride to date: 100k to a truck stop/RV park (called Loncheria el Descanso) that needed 1000m of climbing to get there. And we would be camping for the first time–yes, pulling out our tents and Thermarests to endure the elements! And perhaps the cacti, the scorpions and the rattlesnakes too…
It was a lovely morning to ride. The highway was again sparsely travelled, and there was minimal climbing needed to get to our lunch stop at El Rosarito, the day’s half-way point. John drove the van to a parking area near an outdoor restaurant, and rode back to meet the group to get some riding in before lunch.
While most of the group was happy to take on lunch at a modest roadside restaurant, Mark decided to skip lunch, in favour of getting an early start to the significant climbing ahead, before the afternoon got too warm. Ross seemed very willing to forego the 1000m of afternoon climbing, offering to drive so that John could ride the afternoon’s hilly section route. So while Ross shopped for fresh ice and beer after lunch, Mark got to within 1 km the end of the ride before Ross caught up to him in the van and picked him up, a point often repeated later (e.g., “Too bad Mark didn’t finish the ride”).
Since the RV site we had planned on camping at was unexpectedly closed (Loncheria el Descanso), our evening’s destination would prove to be a restaurant/truck stop called Sacrificio, just 4k short of the RV campsite. No big deal–it would be cheaper, if not a bit more informal.
Sacrificio proved to be a great stop. Since Mark and Ross were about an hour ahead of the rest of the group, they explored a dusty but well-travelled side road behind this truck stop, hoping to find some suitable camping site. Instead, though they quickly entered a photogenic valley of beautiful and myriad varieties of cactus, many of which were no doubt several centuries old. They took some pictures of these beauties, but otherwise returned to the small restaurant just as the others arrived.
At Sacrificio, the family who lived there were wonderfully accommodating. They allowed us to set up tents on their property, where they were scraping out a living serving truckers willing to stop for a meal. The couple were likely in their forties, and had 4 kids, all of which helped in the restaurant, which doubled as their living room when no one was stopping by.
The beat-up, weathered tools parked outside gave clues to the need to be a jack-of-all-trades to live out here in the desert: a grader, a forklift, a tractor, a plow, a pickup truck, a car, and even a hearse were randomly parked among small sheds and other equipment, which included cisterns, propane tanks, PVC pipes, pallets, mesquite firewood, fencing, a concrete mixer, and the like.
Inside the restaurant, though, it was pretty clear who ran the show. The middle-aged mom was the family and restaurant cook, as well as likely the chief financial officer. We watched her shrewdly negotiate–for hours!–with a (probably not coincidentally) overweight persistent purveyor of corner store sundries. Meanwhile, the kids were all willing to engage in discussion with us–if only we were better at Spanish. We asked them about schooling–and were surprised to learn that a school bus picked them up daily to take them 50k to school. Since they had wifi (which we overwhelmed while we stayed there), the kids were all pretty internet savvy. (Hey, they just charged us 20 pesos for some evening access when they turn their generator on).
Come evening, the air temp outside cooled quickly, so we were grateful to be inside having a home cooked meal of chicken breast with rice, beans and vegetables. For 20 pesos, we all bought some slow internet access for a couple of evening hours. So for Mark, it was difficult to keep up this blog up to date that night!
Since it still gets dark early here, and there was little else to do, other than read (what a concept!). we were all in bed by 8-8:30, each in our one man tents (and Mark in his van)–hoping to resist the plunging temperatures that evening. And plunge they did!
Day 6: El Sacrifcio to Misión Cataviña, 77k
Sunday, January 12: We had a cool, clear, and starry night in the high desert camping in the moonlight–it was nice.
It was punctuated only with occasional vehicle passing by our truck stop, a brief serenade from some howling coyotes, and a friendly tent-to-tent chat (at 2AM!) among those who affected by John’s snoring (it was probably only the freezing temperatures that prevented a full-scale uprising, and kept John alive that night).
By 6:30 dawn was breaking, and by 7AM the stories of survival were well underway, especially after it was noticed that there was a layer of frost on the tents, the bikes, and the van’s windshield—it had clearly dropped below zero overnight! Two other vans (from Quebec) were parked nearby overnight, and they had struggled with the cold as well.
Breakfast and a warm drink was in the cards for almost everyone except Mark, who had slept in the van. Since he was not a breakfast eater or coffee drinker, he was ready to set off on the day’s ride—a 77k high plain leg on Hwy 1 to another Misión hotel in the small truck-stop village of Cataviña.
While the rest of the crew had a home-cooked breakfast at Sacrificio, Mark left at 8:30 with 4 layers on, below a reflective jacket, given that the air temperature just a few degrees above zero. Promisingly, the sun was beginning to climb over the horizon, but it would be 3 hours of riding before the first layer came off.
Today was another lovely ride. The highway was smooth and mostly flat, with only occasional curves and modest undulations. Traffic remained sparse all day, making the lack of a shoulder but a minor inconvenience.
The day’s only challenge was a thermal headwind that had developed by midmorning, making the flat and downhill sections a little less rewarding. And while most of the ride was over a long flat desert mesa, with many broad tabletop plateaus, the topography changed dramatically in the last 15k, where spectacular boulders, some graffitied, many as big as houses, became the dominant feature of the desert as they dwarfed the saguaro cactus forest.
Since it was a shorter ride than the previous day, and that there were no clear stopping spots listed, the plan was to push the whole distance without a lunch break, albeit with short stops every 20-30 minutes for water. Interestingly, there were several truck-style small restaurants along the way (some even offering wi-fi!), so 4 riders stopped for a quick bite.
Of course, beer would wait to the end of the ride, which proved to be about 4 hours long. Although Ken drove the vehicle directly to the hotel in Cataviña, his out-and-back mileage to meet the crew was the longest of the day–perhaps because of a slow start in the cold for the rest of the riders.
The architecture of the Misión Hotel Cataviña was similar to its sister hotel outside of San Quintín, where we stayed just two nights before. It seems almost out of place here, given how few people live here; it had a modest unheated outdoor pool, a cozy bar, and a well-stocked restaurant. The rooms were comfortable and climate controlled. However, despite how expensive the rooms were, wifi was not included (30 pesos per hour, or 1GB for 240 pesos).
After a well-deserved shower, a few beers, and some snacks (Medjool dates, peanuts, potato chips and Tony’s cookies made the rounds), we had dinner in the hotel restaurant, with most enjoying either a single or a double shot margarita on ice. After 6 days of riding, we were all pretty spent, and in bed by 9 AM. We would all sleep much better in our climate-controlled environments.
Day 7: Rest day
Monday, January 13: It is nice to wake up without an imposed schedule to get ready to ride. Since it was a sunny day, there was time for domestic stuff–everyone did some laundry, to dry in the courtyard, and breakfast was a Tony-crafted fruit salad, along with granola and/or some of Mark’s muesli. Ross spent much of his time sorting out the nuances of his new Garmin tracking device; Ken borrowed one of Ross’s books (since he lost his Kobo), but promptly was seen napping outside; and John led the rubber-gloved charge on bike servicing, cleaning and oiling chains, while resetting derailleurs where needed.
Having another dinner in the hotel’s restaurant allowed us to try other things on the menu. Although Tony’s gut had been grumbling for a day or two, he ordered a burger with all the fixin’s…but did not get through it. He left quietly to retire for the night. We would get the full report the next morning.