Tijuana to Puerto Penasca (Rocky Point) Mexico

Another awesome sunny day of riding – had a great Mexican breakfast with David and Eva and enjoyed some warm weather while packing the bikes.

We rode south to Rosarito to catch a bypass road north and east towards Tecate. After missing a left turn for the bypass connecter we had to pull a U turn but couldn’t do it for a couple blocks. Pulling the U turn and heading back up we were sucked into a check point and searched for the first time. Kind of funny cause we just rode by these guys on the road and came back – but they looked thru each of our bikes sort of cursorily.

We rode on some great roads up and thru the mountains on the way over to Mexicali. They are proud of these roads judging by the tolls they charge to drive on them – by the time we got to Rocky Point I think we probably paid about $20 for each bike on the toll roads. In places we could see the free (Libre) road and it looked pretty decent – but we needed to make some time today and get some miles behind us.

We stopped for a break at an overlook and while we were enjoying the view a truck pulled up and a guy came out to look at the bikes. He came over to talk to Dan and the Dan’s school kid Spanish got pressed into service. Thankfully, Carlos could speak better English than Dan’s Spanish and we got to have a good chat about the bikes and his family. He gave us a couple chocolate bars from his truck and we had him sign our bikes with the sharpie. Gracias Carlos!!!

The run from Mexicali to Sonoyta on Mex 2 was pretty flat and and straight. The GPS was showing that we were frequently within about 50 feet of the US Border and you could see the huge fence running along the border. A regular reminder that the difference in “opportunity and higher wages” lay just a short distance away. You can’t really see how big this fence is in the picture but it is huge – at least 10 feet tall and made of steel and it runs for miles and miles

We quickly filled up in Sonoyta and hustled down to Rocky Point – arriving at sunset and breaking the first rule of traveling down here – don’t drive at night. Thankfully we had some daylight while arriving but the risks of being on the road at night are too great and we will avoid it going forward.

Lastly – We’ve not had one drop of rain on us since leaving from John’s house a week ago today. Extraordinary really – so we’re thinking of running a little contest to guess the date when you think we will get rained on – just  leave a comment for the blog and claim your date… Earliest guess for a particular date wins and we’ll figure out a goofy prize for the winner. Like a worn out Michelin tire….