We have crossed the 28th parallel and have entered Mountain Time Zone. Even though the sun still sets at exactly the same time here as it did yesterday, it is now an hour forward. We are in Guerrero Negro, at the very northern end of Baja California Sur. Guerrero Negro is well known for its salt processing refineries and the lagoons just west where grey whales come down in the thousands to give birth and nurse young little whales into life. Although I will not go on any tours to see the whales out in the lagoon, I did get the chance to see a huge whale skeleton. Quite impressive. Other than these few things, there is not much in Guerrero Negro. There are many hotels and restaurants catering to this tourism, but it is a hard time for tourism, and much of the streets, shops, hotels, and cafes remain dusty and empty.
I was hoping to fix my bike pump in this town, which broke one frustrating morning on a desert road several days back. I have visited every mechanic and the one store that sells bikes in town, and no one seems to know how to fix it, or to want to help me fix it, even after explaining to them the dire circumstances I will be in if one of my innertubes pops or goes flat out in the desert. They simply tell me that its broken, to which I respond, thank you for telling me the obvious and I walk away confused as to why no one wants to help me. Luckily, Laurel has a pump, but I do not like to rely on other people, and seeing as how I eventually will leave her, I am quite pressed to try and find a solution to this problem. I will most likely end up leaving this town without a solution, and will try to find that solution in a bigger town with better bike stores...
Since the last post, we headed east and up. We climbed a couple thousand feet (between 2000 and 3000) and rolled up and down hills on a plateau in the Valle de Los Cirios, a nature preserve here in Baja. It was pure desert, but quite beautiful. There was every type of cactus there you could imagine, including one, the Cirio, which only grows in this place, even though scientists have tried to reproduce it in labs and greenhouses outside of this environment. It got cold at night, and one night howled with wind and some rain and kept me up most of the night. We would ride miles and miles without seeing any civilization, and when that finally came, it would be one store in the middle of nowhere - a rest stop for truckers to change a tire, grab some chips and soda - and move on. It was in these one store towns that we would fill up our water bottles and move on to find the next campsite. We finally came out of the valley yesterday and rode into Guerrero Negro after thirty miles of the flattest, plainest road I have ever ridden. This straight road cut a path from the desert back to the coast and had no scenery except for small shrubs, sand, and one electric pole after another, lining our way toward...
Besides the pump, another brutal loss was my camera. It took a fall one day four feet to the ground and refused to turn on since. I tried my best to fix it, but to no avail. I salvaged the batteries and the memory card, and threw the rest away in a trash bin in Rosario. I have been adament about having Laurel take pictures, and when we finish our time together, there has been some talk about her passing on the camera to me, which was in itself passed on to her by a friend. So for the time being, Im sorry to say there will be no more pictures for a little while.
I have been biking a lot, and although my body still feels fine, it is tired. We slept last night in a cheap motel room, and I loved every second I spent in the bed. Even though we were promised hot water, there was none. And I mean no water, not even cold, until this morning, which added to my disappointment of this meager village.
I look forward to moving on, and relaxing by the warm shores of the sea of cortez. We will most likely hang out the rest of the day, rest our bones, and camp somewhere just outside of town tonight, and then start moving again in the morning.
Until next time,
Chris
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