Barbarosa - 1-29-2011 at 09:48 AM
(The most amazing) Sh^H^H^stuff Happens on a Harley
How many "Trips of a Lifetime" does one dood get? The ride by itself would rank as an outstanding experience. The chance encounters that occur on
the road make it extraordinary.
The best rides in Baja are in the south half of the peninsula, Baja California Sur. We had just ridden into the southern state (and I had just
endured one of those take-everything-
apart inspections of the bike). We pulled into a "campground" on the outskirts of Guerrero Negro. Actually it was just a parking lot behind The
Malarrimo restaurant and bar, but it did have clean flush toilets and hot showers -- life's little luxuries. We set up our tents and hit the
restaurant for dinner, where we enjoyed a very memorable dinner. (Regrettably, they were out of abalone.) I had already picked up a pattern among my
2 riding buds: they hit the sack shortly after dinner (as in 7:30!). I don't.
I suggested a game of pool as a way to prolong the evening. It worked to a point. They stayed up until 8:30. In the meantime, we were joined by a
30-ish couple who were also camping on their way north, heading home to Soledad, Calif. My buds headed off to bed, and I hung out shooting pool and
drinking cervesa with new friends Kim and Joe. After the patrons of the restaurant cleared out, the hired help (waiters and bartenders) joined us in
pool, while still keeping the cervesa flowing.
At 10:30, Joe bowed out and headed to their tent. Kim and I hung with the hired help until 12:30, at which point one of them asked if we wanted to
head into town and go dancing? Hell, yes! (I felt *obligated* to tag along, you know, look after the wellfare of the fair lass. <g>) We all
(6) piled into an old small Japanese car and headed "into town."
Kim is blonde and built like a brick chicken house. I wasn't the only one to notice this. The locals loved this standout gringo. As is local
custom, they would approach me to ask permission to dance with her. (Permission was freely granted.) Kim loved dirty dancing. She also enjoyed
showing off her pretty black lace bra. We partied and danced and consumed immense quantities of cervesa for hours. (She kept up with me 1 for 1!)
Finally, the 2 of us and whatever hired help was still standing piled into the car and headed back to the "camp."
Kim's tent was a couple of hundred feet from our group's tents.
As she tried to slip quietly in, her boyfriend, Joe (remember Joe?), indicated serious displeasure. I don't know whether she woke him up, or he was
just lying there peeed, but I could hear him bellowing at the top of his lungs: "F*CK YOU! F*CK YOU! F*CK YOU! ...." What he lacked in
articulation, he made up for in intensity. Obviously she had had way too much fun, and he subscribes to the notion that it ain't ok for others to
have more fun than he does. The next morning he wouldn't speak to me. ("If they can't take a joke, .....") Guess it's a good thing they make it
really hard to pack heat down there.
Travel note: My buds who go to bed at 8 get up before dawn. I managed only a couple of hours of sleep before we were up and off for the next day.
From there, we had a short day to San Ignatio, a magnificent high desert oasis with a small lake and thousands of palms, a really beautiful little
Mexican town, off the "highway" so it hasn't been consumed by touristas. We met a young couple, Simon and Denise, who were hitch-hiking and riding
buses through Baja. They found one seat in our chase car and then somehow got it right. Simon, a bright articulate Aussie of 24, took that seat;
Denise, a delightful and remarkably worldly-wise 19 year old cutie from the SF bay area, rode on the back of my bike. (God, don't you just HATE when
that happens?) At the bottom of that drop into Santa Rosalia I pulled off at the shore. She jumped off excitedly and told me that now she needs a
boyfriend with a Harley. I suggested that she better find a 35 year old, because I worry about her on the back with some 20 year old. WAY too much
testosterone.
I oughtta dig out the picture of the 2 of us sitting on my bike in front of that massive Bougainvillea at Villa Maria Isabel in Mulege, hoisting a
couple of Pacificos. Or maybe not. Actually not one of my wife's favorite pix. <g>
Oh, you said "current trip." Sorry. I don't have one yet. This one was from November, 1996.