I woke with the roosters at 5:47, but put my pillow over my head and managed to eke out another 30 minutes of sleep. I was hoping for an early start, but as I was packing my gear I found my rear tire was flat with two punctures. Goatheads all around the building. Not a problem, I am swimming in spares now. By the time I had the tube replaced it was 7 and the restaurant had opened so I stuck around for coffee and eggs and left around 8. No matter how I try, I always seem to leave around 8.
Today was more of the same. Long boring stretches, with rolling hills just to make one tired for no reason. I spent most of the day lost in my head. About 20 miles or so from La Paz I ran into some road construction. There was a rough, dusty stretch of about 2 or 3 miles, which wasn't any fun except that as I got passed by a truck pulling a camper who would I see but Chris and Heather from Ciudad Constitucion! It turns out that I dodged a bullet when the three of us went out for dinner two nights previous. We'd gone to a pizza place (the only restaurant in walking distance from the trailer park) and while I went vegetarian they had meat toppings. Both of them had come down with a violent case of food poisoning leaving them too weak to ride and were hitching a ride to La Paz with a German couple pulling a trailer. We stopped and chatted a bit and the Germans refilled my water bottles with ice water (cubes, even).
La Paz is a big, busy city. The only reason I went all the way in was to make it to the malecon, for no good reason other than to say I pedaled there. Not a good reason at all in retrospect, as I then had to turn and pedal back out to the entrance of the city to find a hotel that wasn't overpriced or too sleazy to contemplate (several hotels advertised hourly rates... no thanks, I'll not be laying my head there).
Heather and Chris.
The Quesnel Bikers
Very nice people. Before my trip I was following their blog to see how they managed the leg from Tijuana to Ensenada. When I read that they had to detour up the big hill at La Mision I made my decision to cross the border at Tecate.
"The German"
He and his wife are spending a year cruising very slowly down Baja, staying for weeks at a time at various spots. They used to camp where Villa del Palmar is now...
Paying it forward!
At an inspection point before La Paz I was approached by this man asking if I had a pump. One of the tires on his truck had a bad valve and the tire had gone flat. Have I got pumps! I have mine, I have Daniel's, and I have a fancy pump I bought in Guerrero Negro that is Presta/Schrader compatible without any need to convert. I bought it with the idea of gifting it to Daniel (haven't worked out how yet), and it worked just fine to get these guys going again.
