(October 19 – written by Dave)

Today was water under the bridge.  Or should I say that we saw water under the bridge for the first time in Mexico.  There are almost no permanent rivers in Baja but they have a lot of bridges.  I guess that during hurricane season, they get some real gully washers.  The rest of the time there is no water.  We have crossed so many bridges with no water under them that I’ve lost track.  But today, when we arrived in Mulege, there was water under the bridge.  The Mulege River is flowing – I know, how exciting!

Stay tuned, we had a lot of ordinary life observations from today – it gets even better.

Before that, the logistics.  We were up early.  And so were 7 of the other 9 cyclists in our hotel.  I won’t recount the names here but it was all the usuals.  Frederik and Seb were ready to roll at 7:30 when we were so the four of us set off.  We made it about 500 meters before we had to stop for sunrise photos.  I hope that these aren’t getting too boring.  One today is particularly nice as Frederik got all arty on us.

We stopped for morning tea in a small town that had paved side roads.  Wow, that was nice.  I’m sure that the residents like it but we really like it.  No bumps and dust just to get an iced tea.  We found a shop a couple streets back.  The dog there was very cute (looks a bit like the old Taco Bell chihuahua, unlike the varmint that chased us earlier near Santa Rosalia.

We had a couple nice views after tea, including a distant road side cemetery that was very well kept.  The general scenery was quite nice with distant mountain views on the right and nice island/gulf views on the left.

Just as we were starting our last downhill into Mulege, we came upon a truck pulled over at a viewpoint.  We didn’t get his name but a nice German fellow from Bandon, Oregon insisted on giving all of us a can of coke.  He was a snowbird, having been spending winters here for about 30 years.  He said to come by his place for a visit if make it to his town – a wee bit off our route – a nice gesture regardless.

We were too early for lunch and hotel check-in when we reach Mulege so we took a lap out to the Mission.  On the way there, we spotted the aforementioned water under the bridge.  The mission is about 300 years old and in pretty good nick.  There are a couple guys there taking pictures for a museum that is being set up down in Cabo.  They had a 4-6 week old puppy that they found out off the highway that had adopted them – they were feeding it and taking it home – nice guys.

By now it was time to eat so we pulled into a touristic restaurant just off the highway.  I had one of the best meals I’ve had in Mexico – wow.  And Frederik’s was so good that he ordered a complete second meal.  The restaurant had their “Day of the Dead” decorations up – this is a big holiday at the end of the month – sort of like Halloween.  I think it’s a good day to not ride; we plan to be in La Paz then.

The boys and some of the other riders headed down to the sea for a free camping at a restaurant on the beach.  We invoked the “heat” rule and headed for the hotels.  We settled on one called Casitas.  We overpaid for what we got, coldish shower, patchy internet, TV only in the 3^rd room they tried and a whole bunch of things that are broken or no longer working.  At least the A/C is working!  Our friends at the beach don’t get that.

So, to the ordinary.  We tried out a couple new ice creams today.  They have a lot of the “normal” ice creams and of course you stick to what you know.  But today we decided to try something new.  The two selections below were both nice, if not a little small – maybe we should have ordered two each.

Next we headed to the market for supplies.  We planned on taking over the hotel courtyard to cook dinner.  We found everything we needed for veggie sandwiches w/ eggs.  And yes, we bought two eggs.  Here, the eggs come in 10×10 grids stacked several layers high.  You can by 1, 2 or 100, whatever you want.  We like this because we think we are getting fresher eggs.  But then again, you never know if eggs get move from rack to rack…

We spotted the “for sale” sign below while out walking.  There are a lot of properties for sale here.  And probably even more that are un-finished.  This place ticked both boxes so we snapped a shot for those readers who are realtors.  See, you don’t have to “spruce” things up to get ‘em on the market.  Just whack up a sign and hope for the best!

Tomorrow is another short day for us.  We only have 27 miles to ride to reach a sort of famous beach camping location.  There is supposed to be an American couple running the joint and it’s been on people’s stopping list for years.  They used to have just camping, they now also have some kind of rooms.  We have food for camping and are hoping to set up the tent – if it’s not too hot.  The plan is to spend two nights there before riding to Loreto and a few more nights off.  We are ahead of schedule and need to slow down before we reach La Paz and our study break.

(Kirti – the place you mentioned in Loreto looked great – it is closed however until 1/Dec – bummer)