In this blog I am adding some images from my second stay in Loreto at the end of the bike tour. I met with Carol and we are enjoying a two week vacation in this Pueblo Magico.
I spent two days in Pasada Concepcion. The beach is beautiful. It is a small retirement community. I stayed at a bed-and-breakfast. The downside of the place is that it’s quite noisy because of its proximity to the highway. Besides one restaurant, there are no other services in Posada Concepcion. It is Wi-Fi land, there is no cellular signal in the area.
This was the last stage of my bike tour. I tried to leave early to make it to Loretto by 3 o’clock. I was supposed to meet with Carol who was flying in from Seattle at 3PM. I left around 8:45 and the first 15 miles or so of the ride were incredible. Bahia Concepcion is just beautiful.
Once I left Bahia Concepción there was a climb and then I descended to the Las Palmas restaurant where I had a quick quesadillas lunch and continued riding. It got really hot, I remember seeing up to 88° on my Garmin. The ride was more hilly then what I remember from the ride in the opposite direction. Overall I climbed around 4000 feet on this ride. I arrive to Loreto around 3:30, only about half an hour late. I was happy to wrap up my touring and start a two week vacation in Loreto.
I will add a blog with more pictures from Loreto and I will also add a summary of my Mexico bike tour in a separate blog.
This was a very short stage. I was essentially moving from a town to a beach and getting a little closer to Loreto so I can make it to Loreto in one day. I plan to ride to Loreto on Saturday 2/4/2023, it should be my last stage. 😀
This was a relatively simple stage. The wind was favorable. On the left side I could occasionally see the Sea of Cortez. On the right side I saw the hills with the clouds sitting on top of them. It drizzled a couple times, but not a lot. Towards the end there was a little bit of climbing going up the hills and then down towards Mulege. The temperature was in the low to mid sixties.
In Mulege I checked into my favorite hotel and had a fantastic steak dinner from the grill. The hotel restaurant made a fire in the fire place. It was nice to warm up by the fire.
When I woke up in the morning and looked outside it looked gray, but when I stepped outside and saw that it was drizzling and wet everywhere it surprised me. I walked to the coffee place, I had two cappuccinos and a cake. I waited for a little bit and then decided to leave. It was drizzling on and off pretty much the whole ride. It was quite cold at the highest section of the right. It was a little above 1600 feet. I put my jacket on and off several times.
I did the same ride in the opposite direction a little less than two weeks ago and I was surprised how different it is going the other way. I did not recognize some sections at all. The ride over the hilly section towards the end was quite exciting. The descent towards the Sea of Cortez was spectacular at times. In Santa Rosalía I went straight to Hotel Frances where I stayed last time and I also got the same room as last time. I was happy to reach the hotel and get off the bike. Riding in wet conditions is not fun.
San Ignacio is a very cute little village. It is a hub for whale watching tours in San Ignacio Lagoon. It got significantly more busy compared to my last visit. It went from sleepy to vibrant.
I am adding more images of San Ignacio. I tried to capture the best I could see around here.
I stayed at a different hotel this time, the Desert Inn. It is a very stylish old hotel. I really enjoy the ambience of the hotel. Some pictures are from the hotel.
This was a relatively easy ride. I tried to leave early so I can get to San Ignacio earlier and have a better chance of finding a hotel for the night. When I was leaving town a group of dogs chased me, but once I got away from their mini road territory, they let me go and turned back.
I found a room at the stylish old Desert Inn in San Ignacio and I immediately had a quick lunch with a couple Coronitas. These are tiny Coronas.
This was a long stage, little over 70 miles and on my heavy touring bike this can be a challenge. The weather was beautiful and the forecast called for mostly favorable wind and it indeed turned out that way
The dead sea areas with salt were very interesting. Towards the end of the ride I saw a bike race or an organized bike training ride. I wasn’t quite sure, there is a video at the end of this blog.
In Villa Alberto Andrés Alvarado Arámburo I checked into the same hotel as last time, and I even got the same room that I had last time.
I was worried about this stage because of its length and also because of the possibility of bad wind, but I made it and it was not so hard. 😀
I knew I had a long day ahead of myself. I tried to get up early and also leave early. I managed to leave a little bit after 9 AM. The beginning of the ride was very boring with a flat long straight road and it got more interesting as I continued riding. The wind was in my favor for most of the ride and in some areas it was just perfect. However, around mile 50 I started to feel a little tired. I had a bottle of Coca-Cola regular with me and I was also eating some trail mix bars. There were a lot of interesting dead sea areas with salt close to the road. Towards the end I could also see mountains or hills on the horizon.
As I was riding this long stage with tailwind I was thinking how will I get back? I looked at windy.com website I think the winds may turn around on Saturday, so I’m hoping to take advantage of that but it’s a long shot at this point.
Thanks to the tailwind I arrived in Bahia Asunción relatively early. I went straight to the La Bufadora Inn and I got a room with a great view. More on Bahia Asunción is in my next blog.
Bahia Asuncion is a nice little village. I believe there’s about 3000 inhabitants there. I stayed at a place with a gorgeous view of the Pacific. The innkeepers at the inn where I stayed were very nice. We had dinner together all three nights and they took me out for an off-road trip in their jeep to some secluded beaches. It was very adventurous.
I visited two restaurants and one hamburger/hotdog place. There are several stores in Bahia Asuncion. Fishing is a popular activity. I stayed three nights, one day more than planned because I was waiting for good wind to get me back to the main highway from this remote location.
Overall, I would recommend Bahia Asuncion to anyone adventurous looking for a place off the beaten path.
I turned around and started heading back towards Loretto today. I was already planning to leave yesterday, but as I wrote in my previous blog, it was raining. I was expecting an easier ride, but after about 10 miles or so the headwind/crosswind kicked in, and it was kind of difficult almost all the way till the end. I tried a different hotel today and it seems to be nicer than the one where I stayed last time. However, it is a longer walk to the restaurant for dinner.
I arrived in Guerrero Negro relatively early on Saturday. I looked at several hotels as I was riding through town. None of them look very appealing. At the end of the town in a residential neighborhood I went to an AirBnb and I decided to stay there. I was the only guest. The host pointed me to a whale touring company. I booked a tour with them for the next day. They agreed to pick me up. There was no restaurant nearby so I had to walk about a mile to town to have dinner.
After eating a nice breakfast in the house prepared by the host I was picked up by the touring company and went for a briefing to their headquarters. The total cost was $50. There were nine of us in the boat. From their headquarters they took us to the dock by a little bus. The tour took approximately three hours, and it was very interesting to see the whales. They are huge, but seem to be very mellow and calm. There were lots of whales out there. Better than words, are the videos that I added to this blog. At the end of the tour we received a bag lunch and they drove us back to town. The dock was about 15 minutes outside of town by the bus. All together it was very good.
There is a salt making company in town. It is very big. You can see a few pictures below. We drove by it on the way to the whale watching lagoon.
In the evening, I again walked to town for dinner. In the morning I got up and I was ready to leave town. However, I looked outside and it was gray and raining. I decided to stay another day and the host was flexible to let me stay. I went for a cake and a cappuccino. I goofed around the house and I worked on this blog. In the evening I am planning to go to another restaurant for dinner. It’s going to be a longer walk and hopefully I can leave tomorrow morning after spending a total of three nights here. The bed-and-breakfast place is very nice, and I essentially have it all for myself.
I was worried about the wind on this almost flat open plane stage. It was really windy in the morning when I got up. I got out of town and I had wind coming exactly from the right side. Pretty soon I reached a mellow, left hand turn and the crosswind turned into slight tailwind. It stayed like that for a long time. At some point there was almost no wind, and when I was approaching the Pacific, I got north west wind, which was essentially headwind for the last 5 miles or so. Overall no interesting scenery on the stage and it was not very difficult.
As I mentioned in my previous blog my whale watching trip to San Ignacio Lagoon was canceled because of windy weather. I had to change plans. I decided to continue biking up north.
All was going well for a while, but as I got away from the oasis area, I realized why they canceled the whale watching. The wind really kicked in and I had strong headwind for most of the ride. It was quite painful to fight the wind on the endless open flat plane and watch the almost static mile count on the Garmin.
After more than 4.5 hours I reached the little town Villa Alberto Andrés Alvarado Arámburo. I found a budget road side hotel, it was not great 😊 but way better than riding in the wind. I went to the closest restaurant with very poor ambience. I had low expectations, but the beef fajitas and fish taco were one the best I had in Mexico so far. And I slept well even in the budget hotel.
