Santa Rosalia – Loreto (Baja California Sur): Cacti, Hills, Heat and Sun 23rd - 26th November

Our next day of cycling was thankfully very straightforward. A very long and largely straight road was punctuated by a small hill in the morning, not to mention a very formidable prison and a lovely beach at San Bruno which broke up the usual scenery of cacti, desert and mountains.

We flew down into Mulegé after ascending a big hill at the end of the day. The town lies 3km in land from the Sea of Cortez, and is a lovely quaint little place, if a little gringofied but understandably so considering its pretty setting. It was there that we discovered how delicious fish tacos are and enjoyed a very comfortable night at Las Casitas hotel, which had a picturesque patio bursting with foliage and bougainvillea. The following day we set off at a very late hour down the coast, where the roads became increasingly hilly and steep. After passing several amazing beaches tucked away in between the dramatic hills of Bahía Concepción (unfortunately dominated by humungous RVs) we stopped for a night of camping at the beautiful Playa Requesón, supposedly one of the top 10 beaches in Mexico, according to Condenast magazine. It consisted of a short sand spit connecting Isla Requeson to the mainland, (but only when the tide’s not too high!).

We made ourselves, the tent and the bikes very cosy under a palapa (basically a little hut with two walls and a roof made of palm leaves to protect against the wind). While N went in for a refreshing dip in the water, Paul quite rightly got a 40 peso ($4) discount on the palapa rental (vehicles are charged 60 pesos). Our lovely American neighbours, Kenny and Peggy and kids, kindly introduced themselves with an offer of ice-cold beer (which tasted a lot better than the two warm cans of Tecate at the bottom of Paul’s panniers) while our Dutch neighbours offered N a very unexpected shower from the side of their hardcore German military truck (converted to an all-terrain RV). As we ate our boil in the bag Trader Joe’s rice, we watched the full moon rise over the bay lighting up the beach. The effect, however, was somewhat lost on N who couldn’t work out why everything (including the moon and the light from her headtorch) was so dark, until Paul perceptively pointed out to her that she was still wearing her prescription sunglasses. In the meantime, our dear neighbours made sure we didn’t go thirsty and poured some much-missed Rioja into our camping mugs, and later, as we finished off a most sociable evening around the fire with our various fellow campers, we enjoyed a few cheeky shots of tequila and brandy.

Naomi was surprised the next morning to find that Paul was actually capable of rising out of bed before 9, and was very pleased to have the rare opportunity to enjoy the 6am sunrise with him over a nice hot cup of tea. Much as we would have liked to stick around and enjoy the beach with our lovely neighbours, as always we had to pack up and leave in good time to cover the next 93km to Loreto before sundown at quarter to six. This was to be a more challenging day with a huge hill at the start of the day, followed by an sweeping descent to kilometres and kilometres of plains and straight, flat road running alongside La Sierra Gigante (one would never think that the mountains in Baja are so huge, but they are). Cycling in desert conditions is pretty demanding; the heat of the sun bore down quite intensely and towards the end of the day we were very pleased to find an unexpected Tecate (beer) sign indicating a scruffy little bar in the middle of nowhere, where we managed to get our hands on some very refreshing cold drinks. The guys there were pimping up their car (installing a beatbox) and we enjoyed a good discussion about European football (a luxury after being in the States for so long). Unfortunately, we were not going to reach our destination without having to climb in altitude once again, and as we were nearing the town the traffic became a little heavier too.

We arrived at our destination with a good half hour before sundown, luckily without the dogs to welcome us, and set ourselves up in the lovely Iguana Inn where we spent a very welcome two days’ rest. The town of Loreto also lies on the Sea of Cortez and has a reasonably maintained malecon (promenade) not to mention (the) Mother of all the Missions (see photos) in Baja California. Its tree-lined streets offer some welcome shade from the sun but gringo levels are high here due to the ’sustainable’ resort being built down the road in Nopoló.

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