Mission description

This is a blog about travel, adventure, charity, and bikes. It's the story of my trip from San Francisco to wherever the road ends.
My goals are:
(1) Get as far as I can south - cycling, hitching, or whatever - before my time and money run out.
(2) Try to understand social inequality in the areas I travel through, and to do what I can to help.
My tools are my trusty bike, Magnum, my thumb, this blog, and the following websites, for which I am an ambassador:
You can follow the adventure right here, and you can see how it all started, and what it's all about, using the tabs above. If you want to be notified of new posts, you can subscribe using the links down on the right, or by liking the Wheels of Fortune Facebook page.

Sunday 31 March 2013

Resting in Peace

Tuesday Feb 26th - Sunday March 3rd

A now familiar disorientation overtook me, as the quiet straight roads of the country I had been riding through for four days, gave way to busy roads, disgruntled traffic, and tangles of tarmac, in La Paz (Peace). Tired and hungry, I fumbled through the city, looking for a friendly taco stand. The beautiful malecon (beachside avenue) hardly registered while I searched. I had to settle for nachos at a cafe, and it took this sustenance, washed down with a coke, for my beautiful surrounds to sink in.

Along the malecon in La Paz
Holy shit a bike lane!
Not bad La Paz, not bad
As I sat, appreciating the view, I began to realize just how tired I was. I sat like this for quite a while, before finally riding off in the dark suburbia of La Paz, to find my newest friend, Joel. Joel was a friend of a friend in Ensenada, and had agreed to let me crash at his place for the few days I expected to be in La Paz. The plan was to rest for a few days, make some plans, and try to find a way across the Sea of Cortes to mainland Mexico. So after meeting Joel, and his dogs, and after settling in, rest I did.

Joel and his enthusiastic canine chums

However, instead of feeling refreshed, an unfamiliar sensation overtook me as, after a few days, I still felt exhausted. It took a full 5 days before I was feeling myself again. I never did manage to diagnose myself. The generalised muscle pain, burning sensation in my skin, fatigue, and malaise could have just been exposure, or a virus, or perhaps a bite from some animalito... or me just being soft. Who knows. Maybe I just got burned by that desert. At least it eventually all went away. I really needed that rest!

What did not leave was a stark and unfamiliar uncertainty about what the hell I was going to do next. It had always been so clear up until this point - Baja California is a one highway deal, and I simply had to get to La Paz, then get over to the mainland, and keep going until I hit Guatemala. I'm not sure whether it was the sudden multiplicity of ways I could go through the mainland, the inertia of my fatigue, or just that I hadn't had much time to think about it, but I was simply without inspiration - without the inspiration that had been with me for months beforehand. It was really quite unsettling.

While waiting for said inspiration to find me, Joel was kind enough to show me around La Paz the some of the beautiful beaches not far away. On Sunday we drove out to a beach called Tecolote, for a peculiar rock on one of the mountains, and cooked roast chicken on the beach with a couple of beers. Tasty food, good company, and a great location. Just another little slice of paradise. If I was to be anywhere with no idea where to go next, La Paz seemed a pretty alright spot.

La Playa Balandra
El Tecolote - the owl
El Tecolote in the hills
Asado en la playa
Espiritu Santo Island, from Tecolote Beach
What to do...

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Spin the black circles

Sun Feb 24th - Tue Feb 26th

From Ciudad Insurgentes, where we spent the night, the road turns south. We were pretty excited that the north-westerlies that had bothered us the day before, would today, and hopefully for all the remaining road to La Paz, be our friends. We thought we could pretty comfortably do the remaining 240 odd kilometres in two days with such friends, and so we took a pretty relaxed approach to the day. We spent a bit of time in town finding supplies and some bits and pieces we were missing, we stopped and chatted to four other bike tourists we met coming the other way, and generally enjoyed the flat roads with the wind at our backs.

Jacinthe, Beat, Aurelie, and Layko. Not necessarily in that order.
Into the sky
Unsurprisingly, I suppose, our relaxed attitude only took us 80km down the road before we found a nice little town, which was apparently the last one for a while. With this in mind, we stopped there and camped next to a church, thinking, perhaps a little optimistically, that we might be able to do the remaining 160km in one day, if we got up early and had the same great conditions.

We played our part and got up early next day, but we were more than a little disappointed to find that the had wind completely changed direction. Instead of friends in the wind, we found a fickle foe. We rode into the headwinds, and the day heated up. The uniform desert scenery, combined with the heat and the wind, meant the ride was a real grind - it was just gritting teeth and spinning circles. There was no way we were getting to La Paz that day, like we had planned!


It was pretty straight.
Relief relief.
The kilometres ticked over but slowly. At km 100 from La Paz we found a spot to have some lunch. Addresses on the highway are given as distances to the next city, which I quite like, so this place is simply called El Cien (the one-hundred). I looked down and saw my odometer had hit 2000km since San Fran, which was a pretty cool thing. Less cool was the 31 degrees it was registering in the shade. We continued on a little further until we arrived at the restaurant at km 77 close to sunset, the last real stop until La Paz. The owner was a cool guy, and said we could camp out the back.

El 2000 at El 100
Paul with a cold beer at km 77
The next day we woke up and had some breakfast at the restaurant, and were mightily confused when we tried to pay, because no-one seemed to want to accept our money. It turned out that the owner had given us breakfast on the house, because of what we were doing. Free breakfast, sweet! Thankful for the full stomachs, we resumed our positions on the road, as the wind and heat resumed theirs - in front of us, and all around us, respectively.

Baja is fairly dry.
The riding was again hard going, but uneventful until with about 37km to go, Paul broke a spoke. Crossing his fingers, he continued on, hopeful that he wouldn't break another, and that he could still make it to La Paz. I watched a little nervously, riding behind him. His trailer wheel was already wobbly, and now his rear wheel was wobbling even more. He assured me his front wheel was ok and that one out of three wasn't so bad. Seeing how close the trucks came to us on the road, I didn't like the idea of any sudden mechanical problem on a bike. So it was actually with some relief that I saw him pull over at km 30, after breaking another spoke. His wheel was now rubbing against the frame, and moving more than a few metres was impractical.

Paul was pretty frustrated to have to hitch, having gotten so close to La Paz, now visible in the distance, but he had no choice. We cracked a couple of light beers that I had been saving for the ride into La Paz, and sat on the side of the road. Paul's bike assumed the upside down 'help' position, and he stuck his thumb out. I still had 30km to ride, so after making plans to meet up in La Paz, or further down the Road, I once again set off. The rest of the ride was mainly downhill and actually pretty easy. The last I saw of Paul was an arm waving from the window of a passing truck, accompanied by the sound its horn, letting me know that he had found a ride.

Within sight of La Paz
Only 30km out, but it may as well be 100 with a bent wheel
Hasta la proxima Paul!

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Leaping Ligui

Saturday February 23rd

Paths by the sea, paths by mountains
Feeling refreshed after the day off, Paul and I set off on the first day of our 360km ride to La Paz. It was going to be an interesting day. While most of the road to La Paz was through flat desert, we were looking forward to the first part, which followed more of the beautiful Cortez coast. However, then we had to tackle Ligui, where the road turned abruptly west, and went steeply up the coastal range to the plains. This was supposed to be one of the toughest climbs for cyclists in Baja. After that it was flat, but there were no towns until Ciudad Insurgentes, which, if we made it there, would make for a 120km day - a big day, even without a big climb.

Somewhat to our surprise, the day went almost exactly as planned. The road from Loreto ran lazily along the coast, and the wind eased us gently from the north. The coastal range stood impressively on our right, warding the plains, while the Sea of Cortez glittered in the morning light to our left. Ligui kicked up steeply. Our gears were as low as they could go, and we trundled up the range, looping back and forth in switchbacks, catching our breath, and continuing on as the range eventually started to level out. The steepness diminished only slowly, seemingly bent on taking its time to tip us over into the gentle decline of the plains, but when it did, the straight line of those plains struck dramatically. And then it was flat. And straight. And we rode. The horizon brought Ciudad Insurgentes just before sunset. And we had made it.

it
looked
like
this





Paul and his trailer, on the start of Ligui
Paul, doing some hard yards further up
Just like a racetrack, only much, much slower. Going up at least...
Levelling out
This would be the plains then
Well, it's not completely flat I suppose
Sunset over Insurgentes
After asking around for cheap places to stay, and receiving shrugs and/or blank looks, someone eventually and kindly offered us their backyard for free. I gladly took them up on the offer, while Paul opted for the nearby hotel. We met up to have some beers to celebrate the 120km ride and the win over Ligui.

Saturday 9 March 2013

Friends in Loreto

Friday 22nd February

I had no idea what I was going to do that day. Keep cycling? Or hitch a ride? The next 50km past Loreto was along the coast, and presumably beautiful, but after that it was another 300km of desert to La Paz, where the ferry leaves for the mainland. I sought to prod my brain into brilliant decision-making action with some caffeine, and moseyed on into a cafe with wifi, needing also to assuage my connectivity dependence.

Sunrise in Loreto, from my tent
It was into this cafe that a big, bearded, dreadlocked Canadian by the name of Paul wandered. He was also touring on a bicycle, and had seen my steed parked outside. I was pretty excited to finally meet another bike tourist. I hadn't met one since I was in California. I had passed two while hitching a few days earlier, and I had heard rumour of one just ahead of me a couple of days before, only to be told by some randoms on the side of the road that I had just missed the other guy, as he had had to hitch due to mechanical problems, only minutes before I arrived.

It turned out that that person had been Paul, and the trailer he was towing behind his bike had broken, and he had hitched to La Paz to fix it. Paul also knew the two other guys I had seen, two Germans on a world tour, with whom he had ridden for a few days. They were also in Loreto that day.

Ze Germans were staying in town for a couple of days, but Paul was leaving the next morning, to ride to La Paz. I really liked the idea of riding with someone for a while, having not really ever having done it, except perhaps the couple of days with Candela right back at the start of the trip. I figured I could cool my jets that day, and use the extra time to fix my flats, switch tires, and do some necessary maintenance on my bike. I had made up some time hitching already, and was keen to be on my bike for more than just a couple of days, so I shelved the idea of hitching, knowing I'd have to do more later on anyway, and made plans to ride out with Paul the next morning.


Paul had found the brilliant Herman "Manni", who runs a bike shop in town. He had performed miracles with Paul's trailer, and helped my tweak some things on my own bike. After pulling twigs and rocks from the drivetrain, I discovered no less than 5 punctures in my tires from, it seemed, only the previous single day in the desert! Freakin cactus. Freakin pointy desert. I realised it was probably because I had kept stopping, and rolling my bike off the road to take photos. All of the punctures were from small thorns and spines from the bushes on the side of the road. Lesson learned!

Later, after getting my bike running smoothly again, I ran into the motocross guys who had given me a ride a couple of days ago. Then I met the Germans that Paul had been riding with, and it was pretty cool to realise that I had gone from waking up knowing no-one in town, except perhaps for a friendly security guard, to having a whole bunch of friends!

I split a cheap hotel room with Paul - I believe this was the second hotel I had stayed at in my year and 2 months of travelling - and bought myself some delicious fresh tortillas and other things for the ride the next day.


The extra day in Loreto, and the friends I had found there, had me thinking about how I was approaching my travelling. In particular, things like stealth camping in the desert, and on the beach, were kinda fun and saved me money, but they aren't all that social. Aside from simply having some company, if I wanted to spread the word about Open Volunteer and Angel Mule, perhaps somewhere with people would be better. I was beginning to think I should look for a few more hostels or RV parks, despite the extra cost. Similarly for food, I have had a lot of chance encounters with people at cafes and taco stands, which I wouldn't have had if I had been doing all my cooking myself. It was looking like it was worth doing these things a little more often too. Even if all this stuff did cost a little more, and hence shorten the trip somewhat, surely a richer, more enjoyable trip was better than stretching out my time, at the cost of these same things.


Friday 1 March 2013

Loreto bound, the sun smells too loud

Feb 21st

It was so beautiful in the bahia, that I was tempted to stop and spend the day and night at the very next beach, the isolated and beautiful, El Requeson, before pointing Magnum back into the desert. I ended up continuing though, partly because I was trying to get through Baja quickly now, but also I just had this strong feeling that I should be on the bike that day, and get to Loreto. Which I did, but not without some drama.

El Requeson in the afternoon...
...and in the morning
Yet another random beautiful beach. No-one there.
The road left behind the stunning bahia, and turned inland, back into the desert. The pointy, pointy desert. The road climbed through the red hills, and wound its way through yet more vast expanses of cacti. Though still amazing to cycle through, it was hot and it was dry. The mercury pushed up to 32 degrees. As the day leaned towards sunset, the winds picked up and tried to push me back, while the ground tilted up in front of me, with the same malintent. The environmental conspiracy began to take its toll on me. I wondered if I would get to Loreto in time, knowing there was pretty much nothing on the road until then, and that cacti would be my only company that night if I didn't make it to town. I had enough food and water to desert camp, I was pretty sure, so it would probably be fine... But I wanted to get there nonetheless, feeling the same urgency as I had in the morning about being on the road.






Teeth were gritted and pedals were mashed and things were looking ok time-wise, even when the overly chatty soldiers at the military checkpoint seemed more interested in delaying me to talk about what I was doing, rather than actually inspecting my bike or what I might be carrying. Thanks guys. However just a few minutes after the checkpoint, I noticed both my tires sagging. With only about 45min until sunset, and around 17km to ride into the wind, I knew I didn't really have time to fix them both. So I decided to pump them up, keep going, and see how long they kept their pressures for. About 5-10min as it turned out. It looked like I was going to have to stop, pump, and roll my way to Loreto.

Limping along like this with some 7km to go, once again feeling confident, once again, I was forced to stop. This time because I had let myself get a little too hypoglycaemic, and I had to sit and wash down some biscuits with water loaded with 10 or so spoons of sugar (my cycling hypo kit), just to continue. It worked well though, and I was soon back on my bike - soon enough to see the sun set just before the gentle downhill into Loreto, tires sagging and energy flagging.

There in Loreto I found a good taco stand, and even a spot on the beach to camp again. It was near a hotel, but in a construction zone, so it was nice and there was no-one around except a friendly security guy, who said go for it, and that he'd keep an eye on me during the night. What a dude!

That night the beach was lit up by a waxing moon, and as I watched the waves under it, I wondered why I had felt the need to push the whole 100km to Loreto that day.

You might need a dark room to see this properly.

La Bahia de Concepcion

Feb 20th

Well, you can see why they called it that. Just imagine, you're cruising up the highway in your auto with your girl, you pass white sandy beach after white sandy beach, lapped by cool blue and turquoise waters. The sun glints off that water, which is occasionally broken by pods of dolphins, or sometimes even some whales. You stop at a deserted beach, where there are just a few palapas on the sand, and nobody else for miles. You take a walk, and your feet sink in the sand as the sun sinks in the sky, setting aflame the peaks of the peninsula out in the east, beyond the water. A ray of sun catches her hair, as she brushes it back with her fingers, she turns to look at you, and... BAM, 9 months later when you're trying to figure out where that baby came from, it all comes back to you.

Well at least this is how I imagine it got its name. Of course, back when it was named it was probably a less romantic scene, involving horses, wagons, dirt roads, and probably had more to do with a lack of modern contraception than anything else.

Anyway, riding solo on a bicycle, one is not troubled by any of these situations, for better or for worse. Still, the scenery really was jaw-dropping. The contrast of desert landscape and stunning coastal vistas was just so striking, as if somebody had dropped a slice of desert into the mediterranean, sprinkled a little hallucinogen, and taken a big ol' swig. The red land, covered by a sea of cactus, dips down into the sea of, well, water, while vultures circle overhead (presumably anticipating my imminent demise by the way I am riding), and dolphins really do play out in the waves. Beyond that, the peninsula looked like the spine of some great beast, that had surfaced momentarily, but had been frozen in the act, perhaps held captive by what it too saw. Said beast made me think of the mountains of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, so far distant in the south. Being part of the same great range, I suppose this makes some sense.

Nice way to wake up
Good morning Mulege, you oasis by the sea, you!
I honestly don't remember much about cycling that day, except those glittering images. I woke up to a beautiful morning on the beach in Mulege, feeling once again like there was no place I'd rather be than right where I was. I started riding and I think I spent almost more time stopping, staring, and taking photos, than actually pushing pedals. See for yourself...








I had intended to ride further than the 50km mark I had reached, but the appeal of staying on one of the beautiful beaches was too much. So I stopped at one, Buenaventura, where there was a cool little beach bar and some interesting punters to chat to. Amongst other things, two of the people there had seen some killer whales surface right in front of them as they were about to go snorkelling. Cool!