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.