La Paz ahoy!

We have made it to La Paz! Feels like rather a landmark as this is where we cross to mainland Mexico and the start the next stage of the adventure.

We rolled away from Mulege a short way along the stunning coastline of the Bay of Conception, staying the night sheltered from the wind with our tent in a shabby Palapa on a spit of beach stretching out to an island, reachable at low tide. Beautiful spot. I was struggling with the heat and energy levels so felt like I was travelling at snails pace as we continued to Loreto the next day. We had stopped by the side of the road when a Mexican cyclist pulled up for a chat, he was wearing a thick white tracksuit and we had a halting Spanish conversation in which we established that he was cold (hence the amount of clothes) and that we were hot (hence the few clothes)…so that was fun and picked up the mood a bit! Arrived in Loreto and decided to take an extra day to rest the legs which seem to be rather burnt out. Turns out that Ratna and Patrick are staying in the same hotel – cyclists seem to congregate in the same places – so had dinner with them.

We left Loreto a couple of days later to climb over the hills and into the Baja desert for the last time. The second day was one of boredom as we spent the whole day on one incredibly long straight road, the novelty of cacti wears off after a while but music kept us sane. We rounded THE corner and sat in a bus stop found two German cyclists that we had met in the bay of conception – Anya and Radko. We camped behind a restaurant with them that night and spent the next few days cycling together. This camaraderie helped the fact that we battled with a strong head wind for the next two days…even the boys admitted to finding it hard going. Entering La Paz was a strange experience having been only in the desert and very small towns for such a long time. The road was smelly and noisy and there were cars and people everywhere, it felt like a rather rude awakening from our little bubble.

This said…La Paz is quite a nice town, very touristy but beautiful coastline and beaches and not a bad place to drink beer, wash the dust of the desert away and sort out bits and bobs. We feel like we should complete the length of the Baja peninsula so we are going to cycle to Cabo and lands end before coming back to La Paz to catch the ferry to Mazatlan in a weeks time.

This little bugger jumped off the bush and skewered into my arm…