A few days back in LA, I had reached out to two bunk-a-bikers in the northern Baja Peninsula and both had answered. I aim my tires to southward out of Mexicali to dive in. It's good to see the northern point on the compass aim behind me, it means I'm making more progress to go from pole-to-pole. I'm on my way to San Felipe to stay with some American Exiles.
The deserts south of Mexicali were extremely flat and quick to cross. I'm not going to lie, California's rigid and geologically active landscape (being on a Faultline) makes it AMAZING for mountainous and curvy highways, but that can get tiring. It was actually nice to drop my guard and just cruise across the desert in nice straight lines for the first time in a while. I listened to my Adventure Rider Radio RAW podcast and just watched the dry and cracked earth pass by at 90 KPH.
There were 2 military checkpoints of which I barely had to do anything at, I rolled up and they'd just wave me through. They seemed to be more concerned with northbound traffic anyway. Military trucks with soldiers sitting and standing in their beds would roll by often.
I roll into the northern outskirts of San Felipe around sunset, where I'm greeted by a woman who is the first of the bunk-a-bikers I'll be staying with. I follow her in her vehicle behind a gate with private security, he welcomes me in English and I follow her through the dusty streets to her extremely beautiful home.
It's a Santa Fe style house with a car park and a rooftop viewing area where you can see the gulf of California. The recent hurricane has all the flora around the sandy property green with life. She and her husband have a whole section of the house that has a bedroom and private bathroom and shower I can use. This was huge to me, because after LA 5 days prior, I had slept in two different RVs and had a lot of mechanic work done on Lechuza, plus the whole route south of the border here. I hadn't had a shower since LA, much less a proper bed and a ceiling fan. I'm always comfortable enough to sleep in a tent, and anything above that is a plus, but this was a real treat.
They have two cats and two dogs, they offer me lasagna as dinner, and she gives me all the materials needed to make breakfast and coffee in the morning.
Earlier when we had properly met in front of her house after I'd followed her there, the first thing she said to me was jokingly: "So, you made it here without getting shot or killed!" which I took as hilarious. She had obviously understood that the dangers of Mexico were far overblown much like I was beginning to gather.
We were situated in a gringo exclave. For the most part, her neighbors were all US-born, English-only-speaking, white, old, and for the most part, retired Americans.
My hosts were extremely hospitable. The husband was a veteran on VA benefits and the bunk-a-biker wife had been running a successful business and was still running it Mex-side. Her motorcycle was outside in the carport. Social Security checks go farther here and land is much more affordable in Baja, and they explained to me the bureaucratic details of trying to gain residency and register their vehicles. They'd also got into the byzantine logistics of getting medical treatment for the husband's chronic health conditions he was managing.
It all fascinated me as someone who has thought about living abroad. Also, knowing what red tape was in the way was interesting to me. Some Gringos down here had straight up residency, a few had dual-citizenship. I made the mistake of not asking if they pay both Mexican and American taxes for working remote down here. I didn't want to assume or pry.
When your country disappoints you, which it has inevitably will from time to time, it's good to have options to leave. Even if not to seriously consider, but just to entertain. The hurdle of living in another country in your old age can be daunting, but it can also be very liberating. I'll get more into this later, but I've ran into many North Americans who are both on the higher and lower end of the financial spectrum and they've all had happy, fulfilling, more exciting, more comfortable retirements in Latin America than they ever would in the states. I'll make a note to get more into this.
After talking this for a bit, the house quieted down- I had admitted to my hosts that I was exhausted from crossing the border and riding all day. The hosts each went to their separate rooms, she watched a TV show in her office and he sat himself in a chair directly in front of their mounted television and put on Fox News.
It was one day before the midterm elections in the US. Tucker Carlson was on as it was Prime-time, Carlson being one of, if not the most watched TV News Opinion program in the US. He's a conservative news pundit who has admittedly recanted many Klan narratives on his show, so I see him as a Trump kiss-ass, a bigot, and a fascist. I kept this to myself, however, but I was interested to see what he'd be airing that night. It was Election Eve, after all.
Carlson was interviewing every battleground state Republican to give them a pre-election boost. He had the Republican senate candidate Don Bolduc from New Hampshire on. Bolduc said he had been walking around in downtown areas helping clean up needles in tent cities from addicts of heroin and fentanyl. Biden was to blame but Bolduc failed to articulate the connection.
Then Carlson had Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on, who was gunning for governor of Arizona. She was a Trump favorite and a chance to show Arizona that Republicans could still win state-wide races in Arizona. This would be big for Trump and the GOP, both senators in Arizona were now Democrats and the state flipped to Biden in 2020. It's the purple sunbelt state now.
My hosts had Arizona plates and I assumed that if they had voted, it would've been in Arizona elections. Candidate Lake said that securing the border was her top priority, and that people from Mexico were bringing crime in droves. She said the Mexican government was also a failed state ran by Narco-Terrorists. Her top priority would be to 'secure the border'.
Now, the Bunk-a-biker host was admittedly conservative, and the husband had popped Tucker on the tube right away after dinner so I know they both leaned right. I had no way of knowing if my hosts were old-school McCain Republicans, further right Tea-Party Ted Cruz Republicans, or Far-Right Kari Lake & Trump Republicans. I was curious to know their thoughts about living in a failed narco-terrorist state, but I knew it would rock the boat far too much before going to bed. I was just beat.
I wonder what they think of Republicans and Tucker spewing things about the border. We're INSIDE that border now. Tucker and those like him use their opinion 'news' segments to paint this region with a broad brush- all of it a narrative of anarchy and blood. These folks, like myself, are here and even joke about how much violence there isn't. I wonder if they just brush that talk aside and focus on the rest? Hard to say.
Also, considering they're getting by on social security, I wonder if they knew that the Democrats in Washington had pushed and succeeded in expanding Social Security benefits that would give them benefit -increases-.
Republicans have vowed to cut Social Security benefits, effectively -stealing from us- because all Americans pay into that pool out of every paycheck. Social Security policy is very much tied to sustaining their life here in Mexico. Hell, -my- paychecks are going to them. I'm okay with this obviously, because if I live long enough, I'll have my turn. It's how it works.
I keep these facts to myself.
AFTER SPENDING THE NIGHT
I wake up and need to move on to the next bunk-a-biker. He's a gringo Mexican Resident but from Washington State, and he's been in the region for around 10 years. He was a member of the 'old lizards' gringo wise men that meet in San Felipe every once and a while. He is one of the most experienced and tenured gringos in the region.
Once I got there he had an large overly aggressive dog that bit my leg as I tried to pick up one of his toys. I was fine, though. He had showed me around the house and told me things within walking distance, and I finally had the opportunity to go for a walk around a Mexican city around sunset as I looked for authentic roadside cuisine.
I SERIOUSLY NEED TO MOVE
It was then that he had made it known to me the ferry at the bottom of Baja, the one I'd be taking the mainland, was 12 HOURS LONG. I checked the ferry website and it had no way of making reservations, no schedule or hours, NOTHING but prices. I assumed that a 12-hour ferry was an overnight, so getting to it as soon as possible was essential. My apartment in Puerto Vallarta started Sunday, it was Wednesday.
It was then I knew that I would have to gun it through the desert to make it to the town of La Paz as soon as possible. I'd planned on staying in San Felipe for another night and even meeting up with both bunk-a-bikers for dinner, but it wouldn't come to pass.
The Ferry was calling and if I was going to make a 12-hour trip, I'd have to go as fast as possible.
The next day, I made a dash as far as I could in 1 day and camped out half-way down the pan-paninsular highway
.
A RARE DESERT BLOOM
The desert was in FULL BLOOM because of Hurricane Kay had passed through a few weeks before. There were millions of seeds strewn about the desert, covered in salts from years or decades of laying in wait. When the hurricane came through, not only were the salts washed away, but there was a sufficient amount of water for the seeds to germinate.
When this happens, a massive bloom occurs in the desert. Purples and Yellows matted the desert floor and the older, long-hauler cacti were standing straight up, their water stores completely full. Huge caterpillars slinked along between the flowers eating up flowers.
The smell was powerful and wonderful, but I was making a long haul that day.
When I arrived at a spot to camp, I couldn't possible prepare myself for what was going to happen next.
For the next 4 days, nothing would be normal. I was about to have one of the most amazing experiences of my life. All that began when I woke up to set out the next day.
-JT
11/18/2022