Down Laguna Salada to San Filipe

                   New friends and support crew                                         Cocinaro extraordinaire Victor Mari.

These guys were amazing. They came bursting into my life at Canon de Guadelupe and became my friends and support crew to cross the Laguna Salada  ( I needed them!) down to the bottom (south) where we hooked up with hwy 5 to San Felipe. We hung out, camped, ate Victor Mari (cook second from left) fine asado bbq food for days.  There is no way I could have done it on my own. Apparently only a handful on people have ever done it!? I entrusted completely in our confident jeep driver Arturo (leaning against door) who had done it before 3 years ago. There were 3 choices to go.  I said to Arturo you choose I trust your judgment. He took 24 hrs before choosing this route Initially he emphatically said no way. I was very happy when he said we will go on this route because I really wanted to go this way but would not do it on my own. I have an adventure map and a adventure GPS chip that shows roads, secondary roads, tracks and even horse/hiking trails but nothing for this (100km + -) route, both are completely  blank. They were actually supposed to go back to Mexicali but decided to join me in my adventure for a few days. I would not have tried by myself having crashed once already (I'm getting smarter hopefully). and know it could spell disaster. The purpose for them being there was Fransisco Lopez (left in picture), who a owns a lot of land in the Laguna Salada, was taking GPS points.  We had another wonderful asada at Francisco´s old abandoned town. His father started a community there that was a co-op growing grapes and alfalfa. There were old buildings, grape arbours etc still there abandoned 30 yrs ago. Apparently it failed because of infighting not economics. About 50 families lived there once upon a time.

After we set off, at the beginning we had to drive through deep deep sand. It was horrible. The fastest I could go was about 5 to 10Km/hr. I thought I can't do this, this is just stupid. I crashed twice more. I was so pissed off. If you do the math it's going to take along time and it gets very cold at night not to mention you really don't want to be camping because it's dangerous at night. I thought to hell with this I'm going back over to the hard surface back north to Mexicali (about 50 - 70K) take about two hours once I get out of this fricking sand then onto the wonderful paved hwy. But then I would have three hour drive down the hwy to get to San Filipe. I kept going (it's lots easier lifting the bike up with 5 guys!) The sand ended after a couple of miles thank God. We filled up with water at a well in the middle of the desert! Some government project growing some seedlings of some sort. After the water fill up all I had to contend with was the occasional sand trap a.k.a definite crash zone (like a golfing sand trap), deep ruts in the hard desert surface that would throw you on your proverbial *^% if you hit them at any sort of speed, and mud, great! We managed to  keep our speed from 20 to 40 K/hr requiring intense concentration. This was the most challenging riding I have ever done including racing, I was determined not to fall of again it sucks. The last part of the off road got dark, the sun set was beautiful behind the distant mountains but I could not look at it while moving. I had to concentrate so fully on what's in front I could not even look at the tachometer or speedo. The h.i.d head lights work really well except they take time to charge up. Once we finally got to the highway it was like heaven, so smooth and velvety! In celebration I ran my bike hard through the gears to about 130K AHHH Luvly!!!!!!!!!

We went through a military check point, they had a look in some of  my bags, lots of soldiers looking very tough with aka's, I turned off my helmet cam as we approached not wanting to upset them with the recording light flashing away. Then an hour or so after that, we were all drinking beer on the malecon (board walk promenade) lots of saludos and merriment. It really felt special, what an accomplishment for all off us, they were pretty chuffed with themselves, hand shakes all around. Look out world here I come.

                                                     Free camping and oh yes of course assada

We went to visit these cactus, this one is about 1500 yrs old. I couldn't face anymore sand so we Jeeped it

                                                                  The crazy loco Jeep driver

                    The lads,  after feeding and looking after me for days, I thought a thank you was in order.
L to R.  Me, Arturo, Mi amigo Hose Carmen, Francisco Lopez, and cocinaro extraordinaire Victor Mari.

               I need a rest, shower, bed, One day for buying groceries, a Movie star phone for emergencies and bike maintenance, Notice the anti theft decals covering the BMW badges, (thanks Francisco)
                             

                                San Felipe is and old fishing town but now caters more to tourists.

The Malecon at San Felipe at night.