Day 4 - Larry’s Place, Culver City, Los Angeles
The plan was to be away from Larry at no later than 10am to ensure a good run south for the day. We left at 10:30, so not too bad. Being a Saturday I was hoping that the infamous LA traffic would ease up and give us a relatively clear run out of the City on Highway 405. I was surprised at just how much traffic there was, and it continued pretty much all the way to San Diego. Once we got out of LA proper, the traffic was terrible with ridiculous queues, and we were lucky that 2 big BWM’s came past us splitting the outside lane of traffic. They were riding 2 up and loaded with gear, so likely heading down to the USA/Mexico border. Jorik was leading at the time and quickly made the decision to slot in behind them and use them as a blocker (a little American football term there!) so we could follow them and let them do the hard work. We rode behind them for quite a distance, which was great as they cleared the traffic for us.
We pulled into the San Diego Triumph dealership, who are also the local Royal Enfield dealer, in relatively good time and purchased the new battery for my bike. The guys at the dealership confirmed that they don’t even carry the Royal Enfield original battery, probably because it is just not up to the job, and sold us a more suitable battery. The guys were very helpful and interested in our trip, so they gave us a sweet “travellers discount” on the battery and we took the opportunity to pick up another bottle of oil whilst we had the chance. We set about undertaking the rather unpleasant experience of replacing the battery, which didn’t take us more than about 20 minutes (so good work on our part). Whilst the tools were out, we did a quick check on everything else and found that the new chains could do with a little more tension, so we tweaked the settings, a very quick job, and reloaded the bikes to head for the boarder, just 30 minutes down the road. Jorik, having an American phone, still had coverage so we were able to use the sat nav on his phone to get us through the maze of twists and turns to get back on to Highway 5 and head straight for the crossing at San Ysidro.
The border arrangement was very organised, and we passed through border control without even being stopped. In fact, we went straight through and started heading south once we saw the sign towards Rosarito. There was no way we were going to stary in Tijuana, which is notorious for being a wild town that Americans go to in order to enjoy the delights and more controversial elements of a less rigorous society that Tijuana offers, if that is what takes your fancy. For info, we were not interested, and wanted to cover some distance and head further south to Ensenada where we had booked a hotel for our first night in Baja, Mexico.
Having just about left the border control, we realised that we had no paperwork for ourselves or the bikes. Our research had informed us that whilst it might be acceptable to travel in Baja, Mexico with relative ease, i.e. no paperwork for either ourselves or the bikes, we would need the appropriate paperwork when we used the ferry from La Paz to mainland Mexico, the port of Mazatlan being our goal to enter. So we turned the bikes around, in a mass of traffic heading south and rode back into the border control (the wrong way) to sort ourselves out. A little hairy, but needs must. Once back inside the secure area, we were told where to go to get our immigration details sorted. We were bounced from 1 desk to another, in a relatively disorganised fashion, but it only took about an hour to get everything done and dusted and then we were back on the road heading south. Bit of fuss, but overall, a better border crossing than I have experienced elsewhere, particularly in some of the countries that I have been to in Africa.
It quickly become evident that Baja, Mexico is a bit run down and certainly gives the evidence of being a genuine third-world county. There was crap everywhere, the open sewers were pungent as we rode across the various crossings, and most of the houses (sorry casas) that we could see from the bikes, looked like they were about to fall down and were being held together by duct tape and cable ties. Mind you, that might just about be the strongest building materials that were used on some of these properties. There were a number of new developments being constructed, but the problem with seeing how these new developments are built, is that you can see the stages that they go through, i.e. the block work and the structural supports. Sketchy is the term I would apply to these buildings, and certainly not up to what we might assume to be a suitable standard. But hey ho, we are in Mexico now and if this is how they do things, so be it. We were not looking to buy a house, just pass through.
The plan was to stop in Rosarito for a quick photo shot, maybe a drink, and then press on to Ensenada. We passed right through Rosarito as it is an absolute dump and there wasn’t anything that took our fancy for a pit stop and a photo opportunity, well at least not that we passed. I appreciate that once you get off the main highway, the 1D, there are likely to be plenty of hotels, resorts, and guest houses that are lovely and would be great for a stop, but we wanted to cover distance and keep an eye on the time as we still had some ways to go. So, we missed a stop in Rosarito and pulled over on the side of the Highway at a little beach. We grabbed a couple of photos and had a quick celebratory drink to welcome ourselves to Baja, Mexico. Awesome to have got through our first border crossing and to be in our first proper country outside of the USA.
Pressing south we arrived at our hotel – the Hotel Paraiso Las Palmas, whilst the sun was still up and got settled into our double room with minimal fuss.
We met a really great guy called Fred, who is a keen biker, and is looking to purchase a Royal Enfield 350cc Classic. He was a fountain of information about places to go and see along our route and a really nice chap. He lives in LA and works in a hospital, but is originally from Mexicali, which is the capital city of Baja.
Having done most of our admin, we headed out to find some food and maybe a little tequila. When in Rome and all that bollox. We found a little cantina on the beach where got some nachos and a couple of margaritas. It really was great to chill out and take in the atmosphere, rather than pressing so hard to make distance and time up. Having had our rather unimpressive margaritas (not enough tequila, in my view), we didn’t want to spend our time having dinner in the same place as the sun had set and it was getting chilly and there were plenty of places, we could get a bite to eat. We headed back towards the hotel and found a restaurant that served typical Mexican food, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc and had a couple of beers and food, before calling it a night and getting back to hotel for a much needed sleep after a long day.