The mission tour was pretty cool and we saw nearly everything there was to see at that site. When the tour was complete, we headed out to Bahia Los Angles for diesel, ice and a supply stop. From there, we backtracked to Mex 1, then north to the turnoff for Bahia Gonzaga on the gulf side. Our destination was Punta Final on the south side of Gonzaga bay.
The road from Mex 1 to Gonzaga
truly sucked. While graded, it was heavily traveled and badly
washborded. The entire group agreed that this was one of the
worst segments that we suffered during the trip. OK, the second
worst. The worst would come tomorrow.
The photos below are what we saw.
The terrain around the mission had
some nice stands of cactus. Near the mission, the road was
recently graded allowing a comfortable 15 mph travel speed.
Nearly light-speed for baja.
This is a bud from one of the many
species of cholla that exist in baja. These do the devil's
work. The spines are long and strong and have microscopic barbs
on the end to catch on animal tissue. The buds "migrate" by
sticking into the flesh on passing animals and when the spines soak in
sufficient moisture, the barbs retract and allow the bud to fall off
the animal. The bud then grows in its new location. These
are bad, bad news. And being from Arizona where there is plenty
of cholla, I have many awful stories about it.
We stopped short of the pavement to air up.
Bob got this shot of the 1017 in
transit.
Our first view of Bahia Los
Angeles. Note the white island in the center. It is white
due to bird droppings.
The bay is quite beautiful
although LA Bay has grown a bit since the last time I was here 15 years
ago.
We hit the Pemex for diesel and
the mercado for ice and other important supplies like Ruffles and pan
dulce. Then we went to the beach to have lunch.
While we were at the beach, the
Mexican Marines came by in their new U4000 unimog.
You cannot see in this reduced
size photo, but the crew in the front are smiling. We wanted them
to stop, but they did not.
We saddle up to leave after lunch
and Dan suffers a mechanical failure on his step. A benign
failure, but given the height of the truck it makes ingress and egress
a hassle. I have broken off steps on both sides of my 1300L, but
I sheared the mounting bolts on rocks rather than fatiguing the mount
itself.
WTF is this? Oh, only rebar
sticking out of the road from some unfinished concrete work below the
surface of the road. The black trash bag was the "marker" for
this obstacle. If you hit this, you WILL get a flat.
Our path took us past the "famous"
Coco's Corner. Coco has overpriced beer, sodas and rooms if you
end up stranded after dark on your motorcycle. The rooms are the
pickup campers on the ground.
The viewing area for the TV.
Also note the spray paint artwork on the shacks in the rear of the
photo.
There were some interesting photos
on the wall.
We arrived at Punta Final near
sunset and camped on the beach. The bay at PF is shown in the
photo above.
This fellow was very friendly
although a bit mangy. We did feed and water him and he drank
several 16 oz glasses of water which is a lot for that sized
animal. Several of the team heard him fighting with the coyotes
during the night and he had fresh, bleeding sores, so we figured that
he was bit by them.
Kai cooked us great steaks for
dinner and we had a calm night, one of the few on this trip. Next
morning was bright, clear and hot. Above, a view up the beach at
Punta Final the following morning.
There are small sand dunes at the
point so we drove there for a photo.
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Copyright Bill Caid 2011, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.