Days 90 to 163
1 October, 2024 – 4 December, 2024
Statistics:
- Distance: 2180 km
- Ride time: 150,5 h
- Ascent: 16500 m
- Descent: 17000 m
- Duration: 74 days
- On bikes: 48 days
- Average: 45,5 km/day
We travelled to Mexico in 2024 between September and December. We were then rushed to get home because of the safety situation in Sinaloa and then never really finished our Mexico blogs. So, here it is, half a year later, a summary of our experience in the country of Mexico.
Our journey through Mexico was an unforgettable adventure, filled with both challenges and beautiful moments. Regarding the country, we had some big fears and doubts, but at the end, we’re surprised, glad, and happy that we did it anyway. We only had the chance to explore two of its states: Baja California and Baja California Sur—together also known as the Baja Peninsula. In this post, we’ll outline the roads we took and what challenges we’ve faced in this new environment. This post will follow the route we did from north to south as we cycled from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas.
Tijuana → San Felipe
We were up to face the biggest cultural shock on our entire journey, so we were lucky to start our first Mexican kilometers with the great company. A few fellow riders we met through our host came with us and made the first day in a new country a great one. With guidance through slightly chaotic traffic and a huge web of city roads, we successfully made our way out of the city of Tijuana, and then there was only one road waiting for us.
From the border to Ensenada, we decided to sleep in Airbnbs or local campgrounds—they are quite cheap in Mexico (and even cheaper as we continued south). The road from the border to Ensenada is well traveled and full of tourists, locals, police, and immigrants, so it seemed harder to stay hidden through the night. We just didn’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It got better as soon as we left Ensenada; Highway 3 was way less busy, and the area around it was less populated.
Once we left Ensenada, we knew the hills and desert were waiting for us. It was a two-day climb from Ensenada on the west coast to Heroes de la Independencia on the top of a mountain ridge. We had a paper map of the Baja Peninsula, and it was very useful—each water and food refill was planned accordingly. Before going on HW 3, we made sure to check our daily mileage. From town to town it was usually around 50 kilometers with nothing in between. Considering the high temperatures (even at the end of September) and altitude gain, we were going to need a lot of water. We each carried almost 10L on the bike, which usually lasted less than 2 days. From the beginning we did a lot of planning regarding water and refilling every day. In Mexico, tap water is not good for drinking, but they have a great system of water purificadoras, something like water purifying stores, where you can buy water per liter for around 1 peso (0.05€) per liter. Sometimes these shops were trying to take advantage of us and charged us more, but once we got used to the prices, we were getting water real cheap. After meeting two guys that only traveled with two water bottles themselves (stopping by the road and asking passing cars for water when they ran out of it), we also stopped stressing so much about it. We carried a full capacity of water when we had the opportunity to refill; otherwise, we just stopped by the road and waved a car to a stop, and everybody gladly helped us and gave us water. This was the biggest game changer for us—less weight and less stress about running out of water.
From El Michoacan to San Felipe, we only got a straight highway with scarce camping spots. When it came to sleeping in a tent in Mexico, we found it doable, even easy sometimes, but for the first few nights, we were kind of ‘’scared’’ of the country. Looking back now, with the experience we have, we would probably sleep in a tent, somewhere hidden, as soon as we left Ensenada behind and climbed into the mountains.
A great gadget that came in really handy for the first time was a satellite phone. Besides the option of broadcasting our location in real time (for our moms), we used it for communication with the family—from Ensenada to San Felipe on the other side of the peninsula, which takes around 6 days—we didn’t have any phone service. It gave us peace of mind in case we ran out of water or we had an emergency.
San Felipe → Guerrero Negro
Cactuses! The next stretch of the road is considered the most beautiful part of the Baja Peninsula, and we could see why; we encountered thousands of stereotypical cactuses—Mexican giant cardons or elephant cactuses, the valley of cirius, and countless other cactuses. We went to the Valley of Giants, but it was closed for the day, so we can’t tell if it’s worth the money or not—either way, we got to see countless beautiful cacti along the way (for free).
Somewhere from Puertecitos (80km south from San Felipe), we expected troubles in the form of an old, sandy road leading to a junction with HW 1, which runs down the west coast of the peninsula. But in the past few years a new highway was made! HW 5 is paved, new, and a joy to ride on all the way to HW 1. In the last 50 kilometers we saw an old road still winding underneath new bridges and next to a new highway, breathing with the landscape while we’re cutting right through many curves and hills on a new road.
Yay, we made it to Highway 1! And that was where joy ended. HW 1 is a busy, shoulderless road with many tourists, trucks, buggies, and other big vehicles with reckless drivers. We got used to the less traveled HW 5 and its new, wide lanes. More straight roads and millions of cacti were awaiting us.
To make up for horrible traffic, the road took us to the Valle de los Cirios (the Valley of the Cirios)—tall, lean cactuses with yellow flowers on top. And there were many! It was well worth stopping and wandering among the cacti; we even slept among them one night—the valley is just too big to cross in one day, and wild camping in Mexico backcountry didn’t seem like a problem as long as we stayed low profile, left no trace, and were gone by the next day. Another thing about camping among cacti—we didn’t get as many sleeping pad punctures as we expected. Old cactus needles on the ground usually aren’t that sharp at all, and they usually lie flat on the ground, so they are harmless. Though we always took a minute or two to clean the ground for the tent as much as possible and put foam pads underneath the tent. We only got one puncture from a cactus needle—once we were setting up a tent in the dark and missed one giant branch with spikes. Now we know bike tire patches do a great job patching up a sleeping pad.
Two days before Guerrero Negro, all the turns stopped existing. For two days, we were driving straight, straight, straight. With not much around us, the time became abstract and the lines on the road hypnotic. When reaching Guerrero Negro, there was not much to see—besides a few locals, the city is dead outside the whale shark season (which is not when we were there). We found a cozy little camp, where most of the days we were the only guests, and made ourselves useful to some planning of the upcoming weeks. The town had a decent store, a water purificadora, an ATM, and at least one open camp. So, not much, but enough.
Guerrero Negro → Punta Abreojos → Santa Rosalia
On our way from Guerrero Negro to Santa Rosalia on the east coast of the peninsula, we did a detour trip to Punta Abreojos—a town on the west side of the peninsula, our last chance to swim in the Pacific Ocean. The town itself is quite nice and welcoming, with a cute plaza in the center (and free wifi) and a huge sandy beach where you can sleep. In some other parts of the year it is a popular spot for surfers. But if you are not looking for extra mileage, the Pacific Ocean, or crazy good Venezuelan food, the road there is a whole day or more of riding, with semi-crappy asphalt and not much of anything next to the road to hide for the night. We were also unlucky enough that we had a headwind both ways, to and from the ocean. We were glad we did the detour, though.
Right after junction back on HW 1 from our detour, we descended into a real, green oasis with plenty of water in the middle of the desert! Luckily we had Iris’s birthday coming up and were looking for a campground; otherwise we could miss the whole oasis. As we were there in the off-season, campgrounds were mostly empty, cheap, and not even strict about how long and where we stayed. When we were looking for places to stay or where to find water, we used the iOverlander app a lot. We found most of our water/food resupply stops there, looked for spots to camp, looked for dangers along the way, nice places to stop for the night, etc. We usually also found small remarks like, “You can have a shower at that restaurant for 0.50€, and they have hot water”, or a random “Coffee bar with the owner so nice, he lets cyclists shower and sleep in the backyard”. The app is mostly used by people who travel with campervans, but we found it very useful too.
Santa Rosalia → Loreto → Ciudad Insurgentes → La Paz
From Santa Rosalia we followed the east coast, with beautiful beaches and clear blue sea. On the east coast of the peninsula, water is warmer and clearer, and beaches are more touristic because the sea is a gulf. But on the west coast the sea is colder and more wild since it’s on the side of the Pacific Ocean.
From north to south of the Baja peninsula is a mountain ridge that becomes lower the more you go south but is still there. And considering that the main (and basically the only) road on said peninsula crosses this mountain ridge multiple times, we made a lot of altitude gain. It was the last time we crossed from Loreto on the east coast to Ciudad Insurgentes on the west and back east to La Paz.
La Paz → Cabo San Lucas
We reached La Paz! Yay! This was our goal for the Baja peninsula before plans changed. Because of the safety situation in Sinaloa, we were now sure that we were not crossing into mainland Mexico. With two weeks to spare before our flight, we decided to cycle to the tip of the peninsula, also known as Cabo San Lucas. We cycled as far south as you can get with a vehicle, turned around, and found ourselves a little sandy beach with only a few other tourists to enjoy a week of sea, beach, and rest. Like a little summer vacation after a long drive through the desert.
After two months in Mexico, traveling on a really low budget, we cut our costs really low, but the real price was this: we ate the same peanut butter-jelly sandwich for breakfast and dinner, and tortillas with refried bean paste for lunch for two whole months. We couldn’t even see this food anymore; it became disgusting. Even more and more snacks and sweets didn’t heal our appetite, nor did adding fresh vegetables and sauces to the tortillas. We were done with low-budget Mexican food; our last week on the beach, we were dreaming about home and the food we would get back in Europe. But don’t get us wrong—when we went out to eat, the food was delicious. The point is, we were so low budget that a 15€/person meal that you can get with ‘’eating out’’ was over our daily budget for both of us, which included water, laundry, monthly costs, etc. So, we budgeted a bit too much, and in the end we were done with peanut butter and beans. But on the bright side, we both lost around 10% of our body weight (and we still had some wiggle room).
Final thoughts
All in all, we felt safer in this part of Mexico than we were expecting to feel. Nonetheless, when we were in San Felipe, looking for a laundry store, we took a few wrong turns and ended up in a side street. The looks from locals hanging on the street or on the balconies were not really inviting. We definitely got the message—you are very welcome in the city, on the main road, and in the stores, laundry, and bars that are on said main road. But stay there. You have no business wandering around the sleeping/living quarters of the city. Or at least we got that feeling at the moment; maybe we were wrong.
So, this was our way through Baja Mexico. Even though the first part of our cycling tour ended in San Jose Del Cabo, we are still thinking about it. We are so very glad we did it and that we didn’t get scared when a lot of people tried to warn or scare us out of doing it. Now we are not going back to Mexico with bikes anytime soon but are still eager to explore mainland Mexico one day.