Categories: Baja

Baja Sportbike Touring in 2004

My good buddy Bryan sent an email to me earlier today asking if I still had the photos from our 2004 Baja ride posted anywhere. Wow. 2004. That trip was 16 years ago this month. Where does the time go?

Anyway, by way of background, there were three of us on that ride: Yours truly, my good buddy Marty (who you’ve seen in other spots here on the ExNotes blog), and another good buddy, Bryan. This was to be an unusual trip, as we did it on sports bikes. Marty had his K1200RS BMW (which, by the way, he still has), Bryan was on his VFR 750 Honda, and I was on my TL1000S Suzuki (which was probably the fastest motorcycle I’ve ever owned). I used to have a site called MotoFoto.cc and I had this trip posted there, but that site came down when I started the CSC blog. This trip was on the old MotoFoto site, and when Bryan asked about it, I thought I’d post it here. So here you go…the original web post from 2004!

This trip was a quick, 1550-mile, 4-day motorcycle tour from Los Angeles to Mulege in the Baja peninsula in January 2004. Mulege is about 700 miles south of the border. I shot all of the photographs on this page with the Sony Mavica CD400. It was digital photography state of the art, sort of, back in the day.

This was my fifth or sixth trip into the Baja’s interior, and I have to tell you that it just keeps getting better. The roads are fantastic, the scenery is awesome, and, well, read on.

We stuck to Mexico’s Transpeninsular Highway (Highway 1). Here’s a typical restaurant in one of the northern Baja agricultural towns. Bryan and Marty are getting ready to continue south into the Baja. Picking the good restaurants was easy…we just looked for the ones with lots of cars parked out front.

Bryan and Joe, stopped at a deserted Baja structure. Most of the Baja peninsula is very desolate.

The roads in Baja are awesome, with long, flat, high-speed straights, and lots of twisties through the mountains. It gets really desolate and interesting south of El Rosario.

We stopped for gas in Catavina, but the town’s generator was shut down for maintenance (as it is nearly every day). Marty is getting his BMW filled up the old-fashioned way. This was an adventure…real Indiana Jones stuff.

We were on our way to Guerrero Negro to see the whales. The riding was fabulous, as it always is in Baja. The TL1000S was an admittedly poor choice for touring, but it was fun.

The roads in Baja are awesome. There’s a long stretch before the Pemex station about 20 miles north of Guerrero Negro, and the road runs straight as an arrow to the horizon for a good 30 miles. I ran the Suzuki at 145 miles per hour for nearly the entire stretch as the sun descended. It was a glorious ride until I ran out of gas, and when I did, it was as if someone had shut the ignition off on the Suzuki. No sputtering, no surging, just a sudden shutdown. I was carrying an extra gallon of fuel on the TL, and that got me to the gas station.

Marty and Joe, just before getting on the bus to see the whales.

This is Victor, who talked to us about the whales on our way out to Scammon’s Lagoon. Bryan shot this photo.

Another one of Bryan’s photos, showing the boats we used for watching the whales.

One of the many whales we saw on this tour. I shot these photos, as mentioned above, with the Sony Mavica camera. It was not really too good for this kind of photography because of the delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera reacting.

On the way in to Guerrero Negro, I had been telling Bryan and Marty about this fabulous fish taco truck. They were probably tired of hearing me rave about fish tacos by the time we arrived, but when we did, wow, Tony did not disappoint us.

The real McCoy. Wow, are they ever good…Antonio’s has been selling fish tacos in Guerrero Negro for 11 years (and that was in 2004). I stop there every time I go by.

Antonio, taco chef extraordinaire…circa 2004.

Bryan is a convert. So is Marty. In fact, they both wanted to stop on the way back through Guerrero Negro just to get another fish taco.

One of the many roadside shrines erected in memory of someone who died along this route. You see these every few miles along the Transpeninsular Highway.

After Guerrero Negro, the whales, and Tony’s fish tacos, we continued south and then east, crossing the peninsula toward the Sea of Cortez. San Ignacio lies about halfway along that stretch. It’s a great place to stop and grab a few photos.

The mission in San Ignacio. This building is over 300 years old. San Ignacio is a small town just off the Transpeninsular Highway. If you are ever driving this route, you have to stop in San Ignacio to see the mission. It is one of the Baja peninsula’s most interesting areas, and every one I have ever taken there has fallen in love with the place.

The entrance to the San Ignacio mission.

A macro shot of the door to the San Ignacio mission.

The Virgin of Guadalupe, at the San Ignacio mission.

From there, it was on to Santa Rosalia and then Mulege on the Sea of Cortez. Mulege is a fun town, and the tiny Las Casitas hotel is just outstanding. The rooms were great, and the margaritas and dinners were off the charts.

We stayed at the Las Casitas hotel in Mulege, which is a hopping spot.

After we checked into the Las Casitas, we followed the road all the way to the Sea of Cortez just to check the place out. It was a cool place. It was a dirt road and the TL1000S was a handful, but it was cool.

Bryan and Marty on the Sea of Cortez. We had just driven several miles down a very rough dirt road to get to this spot. It was worth the effort.

Checking our route for the next day with the Sea of Cortez in the background.

The river running through Mulege. The date palms were introduced by the Jesuits hundreds of years ago. Mulege is one of several oases in Baja. It is an incredibly scenic spot.

Joe and Bryan, taking in the Mulege scenery.

The mission in Mulege. This building served as a prison at one point during its life. Life was so good there, though, that the convicts were released during the day to go to work and none ever tried to escape.

Another shot of the Mulege mission.

Joe and Bryan, with the first of many margaritas and Negra Modelos in the Las Casitas restaurant. The first of many. Actually, the first of too many.

Marty and Bryan enjoying their dinner in Las Casitas.

A painting in the Las Casitas bar.

On our way back north, we stopped in Santa Rosalia because I wanted the guys to see it and we hadn’t really spent any time there on the way south. Santa Rosalia is a bustling fishing town on the Sea of Cortez.

Santa Rosalia has a French heritage, and all the buildings are constructed of wood. It is a colorful little town.

Here’s a shot of the stained glass windows in Santa Rosalia’s interesting, Georg Eiffel-designed church. The little Sony did a pretty good job here, with the meter set to the spot-metering mode. Like all of the shots on this page, this is a hand-held photograph.

Another of the stained glass windows in the Santa Rosalia church.

We had a pretty rough drive on our third night in Baja. All of the books I’ve read advise not driving at night in Baja, and for good reason. We rode 130 miles on a moonless night to get to Catavina. Riding at night in Baja is not an experience I recommend. The roads are not lit and it’s amazing how dark it gets out there. Then, just to make things more interesting, the white lines marking the road’s edge disappeared about 20 miles before Catavina on those winding mountain and desert roads. Throw in stray cattle and blind corners, and, well, you get the idea. We made it to Catavina safely and stayed in the La Pinta Hotel.

We stayed in Catavina on our last night in Baja at the La Pinta Hotel. We were tired and sore from riding edgy sports bikes for three days. The photo above shows us getting ready to depart just as the sun was rising, with 400 miles to go.

It would have been nice to take more photos as we continued on through Tecate, but we were tired and just after crossing the border we were caught in a rainstorm near San Diego. We waited in a McDonald’s, so that’s about it for our Baja photos from this trip.

Want to know more about Baja? Hey check out these pages!

Epic Motorcycle Rides
Baja
Berk’s Works

Want to read more about Baja? Here you go!

Thinking of riding Baja yourself? You’ll need to get insurance, and BajaBound is the best there is!

Joe Berk