{"id":4498,"date":"2019-05-27T06:31:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T13:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=4498"},"modified":"2019-05-27T07:01:48","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T14:01:48","slug":"baja-2009-the-klr-khronicles-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/05\/27\/baja-2009-the-klr-khronicles-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Baja 2009: The KLR Khronicles Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I left off with the last post about our 2009 KLR Baja trip<\/a>, I had a dog hanging onto my leg on a dirt road just north of San Jacinto.\u00a0 It was terrifying, and what I was mostly scared of was that the thing might have managed to sink its teeth into me.\u00a0 If that had happened, there was no question but that I would have to undergo the rabies shots.\u00a0 In order to avoid doing that, I’d either have to know that it hadn’t penetrated my leg or I’d have to kill the dog and get its head to a lab to be tested for rabies (gruesome, I know, and don’t ask me how I know about such things). \u00a0 That second option wasn’t going to happen, and in any event, I had no idea where I could go in Baja to get the head tested.\u00a0 Nope, all my bets had to be on no penetration, or I’d have to go for the abdominal rabies shots.<\/p>\n

When the dog finally released its grip, John and I slid to a stop a half mile\u00a0 further down the road and I frantically stopped to check my leg. I didn\u2019t know if the thing had actually bitten me or if it had just got a mouth full of denim and boot leather. I didn\u2019t feel the dog’s teeth penetrate me, but I was too adrenalized to feel anything.<\/p>\n

It’s a good thing we were out in the boonies, and it’s a good thing no one was there to see what happened next.\u00a0 And what that was, well, let’s just say it was picturesque.\u00a0 It was me frantically undoing my motorcycle pants, and then my blue jeans, and dropping both, with John kneeling in front of me to look for bite marks.\u00a0 Anyone seeing this might get the wrong idea.\u00a0 I know, we’re close, but not that close.<\/p>\n

I checked my leg and I didn\u2019t see any bite marks. John examined me and it was official:\u00a0 I was unharmed. Had I not been wearing boots and my motorcycle pants, that probably would not have been the case.\u00a0 All the gear, all the time.\u00a0 It’s an adage that holds true.\u00a0 Dodged a bullet, I did.<\/p>\n

So, toothmark-and-rabies-free, we rolled past another little cluster of dwellings, made a sweeping right turn as the dirt road followed the coast, and there it was…<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Isla Del Carmen, off the Pacific Coast near San Jacinto, after confirming I was not going to become a rabid motorcyclist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We hung out by the Isla Del Carmen<\/em> for a while and I took a bunch of photographs.\u00a0 The Isla Del Carmen<\/em> sank right off the San Jacinto coast during a storm in 1984.\u00a0 I’d seen the wreck in another photograph, and now I was seeing it in person.\u00a0 It was awesome being there.<\/p>\n

I like these photos, partly because of what we had gone through to get them (the rough roads and the canine assault), but mostly because it was a shot I had framed in my mind before we arrived and the actual photos turned out better than I had imagined.\u00a0 Indulge me.\u00a0 I’ll show you a few.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The KLRs in front of the Isla Del Carmen. That’s the Pacific in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
John’s is green. Mine was red. Loved those bikes. Simple, fast enough, and fun.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Baja John, at ease along the Pacific coast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Leave something in salt water long enough…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Coastal stuff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After spending a while taking photos, we took the direct route out of San Jacinto heading east. It was another sandy dirt road, but it was hard packed and it ran relatively straight to the Transpeninsular Highway north of Camalu.<\/p>\n

We stopped in Camalu for lunch.\u00a0 John and I opted for the chicken fajitas at the Las Brisas, a small restaurant, and our mid-day meal was amazing.\u00a0 Octavio, the owner and chef extraordinaire, took good care of us.\u00a0 We had a two-hour lunch, and we spent a lot of that time chatting with Octavio.\u00a0 It was fun.<\/p>\n

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The Las Brisas, the hot spot in Camalu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
John enjoying Octavio’s chicken fajitas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
This is Octavio, the propriet0r and Camalu\u2019s philosopher-in-chief. He patiently explained to us that Camalu is the best place in the world. Who knew?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
America and Palmyra, two young ladies in Camalu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We got as far as El Rosario that second night, and we stayed in the El Sinahi hotel. It was an inexpensive, no-frills kind of place (exactly what I like in Baja).<\/p>\n

\"\"
The El Sinahi. Check the spelling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The KLR, docked for the evening.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We ate at a restaurant adjacent to the El Sinahi, and it was great.\u00a0 I don’t think it had a name, other than “Restaurant.”\u00a0 It didn’t need one.\u00a0 It was wonderful.\u00a0 You know, folks tell me I spend a lot of time talking about the cuisine in Baja.\u00a0 Guilty as charged.\u00a0 I love that aspect of exploring the peninsula.\u00a0 I guess there are bad restaurants in Baja.\u00a0 In 30 years of exploring the place, though, I haven’t found them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Good food, good meat, good God, let’s eat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
John had fish tacos, the quintessential Baja dish. They look great, don\u2019t they?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Maria, our waitress in El Rosario.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I didn\u2019t know it yet, but the rear window to my El Sinahi hotel room faced a neighbor\u2019s yard. A neighbor with roosters. Lots of roosters. The kind that start cock-a-doodle-doodling at 4:30 a.m. Right into my window.
\nI had visions of making rooster fajitas, but I decided not to. Truth is, those things sounded so strong I didn\u2019t know if I could take them in a fight.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another abandoned mission west of El Rosario about three miles down a dirt road that winds through more small villages. We tried to find it that next morning, but we couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 While rolling down that road, we encountered more Mexican dogs, and sure enough, the dogs came after us again. We outran them that time. We could have poked around longer trying to find the mission, but the dogs unnerved me. I reckoned that we had gone far enough to pass where the mission should have been, we never saw it, and I turned around.\u00a0 On our return through the area where the dogs chased us, we blitzed by at 60 mph.\u00a0 No dogs, no bites, and no problems.<\/p>\n

Ah, but the day was just starting.\u00a0 A little further down the Transpeninsular Highway, in Baja’s Valle de los Cirios<\/em>, we would be chased yet again.\u00a0 But this time, it would be by a titanic tarantula. \u00a0 But that’s a story for the next installment of our Baja KLR Khronicles.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

\n

Want more Epic Motorcycle Rides?\u00a0 Hey, just click right here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I left off with the last post about our 2009 KLR Baja trip, I had a dog hanging onto my leg on a dirt road just north of San Jacinto.\u00a0 It was terrifying, and what I was mostly scared of was that the thing might have managed to sink its teeth into me.\u00a0 If … Continue reading “Baja 2009: The KLR Khronicles Part III”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[654,63,57,96,89],"tags":[3,101,315],"class_list":["post-4498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure-motorcycle-books","category-baja","category-baja-cuisine","category-feel-good-stuff","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","tag-baja","tag-el-rosario","tag-klr-650"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4498"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4552,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions\/4552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}