La Paz

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We enjoyed a rest day in Loreto and did lots of eating. We could not resist going out for a pizza when we heard there was somewhere in town that did them. The waiter double checked that we wanted one each. When they arrived we could see why he had asked. However they were no match for our appetites and we demolished them in no time. There was footage from the Baja 1000 playing on a TV and it was entertaining to watch the trucks make light work of the desert.

We were staying in a great hostal right in the town centre with rooms of a central covered courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard was this VW Beetle belonging to the owner. It had been rolled in, jacked up and manoeuvred into place between two pillars on the central raised plinth. Amazing.

The town was full of historical buildings including this church with bell tower just round the corner from where we were staying. It had bells that chimed every 15 minutes, that rang out the hours and played a crazy tune at 6am and 6pm.

When we left town we had to climb up over towards the Pacific side. We were treated to some amazing views as we looked back down. The coast has lots of cliffs and the sunlight glinting off the sea is magical.

If you zoom in, you will be able to see the road we climbed behind us. We were part way up the climb when some Canadians we had met at San Ignacio passed us. They stopped and gave us bottles of cold water. We were so grateful for their generosity.

The ride from Loreto to La Paz took four days. There were few settlements, shops, mobile signals etc. We enjoyed the opportunities for desert camping. Baja California is just great for this. Simply pull off the road, weave between the cacti and find a flat space to sleep for the night. We love it. Especially as the moon has been growing and the cacti in moonlight are cathedral like.

We passed through Ciudad Insurgentes and Ciudad Constitution. See Rachel's Instagram post for details. 

We have been enjoying getting to taste lots of different foods. We have been refining our Spanish so that we are able to ask what is in things / to ask for things without meat. We were particularly taken with these gorditas (chubbies!) which are a puffed up tortilla filled with a veg stew and accompanied by a delicious chilli salsa. 

One of the big changes we have noticed as we have headed south has been in the vegetation. Everywhere is much greener and there are loads more flowers. The colours, shapes and patterns of the flowering cacti is amazing. They stand out so vividly against the desert background.

There was also a prolific increase in the number of flowering plants. We saw so many different colours and varieties that it is not possible to be capture them all. This one is worth including not for the shade it provided but for the delightful scent that washed over us as we had our morning coffee under it.

La Paz feels like it has been a destination for a long time (we have cycled 1500km down Baja California) so it was quite special to begin to see it in the distance.

The first thing we did when we got into town was head to the ferry office. We had heard all sorts of tales about the difficulty of buying tickets so we wanted to get started on it straight away in case there were problems. However, we walked in said what we wanted and got given our tickets without any hitches. (We hope that boarding goes equally smoothly). We have a few days here before our sailing to Mazatlán to do a few touristy things.

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