Since my last entry as I was leaving Creel, MX., I crossed the Sea of Cortez which separates mainland Mexico from Baja, by a 12 hour ferry ride.

My first day on the road was from Creel, at 8,000 feet in the middle of the Sierra Madre Mts. (that run almost all the way down central MX), all the way to Guyamas, on the MX side of the Sea of Cortez. It was so far my toughest day on the road so far. The road winded and turned, up an down as I crossed the mountains to the coast. 9 hours on the bike and could go no faster then an average speed of 50 km/hr. The first 3-4 hours were at around 18oC, but as I wound my way down to an altitude of around 2,000 feet, the temp. quickly rose to 35 - 40oC ! Even on the bike the wind was HOT. I finally reached Guyamas as the sun was setting on the 24th. Heading west into the sun for 3 hours was no fun either. G is a city of around 300,000 people with nothing special.

On the 25th I went to the ferry office and found it didn't sail till the nite (2000h) of 26th. So I booked the ferry - first class ( which meant I was in a separate cabin of only 16 aircraft seats vs. economy which had over 100 seats for $15 CAD more - total cost with my "old age "discount of 20% was around $150 CAD).

By the time this was done it was 1100h and the temp was close to 42oC - YES that's the low 100's - and I went 30 kms. north to San Carlos, a really neat quaint beach resort and spent the rest of the day and the following day on the beach with the most beautiful warm turquoise water. By 1500h at 44oC I couldn't take it any more and retired to a beach side palapa and enjoyed a "few" marguritas, and then had the most fantastic jucy, fresh, garlic grilled shrimps I've ever eaten ! (sorry Jody). I repeated this the next day too, and then returned to Guyamas for the ferry on the eve of the 26th. Just as boarding started another motorcycle pulls up with a Swiss guy, Dieter Wyler, a mechanical engineer, who's been on the road for the last 17 months (he had shipped his bike over to Argentina from Switzerland). Now the amazing thing is that when I rented the truck in Creel with the 2 Swiss guys and the 2 US guys, we passed Dieter while we were almost at the bottom of the canyon and he was coming up. He had just crashed his bike in one of the turns and was surveying the damage... none to him, but a bit on the bike. He was going to stop in La Buffa in the canyon for repairs. We chatted a while ..., now 3 Swiss guys, 2 Americans, and a Canadian in the middle of nowhere....then moved on. He was riding a specially customized BMW for riding a combo of hughway and back dirt roads. I was glad I chose to leave my bike in Creel and take the truck to the canyon.

I'll continue this tomorrow, I off to dinner...Buenos noches