Jan 22--A Pretty Speedy Day on the Sand

Boy was it cold this morning! I didn't look at the temp on my bike computer, but it was probably a little below 50 degrees. I know, to those of you who are in snow, and all that, 50 seems balmy. However, for those of us without so many clothes, 50 is cold! Anyway, we were back to being on the road by 7:00. Once we got into the sun, we warmed up nicely.

The first 18 miles went by very quickly. Before we knew it, we were in El Arco. El Arco is an old factory town that is kind of dying. We think it used to be a mining town because we could see old rusted equipment. We also came upon the church. Because we were looking at the church, and there were two roads, we missed a Baja Divide sign. As we started going the wrong way, a guy came walking toward the church, pointing to the other road. Then we saw the sign.

The church in El Arco 

The next part of the route was supposed to be sandy, and a 10 mile section of straight road. It really was pretty straight for a long time. It wasn't too sandy...yet. Here's a photo of the straight road.

The main thing we had to watch out for was prickly bushes growing out into the track (since almost every plant is prickly here, one just assumes every plant can poke you). Sometimes there were alternate tracks. Some we took, some we didn't. Some Harry took, and some we didn't. Here's Harry on an alternate, while we stayed on the main track.

The road wasn't really going uphill, I just took the photo while riding.

There was an alternate at one point that we could have taken to avoid the most sandy part. It was a lot longer, and would have meant riding on Mex 1 for awhile. We were doing the sand okay, and didn't want to ride on Mex 1.

We finally made it to the end of the sand, and onto a much nicer road. From there, we popped out to Mex 1 in the middle of Vizcaino. Vizcaino is a pretty big town--the biggest we've been to since Vincente Guerrero. 

Our first order of business was to get more pesos. There appears to be one bank in town. After we got  pesos, we went across the street to get something cold to drink, and some food (second lunch). I finally had a carne asada torta. Torta is similar to a flat bread sandwich. It was delicious! It had carne asada, cilantro, tomato, avocado, and onion. It's my new favorite!

Since there appears to be no camping in town, we got a hotel room. The three of us are sharing a room that cost 550 pesos (about $27). Since we are splitting it three ways, it's the cheapest hotel yet. Being the solo female, I get my own bed. The boys will either share a double bed, or one will sleep on the floor (although, with three bikes in here, there's not much floor space). The only room left was on the second floor. Leah and Joe are here too. I took my panniers off, and Joe carried Mama Cass up the stairs for me. I thought that was mighty nice!

Brent and I walked down the road to the Super Mercado. It was a pretty large store, but not a Calimex. We don't need to carry much food as we only have 66 miles to the next resupply opportunity. On the way back from the store, we stopped at a roadside fruit stand. They had big bags of oranges, but they also sold some individually. Brent bought three for 12 pesos. I wanted one (for 4 pesos), and the guy gave me two for 5 pesos. I told Brent it must have been because I was wearing my skirt!

Also, apparently, we have passed into the Mountain time zone. That means it will stay light an hour longer, but won't get light until about 7:00. I hope that means we won't be getting up so early!