tbaroundtheworld

For many years I made it a point to bring a bike along whenever we came down. Little by little though, that commitment dwindled. First it became too hot to ride on our regular trip in October and then the loss of my favorite road (to traffic and an ever degrading surface) made it less fun to ride during the more favorable climate of December and February. This time though I convinced myself that it was worth the effort to shoehorn a bike in the back of the car, and thus I arrived with plans of at least spending a little while trying to find a new place to explore on two wheels. Riding in Mexico is more or less comparable to riding in the States. The loose dogs aren’t really interested and the drivers are largely respectful, as long as you avoid roads where it’s easy to drive a hundred miles an hour. That’s what really cost me my original route – a formerly little used shortcut from San Carlos to Guaymas that became a narrow two lane race track once it was discovered. Just too much r...

 Every morning a flotilla of snowbirds in kayaks takes to the sea to harass the porpoises that hang around Bahia San Francisco. The beasts come daily and pretty reliably to the clock during this part of the year but when we’re here in other months they drop in too on a much less predictable schedule. Each day at breakfast time people in baggy shorts, floppy hats and personal flotation devices gather to mill around on the sea wall, scanning the open sea with one eye while looking at their watches with the other, and paddles in hand, asking the same question – “has anyone seen the dolphins?” I usually sit by, drinking coffee and watching the shore-bound spectacle patiently waiting until the call comes – “Mount your boats, they’re here!” And then they’re off, down to the sea in a giant wave, humanity and yellow plastic merged in a grand attempt to commune with nature. In addition to the paddlers there is one brave swimmer, in wet suit with giant fins who flops down the strand like a p...