Reality Check
From Melissa: We began this leg of the journey with a lot of excitement and a healthy amount of fear. Countless bikers that we have met have regaled us with stories of their friends and friends-of-friends who have ridden through Mexico, Central and South America and encountered a myriad of mishaps…robberies, bikers left bloodied by the side of the road, victims of drunk drivers (for which they have been hauled off to jail, asked for insurance, forced to hand over vast amounts of dollars) etc. If one more person tells us about the book “Two Wheels of Terror”, by the guy who was motorcycling though Colombia and was kidnapped for 4 months, I’ll run. I really would like to read this book, only AFTER I get home from this journey. With all of this input, we have tried to stay positive and not get hysterical about the amount of danger ranging from swine flu to drug lords. However, today when we crossed into Mexico, I have to say that our anxiety was at an all-time high. We crossed from San Diego to Tecate with much anticipation………however, the border guards just waved us through, didn’t even leave the shady area where they were hanging out to stamp our passports (which we hope won’t be a problem later.) We came into Tecate and headed down the Baja coast road to Ensenada, stopping for lunch at a small town called San Vicente.We passed through the MexicanWine Route but did not stop as we were concerned about timing and where to stay the night. There is quite a distance between stops with hotels in this part of Mexico and no signs…very little is also visible on a map, and the GPS has been off-track, not lining up with the actual roads (even though we purchased the Garmin Mexico map system.) Having lived in Mexico, I have a real love for the country, but today...traffic was a nightmare, and a good amount of the road was under construction, where we were diverted off onto a dirt road, stuck behind buses spewing fumes into our faces. We had stopped at the tourist...