San Diego – Rosarito – Ensenada – San Vicente – San Quintin – Restaurant El Sacrificio
5 days | 471 kilometers | 5030 meters elevation gain
Canada and the United States were amazing. But also they were western countries with cultures that are close to what I am used to in The Netherlands. Mexico will be completely different. Different language, food, hygiene, people, traditions. This means that we’ll have to adapt to what’s coming, whatever that is, and I’m looking forward it.
It takes a damn long time until we reach the border. I forgot how hilly San Diego can be. When we get closer to the border it starts to feel like we’re in Mexico already. In a supermarket where we buy lunch nobodies speaks a word of English. Then we get to the busiest border in the world. Luckily we’re not here by car, because that would mean a wait of several hours. We take the pedestrian path with our bikes. There’s one obstactle that we have to tackle, which is a turnstile gate that is not big enough for our bikes. That is, not for our bikes in horizontal position. I’ve crossed this border before with Pim when we cycled into Mexico for a weekend trip and remember that we lifted our bikes on the rear wheel to cross this exact same gate. I tell Jacko to copy me and again it works like a charm, even with the heavy bags.
Then things go fast. Boom, a stamp in our passport. Boom, through security. And boom, we’re in Tijuana. Time to get the hell out of here. Once again we’ve let all the American people make us scared about Tijuana. Yes, Tijuana has the highest homicide rate in the world. But no, that doesn’t mean that two guys on a bike will be involved in some kind of business of the Tijuana Cartel.
Ofcourse, there is always “wrong place, wrong time”, but still it is highly unlikely. Anyway, we got scared of the city nevertheless and it’s time to move on to the next city, Rosarito.
The moment we enter Mexico it is complete chaos. Food vendors screaming for customers, guys with whistles directing traffic and a jumble of people all trying to find their way. On the road it is not different: there are no shoulders, roads are in a very poor condition and cars apparently don’t give a shit about cyclists. After half an hour I’m already cut off by two cars, one of them only missing me by 10 centimeters. At some point we cycle through a haze of smoke and fire because something next to the road is burning. We’re happy when we make it to Rosarito alive. I’m super tired and I don’t know if it is because of me being idle for the last one and a half week or because of the Mexican chaos and near-death experiences.
Tonight we stay with Ix Chel, our WarmShowers host in Rosarito. When we arrive at her place she is about to go to her weekly Tai Chi lesson and half an hour later we find ourselves in the back of her class in the midst of middle-aged woman trying our best to copy the teacher’s movements. After class we eat taco’s and camp in her backyard. We learn a lot from her about Mexico and Baja California (e.g. where to get breakfast for €2) and she links us up with bike tourists that are 1 or 2 weeks “ahead of us” to exchange experiences.



From Rosarito we make our way to another big city, Ensenada. There are two roads in the north of Baja California going south: a toll road and a “free” road. We’ve heard that the toll road has less traffic and a bigger shoulder so we take it. The only problem is that cyclists are officially not allowed on the toll road. Later we will learn that rules and regulations don’t really exist in Mexico, but we don’t know this yet. So at the toll booth we put on our best “smile-and-wave” performance that we’ve gotten to practice to perfection in the US. It works.
The road goes along the coast. We see a shipwreck, we see dolphins. And then we see the contours of Ensenada. We stay with another WarmShowers host Tomas and his family. Tomas keeps a guestbook of all the cyclists that he has hosted so far and we flip through the big book in amazement.




After Ensenada the road finally becomes less heavily trafficked and even a broad shoulder appears. Also the landscape becomes nicer. We’re finally out of the metropolitan area and into the rural area. We see signs of a wine route that starts here. Today is Indepence Day for Mexico and we’ve been told it might be nice to end in San Vicente to spend the night so we can see some festivities. When we arrive in the dusty streets of San Vicente it doesn’t seem to be a very “festive” town, but no problem, we like to be surprised.
Tonight there is no accomodation plan yet. So we’ll have to figure something out. There have been rumours going around in the bike tourist scene that it sometimes is possible to pitch your tent at the fire or police station. So we headed to the local police station, after we found that the local fire station was closed. The policeman told us that we could leave the bikes within the station’s premises and he would like after it, but we could not camp there. So our quest continued.
Our next option was to ask at the one and only hotel in town if we could pitch a tent. No problem. After we asked how much that would cost he asked what we would think it would cost. I gave him 80 pesos / 4 euros and apparently that was something he could live with.
After showering ourselves with a hose we found somewhere, we headed out to town. Armed with a six pack of Tecate beer and a bag of chips we headed to the towns square to see how the people of the town of San Vicente would celebrate their independence from the Spaniards. Well, to say the least, it was not very vibrant. We asked in our broken Spanish where la fiesta was at the vendor in the street but he answered that there was no fiesta. Damn. Later in the night we did find that the local church was organizing a food buffet, got to witness the kids of the church during a lantern procession and were spectators of a very patriotic speach of the priest. Viva Mexico!




One thing we learn about Mexicans is that they really enjoy food and music. Food vendors can be seen everywhere: tacos, burritos, empanadas you name it. We also know that Mexicans like food because of the many obese people we see in the streets. And then the music. You don’t hear a lot of American pop music in the tank stations, supermarkets, shops, in the streets. No it is the traditional Mexican folk music that dominates the streets. We hear these happy, upbeat, almost carnivalesque tunes when passing little towns with three senior citizens with a big speaker in front of them. It makes a hilarious impression on me.
Tonight we will stay at a camping in San Quentin. We buy groceries for dinner and decide on noodles with veggies and eggs. Four out of twelve eggs don’t make it past the very bumpy side alley leading to the camping. That’s another thing here in Mexico. Normally a town consists of one paved main road and all the other roads are just dust, sand or a sequence of potholes. We only use four eggs for our dinner and the other four get devoured by the, at first sight very nice, camping dogs when we turn our heads away for just one minute.




The transition has been started slowly already the last couple of days, but today we really cycle into the desert. Not the Southern Utah desert, but the Baja desert. The main point of attraction are the many, many cacti that fill the hills left and right of us. Cycling through these cacti deserts, having so much time to spare on the bike, I start categorizing the fauna into 5 main groups:
- The Classic Cactus. This one looks exactly like the cactus you would draw in a game of pictionary. Or one you would see in a TV cartoon.
- The stompy, small red cactus. Just like The Classic, but shorter and red and with a higher density of thorns.
- The Octupus Cactus. This one has many arms like an octopus, spickled with thorns.
- The Magic Tree. This one is so cool! It is a small candle-like tree. Its trunk having a bigger diameter than the top of the tree. It either doesn’t split off or it splits in two or three branches somewhere halfway. It is completely covered with small leaves sticking out everywhere. Okay I looked it up for you guys and it is called Boojum Tree or Cirios in Spanish.
- The regular bush.
No more fauna can be found than these 5 sorts. I find that very strange. Maybe these 5 are the only species that can survive this brutal climate?
Anyway. We cycle on and as the climate is getting more brutal, also the people start to vanish. No towns, no gas stations. With our iOverlander app we find a roadhouse with reviews telling us that sometimes they accept people to camp on their premises. After a long and hot day with many climbing and with empty water bottles, we reach restaurant El Sacrificio. Luckily we can camp in their garden. And they can also cook us dinner. We watch football on the smallest TV ever on the couch of their living room. Many truckers stop for food or just some rest here as well.
Mexico has left a good first impression. The Baja California peninsula is quite remote, but still shops with food can be found everywhere. People have been friendly. Cars and trucks put on their indicator lights and pass us with care. The fact that Mexico is way cheaper than the US makes it easier for us just eat on the streets instead of always cooking.
Looking forward to the rest of Baja and Mexico.






Wederom genoten van jullie avonturen. Wat een respect heb ik voor jullie!
Gelukkig is de gastvrijheid ook in Mexico top en jullie wennen alweer aardig aan dit andere land met andere mensen andere gewoonten en ander eten en ander klimaat
De hitte is een grote uitdaging !
Vol bewondering lees ik jouw prachtig verhaal veel plezier op jullie verdere reis en blijf goed op je hoede xxx
No era penal! Groetjes uit Rotterdam
Prachtig!
😂😂😂
I just came to this blog for the first time, and I am very interested in the information presented, I will come back another time, thank you