We took the loan bike for a spin to La Paz to catch the last night of Carnival, Mardi Gras, and were greeted by some familiar faces back at the Pension California We took the loan bike for a spin to La Paz to catch the last night of Carnival, Mardi Gras, and were greeted by some familiar faces back at the Pension California when we checked back in for the night. We unloaded the bike once more, parked the bike up inside the inner courtyard of the Pension, and headed out to the Malencon to catch the Carnival Parade. It seemed as if the whole town and then some were out that night, and the Promenade along the sea front was heaving with people out t o celebrate in true Mexican style. There were vendors everywhere selling everything form huge bottles of beer to candyfloss, trinkets, eggs filled with confetti-which were used to throw at people that you fancied-tacos, sweets and whistles. We watched the floats pass by, danced with the locals watched some of the bands, and at around 1am headed back to the Pension.
The next day, we road back to Pescadero to the camp.
We kicked our heels for a while round the surf camp, our mate Adrian came round a few times to visit and drive us into Todos Santos or down to Cerritos surf beach. A couple of days later and my bike was ready to be picked up, and it was time for us to say our tentative goodbyes to the Aussies and the camp residents and head off. We rode out through the overly Americanised and quite garish Cabo San Lucas, past the more typically Mexican San Juan de Cabo, and then North as far as Santiago, a little Mexican pueblo, where we found a quaint hotel and settled in. We walked around the town, which took no more than 10 minutes, and returned to the seemingly only place to eat, a Tacos stand in the back garden of a neighbour of the hotel. The music was pumping out of a boom box and smoke was pouring out to the road, the smell drawing us in as we began salivating at the prospect of some tasty Carne Asada. We were not disappointed!
Early the next morning, after a most uneventful evening, we were back on the road again, this time, we were heading for Cabo Pulmo, a national park on the East Cape, which, unfortunately for us, was only accessible via a dirt road. We bumped and bounced for what seemed like an eternity over sandy washboard tracks; in reality it was only about 20 miles, but it felt like a lot more!