Days 21 Through 25: Guerrero Negro Part II

Guerrero Negro opened its arms wide and enveloped Gonzalo and me in a big warm hug.  We were no longer just some random tourists passing through town, but rather, Sara and Adolfo made us feel like we were a part of their family.  Sara and her daughter Sarita picked us up from the Motel Gamez in their family van with a cooler stuffed full of homemade burritos stuffed with potato and machaca and juice.  We swung by the ESSA production facility to pick up Adolfo, who had gotten all the permits and paperwork we needed, and we were off!

But first, let me tell you a little bit about this lovely family.  Sara is a remarkable woman.  The youngest of 12 kids from the nearby Ejido Benito Juárez, Sara is a mother of five children, ages ranging from 12 to 18.  Remarkably, she decided to go back to school as an adult to complete her high school education and then received a scholarship to attend university.  She is currently finishing her degree in alternative tourism and has a passion for sustainable tourism and preserving the environment.  Adolfo is a mechanic at the ESSA production facility who comes from a family of fisherman.  Sara jokes that her plans are crazy, but there aren't many people in this world who are willing to just go for their dreams, rules of society be damned.

Adolfo, Sara, and Sarita (minus the four other kids).

But I digress, back to the salt plant tour.  ESSA is the biggest natural salt production facility in the world, that is, it relies only on evaporation rather than artificial processes.  It is a joint venture between Mitsubishi and the government of Mexico, which respectively own 49% and 51% of the project.  This facility is so important that the president visits every year.  In addition to explaining each part of the salt production process and answered all of our random questions, Sara and Adolfo also made sure we saw everything and took some amazing pictures of us.

Big wheels from the ESSA salt trucks (photo credit: Sara).

ESSA is an equal opportunity employer... Sara was proud to introduce me to one of the female mechanics who works here.

Fun on a huuuuge stack of salt (photo credit: Sara).

Gonz and I get into a salt foam fight... foam is not the best ammunition but it sure is fun (photo credit: Sara).

Observing the massive salt trucks (photo credit: Sara).

Mountains of salt!

Look!  It's salt on a boat!  And Adolfo!

At the Laguna de Guerrero Negro... during the whale season, you can get a boat here to whale watch.  We found some remains and a cheeky little bird.

Sarita decides to wake up some sleeping birds.

On the way back from the salt plant, Sara suggested we go to a place called Los Amargos (which translates to something like "The Bitters").  The tourism industry in Guerrero Negro needs to find a way to promote this place.  Sure, it's a natural by product of the salt production facility (from what I understood of the conversation... by this time I was starting to get tired so my Spanish comprehension was failing), but it looks like an eerily beautiful alternate world.

The moon!?!  Los Amargos contains this mineral water that is warm and is supposed to be good for your joints.

It's a veritable playground of crystallized by product (photo credit: Sara).

The pictures don't really do justice to how strange and amazing this place is.

Sara and Adolfo dropped us off back at the Motel Gamez after an amazing afternoon.  We asked if we could contribute something towards the gas and food, but were told absolutely not.  I was so taken with Los Amargos, that I decided to head back out for the sunset on my bike after dinner.

Sara told me that a lot of people come at sunset because it's particularly beautiful at that time... 

She was right, of course.

Over the next fews days, I experienced hospitality at its finest, from a trip out to meet Sara's friend Kiko, to a tour of the underbelly of Guerrero Negro including its quirky but beautiful cemetery, to a kayaking class that was part of Sara's curriculum, to the delicious nopales/egg/bean/rice burritos Kiko brought from his restaurant to share with the kayaking class, to a warm homemade meal and a special bottle of Baja California wine with Sara and Adolfo's family.

Kayaking class!  The instructor is on the right... he is NOLS certified (National Outdoor Leadership School).  I had actually looked into courses at NOLS before for myself.

Sara and me looking supremely tan with our awesome double kayak before heading out.  We had an awesome day out on the water with clear blue skies and almost no wind (which is rare here).  We even chatted up a fisherman who was pulling up pulpo (octopus!) (photo credit: Debra).

Sara, me, and Pacifica, Kiko's friend who was also enjoying the class as a visitor.  Pacifica and I ended up chatting for a bit while the others received their instructions.  She and her partner Debra split their time between Oakland, CA and Mulége south of Guerrero Negro and are highly involved with the environment and social justice (photo credit: Debra).

Sara shows me how to make flour tortillas from scratch at her home.  Sara is a pro since she wakes up early every day to make tortillas for her family of seven (photo credit: Gonzalo).

Much to Sara's surprise, I actually did end up doing pretty well and rocked out a stack of sometimes oddly shaped but delicious tortillas.  Multitasking between rolling tortillas out while simultaneously cooking two others, including the secret double tortilla swirl method, isn't easy, but once you find a good rhythm, it's not too bad.  They say in Mexico a woman is ready to get married after to she learns how to make tortillas... (photo credit: Gonzalo).

The kayaking class with Sara gave me some beautiful views of the dunes, so I decided to go back on my bike to explore.   Thanks to Sara, I knew how to get back there.

Gorgeous dunes with superfine sand... we had seen some smaller dunes on our salt plant tour with Sara and Adolfo, but these were really impressive.

The dunes go all the way up to the water, making for a really beautiful beach.   As I was leaving, a ton of families pulled up to enjoy Cinco de Mayo.

Apparently, it is the crab migration.  The kids were getting a kick out of chasing these guys around and collecting them.  I was just trying not to kill too many of them with my bike!

Gonzalo and I decided we wanted to do something nice for Sara and Adolfo before we left, so we invited their family out for a pizza dinner for Cinco de Mayo... actually, it just happened to be Cinco de Mayo.  Here in Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not the Mexican independence day (which is actually September 16th and is widely celebrated, sometimes for days).  It rarely celebrated except for in the state of Puebla, and is known as El Día de la Batalla de Puebla, where Mexican forces overcame French forces against all odds.

And then at long last, Gonzalo's rim arrived!  We would have just one more night here to give Gonzalo time to rebuild his wheels, do laundry, get food and water supplies, give our bikes a quick tune-up, and get one last sunset over Los Amargos before heading out towards San Ignacio and Santa Rosalía.

Success!  I've never been so happy to see a box sitting at a bus station before... we confirmed that the rims were indeed the right ones and celebrated with a huge breakfast.

A few travel notes for cyclists:

• Coordinating with Sara was made possible because I have a local cell phone, which isn't too expensive and great in the case of an emergency.  All you need is an unlocked international phone and a local SIM card costs about US$13.  I have found TelCel to be widespread with good service.  You need to put 200 pesos on at a time to avoid roaming charges, but that's only about US$17.  Note that while recargas can be done at many little shops (bring your cell phone and wait for a text message confirming your recarga to ensure it worked), you need to go to an authorized TelCel dealer to get SIM card.

• Los Amargos is easily visited by bike, it's about a 5-10 minute leisurely bike ride from town.  Take the main road past the bank and ESSA office and follow the signs to the Faro Viejo and Muelle.  Just past the tree-lined pedestrian trails is a big red sign that says something like Prohibido Entrar, Vehículos Autorizados Solamente, take a left on the dirt road there and then you can either of the next two dirt roads to the right.  Don't worry, this area is fine, we saw tons of cyclists and runners out here.  You may also notice some flat sandy singletrack throughout this area, created by local cyclists.

• From what I understand, some of the hotels offer salt plant tours and will arrange for the permits for a fee.  I think the fee is really to pay for an English-speaking guide because I saw in some travel forums that you can go directly to the ESSA office to get a tour, but that they only offer them in Spanish.   

• The dunes are also easily visited by bike, it's about a 30 minute bike ride from town.  Take a right onto the dirt road to the right of the canal as you head towards the ESSA offices, then stay left at the first fork.  This is also the road to the airport so you can just ask for that as well.  There are several dirt access roads to the water, but to get to the dunes, you have to cycle past the fenced off area until you see public dirt access roads again.