A Fifth Type of Traveler: Two-Wheelers

We’ve run across another type of traveler since we categorized the RV lifestyle a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday we met a young couple, Yosh and Christian, who were traveling on a mid-size BMW motorcycle. They called out to us as we entered the internet café, saying “Are you from Seattle?” They’d spotted our Washington license plates and seemed interested in having a conversation with people from home. They left Seattle two weeks ago and were on their way “as far south into Central America as our money will last”, planning to travel south on the Baja to La Paz, take the ferry to Topolobampo on the mainland of Mexico, then continue down, hopefully all the way to Panama. They’d already had 3 break-downs on their bike and several adventures with people who helped them out getting it fixed. They were staying in cheap motels and still discovering the secrets of traveling easily and inexpensively, but clearly seemed to be having the time of their lives. We envied them their time of life, while at the same time we didn’t envy them their lifestyle, if that makes sense to you. The second type of two-wheeled traveler we’ve run across a couple of times since we arrived back in Baja California Norte, is the dirt biker. Tonight at the restaurant where we had dinner we talked to a fellow who was one of approximately 50 guys, from Las Vegas to Wyoming, who had left San Felipe, Mexico on Monday, and over a period of 5 days expect to go from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean and back to the Sea of Cortez, all on the back country of Baja, completely off-road. This fellow and his companions had spent the day riding, cleaned up at a local motel, had dinner and a drink (or two or three) and were settling into exhaustion before the next day’s ride. And finally, we haven’t met any of the third sort of two-wheeled traveler, but several dozen times while traveling up and down Mex 1 we’ve passed two people on bicycles, huffing and puffing up a steep incline, or pedaling through 90+ degree heat on an inland stretch on bicycles, with heavily loaded panniers. These sorts of adventures make ours look tame by comparison!