Made it to the Sea of Cortez and also passed 1000km mark since I restarted in San Diego.

Today was a pleasant ride and one I rode with another cyclist for a little over half the distance. San Ignacio looks like a nice little town nestled into a valley. It was a few km more riding before I was heading up for the first larger hill to climb. It was steep in a few bits, but nothing too bad. No much further was a small loncheria “Datil” where I stopped for a coke.

Not many kilometers ahead I thought I spotted something on the road. Could it be another cyclist? Not sure and I was actually slowly gaining. I met up with Corine, a US cyclist who had been heading southbound along Baja Peninsula. Nice to ride with someone else for a change and over the next 40+km we cycled together. Over the next 30km, the route slowly climbed from ~250m to over ~500m all the while getting closer to large imposing Volcan las Tres Virgenes. Just before the 40km mark we crested a local summit and had a short descent back and then mostly level again. Fortunately, much less wind today than yesterday.

At the 57km mark we could see the Sea of Cortez below! Told Corine to go ahead since I’m slow on descents and she was planning on riding further. The descent itself had a few steeper sections but within 3km had lost most of the elevation and then over a few hills and to the coast.

There were some large mineral extraction areas here and the road was surprisingly beat up in this section.

Without much difficulty made my way through the town where this railway engine was posted and then found a place to stay a little past the center in the south. Overall, a moderate amount of climbing today but nice to share the long gradual climb with another cyclist and also nice to have reached the Sea of Cortez.