El Apache

We woke up early to get a good start to our day. Our plan was to ride 100 kms to Ensenada where we had a host to stay with for the night. There are two highways out of Tijuana, the 1D, a toll highway forbidden to cyclists, but apparently with a good wide shoulder, and the 1, a free highway with lots of traffic and no shoulder. We had heard about cyclists riding the 1D but getting kicked off at each of the tolls or guard stations and then sneaking back on, but decided we didn't want to add that kind of headache to our day, so set off on the 1 up a big hill out of town. The traffic was crazy and we were definitely sucking in fumes wondering how long the hill could be, when a car pulled over and out jumped a guy and girl - Roberto and Annika. They told us they had been cycling around the world, but were taking some time off in Tijuana for the holidays since that is where Roberto's family is, and we were the first cycle tourists they had seen since arriving in Tijuana - did we need anything? Roberto told us about the 1D highway and how beautiful it was, and encouraged us to try to ride on it if we got the chance, and that was convincing enough for us to get on it later in the day (we had already missed the first part by taking the 1 out of town).Read more