Unplanned adventures in Baja

Next, we left from San Felipe to go to Guerrero Negro, even though the weather forecast showed hurricane Paul was still there. Our friends Traian and Razvan had left the day before, straight through the hurricane. In their own words “The next day we were surprised to see our truck still had wheels”.

The road in between was about 110 km paved and about 100 km of gravel. The paved one was a lot of fun on the bike. Lots of washouts and great scenery.

And then we hit the gravel ,which was fun too….for a while. There was a lot of sand and loose gravel, which made it quite technical.

Here we passed a military check point, where they searched our panniers, apparently for guns and drugs.

And then not very long after that, about half way in our journey, the sand and I had a little disagreement, and I lost. I went a bit too far to the side of the road, and I caught a very deep loose gravel and sand patch. I was used by now to the bike dancing on this gravel road, but this time it just went crazy, and I lost control of it and I high-sided at about 40-50  km/ hour. After I landed, I could not move or talk for a few minutes (almost giving Vasile and Matt a heart attack) since I could not breath, but then I recovered and I could stand up.

Initially I thought I was absolutely fine, just a bit shaken, and we were making plans as to how to get out of there, since my bike had a bit of a makeover:)

But as the adrenaline wore off, I started feeling a sharp pain in my chest, so riding the bike out of there was out of question. As we were making plans how to ride two up or something to the closest community, we saw a truck driving by.

He stopped and he asked us (hoping, for sure, that the answer would be no) if we needed any help. Here was our saviour! An American guy from Phoenix, Arizona, driving through the desert, having a margarita, looking for something fun to do (well, I don’t know if he found exactly what he was looking for).

Turned out he had a pick up truck too (and a ramp for the bike!), so he went back to his place (about 10 minutes drive from there) and brought the pick up truck, we put the bike in the truck, and with me in the passenger seat, we headed back to San Felipe, to the hospital.

Until then, I did not realize how long the ride had been on the gravel road. But on the way back, it definitely felt like forever, since it was really bumpy and I was in a lot of pain. But we managed to get back to San Felipe, a couple of hours later (thank you, Jacob!)

just to find out that the hospital had closed, and they only had a small clinic. We went to emergency, they gave me an IV for pain, took my blood pressure and my pulse, and they told me I was good to go, since I was stable, even though I was in a lot of pain and I could barely breath. I asked them if I had anything broken, and the answer was “I am sorry, we do not have any kind of scans here, all we can tell you is that you are stable”. Despite this, I have to admit I was very pleasantly surprised though of how nice and careful they were, and how preoccupied for my pain . But unfortunately they do not have the right equipment to do more. And one more thing: the clinic did not charge me a penny, even though I went back the next day for another IV. Absolutely free! In BC, if you are not a BC resident, you pay a few hundred dollars just for being admitted into the clinic, before you even see a doctor!

Eventually they sent me to a private doctor’s office to have an x-ray done ($30 for an x-ray!!! We could not believe it. I do not want to imagine how much this would have costed in US or Canada). Took the x-ray back to the clinic the next day, and after a small debate between the doctors there (broken ribs – no broken ribs) they decided I had no broken ribs. Just bruised bones and muscles from the shock, so I need at least 15 days of rest before I start feeling normal, according to them. Later, a friend of mine who’s a nurse looked at the x-rays and told me that I did have one broken rib, which explains the sharp pain in my chest when breathing.

So here I am, like a good girl, spending my time on the beach or in bed resting all day (we had to take a hotel room, since palapas were not good enough for me anymore), eating delicious Mexican food and enjoying the sun . The pain is getting better each day, so hopefully soon I can jump in the saddle again.

In the meantime, Vasile almost finished fixing the bike! So far, the repair costs $10.  And his labor, of course, that I will pay for in installments for the rest of my life:) Or I’ll counter charge him for translating services.

More news to come. Stay tuned.