After our trip to Disneyland we relaxed for a few days. Just hanging out with Kitty and her two cats. Off course Esben is always having fun taking pictures of the cats…
We spend a week in LA, because we had a lot of fun and a few things to fix. First Esben had to fix the oil leak on our motorcycles and second we found a big hole in our NEMO tent and several other places where it was starting to fall apart.
We contacted NEMO and they were happy to send us a new tent, and we didn’t even had to send the old tent back. BUT… there was just one BIG problem, they didn’t have any of the MOKI 3 tent in stock. We have to wait until mid April before they get them in stock again. Now we needed to figure out a solution… NEMO offered to send us a temporary LOPI P3 tent, but we had to pay for the shipment back, because at that time we would not be in the US anymore. Esben still had to fix the oil leak on the motorcycles, so he rode to the nearest Hardware store, to find a solution. Esben got back with a tarp, a clear repair tape from GORILLA and a few things for the motorcycles.
The tent is still standing here in Mexico
BUT… we also had a lot of fun. We when out for sushi on Kitty’s birthday. The quality of the sushi was great (left picture) – but it was just too spicy for my taste, they added way to much spicy sauce on the sushi, so it was had even to taste the fish (right picture).
We went on a small road trip – just to try a few American specialties before leaving the US. For those of you, who doesn’t know Esben that well, he LOVES burgers 
. So Google told us to go to Peter’s Gourmade Grill.
We were not disappointed!
These where the fries we ordered: Sweet potato fries with brwon sugar AND melted marshmallows on top. The fries were still crispy underneath the melted marshmallows. The combination with the sweet potato fries and melted marshmallows is insane, but it tasted so good!
After that we went for a cinnamon roll at Cinnabon… after that one, we just had to have one more when we got to San Diego.
I love cinnamon rolls so much, especially with cream cheese frosting on top!
On our way home we picked up 6 cupcakes and 12 macaroons – they disappeared so quick, that we didn’t even got around to take a picture. They are gone now – it’s gonna be tough to live on the road without sugar. We have already gained weight, and now it is time to loose some weight. More about “Food on the road” in a separate post.
As we were packing all our stuff to go to San Diego, one of Kitty’s cats wanted to come with us. Sorry can’t take you with us…
We said goodbye and hit the road, to meet our new friend Sondra in San Diego. We go to her place in the afternoon, and before she got home from work, the guy with the beanie bought us a cup of coffee in the coffee shop just around the corner.
From the right: me (Camilla), the guy who bought us coffee (thank you), Sondra who we stayed at (thank you), Esben (my man)
and a girl who looked after our luggage while we parked our motorcycles (thank you).
Sondra had to go for a few hours, so Esben and I went for a walk down to the harbor in San Diego (got the cinnamon roll from Cinnabon on our way).
A retired carrier from second world war
In the right picture, you see a statue inspired by a famous photo, which is a symbol of the end of second world war
I didn’t know that this was how they park the cars in San Diego – showing off the suspension!
Sondra told us that she has been to Baja California a lot of times. Her goal is to take a least 10 trips a year. She and her boyfriend Tom helped us with planning stops and camping on our way in Baja California. Tom is the guy on the cellphone screen.
Together with all the things I put on the map at Mike’s place in Oakhurst, we started to see at route down through Baja California. The next morning we headed south to ride across the border to Mexico. It was really easy to go across the boarder, we didn’t even have to stop and show our passports. 5 minutes later we found a Banjercito (An army bank owned by the government), where we had to buy a 180 days tourist visa and a temporary vehicle import permit (TVIP) for both motorcycles. Sondra already helped us with buying an insurance for both motorcycles online at www.bajabound.com, which was 287,38 US dollars for 6 mouths for both motorcycles.
As stupid as I was, I though had the people could speak English, but I was wrong! First I went into the bank where the staff send me to the immigration office. At the immigration office there has an elderly military employee – he could only speak Spanish. I almost lost my courage… left the office to get my cellphone which could translate from English to Spanish. I went back inside and I filled out the immigration papers. Had to go back to the bank to pay the immigration fee and then back to the immigration office, where the elderly military employee approved and stamped the 180 days tourist visa to Mexico.
I went back into the bank to get the TVIP, which was pretty easy. In total we paid about 1000 US dollars. Before we leave Mexico, we have to find a Banjercito and export our motorcycles, which should give us 800 US dollars back. When all this was going on, Esben is keeping an eye on our motorcycles and all our gear. After 1½ hour everything was in order an we could continue towards Ensenada, a city on the west coast of the Baja Peninsula.
The calculation was:
Insurance for both motorcycles 287,38 USD
180 days tourist visa for two persons 50,80 USD
TVIP for both motorcycles 2*463,92 = 927,84 USD
Total 1266,02 USD
Including refund of 800 USD when exporting the motorcycles 1266,02-800 = 466,02 USD
Are you entering Mexico? Get all the details about the border crossing etc. here: Mexico – Border crossing
Finally in Mexico – riding south on highway 1, Baja California
We stopped to eat lunch with a nice ocean view – enjoying life in our camping chairs from HELINOX
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