Loreto to Puerto San Carlos

After a Cessna flight to Loreto with a landing in a crosswind that was so tweaked out that it'd make Shawn White proud, we walked across the tarmac past the machine gun wielding army to the waiting van.  We did a brief safety talk and car orientation then hit the throttle with the goal of getting ourselves back to el Pacifico by sunset.  Again I'm reminded how amazing these cars are, copious suspension travel is pure magic.  80mph on roads 2' wider than the car with cactus on both sides, with jumps, whoops, chicanes, broad sweepers that allowed more rear wheel drift than a decade of Dukes of Hazzard reruns, all executed on more kinds of dust and sand than Inuit have types of snow, and of course, pokey cactus that decides to get you every now and then.  Yup, all that and more. 

One client "went astray" of the track "briefly" which led to a lot of "native vegetation" coming into the buggy.  His co-pilot, who took 90% of the cactus infusion, was subsequently stripped to his boxers in the sun while FirstEnergy employees, such as myself, picked nearly invisible needles out of him for a while, whilst caressing him "dearly" as it's the only way you can find the ultra fine needles. At least his tan will be even...  All fun.

What I was continually reminded of was how well these cars respond to terrain and driver inputs.  They're tough as nails, but dainty in their own ways.  It's all about giving them less input rather than more, and gently at that.  They do the work, whether it be water crossing, boulders, silt fields, or whoops.  The faster they're going the better generally, as it allows the suspension to float above the frequency of the washboard, and the momentum to keep the car on track.  At times it's smooth as silk, other times your kidneys and shoulders hurt from being shaken in the 5 point harness.  The old Porsche engines wound up higher, say 95mph.  These have a wider band of power/torque so you can drive faster all day,  but with less of a pure top speed - more like 85mph.  Having said that, 85mph on the parts we were able to reach terminal velocity on is so balls to the wall it's hard to describe - the controlled bouncing along the road, the buzz of the clean air feed to the helmet, the roar of the engine near the rev limiter, and the vibration of the helmet visor under wind pressure were a sweet (and loud) symphony indeed.  Dare I even describe how much fun it is to catch my 30 second man after a dozen caterpillar stops a day?  Dare I say a good day is when no ranchers waved shotguns at us, only those who cheered were visible today.

Life is better with a margarita in hand, funny how that works.  The bucket of beers on ice brought to our table took two chicas to carry it, which is a good sign for a bucket of beers. The dinner was so many items it was fantastic - beef, pork, egg, chicken, crab, lobster, fish, squid - all with beans, cheese, rice, tortillas, heaps of guacamole and SPICES.  Green habanero is my love of the day.

Seriously it's like I've died and gone to heaven.