From San Diego to LA, 131 miles on a bike.
Preliminary statistics. Almost 45 miles a day is not too bad for a beginner like me. The bike helped me a lot actually. Speed combinations, brakes, and wheels worked like a charm.
Yes, this is me. Sometimes I look better, I don't know what happened here :).
The bicycle and my tent in the campground of San Onofre State Park.
After sorting all kind of hills in Dana Point I thought: "ok this cannot get any worse", then I saw the following picture.
To be honest, I felt like crying, but I'm Cuban you know and for some reason we turn this feeling into laugh, so I laughed.
Newport Beach
One metro station in LA
Skipping some busy areas of LA on my way to Redondo Beach.
Redondo Beach. Here you follow the bicycle trail that goes along the beaches Manhattan, and Venice, ending up in Santa Monica. To go from Santa Monica to Malibu you'll have to get a special permit signed by Barbra Streisand. I couldn't make it that far :( .
Barbra
Palms and stuff, if you live in California you can ignore this picture.
From Manhattan to Venice Beach
Something that always amazes me is how much space of sand there is between the water and the street. You can play anything you want here, soccer (in the rest of the world apart from US we call it football), volleyball, etc.
Santa Monica Peer
Pacific Palisades
Passing Pacific Palisades the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) connects to Sunset Blvd, which runs all the way up to Downtown LA.
Sorry, me again.
Not even from the top of the hill the view is breath taking, absolutely beautiful, two seconds after a thought flashed out on my mind: "I'm just starting the first uphill".
Can you read the poem of my face. What does it tells you?
Don't listen to me, it was really fun.
Sunset Blvd is a beautiful ride but not a safety one for bikers. It starts pretty residential up to Beverly Hills, not too busy, but it's too narrow, there is no lane for bikes, and drivers go really fast. I got to feel the heat of a car that passed me by very close (it was a Ferrari by the way).
Coming back to San Diego is pretty easy, you just go to Union Station on Alameda Street Downtown LA. The ticket for the Amtrak is around 36-45 dollars each, there is a place for the bike in the last car.
