The downs and ups of Baja

 Although we were enjoying Mexico, Baja wasn't meeting our expectations, until all of a sudden it was.  We are not to sure why, but after December 28th we fell in love with Baja and found it very difficult to leave

December 20^th – SPRIKETS!!!

We had nothing but good things to say about our hotel is Ciudad de Constitution until around 10pm when we started to notice odd sounds coming from the area around the garbage can.  Kendra was convinced that it was something in it, but every time Paul looked he could find nothing, that was until he noticed something crawling up the wall.  It was similar in size to a cockroach, but not quite as wide, it also had legs like a cricket.  Our friends from New Hampshire had seen them previously in their lives and named them Sprikets; however, we do not know their actual name.

Paul spent the hours between 10 pm and 2 am killing these Sprikets with a shoe.  Each kill resulted in an echoed crunch in the room.  He placed a towel under the door, but it seemed they were coming in from the door jamb.  We are not too sure why after 2 am they stopped entering the room.  It could have been because Paul tried to decrease the width of the door jam by using his hand as a hammer, or because we had scared enough of them away by leaving the bodies of dead Sprikets around the room, but by 2 am we at least started to think about trying to sleep. Unfortunately, sleep came much later due to the fears of these bugs jumping at our faces.

We wandered to a little hole in the wall restaurant for coffee, although it was 10 am when we arrived at the restaurant we were both exhausted. After breakfast we had some time to kill since we were waiting for our laundry to be cleaned [in Mexico you drop it off at a Laundromat and the workers wash, dry and fold your clothes for around 200 pesos ($15 CAD)].  There was a “hiking area” close to the city so we headed towards that, unfortunately the “hiking area” was the city dump.  Thanks Google…

After our little adventure, purchasing some groceries and some much needed soft serve ice cream we were able to pick up our laundry and head down the coast.  Originally we had hoped to get to La Paz today but decided to stay at a camping spot an hour north of the city so we could set up our camp before night fall.  To our surprise when we arrived to the camping area our friends from New Hampshire were in the area so we decided to camp near them.

We spent the evening watching whales jump in the far distance and playing Rummy while we told the horror story of our previous night.

 

December 21^st - Blowing through La Paz

We woke up, said goodbye to our friends and left towards La Paz.  Unfortunately, after an hour of driving down a dirt road we remembered we had placed our solar light on the roof of the van to charge and, to no great surprise, it was no longer there.  After a short discussion we decided to drive all the way back to where we camped and look for it.  It didn’t take long to find it, roughly 10 meters from where we had camped, but it meant that we got to the area of La Paz later than we had planned. 

We grabbed a couple of groceries that we forgot to purchase the previous day and kept driving to another Magic City, known as Todos Santos.

We decided we would explore Todos Santos tomorrow so we went to the main camping spot for the area.  It was easy to tell we were in the correct place as the beach was full of campers from all over the world.  We found a little spot near some foliage just in case nature called in the middle of the night and cooked some dinner while watching sunset.

 

December 22^nd – Exploring Todos Santos

We arrived in Todos Santos pretty early.  Most shops were not open yet, except for a place that does free Tequila tastings.  Although tempted we passed as it just seemed too early.

Todos Santos was definitely a cool city, we were even lucky enough to run into a family from Cabo who allowed us to tag along with them as they explored the city, showing us all the interesting places to see. 

After a few hours of exploring, we decided to grab a pint at the local brewery; unfortunately, it didn’t open for another hour so Paul decided to find the old town cemetery, assuming it would be an interesting place.  This started an hour of driving 4x4 ish roads thanks to bad google directions.   There was a lot of reversing down hills and blind corners, but eventually we did make it to the cemetery.  It was nothing special…

The beer was fine, but probably not worth the price (for the price of one pint we could purchase a 12 pack of Corona).  We decided to return to the campground and relax for the night.

We didn’t spend too much time relaxing; however, as when we returned to the campsite we were accused of pooping on the sand and NOT burying it (there were multiple poops not buried when we arrived yesterday, too much for just two people to do in one day).  We don’t know why but this accusation, which was 100% false, really got under our skin.  How we were accused and why we were accused became the topic of conversation for the rest of the night.

December 23^rd – In memory of John

Today is John Racher’s funeral, which thankfully will be live streamed for those unable to attend.  We found a spot in Todos Santos to set up the van to watch and were about to leave our camping spot when we noticed that our friends from New Hampshire were camping.  We were only able to chat with them for a few moments before we drove into the city.

After the funeral we went out for tacos and had hoped to get a few bottles of cheap wine, John’s favourite was homemade white wine, but in lieu of that cheap wine was acceptable.  Unfortunately, we don’t think cheap and wine go together in Mexico so we opted for cheap Tequila. 

We spent the evening reminiscing about times with John as well as other family members while sitting watching the waves crashing against the beach.

Before we knew it the bottle of tequila was gone, it was late and it was time to go to bed.

 

December 24^th – HOW IS THIS A HIGHWAY??!?!

With Christmas upon us we started to discuss how we actually wanted to spend Christmas.  We wanted to do something special and have access to wifi to contact family so our best option seemed to be an Airbnb or hotel.  After a lot of searching, we found on the other side of the peninsula an AirBnB in a place called La Ventana.  Google said it would take a couple hours to get there so we asked if we could get an early check-in and left Todos Santos.

It is at this time two things happened, first, Paul decided that we would purchase gas closer to La Ventana, assuming it would be cheaper, and second both Kendra’s and Paul’s phone ran out of data, so we needed to go to Oxxo to add money to our phone accounts. 

We knew roughly how to get to La Ventana, we had to travel north on highway 19, then south on highway 1, then turn somewhere to get to highway 286, which would take us roughly to La Ventana, but again we had no internet to confirm what road to take.  Paul assumed it would be Highway 3 so turned off the highway at that exit.  By this point we were under a quarter tank of gas and we had some concerns about this “highway”.  The start of the highway was a huge drop off onto dirt, followed by a single lane cattle guard.  The highway consisted of washboard, single track dirt road, washes (some with water in them), deepish sand, steep hills, and confusing turns.  We did get lost.

When we were halfway through the highway the fuel light turned on exclaiming “LOW FUEL”. We immediately turned off the A/C.

When we were ¾ done the highway the fuel gauge looked like it was empty and our fuel economy was terrible.  We spent the final quarter going down hills in neutral and coasting up the other side of the hill as best as we could.

After what seemed like forever (approximately 35 kms in total) we returned to pavement.  We had 20 kilometers of downhill driving to get to a gas station, so Paul put the van in neutral and we coasted down the hill.

We made it!  We did not run out of gas, but frustratingly Paul’s assumption was wrong, the gas was more expensive here.  All that stress was for nothing.

The Airbnb in La Ventana was beautiful, definitely a place we could see ourselves living in.  We spent a couple hours relaxing inside before driving to a well reviewed restaurant for a delicious Christmas dinner.

 

December 25^th – Merry Christmas

We had the exact type of Christmas we wanted.  We slept in, video called our families and sat on the beach.  La Ventana is known for its Kitesurfing due to its winds, so we spent a couple hours watching the countless kitesurfers on the ocean.  It was amazing and if we were here on an unlimited budget, it would definitely be something we would have tried. 

Lunch was ceviche and beer with dinner being pasta made by Paul.  We did open the wine we purchased on our first day in Mexico, and finished it; it was delicious.  We spent the evening eating snacks and drinking beer while listening to Christmas music and enjoying the plunge pool on the patio which overlooked the ocean.  It was the Christmas we needed!

 

December 26^th – Mexican MOSQUITOS

Although we seriously thought about extending our Airbnb in La Ventana, the house was booked by another person so it was time for us to leave.  We both felt that it was time to think about leaving Baja.  We had heard that sometimes the ferry to the mainland books up weeks in advance so we decided to make a reservation.  We could make a reservation by calling the ferries reservation line, but decided to go into the ferry’s office at the ferry terminal instead just in case Paul’s Spanish wouldn’t do the trick.

We arrived at the ferry terminal and before we knew it we had a reservation for January 2nd to Topolobampo. 

We had hoped to get the ferry to Mazatlán but unfortunately the ferry to Mazatlán was broken meaning the only financially responsible option was to go to Topolobampo.  The issue was that this was in the northern part of the state of Sinaloa; this is a state the Government of Canada says to avoid. (Mazatlán is in the southern portion of Sinaloa but the Government says that that city is safe).

Regardless we were happy that we had a plan, explore the portion of the Baja peninsula south of La Paz until January 2^nd, then leave for the mainland.

We spent the afternoon eating too many of the best shrimp tacos in La Paz then immediately trying to walk them off by exploring El Centro (old town) and the Malecón (sea walk).  Paul even bought a new T-shirt after his CBC shirt was chewed up by a dryer at a laundromat in the US.

There is a large spit between La Paz and the Sea of Cortez where we thought to camp.  The spit itself is known for its Sand Dunes and we saw many people sandboarding and traveling up and down the dunes with their dune buggies.  We, unfortunately, spent the evening fighting off mosquitoes rather than taking part in any fun.  I don’t know how the mosquitos found us, but it was Northern BC levels of mosquitos.  We even retrieved our bug spray and heavily coated our bodies.

 

December 27^th – American Invasion

We didn’t want to cook breakfast at our camping spot as the mosquitos were waiting for us to leave the van and we decided to not be their breakfast.

Instead, we ventured back to the south end of the Malecón and explored the area a little better. 

We left La Paz for a community many Americans had recommended known as Los Barriles, the road itself was good and although Highway 3 was a potential route to Los Barriles, we avoided it.  The road we did take, brought us through the historical town of San Antonio which we explored before cooking lunch at a viewpoint of the town, much to the amazement of various Mexican people taking their own pictures of the town.

Los Barriles is our least favourite place we visited in Baja California, it was full of Americans on side by sides drinking beers i.e. drinking and driving.  The city itself was unlike any Mexican city we had visited, there was no Centro, instead there was sprawl.  There was no free or reasonably priced camping, instead there were massive resorts.  The supermarkets were full of Americans annoyed at the supermarkets USD/MXN exchange rate [They expected it to be 20 pesos to 1 USD, but the supermarket said it was 17 pesos to 1 USD].  We still don’t understand why Americans don’t use Peso’s, they keep on losing out with the exchange rate and annoying locals.

We did find a spot on the beach 30 minutes north of Los Barriles where an American had set up a campsite and had been living for the last 4 months.  He was an interesting guy who had decided more or less to just camp on the beach for the rest of his life with his dogs Dave and Archie.

The cool thing about this camping spot was that there were a dozen stingrays that kept jumping out of the water putting on a great show for us for most of the evening.

 

December 28^th – The start of good things

Our time in Baja up to this point has been fine.  It has been full of adventure and stories but not full of the pure enjoyment that we had hoped for due to weather and our expectations probably being too high.  Today, however, was the start of something good.

We decided to drive to a community that had been advertised on various billboards across Baja California Sur; Santiago.

Santiago was known for three things, its cute downtown/church (known as a mission), a waterfall oasis and hot springs. 

We decided to see the waterfall first as it was not dog friendly so we needed to find a shady spot to park.  The waterfall oasis, known as Cañón de la Zorra is part of a Natural Reserve and it was amazing.  We were one of the first people there and got a great parking spot for Rupert.  There were a few tourists from Cabo at the waterfall, all, like us, thinking they had found a special spot to explore.  This spot was beautiful and although the water was too cold for the Mexicans (and most Americans), we couldn’t not go for a swim in such a beautiful place.

We can not explain just how much we enjoyed this place and how much we needed this experience to get us excited about our time in Baja.

We left in the early afternoon and tried to find some food, unfortunately all restaurants seemed to be closed so we ended up making a taco salad under a big tree close to our next stop, a hot spring known as El Churro also within the Nature Preserve.

Paul decided that we would spend the night at the hot springs with his Spanish skills was able to talk to the guard of the hot springs (who was described as grumpy in reviews) to give us a great deal since we had already paid to enter the Nature preserve at the waterfall.

The hot springs were not very hot, but perfect for a hot day.  They consisted of warm pools dug into the sand beside a reservoir.  We spent hours in these pools relaxing until the sun started to set.  It was a perfect day.

When we got back from the hot spring our camping neighbour Rick offered us a few starfruit he had picked from the trees. They were pretty good, a few were under ripened, but we enjoyed them.

 

December 29^th – An extension of the Previous Day

Because there isn’t much for us to do after the sunset we usually are asleep by 7 or 8 pm (colloquially known as Baja Midnight).  This means that we are usually awake around sunrise which was perfect for us as we were looking forward to a sunrise soak.  What a way to welcome the new day.

After many hours sitting in the pools watching the sun slowly illuminate the valley around us.

After thoroughly enjoying El Churro we decided to head to the other hot spring within the Nature Reserve known as Santa Rita Hot Springs.  Unlike the previous hot springs this one as not dog friendly, so we once again wanted to arrive to the hot spring as early as possible to find a shady spot for Rupert.

Santa Rita Hot Springs was beautiful, a mix of El Churro and Cañón de la Zorra with hot springs (that were actually hot) and a cold beautiful slow moving river.  We could have stayed here all day, but we wanted to get to Cabo Pulmo National Park.

We left the hot springs just before noon and made our way to the town of La Ribera for lunch where we purchased the most expensive thing on the menu (ceviche) and enjoyed it thoroughly.  We knew it was time to leave when a large group of Americans arrived to the restaurant with beers in their hands and obliviously a little tipsy after driving their side by sides to that location.  Picture loud obnoxious people and you have a good idea what we and the waitresses were experiencing, which was our cue to leave.

It was a nice surprise to turn the corner towards Cabo Pulmo and see our friends from New Hampshire.  They had just traveled through that National Park and gave us a few recommendations, namely Playa Arbolito.  We quickly caught up then went our separate ways. 

Cabo Pulmo was beautiful and definitely a place we wished we could spend more time.  The water was warm and turquois and the mountains were dynamic.  We camped at where our friends recommended us to stay and, wow, were we glad we did.  We had a calm sand beach to relax at with world renowned snorkeling just off the beach.  We couldn’t wait until the next day to truly explore the area.

 

December 30^th – World Class Snorkeling

The beach we camped at had snorkeling equipment for rent and Paul, who is not afraid of fish swimming around him, had to take advantage.  He spent most of the morning snorkelling various reefs, trying to take pictures of the colourful fish, eels and string rays swimming about.

Unfortunately allow good things have to come to and end so by 1pm it was time to leave, but not before taking advantage of the cold showers this campground included (it also had flush toilets which is always welcome by us).  Our next stop was San Jose del Cabo but the road was horrendous.   Although it was only 64 kilometers it took us over 2 hours due to washboard conditions requiring us to go only 15 kilometers an hour for quite a distance. We’ve heard of others skipping this portion of the road and going north through La Ribera and south past Santiago because it is paved and much smoother, but we didn’t want to take the same road twice.

Arriving to San Jose del Cabo was amazing, we were so excited to get off the washboard road and explore a new city.  Our first stop was at a laundromat where we were able to get our laundry done within 2 hours.  We spent these two hours getting groceries and trying to find a car wash as our van is filthy after so many days driving near the ocean and on dirt roads.  Unfortunately, every car wash we went to was either way to busy or closed.

We decided to stealth camp in San Jose del Cabo meaning we spent the evening at a small restaurant at the corner of two busy streets in the city’s el centro people watching.  San Jose del Cabo has a very photographic old town which we were excited to explore.

We found a quiet safe street to set up camp and Paul put in his ear plugs that he had used when he worked at the mill.  Kendra didn’t have ear plugs so did not sleep well as the road did have traffic and some people wanting to party late into the night.

 

December 31^st – Reuniting for New Years

The first thing Kendra needed after sleeping so poorly was coffee.  She found a local coffee place that had bathrooms and cheap food.  It was everything we needed.

We left San Jose Del Cabo to explore Cabo San Lucas, a location many people told us that we only need to spend a couple hours in, but we also wanted to pick up a few things at Costco which happened to be closed for another hour.  We decided to find a beach on iOverlander to reorganize the van and relax at while we waited for Costco to open where we met a couple from Quebec exploring Mexico and a couple from Powell River who had already done the Pan America.  We chatted with both and before we knew it, it was time to leave with new recommendations for the trip ahead of us.

We purchased our own snorkel gear at Costco and made our way into Cabo San Lucas.  We agree with everyone we talked to, Cabo San Lucas is a place you can skip when travelling in a van, if not for the boat tours to the end of the Baja Peninsula and a spot known as El Arco. 

We found some parking and walked with Rupert down to the Marina to see how difficult it would be to get a boat to the Arch (El Arco).  Turns out it was very easy and very cheap.  For 300 pesos per person we were on a boat taking us to all the sites only accessible by boat.  When we asked if our dog could also go on the boat, the guy shrugged and said, “ummm sure” Rupert also went on the boat ride.  We have no idea how many dogs have taken this trip, but based on the looks we received, not too many.

We highly recommend doing thing tour, it was great to see the Arc and get to the lowest part of the Baja peninsula.   We had thought about going to Lover’s beach, a popular beach only accessible by boat, but it was the busiest beach we had seen in Baja so decided against.

After arriving back to shore we thought about going to a restaurant but the prices were outrageous so we left Baja trying to figure out where to celebrate new years.  We were torn between a popular spot near La Paz or returning to Todos Santos.  In the end we decided to check out Todos Santos and if it didn’t seem right we’d continue to La Paz.

Once we returned to the campground near Todos Santos we knew this is where we would be staying as our friends from New Hampshire were there.  They were with their friends who had flown in from New Jersey and had agreed to allow us to celebrate with them.

The night was exactly what we needed! We swapped stories from the road, drank too many beers and popped sparkling wine at midnight.  We even did the Mexican tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight, unfortunately our grapes were half rotten causing Paul, among others, to almost throw up. Last time we had eaten 12 grapes at midnight was welcoming in 2020 and we all know how that ended, so we had to try this tradition again and hope for a better outcome.

It was without a doubt one of our most memorable new years!!

 

January 1^st – Our first hike of the year (and of Baja)

Since we would be leaving Baja tomorrow we decided to make our way closer to the ferry terminal.  Saying goodbye to our friends from New Hampshire felt a lot more final this time, we knew that previously there was always a chance we would run into them again, but after this point we knew we wouldn’t.

After saying our goodbyes, we drove north through La Paz toward Balandra Beach, a spot known as one of the most beautiful beaches in Mexico.   Instead of going straight to the beach we decided to hike to a viewpoint of the bay and the beach.  Surprisingly this would be not only our first hike of the year but also our first hike in Baja.  It wasn’t very long, only around 4 kilometers return, but the heat made it feel more difficult than it was, but the view was worth it.

The beach, surprisingly, was deserted.  We learned by another group of Canadians that the beach was closed on holidays meaning we had a rare glimpse of the beach without hordes of people.  We also learned that only 400 people are allowed on the beach at a time and that it fills up by 9am or so. At that point we knew we would be setting our alarm for the next morning to ensure we got to properly experience Balandra Beach.

The well known spot for people to camp in the area is Tecolote Beach where we camped beside a few more Canadians. Once again it was great to swap stories and relax while the sun slowly set.  One of them was especially helpful in giving us some advice for Rupert.

Over the last few days Rupert had developed an infection in his paw. The vets were all closed and it didn’t seem like it was life threatening so we had decided to just wait until the mainland to get it seen to.  This is why in many photos you see Rupert in his backpack or us carrying him in our arms; we did not want him walking on his infected foot. One of the Canadians is a vet tech and gave us some solution to clean the infection with and some suggestions to speed up recovery.   After a thorough cleaning and putting the cone on Rupert that has travelled all this way with us that we forgot we had packed, we felt more confident that he would soon be on the mend. Thanks HomeARoam!

 

January 2^nd – Goodbye Baja

Like most days we were up for around Sunset. Balandra Beach opened at 8am and we had heard to guarantee access to the beach we should be there an hour before it opens.  In hindsight we didn’t need to be there an hour early, but it allowed us to get an awesome parking spot, a great spot on the beach and time to cook breakfast in the middle of the road.

The beach was, fine.  We had been to so many beaches but due to the amount of people on the beach we couldn’t enjoy it in the same way we had enjoyed other beaches.  Paul even tried to go snorkelling but there were no fish in the water.  The beach itself is very shallow, which we believe is a part of the appeal of the beach.  Kendra did venture off to see the famous “mushroom rock” on the beach, but didn’t think it was anything to write home about.  After 4 hours we left, glad to have experienced Balandra Beach but not sure we would have recommended it.

We had a few hours to kill before going to the ferry terminal to go to the mainland so we headed to La Paz for some groceries and tacos.  We then spent a couple hours trying to get the van washed with no luck.  Everywhere was either closed or too busy to even think about washing our vehicle.  Guess we would be entering the mainland with a very dirty van.

We had heard that today would be confusing and stressful, but it really wasn’t.

We arrived to the ferry terminal and went through an inspection point.  Next we were weighed and measured so the ferry could charge us the correct amount.  When the ferry representative asked us where we were going we said Topolobampo.  They seemed surprised but wrote on the form Topolobampo.  It was at this point we learned that the ferry to Mazatlán was fixed, but, although we wanted to go to Mazatlán, we had made the reservation for the only ferry running at the time, Topolobampo.

After the van was weighed Paul went into the ferry office to get a ticket, when he returned he looked quite confused as the price he paid was $2000 Peso’s more than he expected.  Turns out they had accidently sold him a ticket for Mazatlán, which was a happy mistake we did not want to correct.  The only issue is that this created a situation where we were concerned that someone would recognise the error and send us to the Topolobampo ferry.

We got in line with the other campers going on the ferry.  There are two ferries that go from Baja in La Paz to the mainland, the first is Baja Ferries a company that most tourists take as it has cabins for people to sleep in and is designed for leisure and comfort.   The second one is TMC which is a cargo ferry that allows vehicles to take it and happens to be half the cost.  The issue is that you need to sleep in your vehicle, which didn’t bother us.

One of the people traveling with us on TMC had made the journey every year for the last 8 years so we were able to benefit from their experience.  Another couple was the couple from Quebec we had met a few days previously.  We felt so fortunate to be able to do this crossing with familiar and/or friendly faces guiding us through the process.

Both Baja ferries and TMC had two great perks, especially for people living in a minivan, dinner and breakfast included in the ticket and hot showers.  Our dinner was amazing, and somewhat memorable as Kendra tried to help a child get a drink.  This child was very confused about this kindness and started yelling for him mom, who was not impressed that he now had this drink. Turns out we may have needed to pour ourselves our own drinks and that’s what he wanted because his mom brought us drinks shortly after.  Although the showers smelled terrible they were warm meaning we got to be clean.  We left Baja a couple hours after we were scheduled to leave but we were happy to start our next part of our adventure.

 

January 3^rd – Hello Mainland Mexico

Kendra had a restless sleep.  The boat rocked back and forth and it was hot in the van.  Paul, who typically gets seasick had taken a couple gravol and was out before 9pm meaning he got a great night sleep and woke up well rested.

Breakfast was tasty and before we knew it, it was time to drive off the ferry.  Mainland Mexico was far different than Baja.  There were international plates everywhere on Baja, but in Mazatlán there were next to none.

Somehow we were able to find an awesome parking spot in Mazatlán’s old town and walked its historic street to the sea wall.  There were 3 cruise ships in town so there were many English speaking guides and English speakers wondering the streets. The sea walk was awesome with many beautiful views of the water and divers diving into the ocean for tips from onlookers.  We tried our best to do as many touristy things as we could before trying to once again get a car wash. 

The car wash experience was an adventure, we found one that made a line that made sense to us, however, we are not too sure that the line up was followed.  Quite often cars, driven by the people who worked at the car wash would budge in front of us, much to the frustration of others in the same line as us.  After just over an hour, we were finally able to hand over our keys to the attendant to drive our van towards the people who wash the cars.  Paul had previously said that we just wanted the exterior of the van washed, and after 20 minutes every inch was washed by hand.  One of the people washing the van asked Paul, in Spanish, if we want in dried and vacuumed.  Paul recognizing the amount of sand and dirt inside the van said why not.  They started cleaning and drying after a brief exchange confirming we wanted this extra cleaning.  In the end we spent over 2 hours at the car was and spent 150 pesos ($10 CAD) for an amazing car wash and cleaning of the interior of our van.  Very much needed after exploring Baja California.

We decided to get an Airbnb in Mazatlán as Kendra’s birthday is tomorrow and she wanted to spend her birthday either relaxing at the beach or by a pool, but trying to find a campground that would accommodate us was difficult.  Thankfully we found a relatively cheap Airbnb with a pool for the next couple of nights.  We believe this will be the best way to celebrate Kendra’s birthday and our arrival to mainland Mexico.