alxdhc
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Baja Trip Report: January 12th – March 6th, 2014
What follows is a trip report of the time my partner, Ashek, and I spent on the Baja peninsula between January and March of this year. Scroll down for pictures.
The short version is that it rocked. We had an excellent time, many adventures, met wonderful people and plan on returning as soon as life allows. We were there close to two months, and on leaving, both of us have lists left of places we still want to see (and longer lists of places we wish to return to).
We did the trip in our 1987 Defender 110 with a rooftop tent and overland/camp setup. The Baja trip was merely one leg of a longer adventure, so we were ready to go vis a vis an appropriate vehicle and the necessary gear. Our Baja-specific prep involved some Pimsleur beginner’s Spanish lessons downloaded on the ipad, the acquisition of a “Baja Almanac” road map, a copy of Mike and Terry Church’s “Traveler’s Guide to Camping Mexico’s Baja”, and many more downloadable satellite images of the terrain we would be in to be used on the ipad, in conjunction with a little puck-sized GPS unit, for navigation.
We crossed the border at Mexicali East on a Sunday morning. The border itself was no problem. No waits, no inspections, we got a green light and carried on to Imigracion where we got and paid for our tourist visas. We had previously acquired 6 months of Mexican car insurance, so nothing to deal with there. It may well have just been the influence of all the hype, but neither of us felt very comfortable in Mexicali itself, and made a last minute decision to forgo a resupply in the city and waited until we got to San Felipe. Along the Mex 5 we had our first military checkpoint, they did a quick search and we didn’t have any problems. This proved true for all our checkpoint experiences, we were searched more thoroughly heading North than South, which I gather is typical. Everything we heard from other foreign travelers is that tourists, at least, have nothing to worry about. In honesty we had USA border patrol checkpoints to deal with just as frequently while traveling in Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma.
After a night in San Felipe and another in Gonzaga Bay we headed back across the peninsula to the Mex 1, via the famous little back road section that hosts Coco and his Corner. Coco was friendly and the road was no big deal, we aired down here and found it smoother that way. Paving of this section is under way, it had reached Papa Fernandez’s campground in Gonzaga Bay when we were there. One thing to note is that because of this, transport trucks have begun using the backroad route as a faster way to Mexicali than the highways to the West. Keep your eyes out for them!
From Mex 1 we carried on to the Ojo de Liebre lagoon outside of Guerrero Negro to see the gray whales. The camping here is cheap, and beautiful. You’re right on the lagoon where the whales calve, we could hear them blowing and splashing all night long from the tent. We spent about a week there, and did a panga tour to see the whales up close. They came right up to the little boat and Ashek even got to touch a couple of them.
After Ojo de Liebre was a trip to Bahia Asuncion, a nice little town, and then on to Mulege and Bahia Concepcion. Muelge was cool, lots of gringos (like all of Baja) and lots of fresh oranges for sale everywhere. In Conception Bay we stayed at Playa Escondida, which because of its crappy access road was full of 4x4 type travellers and small rigs. We met folks here that we would see again and again on the peninsula, and had a blast. Particularly of note were the Roving Bugs (www.rovingbugs.com), who are just super awesome folks, with whom we would ultimately carry on to Agua Verde and beyond.
Agua Verde was rad, the road in is fun, it winds narrowly down a canyon side, and not as terrifying as some had led us to believe. The payoff of the beach, snokerling, fresh fish and warm water was well, well worth it. Here we also finally ran into Ace Brown, with whom we had hoped to meet up after discussions on an Expo planning thread. Wonderful guy, super cool rig. Unfortunately I got sick around this time and failed to recover with the wait-and-see approach, so we headed into Ciudad Constitucion for a medical consult and some antibiotics. I think I was a little slack with our water treatment (too cocky about my ‘iron stomach’) and paid the price. A medical consult proved cheap (50 pesos) and thorough, and the ensuing prescription had things improving within 48 hours. It was actually good to have to interact with the health care system, because now we know we can access good help should the need ever arise again. In spite of the excellent medical care, we left Constitucion with mixed feelings after two bribe requests from local cops. Both times we could have been in the wrong (the first involved a 4-way stop with about 8 busy lanes, and the cop said we skipped someone’s turn, the second we pulled a u-turn on a green light with no one coming, and were told it was illegal regardless), but on neither occasion would they write us a ticket or come with us to the police station to pay. Instead the guy would ask for money, and then tell us to carry on when we asked for a ticket or to go to the station. It sounds like Constitucion is sort of known for this – I recommend seriously watching the stop sign situation as you roll through!
From Constitucion the Roving Bugs and us headed off in search of the Los Dolores mission on the East side (we found it, with a bit of hiking) and then to the coast for some beach time. We camped on an empty beach just South of San Evaristo, and enjoyed a few days of sun, swimming, and making fresh tortillas on the fire. From here we carried on along the coastal dirt road into La Paz, where we had delicious ice cream and resupplied once more. The waterfront boardwalk area in La Paz was fun in a touristy way, different than the backcountry or the beach but a nice change of pace.
After La Paz it was on to the Southern parts of the peninsula. We spent time in Los Barilles (good resupply town, but expensive), Los Frailes (free camping, good snorkeling and swimming, friendly folk, fish to buy), and Cabo Pulmo (did a snorkel tour here, awesome fish sightings, well worth it). We also got into the mountains for a change of pace and had fun at both the Sol de Mayo spring and Santa Rita hot spring. The Santa Rita hot springs in particular was phenomenal, the most beautiful one I’ve been to. The rancher that runs the place is super nice and you can camp there for a reasonable fee.
We then had some friends come visit who flew into Cabo, so we headed that direction. We hear lots of people love Cabo, and it must offer them something, but we hated it. It was busy, expensive, and felt kind of snobby. To each their own I guess. For us a quick airport visit was enough. We took our friends to Todos Santos, a little art community, which was cool to check out but also very touristy and expensive.
Our way North in Baja was pretty fast-paced, for us. Overnight stops in La Paz, Bahia Concepcion, Ojo de Liebre, and then a motel night in Ensenada brought us North and we crossed at Tecate in the morning (much quieter than Mexicali). We turned in our FMM cards at Migracion, no problems, before getting in line to cross the border. The drive from Ensenada to Tecate on the Mex 3 was some of the most scenic we had in Baja.
We plan to return as soon as possible. Baja, it seems, is awesome.
If you’d like more detailed accounts of our adventures in Baja and beyond, you can check out our travel blog. www.goenjoytheride.blogspot.com
What follows is a trip report of the time my partner, Ashek, and I spent on the Baja peninsula between January and March of this year. Scroll down for pictures.
The short version is that it rocked. We had an excellent time, many adventures, met wonderful people and plan on returning as soon as life allows. We were there close to two months, and on leaving, both of us have lists left of places we still want to see (and longer lists of places we wish to return to).
We did the trip in our 1987 Defender 110 with a rooftop tent and overland/camp setup. The Baja trip was merely one leg of a longer adventure, so we were ready to go vis a vis an appropriate vehicle and the necessary gear. Our Baja-specific prep involved some Pimsleur beginner’s Spanish lessons downloaded on the ipad, the acquisition of a “Baja Almanac” road map, a copy of Mike and Terry Church’s “Traveler’s Guide to Camping Mexico’s Baja”, and many more downloadable satellite images of the terrain we would be in to be used on the ipad, in conjunction with a little puck-sized GPS unit, for navigation.
We crossed the border at Mexicali East on a Sunday morning. The border itself was no problem. No waits, no inspections, we got a green light and carried on to Imigracion where we got and paid for our tourist visas. We had previously acquired 6 months of Mexican car insurance, so nothing to deal with there. It may well have just been the influence of all the hype, but neither of us felt very comfortable in Mexicali itself, and made a last minute decision to forgo a resupply in the city and waited until we got to San Felipe. Along the Mex 5 we had our first military checkpoint, they did a quick search and we didn’t have any problems. This proved true for all our checkpoint experiences, we were searched more thoroughly heading North than South, which I gather is typical. Everything we heard from other foreign travelers is that tourists, at least, have nothing to worry about. In honesty we had USA border patrol checkpoints to deal with just as frequently while traveling in Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma.
After a night in San Felipe and another in Gonzaga Bay we headed back across the peninsula to the Mex 1, via the famous little back road section that hosts Coco and his Corner. Coco was friendly and the road was no big deal, we aired down here and found it smoother that way. Paving of this section is under way, it had reached Papa Fernandez’s campground in Gonzaga Bay when we were there. One thing to note is that because of this, transport trucks have begun using the backroad route as a faster way to Mexicali than the highways to the West. Keep your eyes out for them!
From Mex 1 we carried on to the Ojo de Liebre lagoon outside of Guerrero Negro to see the gray whales. The camping here is cheap, and beautiful. You’re right on the lagoon where the whales calve, we could hear them blowing and splashing all night long from the tent. We spent about a week there, and did a panga tour to see the whales up close. They came right up to the little boat and Ashek even got to touch a couple of them.
After Ojo de Liebre was a trip to Bahia Asuncion, a nice little town, and then on to Mulege and Bahia Concepcion. Muelge was cool, lots of gringos (like all of Baja) and lots of fresh oranges for sale everywhere. In Conception Bay we stayed at Playa Escondida, which because of its crappy access road was full of 4x4 type travellers and small rigs. We met folks here that we would see again and again on the peninsula, and had a blast. Particularly of note were the Roving Bugs (www.rovingbugs.com), who are just super awesome folks, with whom we would ultimately carry on to Agua Verde and beyond.
Agua Verde was rad, the road in is fun, it winds narrowly down a canyon side, and not as terrifying as some had led us to believe. The payoff of the beach, snokerling, fresh fish and warm water was well, well worth it. Here we also finally ran into Ace Brown, with whom we had hoped to meet up after discussions on an Expo planning thread. Wonderful guy, super cool rig. Unfortunately I got sick around this time and failed to recover with the wait-and-see approach, so we headed into Ciudad Constitucion for a medical consult and some antibiotics. I think I was a little slack with our water treatment (too cocky about my ‘iron stomach’) and paid the price. A medical consult proved cheap (50 pesos) and thorough, and the ensuing prescription had things improving within 48 hours. It was actually good to have to interact with the health care system, because now we know we can access good help should the need ever arise again. In spite of the excellent medical care, we left Constitucion with mixed feelings after two bribe requests from local cops. Both times we could have been in the wrong (the first involved a 4-way stop with about 8 busy lanes, and the cop said we skipped someone’s turn, the second we pulled a u-turn on a green light with no one coming, and were told it was illegal regardless), but on neither occasion would they write us a ticket or come with us to the police station to pay. Instead the guy would ask for money, and then tell us to carry on when we asked for a ticket or to go to the station. It sounds like Constitucion is sort of known for this – I recommend seriously watching the stop sign situation as you roll through!
From Constitucion the Roving Bugs and us headed off in search of the Los Dolores mission on the East side (we found it, with a bit of hiking) and then to the coast for some beach time. We camped on an empty beach just South of San Evaristo, and enjoyed a few days of sun, swimming, and making fresh tortillas on the fire. From here we carried on along the coastal dirt road into La Paz, where we had delicious ice cream and resupplied once more. The waterfront boardwalk area in La Paz was fun in a touristy way, different than the backcountry or the beach but a nice change of pace.
After La Paz it was on to the Southern parts of the peninsula. We spent time in Los Barilles (good resupply town, but expensive), Los Frailes (free camping, good snorkeling and swimming, friendly folk, fish to buy), and Cabo Pulmo (did a snorkel tour here, awesome fish sightings, well worth it). We also got into the mountains for a change of pace and had fun at both the Sol de Mayo spring and Santa Rita hot spring. The Santa Rita hot springs in particular was phenomenal, the most beautiful one I’ve been to. The rancher that runs the place is super nice and you can camp there for a reasonable fee.
We then had some friends come visit who flew into Cabo, so we headed that direction. We hear lots of people love Cabo, and it must offer them something, but we hated it. It was busy, expensive, and felt kind of snobby. To each their own I guess. For us a quick airport visit was enough. We took our friends to Todos Santos, a little art community, which was cool to check out but also very touristy and expensive.
Our way North in Baja was pretty fast-paced, for us. Overnight stops in La Paz, Bahia Concepcion, Ojo de Liebre, and then a motel night in Ensenada brought us North and we crossed at Tecate in the morning (much quieter than Mexicali). We turned in our FMM cards at Migracion, no problems, before getting in line to cross the border. The drive from Ensenada to Tecate on the Mex 3 was some of the most scenic we had in Baja.
We plan to return as soon as possible. Baja, it seems, is awesome.
If you’d like more detailed accounts of our adventures in Baja and beyond, you can check out our travel blog. www.goenjoytheride.blogspot.com
