Baja Second Round

A few months ago we went to Baja with Jeremy and Carol and realised there was lots to explore. We specially enjoyed the thrill of driving through unsealed desert and beach roads, so this time we flew there, hired a 4WD and stayed for 7 days.
Baja California (translates as Lower California) is in Mexico and is the southern continuation of the American California. It is a long peninsula; driving from end to end would take more than 20 hours. The maps shows we only did a small circuit in the southern tip covering Cabo San Lucas, Todos Santos, La Paz and San Jose del Cabo.

First we drove from Cabo San Lucas to the town of Todos Santos. A couple of times we went off-road, following dry riverbeds until you get to the sea. Lucky the car has a "sand' driving mode. We discovered that mangoes are grown in this desert state and that burritos and coffee is the standard fare at roadside stops.

Todos Santos is meant to be an 'arty' town. We found the shops a bit boring but liked the amazing old houses and the river running through the middle of town, which is a true oasis of palm trees, reeds and crops. Oh, and it has the hotel that supposedly inspired the song "Hotel California", it's fair to say that didn't impress Shane.

Next stop was the roadside restaurant "La Garita" super popular with travellers and bikers from all over Mexico. Our order was a Smoked Marlin Machaca enough to fill two flour tortillas.

After 30 minutes drive more we arrived in La Paz, the capital of the state of Baja California Sur. Shane loved this city and it's easy to see why. It has wide, palm tree lined streets and sits next to a huge bay in the Sea of Cortez, the sea sheltered between the peninsula and the mainland. I have to add that, for the first time in this 15 month long trip, the local police welcomed us asking for a bribe -maybe we were in fact speeding. La Paz is not as popular with Americans as Los Cabos, but we think it has superior beaches and Mexican tourists love it. Perhaps the fact that it also has a port and you can see oil tankers in the horizon puts off some.

Our first full day there was a beach day. Our favourite was Tecolote beach, at the end of a cape and looking into the island nature reserve of Espiritu Santo. It is an almost untouched landscape with calm waters. We only saw sea birds but this is an area is full of wildlife and it was one of Jacques Costeau's favourite places in the world. After that we kayaked in the Tesoro beach, watched the ferries arrive in Pichilingue, saw mangroves and spend the afternoon rehidrating at Coromuel beach, a few minutes from the city.

The city of La Paz is low key but has a wonderful malecon (seaside promenade), swimable beaches right next to it and restaurants from basic to sophisticated.

The drawback for Alfonso was the temperatures over 40C ! We stayed at an apartment in the Esterito neighbourhood, a fisherman's quarter that is quickly gentrifying and it is still within walking distance from downtown.

After La Paz we took a different route to return to Los Cabos, through the Sierra La Laguna mountains. This was one of our favourite parts, as we stopped at small villages, bought locally made candies and had lunch at the amazing little restaurant Pericu in the town of Santiago. This was the rainy season and it's a wonderful time to see the desert green and flowering.

The last 2 days we spent in San Jose del Cabo, the posher of the Cabos area towns. Even though it is smaller than La Paz feels more like a city with traffic, huge supermarkets and shopping centres as well as armies of construction workers and machinery that are expanding the town in all directions. The growth is mainly new hotels and timeshares.
Two highlights of San Jose del Cabo for us were:
- The river and huge estuary that splits the town in two.
- The upscale shops in downtown San Jose. This is a good place to buy Mexican handcrafts, they sell pieces from all over the country and are mostly great quality.

We would like to come back and see more of Baja, but don't think we will manage to squeeze a third round!