March 2025

Bumming around Baja

This was our second month driving around Baja.  We love the slower pace of life and atmosphere.  Outside of San Jose del Cabo, close to Nine Palms, is a fancy sushi restaurant called Zai Sushi Surf Bar.  Although a bit more expensive (i.e. US prices), the food and atmosphere were great.  We stayed a night in Nine Palms before heading into Cabo San Lucas.  The first week of March we rented a villa and Hailey's brother, sister-in-law, and niece flew down to Cabo San Lucas to hang out with us.  We went on a whale watching tour and enjoyed spending time in the villa's pool.  The weather can't be beat - in the 70s or 80s but not sweltering, and always nice and sunny.  

Once our family departed, we made our way west to Cerritos and Todos Santos.  We particularly liked Todos Santos as it had nice shops, more of an artistic community feel, and Hotel California.  Legend has it that the hotel is the same one from the Eagles' hit song, but the band has always dissuaded people of this.  Regardless, it still seems to be a charming hotel and looks like it has a nice restaurant.   The one downside of Todos Santos is the campground, El Litro RV Park, is about a 10-15 minute walk to town.  This wouldn't be so bad except there were a ton of local dogs that harassed Lucky and us as we walked past.  Going to and from town quickly became a stressful experience.   After we had enough time in the city, we relocated to Base Camp Baja Sur, which is away from town and closer to the beach.  We really liked the set up at Base Camp.  The bathrooms were clean and the communal kitchen was great.  

Hailey heard that on Thursdays there was an art walk in San Jose del Cabo.  We stayed in the city at one of the locals' beaches, Costa Azul.  The beach was nice but at night the locals come to party - regardless of the date or time.  We were woken up multiple times throughout the night due to bass and loud noises.  The following two nights we parked away from the beach and found peace and quiet away from the main parking area.  The art walk was neat to experience and we bought fresh churros that were amazing. 

After spending three days in San Jose del Cabo we were eager to get out of the city and back into nature.  We spent a night at Rancho Ecologico Sol De Mayo, which is a type of nature preserve.  We swam in a waterfall and enjoyed the scenery.  We spent one night outside of La Paz at a great campground called Campestre Marantha.  The campground has a huge property, washers, dryers, and even a pool.  We did laundry but didn't check out the pool.  The next day we started making headway to Bahía Concepción.  We stayed two nights at Playa El Quemado before heading to Playa Los Cocos and our favorite, Playa El Requeson.  We love the beaches in Bahía Concepción because they're beautiful but also because the vendors are awesome.  They're friendly and bring fresh fish, shrimp, chile rellenos, mezcal, hats, and other items straight to the van.  We park and there's no need to leave.  One night we even bought a pizza for 250 pesos (roughly $12 USD).  At Playa El Requeson we met some other people who travel in their vans and had a great time getting to know them.  

Sadly we had to start making our way back up to the states and we had to leave the beach.  We made an overnight stop at San Ignacio, a small town we love, to do laundry and break up the drive.  The next stops were Guerro Negro, which had awful washboard roads but it was neat to see the world's largest salt making area.  Guerro Negro is also the place to take a whale tour in January and February; next year we plan on coming back for a whale tour.   The next nights had stopovers in Santa Rosaliíta, San Quintin, and Ensenada.  We didn't find these towns as charming as other areas of Baja.  However, they were on the way to our ultimate destination of Valle de Guadalupe.  Valle de Guadalupe is considered to be the Napa of Mexico.  We also referred to the area as the "Mexican Woodinville."  In the area is also Rancho La Campana, La Cava de Marcelo, which has a fantastic cheese tour and restaurant.  The tour provides samples of ice cream, cheese, wine, and even local beers.  We loved the tour and recommend anyone in the area to check it out.  The wineries we later had tastings at were Vinícola Roa and Secreto Tasting Room at Casa FRIDA.