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Published: April 30th 2020
Feb 14, 2020 – Mar 07, 2020
We left home just after lunch on Friday February 14, 2020. Our truck with our 35 square foot casa on the back is packed with the essentials we will require, and then some, for the next 75 or so days. First stop is Calgary where we went out for a nice Valentine’s Day supper and spent the night with friends. We hit the road early and made it to the US border by around noon on Feb 15
th and crossed with no issues or holdups. We made our way quickly through the US spending the first night in a hotel in Dillon, Montana, the second night we got a hotel in Beaver, Utah. The next day we made it to Yuma, Arizona and stayed in our tiny casa in the driveway of some Canadian friends that were renting a place there. Feb 18
th we crossed the border into Mexico at around noon at Tecate, Mexico. Here we once again had no border crossing issues but had several things to take care of. We got our tourist cards good for 180 days, we got our temporary import permit, TIP, for the truck, which we
Ensenada
Our casa with a beautiful viewdo not require in the Baja but we will require it when we cross over to the mainland of Mexico. We purchased 1 year of vehicle insurance for Mexico prior to leaving home so that was one less thing we had to take care of at the border. Copies of vehicle insurance, registration, etc are required at the border but we had all of this copied before we left home so we only had to find a place to copy Ron’s tourist card as this was a requirement for the TIP. The tourist cards and the TIP all cost money and took us about 2 hours to take care of it all. Next on the agenda was to purchase SIM cards for Mexico so we could put them in our phones and stay as connected as we could. Now we were ready to enjoy BAJA MEXICO.
After some research before leaving home we both downloaded an app called iOverlander, this app shows all kinds of camping, hostels, hotels, grocery stores, mechanics and all kinds of helpful items all over the world. So, we looked up our first camping spot on iOverlander and headed there. We paid 200 pesos to
park the night right beside the Pacific Ocean with showers and flush toilets. Nice quiet spot and we were the only campers there, they had a few permanent trailers there but no one else. The weather is quite cool, and we are ready to slow down the pace and enjoy the beautiful Baja. Feb 19
th, we packed up and drove further down the tiny peninsula we were on to a location for a nice hike, we had to pay 50 pesos to park here. It was a beautiful hike, but the path was very narrow and very high, so we decided to cut our hike short and not risk a plunge to our death on the rocks and into the ocean, LOL. Next stop, La Bufadora, here we parked the truck, once again for a small fee and walked through a very long market, this was a bit of a busier tourist spot were we could see a large “blow hole” at the ocean, which was of course at the end of the market. The “blow hole” was very cool to see and did not disappoint as I captured several good shots. Then we moved on to our next camp
Sunsets
The sunsets were so incredible....needless to say I have plenty of pictures of them. spot, we did have to back track a bit since we were on the end of a tiny peninsula. This camp spot was near a very large hotel that was totally quiet on a dirt road 3 km from a small town. The camp spots were up on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, we had our choice of spots, as once again we were the lone campers. Here for 200 pesos a night we had electricity and a key to a hotel room to use the flush toilet and warm shower. Feb 20
th our mapping on the trusty iPhone messed up a bit and we ended up past where we intended to be, so we readjusted our plan and kept going. It was a good thing we had plenty of gas as we ended up in the Baja Catavina Desert with no gas or cell service for over 400 km’s. This was some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen. We ended up in Guerrero Negro at supper time so stopped at a restaurant that had a campground out behind it, there were 4 or 5 other campers here. We had supper in the restaurant. This was
Sand Dollar
Walked on the beach collecting sand dollars also 200 pesos and got us electricity, water, flush toilets and showers. The next day we got up early and headed to Laguna Ojo de Liebre, we drove through the salt flats to get there. 200 pesos again to camp, this got us a palapa and a pit toilet. Nice camping spot but we could not get to the water as the dunes were protected, there were signs everywhere to keep out. That afternoon we took a whale watching tour, we went out with 5 others and our guide. Very interesting story of the Gray Whale’s yearly migration from the Bering Sea near Alaska to the Pacific Ocean in the Lagoons of Baja California Sur, Mexico, they travel this some 20,000 km for breeding and reproduction. We stopped our boat and the whales were all around us and very active, it was a little unsettling at first and then we realized how very curious and friendly they were. We drew the attention of one mother and her calf, they swam all around and under the boat even coming close enough for us to touch them, they seemed very gentle and curious. It was and incredible experience to touch the “little”
calf and his mother and interact with these beautiful gentle giants.
Feb 22
nd we got up early and hit the road again on our way to Mulege on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja. We found a camp site here just outside of town on the river, for 200 pesos a night we got a palapa, electricity, water, flush toilets and showers AND the campground had lots of people. We ended up staying here for 6 nights. Ron met some local Rotary members and built a few cabinets for them for a Rotary Dental Clinic that will be opening in a week or so. Ron then connected with the local orphanage “Casa Hogar” to see if they needed anything done. We spent the next 3 days: replacing handles on the kitchen cabinets, repairing and painting a bathroom door, repairing and painting 2 outdoor storage cabinets, built and painted a roof over the outdoor washing machines, built and painted 3 small wall shelves, built and painted a beautiful cabinet for the children’s backpacks and a few other odd jobs. Ron posted on Facebook and we received donations from 5 Canadian friends to cover most of the materials, this
was greatly appreciated and Casa Hogar thanks them for their generosity.
Feb 28
th, we left Mulege, but we only made it 40 kms down the highway and found a beautiful spot on the beach at El Coyote. We finally have some beach weather, so we rented a kayak and spent some time out on the beautiful Sea of Cortez. Feb 29
th, we packed up and back tracked toward Mulege where we went out a horseback ride with Marcel and his son through the desert, over the hills and down to the sea. We took the saddles off the horses and striped down to our underwear and went swimming on horseback in the Sea, what an amazing experience! Back in the truck again, next spot we chose was south a bit further than last night’s location. On the beach owned by a goat farmer, he charged us 100 pesos for the night for a beat up palapa and a run-down pit toilet, but it was a private beach as there were no other campers here. Beautiful quiet beach with the dolphins feeding in the evening and early morning right out in front of us, they might a bit of noise
when they surfaced and were so amazing to watch. Just another amazing Baja experience for us.
Mar 1
st, we headed to Lareto and met up with a young German woman, Julie, who we met a few days ago at the laundry mat in Mulege. We took her out for lunch, and she decided she would join us on our next few days of adventures. We loaded up on groceries and gas and headed into the mountains to find San Javier Mission. The road was narrow with many twists and turns but it was paved, and it felt very safe having another vehicle behind us as Julie and her dog followed. The mission at San Javier is an incredible church that took 14 years to complete, it was started in 1744 and completed in 1758. We also saw an olive tree here that was over 300 years old. We then continued, on a very narrow rocky dirt road for the next 33 km to the Santo Domingo Ranch which is our next camping stop. 78-year-old Humberto and his 15-year-old grandson Aldo were wonderful hosts letting us camp on their farm between the pig pen and the goat pen. Neither spoke
English but Ron spoke enough Spanish to get us by communicating with them. We cooked supper over the open fire in their outdoor kitchen and the 5 of us feasted on shrimp, potatoes and jicama. After supper Humberto made us a wonderful tea with fresh honey. The next morning Aldo took us on a hike up the mountain to some caves to view the ancient cave paintings. And yet another fantastic Baja experience. The next camp site, one found on iOverlander again, took us on a very steep and narrow road up in the mountains again, the road definitely required a high clearance vehicle and GSP as the roads are unmarked and the beautiful beach we found was very secluded …… somewhere south of Lareto. There are several other people out here though!! We met several nice people, including a man and his dog from Alberta, we ended up staying at this beach for 3 nights. We sent on a very nice high in the mountains and through the desert to some caves. Beautiful scenery from high up. When the tide was low, we were able to walk out and walk around a small island of rocks that was normally
surrounded by water. With sadness we left this spot on Thursday Mar 5 with Julie behind us. Next stop La Paz, were we left Julie to carry on south further. We spent our last night of Friday Mar 6 on the beach about a 15-minute drive from the ferry. Saturday Mar 7, we took the 12-hour ferry ride from La Paz to Mazatlan. We rented a cabin on board and got a good nights sleep, when we woke up in the morning of Sunday Mar 8, we were almost to Mazatlán. 8:00 AM we are docked in Mazatlán, Mexico.
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