Overlanding Baja - Week 2

December 26, 2021

We started our second week in Baja with a firm goal: spending Christmas weekend in short sleeves. Did we check it off? Short answer: yes!

Our route for that second week

Sunday: Valley De Guadaloupe to San Quintin (3h30 / 225km)

After a lazy morning at our hotel in the Valley de Guadeloupe, we headed south without a destination in mind, but only looking at the weather forecast on our phones.

Besides passing a few military checkpoints, driving through the traffic in Ensenada and stopping at our first roadside restaurant, our first day on the road was pretty uneventful. We ended up parking for the night at Fidel’s RV Park near San Quintín for what was our first time camping on a beach with the truck. The weather was still quite cold but it was nice to finally be next to the ocean. We took a walk on the beach to observe a pod of dolphins playing together (and also the locals driving their trucks at high speed on the beach 😅).

Traffic in Ensenada

Sunset at Fidel’s RV Park

View from the camper at sunset

Monday: San Quintin to Bahia De Los Angeles (6h / 350km)

The next day we woke up early knowing that it will be one of the long driving days! Our goal was to arrive in the sleepy town of Bahia de Los Angeles before dark. Google Maps estimated the drive to be 6 hours and we knew we had to fill up our tank because we would not pass any gas station during the entire drive. We drove through majestic cactus forests for hours until we reached the Sea of Cortez.

Quick stop to admire the cacti

Roadside shrine

Empty candle containers

The long drive ahead through the desert

At home in the desert

Looking up at a cirio tree. The tree only grows in this part of Baja and some in mainland Mexico.

Small branches grow out of the trunk of a curio tree, giving it a fuzzy, busy look from afar.

Marked trail to see some petroglyphs

Crawling into the cave

Margo was spent after the sweaty hike.

Cave interior 1

Cave interior 2

View of the desert from the cave

On our way back to the truck

First view of the Sea of Cortez

We camped at Campo Archelon, a defunct sea turtle rescue and research center reconverted into a small resort and campground. While the campground was nice, it was still too cold to our liking. Plus, we were surprised to see so many campers parked next to each other with very little space in between on the beach.

Crowded beachfront camping

Evening walk

Pelicans and other sea birds were abundant

Too windy for Margo to be outside

We used our kayak for the first time! It was awesome.

Tuesday: Bahia De Los Angeles to Guerrero Negro via Misión San Francisco Borja (4h / 250km)

We enjoyed our first kayaking outing on the Sea of Cortez, and had hoped to stay in the Bahia for a little longer, but it was just too windy and cold. So after looking at our map during lunch at the campground’s café, we found what appeared to be a long dirt road leading to the Misión de San Francisco de Borja in the middle of the desert, and decided it was time for our first off-road adventure in Baja!

Road sign to the Misión

Airing down to improve our ride quality

💨

Much better!

Off we went

…Until we heard a false alarm in the camper and stopped only to discover that all of our bottles of cooking oils and sauces took off from the shelf on the drive. And now our floor smells like soy sauce and sesame oil! 😳 Luckily the damage was minimal.

Off we went again after cleaning up the oil spill

Beautiful drive through the cirios and saguro forests

Parked in front of the Misión de San Francisco de Borja

José and his family have been taking care of the Misión for the past 200 years.

Most of the walls and the center columns were original.

The church was built by the Jesuits, completed by the Dominicans and was abandoned in 1818.

The Spanish crown on top of the figures

Donations from visitors helped construct this protection over another original structure of the church.

Where the rocks to build the church were from

All roads lead to the Misión 😇

After the tour of the Misión with José, we decided that it was early enough in the day to continue the dirt road toward Guerrero Negro. Along the way, we hoped to find a good wild spot to camp, but we ended up driving all the way to Guerrero Negro and camped in the back of a restaurant. A first of us!

Wednesday: Guerrero Negro to San Ignacio (1h30 / 150km)

We took the opportunity to be in this fairly busy town to stock up on food and water! Tap water is not potable in Mexico, we had to find a place where you buy water by the liter. We filled up our 20 gallons tank for 30 pesos (1.5 US dollars).

Morning view of the campground at Mario’s

Storefront of our first water refill station in Baja

It was an arm workout to fill the tank.💪

Our next stop was San Ignacio, a palm oasis in the middle of the Baja desert. It’s a cute little town that has a few restaurants, a lovely colonial plaza, and a well restored misión built in the 17th century. The temperature was over 30 Celsius without a sea breeze, it was hot! But we were happy: we finally made it south enough to be in short sleeve and shorts! We stayed at one of the yurts at Ignacio Springs for the night.

The plaza of San Ignacio

The restaurant where we had lunch

Quiet nearby street

Les papies / The grandfathers

Fresh flowers and plants adorn the restaurant

Cheers! Kuan was happy with her michelada.

Chicken breast with dates gravy: interesting combination

Is Margo happy or is she too warm? Probably both.

The beautiful Misión de San Ignacio

The church was open and a couple was celebrating their wedding.

Side entrance of the church

Christmas decorations in the garden

Kuan: “Il fait trop chaud!” / ’It’s too warm!"

Resting under the shade of the date palms at Ignacio Springs

Chilling next to the river

Le saint graal: Our first margarita in Baja!

Glou glou glou

Oasis in the desert

Walking in the resort

The bar/restaurant of Ignacio Springs

Planning the next few days with our maps and guide book

Cooking outside, finally!

Fried tofu ramen for dinner

Thursday: San Ignacio to Mulegé via Santa Rosalia (1h30 / 140km)

The next day we set Mulegé as the destination in our Google Maps. We stopped in Santa Rosalia, an interesting town with a history connected to France. In fact, a French company ran a copper mine and founded this town in the 1880s but then left in the 1950s. It is said that the only church in town was designed by Gustave Eiffel.

Road to Mulegé

Church designed by Gustave Eiffel

Or so they say…

Interior of the metal church at Santa Rosalia

Details of the church

A famous bakery in Santa Rosalia

Taking a scroll in Santa Rosalia

We arrived in Mulegé later in the day and set up camp in a very lush campground, Huerta Don Chano, right outside of town!

View of the river and the oasis at the Misíon

Roost of the turkey vultures

We snuck up on one.

One bird per cactus

Misíon de Mulegé

Jesus inside the misíon

Interior of the church

Stones and plants

Lush campsite at Huerta Don Chano

Our “backyard” for the day

The campground is just a block away from the river

Happy camper

The restaurant at the campground serves delicious, strong margaritas

Laundry day!

We spotted a few European travelers in the past few days, including this couple from Switzerland traveling with their beautiful and modern camper based on Ford Ranger. We wish this type of smaller campers were available in the US…

Building in Mulegé

Visiting the town of Mulegé at sunset

Sunset colors over the river

Friday: Mulege to Play Los Cocos (20min / 25km)

As we were expecting everything in town to be closed for Christmas, we decided it was better for us to leave Mulegé for a nearby beach to settle for a couple of days and enjoy our kayak in the Bahia de Concepcion!

View of Playa La Escondida

We stayed two nights at Playa Los Cocos, a primitive beach with pit toilets, and had a great time! It was an interesting social experience — we made friends with our neighbors and after two nights we felt like part of a tiny village. Some campers arrive with their motor boats and RVs planning to stay at the beach for months. Others, like us, stay for several nights. The longer stays are made easy with the locals coming daily to sell their catches, vegetables, water, baked goods, etc.

Without internet connectivity our two nights at the beach were very refreshing and low-key.

We scored a palapa to spread out our stuff and have some shade

Victor’s famous beach platter, featuring fresh radishes from the locals

Shorts and t-shirt for Christmas! ✅

Ideal bay for kayaking

There are sting rays and schools of smaller fishes in the tranquil water.

View of our beach

Clear, clear water

Beach sunrise

Margo suntanning at sunrise

A close-up 😂

Sunday: Playa Los Cocos to Loreto (1h40 / 110km)

We left Los Cocos early in the morning and made the short drive to Loreto right in time for lunch! We took a stroll in the city center before finding a nice place to feed our bellies. After two margaritas, we were ready for a nap. Fortunately, we found a campground right in the city center. It does not look much, but we were happy to pay for the convenience of being able to walk everywhere during our time in Loreto.

Mountain ranges we passed on the road