As far south as we could go – all the way down to the very fingertip of Mexico’s Baja peninsula, got us to the resort of Cabo San Lucas. Right up there in the top 5 places to visit in Mexico and a key destination for our cruise ships, oh yeah, Cabo is a proper party city. And we were there on the weekend, so we were ready to party!

Bars and restaurants and more bars lined the marina, so that’s where we started. Our view as far as we could see was yachts and super yachts, hmmm maybe we should re-assess the mode of transport for our next trip…?

But for now, we’d have to make do with a sunset booze cruise. Us and a hundred or so others. That’s ok, I can share nicely.

So yeah we had to put up with having to share our experience a bit. But it was exactly the holiday party feels we were looking for.

While the service was excellent on the boat and the drinks were flowing, they’d perfected the art of catering for those who only ever drink on a party boat. Meaning they were somewhat cautious on the tequila pouring. Leaving us with a search for the best shoreside margaritas in Cabo.

Outpost restaurant offered a margarita flight – not your average margaritas either. L-R below… Avocado margarita with coconut cream, serrano pepper, tequila and gran marnier. And avo obviously. In the middle you have a black margarita with tequila, chipotle syrup, activated carbon (I have no idea what that is other than guessing it’s what makes it black) and lemon. And last up – a smoky hibiscus margarita with mezcal, hibiscus, ginger and house bitters. Seems you can call any cocktail a margarita providing it’s got tequila or mezcal in it.

After all those margaritas, somehow I made it up for a morning run around the marina. Nothing too hardcore you understand.

And it‘s not often I proper treat myself but I decided to splurge some of my birthday money on a massage. Not just a massage but a full on full body deep tissue thumb, knuckle and elbow massage. I could barely stand up afterwards so I lounged in the hotel swimming pool lapping up the sun instead.

End it did, and next up was La Paz for a week. And here pretty much our Mexico fairytale came to an unfortunate end. Put it this way, this was my view for most of the week…

Yeah I got sick. And then Darren did too. When you think how much traveling we’ve done, it’s kind of surprising we’ve not been more ill along the way. Negative Covid tests when we got home but not felt so fatigued in a long time. Suffice to say, a few days knocked out in bed in La Paz and hence not much to write about.

But there’s always photos. Some from before, some from after. No more of the fan I promise. So here you have it, the last of the trip is a photo summary…

There were two inspirations for our Mexico trip. The first was the friendliest grey whales on the planet. Ticked off on the way down and totally lived up to the hype. The second was a kayaking trip in the aquamarine waters of the Sea of Cortez around the rocky shores of the island of Espiritu Santu. Unfortunately, the lurgi put paid to that. But we did make it down to the beach to see where we would have gone. I guess it just means we’ll have to come back sometime!

The big thing 1,000 miles south gets you… is warmth. We hadn’t been short of sun in Tijuana but it felt a bit like that British sun, you know – the one with not much heat in it. Now we were darn sarf, we really felt like we were on our hols.

The Airbnb wasn’t quite as palatial as the one in Tijuana, but we were smack bang in the middle of the Pueblo Majico of Todos Santos. The town had a vibrant arty feel to it, with striking Mexican skull art adorning the walls and bright colored flags flapping exuberantly in the street, all adding to the fiesta feel.

Todos Santos is on the coast, backed by the picturesque Sierra de la Laguna mountain range. In contrast to the hard-packed sand at Playa de Tijuana, and the seafront esplanade in Loreto, there were no such easy running options in Todos. The terrain favored hiking instead, so hiking we did.

I couldn’t avoid the running forever though. I just had to run the gauntlet past the crazy Mexican dogs. Arriba, arriba. Luckily the worst ones were tethered behind gates or fences but I managed to attract quite a pack at one point. Four or five of them gathered around me, yipping and yapping, leaping and bounding. Quite excitable that they found some poor unsuspecting gringo to take them for a free walk.

There was no shortage of top notch Mexican food in Todos… in particular, they really rather excelled themselves on the taco front.

Meanwhile, the margaritas came thick and fast. As did the ceviche and the molcajete.

Um, not sure how much of a Mexican tradition pizza and salad is, but it was delicious.

We soaked up the holiday feeling and chilled out with the holiday flow, enjoying sunset from the Skylounge bar. There’s something that feels just so damn decadent about a rooftop bar! I switched out the Tequila for a Hendricks G&T, garnished with cucumber and rosemary, and served in a wine glass. A refreshing change after all that lime. Truth be told, we might have spent a few evenings up there.

The walk we did before work was so enjoyable, we did it again. At the weekend. Only this time we were able to explore a little further without the need to cut short to get to work. So we brought along our old friend the drone, which hasn’t seen much daylight recently. Simple pleasures. 🙂

Ooh, we do love a good roadtrip. Over 1,000 miles was on the cards for us over the weekend, so we took the Friday off to give us some time to play along the way. Our goal was to get to Todos Santos, all the way down in the south of Baja, by Sunday evening to check in to our next AirBnB. And to take in a bit of the Mexican countryside – the real Mexico, along the way.

Countryside is probably not quite the word for it. Wilderness is more like it. Of the desert type. The type of desert with cacti in, not the sand dune type. Lots and lots of cacti.

After leaving Tijuana, we drove through the tourist trap of Ensanada (do not pass go, just get the hell through there) and continued down ‘The 1’ (pretty much the one and only main road down the whole of Baja). After skirting the west coast, our route took us inland past El Rosario, where there was unfortunately no room at the inn due to a large contingent of bikers in town.

We pushed on, realizing that there was a whole lot of nothing for the next few hundred miles. Nothing is maybe a tad unfair to the Joshua Trees and Saguaro cactus, but nothing in the way of civilization.

Until that is, we arrived at the ‘town’ of Catavina. Four side streets, a petrol station and get this, a hotel! That’ll do nicely.

The next day took us past more cactus. I think in Mexico there are more cacti than there are grains of sand on the ground or stars in the sky.

It was a delight to arrive at the oasis that is San Ignacio, a small town (but not quite Catavina small) surrounded by lush date palms, centered around a striking Mission church. They also happened to have a bar offering the best margaritas in Baja.

Next up after a long and bumpy dirt road (somewhat regretting that margarita) was a night on the shores of Laguna San Ignacio, winter sanctuary to hundreds of Pacific Grey Whales and one of the reasons we wanted to do this whole trip. We’d booked a whale watching trip the next morning, and in the meantime enjoyed an idyllic sunset and a few more margaritas.

At this point, putting up the tent in what had turned into a howling windy evening was not seeming like a viable option. So we settled for a night in the truck instead.

Rise and shine was early doors. What with the time zone change as we entered the southern State of Baja Sur and on top of that, there was the change to daylight saving time. So it wasn’t just one but two hours earlier we had to get up. Or so we thought. With diddly squat phone signal, we were none the wiser. But it turned out that the summertime change across the whole of the US didn’t affect Mexico at the same time – they do it on their own terms, a few weeks later.

The combo of sleeping in the truck and the fake two hour time change left us a little bleary eyed. But one look at the choppy water in the lagoon soon woke us up – we were convinced our boat trip would be canceled. The boats they use are kind of tiny and they weren’t just bobbing around on their moorings, I would more say they were careering uncontrollably.

Luckily, a bit of patience helped, as we whiled away that extra hour.

The waters eventually calmed somewhat, miraculously enabling us to board the still vulnerable-looking boat. Well, a bit of sea water spray flying in your face and sloshing into the boat never hurt anybody. We were on a mission: to find the friendliest grey whales on the planet.

The pictures paint a thousand words and I can’t possibly compete.

Suffice to say, we were privileged to have the most amazing whale interactions. Both mothers and babies approached the boats to glide alongside, blanketing us in spray as they exhaled through their blow holes in unison. A little further away, a cheeky whale head popped-up – an inquisitive look-see to check out what was going on.

Overall, this was one of those truly memorable experiences that make it all worthwhile. Yes, even with that rocky little boat.

All that remained was to continue the journey south for our next working week in Todos Santos. Including a night camping on the shore of Conception Bay over on the east coast and popping in to the town of Loreto for a quick hello. Oh and in case you’re in any doubt, yes there were more cacti. Always.

What no Basecamp? The truck was loaded to the brim for a month long road trip and yet we felt half naked as we rolled out of the driveway with no airstream in tow.

We didn’t just forget to hitch up though, it was a conscious decision. Our destination? Baja California – the little sticky out finger protruding into the Pacific on the west coast of Mexico. A round trip of around 2,500 miles in less than a month, on a route not exactly flooded with co-working office options. And have you seen the price of fuel lately! So the BaseCamp got an extended vacation in Santa Clarita instead.

Since getting back from our Christmas/New Year UK trip in January, we’ve been home nearly two months. We caught up with friends and I even poked my nose into the office, which was still far from back to normal. Those itchy feet were inevitable. Mexico is practically on our doorstep and it’s been a few years since we made it down there. And so ARRIBA!!! Off to Mexico we go.

But first, a wee weekend jaunt in Newport Beach along the way. Just enough for a breezy hike in Crystal Cove State Park, a picnic meet up with one of Darren’s work colleagues, a run/bike ride round Back Bay – stunning with spring flowers, and the must-do bone marrow and pizza at Mozza. Newport Beach, done!

The Mexican border was a breeze, no queue to get in, no strip search, no check for blueberries. We didn’t even have to show our passports. Yes, I’m acutely aware this is going INTO Mexico and it won’t be quite the same getting back into the US, but still, I’ll take it for now.

Our first stop – an airbnb in Playas de Tijuana, just a hop, skip and a jump into Mexico. From where we could work and play for the week. It might not be the most upscale of towns but the ocean views right from our doorstep could not be beat. It was quite distracting seeing dolphins frolicking past while we were on work calls.

The pre-Trump border wall is an ever present reminder that even though you can see San Diego right there, the American dream is to some, just that.

One of my favorite things the whole week was being able to step out from the Airbnb before work, and run along the hard-packed sand of the Playas de Tijuana.

At the other end of the day, we reveled in the awesome sunsets from the comfort of our balcony.

The balcony sunsets really gave us that holiday vibe, way to end the working day! We also checked out a couple of other establishments in the local vicinity… margaritas and tacos going a long way to cement that feeling of experiencing a different culture.

And then there was the evening we spent in the middle of nowhere. A seaside town called Adolfo Lopez Mateo. A town that is positively kicking in grey whale season. For us, there were whales everywhere… statues of whales breaching high in the air, renderings of whales on the ground beneath our feet, and whale memorabilia dominating the shops. Everywhere that is except for the real ones in the sea. They were long gone. To be fair, given we’d seen the very same grey whales migrating up the California coast about a month earlier, we didn’t really have high hopes of seeing whales.

Whales here and whales there…

Whales galore!

… and not a tour operator in sight – all shut up for the season.

Not only were there no whales in Adolfo Lopez Mateo, there were also no people. We were absolutely the only tourists left in town, and there were no realistic dining options. Not a problem we thought, we’ve got the camping stuff with us, we can go to the supermarket and rustle something up on our balcony.

Welcome to the world of small town Mexican supermarkets! Long story short, I have no idea what these people eat (other than rice and beans). The shoe polish and toilet roll took up a full aisle, the sugary pink pastries another. With the vast assortment of rice and beans, there was very little room for anything else.

We were made up to find the ‘fresh’ shelf and settled on some eggs, tomatoes and tortillas. There was not an egg box in sight, so with nothing else to transport the eggs in other than a flimsy plastic bag, I’m amazed they made it back to the hotel in one piece. I nurtured the bag of eggs like I was carrying a goldfish from a fun fair.

With some intense devotion, we even managed to find the only liquor store in town. With very few options, Darren settled for a few cans of Pacifico. However, I quite fancied a bottle of wine with dinner. I eyed the one single bottle in the store skeptically: a ‘fruity red’ from Carlo Rossi vineyard, product of the USA. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that… so I reached the bottle from the shelf and blew the dust off it. Not a good sign. Noticed it was dated 2008 – also not a good sign (I didn’t think this was the type of wine that would age well!). However, it wasn’t until after I opened it that I read the small print about its sweet taste captivating the senses. Sweet 🙁 Oops. Total wine fail. Oh well, at least the egg tacos hit the spot 🙂

Wanted to enlighten you on some of the food and drink we had the pleasure of tasting when we nipped down to Baja, Mexico.

You know when you visit a country that is renowned for a particular cuisine, you expect to go beyond the western versions of that cuisine and get truly authentic versions of the same dishes, not to mention new ones. From our Mexico mini-break, we are pleased to report that authentic tacos, chips & salsa, and margaritas are alive and well south of the US border.

However, there are a couple of things worth pointing out about Mexican food:

⁃ Get used to rice and beans. Because rice and beans (generally refried beans) come with everything. Literally everything.

⁃ There’s always an exception that proves the rule. And that exception was the delicious fish tacos we ordered in a very authentic hole in the wall ‘restaurant’ in Todos Santos. Not a tourist in sight. But to our surprise, these tacos did not come with rice and beans. Well, they did come with rice. But instead of beans there was, wait for it… mashed potato. A big mound of mashed potato. We initially thought it must be white beans. But no. Mash. What was that about authenticity? There are no words.

Difficult to make out here but that there tucked behind the rice is MASH!

⁃ My Spanish is a bit rusty but when I probed the depths of my brain for a translation for ‘cabeza’, I could only come up with ‘head’. Tacos de head… i.e. head tacos. Hey Siri, help me out here. Sure enough, the roasted meat from the head of a cow or goat is a common street food in Mexico. Um, might have to pass on the head tacos.

⁃ Tacos are only tacos when they come to you already with the stuff inside. Otherwise they are just tortillas. Think we mightily offended one restaurateur when we asked for lobster and tacos. By serving us lobster and tortillas, he was able to charge more than triple the price than for lobster tacos. Everyone’s a winner: we got more lobster than could possibly be fitted in a few tacos, and he earned his week’s profit in just one meal.

⁃ Caesar salad has its origins in Tijuana, Mexico in the 1920s. An Italian born chef called Caesar had to get spontaneously creative with his remaining ingredients after a July 4th rush. He rustled up this dish by preparing the dressing in a large wooden bowl table-side and flamboyantly tossing the romaine lettuce in it. So we ordered exactly that in Loreto and our waiter graciously tried to recreate the dish. Not quite up to Seabourn standard, but 10/10 for effort.

⁃ On the drinks front, we hit up a few Mexican breweries on our travels. El Zopilote in Loreto looked promising, with sunny tables bordering the main square. Beer not good though unfortunately, 2 out of 10. We had more luck at Todos Santos Brewing, which had a laid back vibe and not only an excellent choice of beer but one of the best Double IPAs I’ve ever had. Such a good evening, listening to acoustic Beatles songs from the live ‘band’ (2 guys, 1 guitar) – very much an expat place. With time not on my side, we managed to squeeze in a last quick brewery visit before rushing to get my flight: Baja Brewing in Cabo San Lucas. I’m a sucker for a good logo, and my face lit up with delight to find they did tin signs that would fit right in on our brewery wall back home. Beer not half bad either!

Cheers!

Baja Brewing

– Probably the nicest meal of the trip was a Molcajete. We had to google it first. A molcajete is the Mexican equivalent of a mortar and pestle. Turns out this was not used in the preparation of the ingredients but to serve it in. Still sizzling as it was brought out from the kitchen, it was a scrumptious bowl packed with chicken, shrimp, sausage and veg in a sauce of spicy bubbling goodness. So indeed there’s way more to Mexican cuisine than tacos and tequila!

Nom nom

We had promised Shelley tacos.  In fact, I think that’s the main reason she agreed to come to Mexico.  With 5 stars from over 200 reviews on Yelp, Tacos El Yacqui in Rosarito had a big build up… no pressure. Huge flanks of carne asada were sizzling on a wood fired grill as we waited in line, a teaser for the senses.

As we approached the counter, the rather over enthusiastic chef wielded his cleaver and chopped the meat with gusto, unfortunately splattering Shelley with meat juice in the process. Luckily, the tacos more than made up for the spotted dalmatian look – these were Mexican tacos at their best! The homemade flour tortillas were freshly baked and soft, the meat oh so succulent, tasty and well seasoned, and the salsa oozing with chili heat.

One of the highlights from this trip was the airbnb place Darren had booked near Puerto Nuevo. Backing onto the cliff top with panoramic ocean views, we arrived with perfect pre-sunset timing to make the most of it. In addition to the back garden area, there was a separate sunken concrete patio built into the sea wall.

After the long car journey (technically ‘truck’ journey), we relaxed with sundowner drinks on the patio, enjoying the cool sea breeze and the rhythmic sounds of the waves crashing down below.

Modeling the new jackets we just bought at a retail outlet along the way – turned out to be quite a timely purchase!

This was followed by a stroll along the seashore (after a rather hairy descent to the beach), the waves glistening in the twilight. As we glanced back up to our private sea wall patio from the beach, we were indeed reminded that we were in Mexico – the damn thing was held up by car tyres!

The rather hairy descent to the beach!

Safe as houses….

One of the not-so-highlights from the trip were the margaritas. I know, right, you come south of the border and expect the tacos and tequila to blow your mind. Something to do with too much acidic lime and not enough tequila I think.

Drinks were also somewhat of a challenge at the seafood restaurant we went to in Puerto Nuevo. This place is known as Lobster Village and every single restaurant specializes in lobster. Not daring to risk another margarita (although Darren was braver than Shelley and I), we instead opted for what we thought would be the obvious choice to accompany lobster: white wine.

After what seemed like an eternity as they no doubt scoured the cupboards and turned the place upside down, the waiter awkwardly admitted they didn’t actually have any white wine. So we opted for rose instead, got into the Mexican mood with the mariachi band, and rounded off the night with tequila chasers. When in Rome/when in Mexico and all that…