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.
Times like this you really miss the Basecamp.
