While camped in Loreto, we met a family from Northern California that told us about this dirt road that will take us to a slice of paradise in Baja that most people do not visit. The dirt road is treacherous, they said. The mountains will be like if Sedona met the sea, they said. To get to the road to Puerto Agua Verde, turn left when you see a mule tied to a cactus, they said.
First rule of driving in Baja is don’t drive at night. The reason behind that rule is not banditos, but livestock which might be taking a nap on the warm asphalt. But livestock doesn’t only need to be minded in the dark because there is danger even during the day. As we were leaving Bahia de Concepcion heading south towards Loreto, we had to gently slam on our brakes to avoid colliding with these wandering goats.
Dan got to take a week of work off so we could enjoy the internet-less beaches of middle Baja and tonight marks the last night of this type of living before we have to flee to the next portion of Baja with cell reception. Our last night of “vacation” was spent on a tiny beach called Playa Perla, which is part of Bahia de Conception.
After leaving Mulegé, we entered a stretch of coastline along Bahia de Concepcion. It is famous for the calm and brilliantly colored water. With no cell service or wifi in most spots, we squeezed in 3 nights over the weekend.
The next stop on the Baja Express is to the town of Mulege. Instead of camping near town, we chose to be outside of town a bit at a campground surrounded by orange groves called Ray’s RV Park and Resort. And look who it is again, Tim and Kerri in Big Blue. This photo makes me giggle. We all ditched our Airstreams for a bit for a Baja adventure. I’m sure we will all be back in our Airsteams sometime in the future, but for now we are enjoying our time in this orange grove in the desert.
After the palm tree oasis of San Ignacio, we headed further south to the teeny tiny town of San Carlos. We were just looking for a spot for the night and the oceanfront spot at San Carlos Cove RV Park hit the spot.
Our next stop on the road through Baja California Sur is the small town of San Ignacio. We heard that it was a date palm oasis in the middle of the desert but were pleasantly surprised to also find an old church and square when we pulled into town.
Took a week off of work so we could do some off-the-grid exploring. First stop was a little fishing village called Bahia Asuncion on the Pacific 120 miles off of Mexico Highway 1. We did not know what to expect from the roads out there especially when it immediately turned into a short stretch of gravel. Luckily most of the remaining road was paved. Found a rugged and treacherous coastline at the end when we arrived at dusk.
On Friday afternoon after signing off of work, we headed out of town a few miles. No cell reception, no problem. It was time for us to get up close and personal with some gray whales… if they’ll let us. Hello there, Laguna Ojo de Liebre!
So… where did we leave off? Oh yeah. We ended up following a tow truck, that was helping out the Wandrly crew, south a few hours to a town called Guerrero Negro. Finding a hotel in the middle of the night was a bit of a fiasco but they eventually found one open and settled into a spacious two-story suite for only 35 bucks a night. Score for them. We ended up popping up the truck camper in the parking lot of the hotel for the night for free. Score for us too.
Today’s drive will take us from the east side of Baja California Norte to the west side via a 25 miles dirt road called Mex 5. We left Gonzaga Bay first thing in the morning with the Wandrly crew expecting a long driving day… and a loooooong driving day is what we got.
After a night in Puertecitos, we made the 50 km drive south to Bahia de San Luis Gonzaga (also known as “Gonzaga Bay”). The Wandrly crew had possible bad fuel from a Pemex station up the road so they were having a some issues climbing up the mountain roads to get to this spot.
