Day 51. Mexico 2022. Driving around Sud California

I wanted to go to the southernmost tip of Baja California, and I had to decide whether I wanted to do it the easy way, driving the straight highway from La Paz to Cabo San Lucas, or the hard way, following the dirt track that skirts the coast and goes all the way around the tip. Naturally I chose the hard way, with the intention on staying overnight in Cabo Pulmo. I visited the seaside communities of La Ventana and Ensenada de los Muertos, cut across some of the sierra to visit El Triunfo and San Bartolo, and went back to the coast to Los Barriles and La Ribera. The mountains are stark and surprisingly green, because the barrancos are deep and in many cases have high-yield springs, like in San Bartolo. They reminded me of the barrancos of Gran Canaria and their abrupt approach to the coast. All were dry, but had plenty of evidence of carrying a large discharge during the infrequent but violent desert storms; I would not like to be caught in one of this when fording such a stream.

Down in La Ribera I looked unsuccessfully for the place where I had booked two nights via Booking.com. Rats! Looks like it is someone trying to run an undeclared B&B out of her beach house, so the address is vague and the website map takes you to a different hotel. I looked around for about an hour and finally gave up (not without sending a nastygram and notice of cancellation through Booking).

So I pushed forward to Cabo Pulmo, which seems to be a mecca for scuba divers. Unfortunately most of the seaside is privately owned (no doubt investors hoping to make a fortune when the big hotels come this way), so it is hard to find a place to approach the beautiful sea. Eventually I saw a dive shop and stopped to ask for accommodations, but what they had was overpriced for just getting my feet wet. The way to come here is to make plans for a few days of scuba and snorkeling, and let them take care of the logistics.

It was about 5 pm, and I still had another 60 km of dirt track to San José del Cabo, so I went back to the dirt road, and imagining I was running Baja 2000 I reached San José around 7 pm. I had found a hotel that looked quaint via Booking, but I didn’t notice it was in Cabo San Lucas and had to go on for another half hour. I am afraid I do not have a clear recollection of San José because the road took me past the big hotels and not the city. I was beginning to feel this part of the trip was going to be a bust when, in entering Cabo San Lucas, I saw the beautiful bay, with the two stone pillars that one refers to as “Los Cabos” and a sailboat lazily going around in the sunset. That’s it! I am going to look for a way to get on the water with a sailboat.

Things got even better when Google maps took me away from the highway into the uptown district, past many small restaurants and shops, and eventually brought me to a stop a block from the alameda, in front of a small quaint hotel called Baja Life Boutique Hotel. I was received by the pretty owner, Tathiana, as if she had been waiting hours to meet me, and promptly texted her brother to see what he could find about a sailing trip around the bay. I had dinner at one of the small restaurants (La Poblanita, with meals typical of Puebla) and ended the night with a walk around the park. I think I am going to like it here 😊