Bring on Baja Sur!
A fun evening at the hotel bar with fellow Baja road-trippers had motivated us to get back on the road and embrace this amazing experience for the “second half” of our drive.
After sharing stories on this drive that’s not for the average road-tripper, we created a unique bond with our new friends and we had more peace of mind and confidence as we embarked into the unknown.
We finished breakfast, re-packed the car (we were becoming experts at this), took Kennedy for a long walk around the property and it was back on the road for the Turners.Crossing this physical Baja “halfway” checkpoint felt both rewarding and relieving.
To kickoff today’s drive, we were following our road-tripping friends for quite some time, which made us feel safer and less nervous knowing we had “Baja experts” by our side.
We quickly transitioned from “alto sign watching duty” in the cities to “cow watching duty” on the Baja countryside. We realized the gigantic animals were coming up to the sides of the roads to eat the sparse but fresh growing green grass, so staying engaged and ready to slam on the brakes after coming over any hill was a must.
cow watching duty!
Fun fact: The timezone now switches from Pacific to Mountain, which was factored into our driving time for the day to avoid being on the road at night. Not driving at night is the #1 Baja Road Trip no-no due to cows laying on the desert road in the evenings for warmth.
For this part of the drive, based on our research we had prepared to be stopped for reasons such as:
Agricultural inspection to go through our food/coolers
$10 pesos for required under-car spray to prevent transport of bugs from Baja Norte to Sur.
Thankfully we weren’t stopped for any reason outside of standard check-points and we likely over-researched online expectations, but hey, onward!
As we drove the Baja coastline, in certain areas where you’d expect to see pristine beaches and turquoise waters, there was trash, junkyards and more. Baja is not known for a great recycling program and the buildup within these landfills was heartbreaking to see. It would be something we’d remember as we made our way to Cabo, in an effort to try and reduce our contribution to that unfortunate wasteland.
SANTA ROSALIA
Our next stop was Santa Rosalia! We had been told by our road-mates to not pass up the opportunity to visit El Boleo, a historic landmark. It is a 100 year old bakery downtown, known for its pastries and sweetbreads.
Driving into the tiny, yet crowded seaside town made us feel like we had teleported back in time. A few wrong turns down a few one-way roads, we found the bakery and purchased (for just a few dollars) a handful of deliciousness.
There is something special about experiencing a city’s culture and it definitely made it well worth the stop for us.
MULEGE
The next town, which we were super excited about, was Mulegé. It is the gateway to Bahía Concepción, a large bay within the Sea of Cortez. As you enter the city, you drive through more lush, green mountains but now with groves full of palm trees.
Once we wound through to the coastline, a cove appeared with the brightest turquoise water next to a white sandy beach. YES. What a relief to finally see water. This was the beach of Santispac, one of many beautiful beaches in Mulegé.
Once again, we pull in and see fellow roadtrippers from our last hotel hanging out on the beach. Since they’ve all done this drive countless times, we felt pretty cool to be finding the spots that they loved to stop at, too.
Santispac was a breathtaking beach. It looked like we had just landed in the Caribbean. We drove right up on the sand and parked in front of the water. We quickly decided to change into our suits and relax for a bit.
This was Kennedy’s first beach! She was skeptical of the sand, water, shells, pretty much all of the things that come with a beach, but quickly warmed up to it, running up and down the shoreline. It didn’t take us long to realize there was a bar within a small beach hut serving up Tecates, so we grabbed two and posted up on our towel for a “cheers”. The water was so clear and so warm. It was quiet with not many people around. So magical.
LORETO
ALMOST THERE…
Two more hours of windy roads later (that felt like 7 hours post-beach excursion) and we hit our last overnight stop, Loreto.
We stayed at La Mision Hotel, which was really nice (thank you Southwest points!) and a great upgrade compared to our previous night. To make the most of our road trip, we tried to do a “nicer” hotel every other overnight stop.
We relaxed for a little in our room and then walked over to Mediterraneo, a local dinner spot recommended to us by our road-mates. Two of them even showed up and it became another fun evening of chatting. The rooftop patio overlooked the water and we watched the sunset over Day 7… with cocktails, a shrimp dinner and key-lime pie for dessert of course.
Dinner in Loreto
Do we look tired or what? No filter can hide the anxieties of Day 7 on the road.
