ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

After four days of “vacation living” in Todos it was time to get on with the trip. This was our first extended stay in one place so far and the first area of Baja we envisioned returning to some day. We learned how easy it is to forget about the journey as a whole and settle into a routine of comfort that is difficult to find on the road. With our time limited we knew we would have to keep moving to save room for other places and experiences. Although we’ve spoken mostly about the beaches and our guesthouse, the town itself is also a vibrant Mexican community filled with friendly, creative people. The climate is warmer than in Northern Baja and slightly more tropical. The area has also become somewhat of an artist settlement for local and expatriate artists. This has added a certain cuteness to the already charming seaside town which has not escaped the eye of tourists or realtors. However, Todos remains very quaint compared to the commercial explosion that is Cabo about an hour South.

Many of the people we spoke with told us Cabo might not be worth more than a pass through since we favored smaller, backpacker-friendly surf towns. However we approached it with open minds and enjoyed the scenic coastal drive South. As we entered Cabo San Lucas for the first time we could see how people either love it or hate it: if Hard Rock Café, huge resorts, top-notch shopping and T-shirt outlets are what you want from Mexico (or you find yourself with no place to go for Spring Break), this is for you. Otherwise, you might want to look elsewhere for a real Mexican town and an entirely different experience. We spent a few hours here in awe and mostly just trying to find our way around. We searched for beach access, but there was practically none. All of the beaches were restricted to staying at a resort or living in one of the high-rise condos. We drove south to the main break, “Monuments” and even it was surrounded by condos and construction. After a short lunch we thought we’d try the supposedly smaller, quieter sister city, San Jose Del Cabo, just further down the road. San Jose Del Cabo has suffered much of the same tourist/real estate investment explosion as Cabo, but with a more reserved, exclusive atmosphere. We felt a bit lost in the whole area, as we weren’t sure if we had made a wrong turn back to Palm Beach.

We did finally come to a historic area of SJDC with charming shops, restaurants and a mission founded by the Spanish in the early 1700s that still holds mass to this day. After some exploring we checked out a few hotels and were told by Ramone, the resident surf guru at the only hostel in the area, that no, we shouldn’t waste our money on a hotel but rather should head out to some of the good surf breaks at the East Cape where tons of people camp. He even thought there’d be a party there that evening since the swell was up. Sure, we could get back into the tent for a night, meet some cool people and hopefully catch some good surf the next morning in the process. With an hour of sunlight left we committed some loose directions to memory and headed out of town on a dirt road for the beaches.

First, we got lost before we even got out of town in the most obnoxious new home/condo coastal development we’ve ever seen. (They actually dug a harbor ½ mile into the natural coast for all the real estate boomers moving down). The road on the national map is now in a different place because of the project. When we finally got on track, we followed some other people who said they were also going to “la playa” for the night, but hadn’t heard of any of the breaks we were looking for. Of course there were no signs so after an hour of driving up the coast in the setting sun we flagged down a nice American couple who informed us we’d passed the spot we were looking for, Shipwrecks, about 7 miles ago. They also seemed a little surprised when we said we were camping on the beach. (we were in the Mexican “Malibu” with million dollar American vacation homes under construction every where you could see) After driving back to where we though the spot might be the sun had fully set and we had yet to see a single other camper. Exhausted and concerned about breaking the #1 rule of travel in Mexico – Do Not Drive at Night – we finally pulled off at a deserted beach and set up the tent by headlight in the blazing heat. We had our outdoor showers and our freeze dried camping meals, and then settled in to try to sleep in the hottest night either of us had ever felt – both drenched in sweat. The party started then all right – when a Mexican family pulled up a little way down the beach and partied to salsa music until 3am! The next morning we woke up to small, mushy waves and decided we needed to just drive to La Paz to arrange our ferry ride to the mainland ASAP. Oh well, the bad comes with the good.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 12:46 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.