ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

The Pacific coast of Mexico is beautiful. On the left are huge mountains and on the right a vibrant, blue ocean. The landscape is surprisingly lush and covered in jungle. The mountains are separated from the beaches by ongoing valleys of palm trees and never- ending farms. The farms are vast and typically covered with grazing herds of cows nestled in between the coconut palms.

The drive was a little over an hour, when we came upon the small, clean and appealing town of San Juan de Alima. SJA is a quaint town that sits along the ocean with a mountainous backdrop. We drove straight to the beach, took our boards out and got in a short session of surf and sun before finding a place to stay for the night. We decided to stay at the hotel nearest the internet café, Hotel de San Juan, for some much needed time to update our site and check email. The hotel had a restaurant and looked as though it would come alive in the evening….we were wrong about that. Not thinking that we could negotiate, we took a basic room with fan for about $23 a night. Within a day, we realized that not only were we the sole inhabitants of the hotel, but the town as well. We could have easily negotiated – lesson learned. Read the rest of this entry »

We had a long drive from Barra de Nativadad to Pasquales. First we drove through the huge port city of Manzanillo, taking a wrong turn and ending up on the Malecon (waterfront street), which cost us about an hour. We escaped out of town and took another wrong turn, ending up about 12 km in the wrong direction at the wrong beach. With the help of some extremely friendly locals, we were finally on the right path to Tecoman. Pasquales is a very well known surf break right outside of Tecoman. We stopped for lunch along the way. Yes, you guessed right….tacos. And we tried a cold coco. There are stands along the streets selling fruit and especially coconuts. The good ones have huge coolers and you order one for about a buck and watch as the vendor quickly hacks the coconut with a machete, just enough to put a straw through a small hole. We thought it was okay, maybe could have been a little better if we could have managed to squeeze a splenda packet or two down…..but refreshing nonetheless.

Eager to get there, we drove into Tecoman and began asking for additional directions. Every local gave us directions with more fervor and passion than we hoped for. They spoke very fast and used huge arm gestures and after circling the entire city a couple of times, we were finally on the right path. Read the rest of this entry »

We took the 18-hour ferry ride to Mazatlan without incident. We opted to pay an additional $36 for a cabin so we could get a good night’s sleep that made the trip a little quicker. Along the way we met some cool travelers from Australia and ended up staying up in the Ferry “Disco” sharing stories. Jane and Lomas, about our age, have been traveling for 3½ years and have been everywhere from Africa to Canada. They stop to work as a chef and electrician when they need money and plan to travel for a full 5 years. We also met Rick, Maya and Jess who met in Bali and were going to the mainland for a few days to relax from their jobs of running a surf camp in Baja. Rick and Maya traveled with their two year old, Jaia and she was already learning two languages. After a few beers we joked about our crazy cultures – they’d never heard of Outback Steakhouse and thought, “Shrimp on the Barbie,” sounded weird since they didn’t even use the word shrimp, they use prongs. Instead, all of their steakhouses are called “Texas Longhorn” or something of the sort. They all impressed us since they seem to be doing just what they want to in life and we vowed to try to do the same when we return home. Read the rest of this entry »

We are now in La Paz waiting to take the 18-hour overnight ferry to Mazatlan tomorrow. We entered the enormous city and stopped at a supermarket to get some basics. It was like walking into a super Wal-Mart/mall. We searched and got what we needed….got hit up for some money when we left for having someone “watch” our car – we were unaware that we had committed to a personal security guard and went on our way to find a hotel for the night. We drove along the Malecon (waterfront street) of the bay and found a hotel that was in our price range…..Nuevo Peking. It is a Chinese owned and themed hotel with a Chinese restaurant downstairs….a very strange hotel, but has AC and was on the main strip. We thought we were leaving after the first night. We packed up, went to buy a temporary vehicle permit for the rest of our way through Mexico and went to buy the tickets. We were told that they ran from Mon-Sat. We arrived, got the vehicle permit at the ferry office and were told that the ferry going to Mazatlan only ran Tues, Thurs and Sat. the ferry tickets could only be bought across town that day. Bad news is that we would have to stay in La Paz for an extra night and run around town to get the tickets, good news is that we were early and avoiding the crazy crowds and long waits that the next day would have.

There is no surfing in La Paz, so after we bought our tickets across town, we spent our entire second day running around the city streets, all named after revolutions. After finishing a book each, we searched for the cheap lunch that we knew existed, but wasn’t close to the tourist strip where we were staying. Eventually, we found a Mexican market in the middle of town after being convinced that people in La Paz just didn’t eat tacos. We found fresh, healthy tacos for about .90 each. Chris parked in a bus lane and ran to the car when he realized we were getting a ticket. Instead of screaming lo siento (I’m sorry) he was screaming cierto (right or correct)! Gringo Chris luckily got us out of the ticket and we were able to finish lunch. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Jenny: We drove around Todos Santos – sort of an artsy town – for a while, looking for hotels and inquiring about their rates.  When we do this, we always end up finding the best places.  We knocked on what looked like a quaint B&B, Casa Bentley, and were welcomed by 5 dogs, a Swiss lady, Beatrice and an American geologist, Bob.  We walked into their kitchen and immediately thought that we would not be able to afford staying here.  They had one vacancy and luckily it was the off-season, so we got the room for $50 a night.  We were eating our own breakfast and lunch and the $1 taco stands were extremely cheap for dinner, so we were thrilled that it was in our budget. 

Beatrice and the dogs gave us a tour.  Bob had taken 20 years to build the house/hotel (only 5 guest rooms) on 2 acres.  The entire place was made of stone…the walls, the floors…and incredibly beautiful.  We found paradise…an oasis after days of driving through the desert.  Read the rest of this entry »

So far we found some good waves and camped at a few nice spots but we hadn’t found any towns that we wanted to spend more than a day in.  So we decided to try to cover some more ground and get further down the coast. (we were only ¼ of the way down Baja after 4 days)  The surfer’s guide we had been trusting so far mentioned some cool bay towns just South of the North/South Baja border so we decided to sacrifice a day driving.  BAD IDEA.  We drove for something like 13 hours….the drive was supposed to be 5-6 hours.  We drove through nothing and then more nothing, then into the real nothing.  The desert has some pretty spots at sunset, but never seemed to end.  After a while the paved road ended and we were driving on a washboard dirt road for hours, sometimes slowing to a crawl because of the condition of the road.  Read the rest of this entry »

Jenny: We drove south and ended up at a surf spot called “freighters” with a huge sunken ship – north of San Quentin.  Again, we met a ton of nice people from California and Mexico….such a strange landscape, ocean and desert right next to each other (which means lots of wind and thus dirt ending up in every single crevice of the car).  We paddled out together and eventually I caught a wave after the typical, snobby California guy cut me off a few times.  I headed in because the wind had picked up and I was freezing….Chris’ XL wetsuit top doesn’t exactly keep me warm and it slows me down a lot (every guy had a full suit on).  I was really happy for Chris, he said they were the best longboard rides of his life.  Before going in, a sea lion swam right next to us and his head came out of the water….it was awesome and reminded us of swimming with our very missed Morgan…..definitely worth the paddle out there! 

Chris: this spot had some amazing waist high waves just peeling around a bend for more than 100 yards.  Plus the beached 200 ft ship right next to the takeoff point made it a cool place overall.  The wave broke pretty gently so I wanted to take Jenny out to try a few but the water was the coldest we’ve felt so far – probably 52 – 55 degrees.  Read the rest of this entry »

Chris: Driving south for about an hour we saw some beautiful unspoiled coast – complete with some sights only found in Mexico.  We came up to the next good surf spot – Quatro Casas – a right hand point break just under the cliffs where there was a hostel and several people camping.  The waves were about head high so I went out for a session but it took me a while to get used to the setup.  After some time finding the sweet spot I caught some decent rides and felt like I was shaking off the dust from several months of bad waves. 

Jenny: The waves were big and the beach was really rocky, so I opted to finally get a little sun and take photos of Chris.  We made a fire and camped for the night right on the cliff, overlooking the ocean.  This was the best of Baja so far.  The moon literally lit up the ocean and it was a gorgeous view.  We boiled water and ate our “gourmet” freeze dried meals and called it a night.

Jenny: We headed back to the picturesque surf spot, surrounded by desert sand dunes and mountains to set up camp for the night.  We used our portable shower for the first time after the sun was down…very cold.  I cooked up some tasty breakfast burritos for dinner with guacamole using my mom’s trusty iron skillet and we ate s’mores for dessert.  There were a lot of campers nearby from California who had good stories and advice and we sat up by the fire for a while hanging out. 

Chris: Since the wind was bad I had to use some of our spare gas to start the fire – Jenny said that I was cheating.  Good thing one of the other campers was a fire fighter from Cali.  The only snag was that our self-inflating camping pads only self inflated half way (we later found out you have to blow them up yourself) so we felt plenty of rocks and bumps while sleeping.  We woke up a bit sore but proud at our effort, feeling like we finally had a true Baja experience.  After packing the car yet again for two hours it was back on the road south.