Day 192 – 215: Baja bash

November 27 – December 19, 2024

In this segment we continue to make our way down the Baja peninsula in Mexico with stops at historic towns, agricultural communities and beaches. We’ve enjoyed the sunshine, lack of rain, and perfect temperatures. Patricia falls ill (first time on the trip!) while Dustin is back in the states.

• Day 192 – Guerrero Negro to Vizcaino – 76 km/155 meters climbing
• Day 193 – Vizcaino to San Ignacio – 72 km/365 m 
• Day 194 – 195 – Layover @ San Ignacio
• Day 196 – San Ignacio to Santa Rosalia – 77 km/758 m
• Day 197 – Santa Rosalia to Mulege – 65 km/500 m 
• Day 198 – Layover @ Mulege
• Day 199 – Mulege to Playa Coyote -30 km/330 m 
• Day 200 – Layover @ Playa Coyote
• Day 201 – Playa Coyote to Loreto – 108 km/1130 m 
• Day 202 – Layover @ Loreto
• Day 203 – Loreto to El Parguito Restaurante – 58km/754 m
• Day 204 – El Parguito to Cuidad Constitucion – 89 km/264 m
• Day 205 – Cuidad Constitucion to Los Pinos Restaurante – 54 km/76 m
• Day 206 – Los Pinos to Remote camp – 83 km/666 m
• Day 207 – Remote to La Paz – 75 km/392 m
• Day 208 – Layover @ La Paz
• Day 209 – La Paz to San Pedro – 32 km/223 m
• Day 210 – San Pedro to Todos Santos – 59 km/209 m
• Day 211 – 215 – Layover @ Todos Santos

Total distance: 5,900 miles (9,500 km)
Total climbing: 257,000 feet 
Countries: USA, Canada, Mexico
Mexican states: Sonora, Baja California, Baja Sur
Dustin’s hair length: first partial pony tail 🙂  

From Guerrero Negro we did a fairly mundane cycle to the working city of Vizcaino where we found a modestly priced hotel and had our first torta sandwich in Mexico – delicious! 

We then cycled toward the desert oasis of San Ignacio where a natural spring led to a drastically different landscape of palm trees as compared to the desert we’d been cycling through for several days. San Ignacio was so delightful, and the wind prediction was not in our favor, that we ended up staying three nights! 

From San Ignacio we cycled to a one night stopover at Santa Rosalia where we were the only “gringos” we saw. Santa Rosalia is an interesting town with an active copper mine originally established by the French so the town had quite a French influence including the main church in town being designed by Gustave Eiffel, same architect as the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This church was exhibited at the world expo in Paris where it was reportedly seen by the wife of the mine manager and she wanted it for Santa Rosalia, Mexico. The church was disassembled, shipped, and reassembled in its current location. 

Next we made our way over to the somewhat touristy town of Mulege where we camped for two nights. 

While we were in Mulege we acquired our first Mexican street dog that followed us from town to our campground, slept overnight outside our tent, ate at a restaurant with us, and even came to the beach. Dustin named him “Cleo” and he was quickly wiggling his way into our hearts and we were formulating a plan for distracting Cleo while we made our get-a-way to the next town. Luckily he found another adoptive family before we had to ditch him.

The beaches of the Mulege region are purportedly some of the best on the Baja and we were not disappointed. We made our way to Playa Coyote (Coyote Beach) and camped right on the water with a palapa, an open sided dwelling made of dried palm leaves. Locals came by delivering anything one might need to the beach – lobster, octopus, bread, water, rental kayaks, etc – no need to leave!

After two days of lounging and camping at the pristine beach we departed, with sand to be found in every crevice of our bodies & on all of our gear, for the town of Loreto. In Loreto we found festivities preparing for Christmas including a tree lighting ceremony.

From Loreto, we cycled for 5 days in a rather remote section of the Baja to get to the next major town of La Paz. Because this section was fairly desolate we ended up camping at two different restaurants and doing one remote camp.

Eventually we arrived in La Paz – this is the largest city we’ve been in since leaving Phoenix, Arizona – La Paz even has a Walmart. We eventually would be taking the ferry from La Paz to the mainland but for now had a little time to tour around the town.

We need to take a ferry from La Paz over to mainland Mexico to continue our journey south and our timing did not take into consideration the Christmas holiday for booking the ferry – the three sailings before Christmas had sold out and we were finally able to get reservations for December 26th. So we headed a little further south on the Baja to check out a cute town of Todos Santos (“All Saints”) – this put us closer to Cabo where Dustin had a scheduled flight to return to the US for a couple of days for an appointment.

Little did we know we’d end up staying almost a week in Todos Santos – just before Dustin departed Suzy & Patricia fell ill while Dustin & Dino were totally fine. We were thankful to have our little “Casa” at a hostel with kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms while we were under the weather.

Dustin flew back to the states for a couple days to pick up new hearing aids – the microphones on his set we had purchased just 11 months earlier in Fairbanks, Alaska malfunctioned. The Queen Creek, Arizona, Costco Hearing Aid Center was amazing in working with our extenuating circumstances to allow him to keep the “loaners” much longer than most people. We thought of mailing the hearing aids over the border but we’d heard horror stories of high value items getting stuck in customs so we decided it would be better for Dustin to do the exchange in person.

The Food of the Baja

We thought it would be fun to show some of the pictures of the variety of food on the Baja – sometimes our meals are peanut butter on tortillas while sitting in the dirt on the side of the road and others are feasts. Here is a sampling of some of the foods we eat:

Feliz Navidad!

Wishing everyone a “Feliz Navidad” – we’re excited to see another culture celebrate the birth of Jesus. Our plans are to head back to La Paz, spend Christmas there, and then take the ferry on the 26th over to mainland Mexico via Mazatlan.

Thank you to everyone who leaves a comment (here or on social media) – we do read them all, even if we don’t respond!

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