BAJA CALIFORNIA

Lost in Valle de los Cirios

By Foreign Natives

February 9^th, 2016

It was Baja that launched our dreams of a trip to Mexico. All the stories of weeks camped in front of pointbreaks with perfect waves, adventurous rides through desert roads in order to find beautiful empty beaches, the solitude, the wilderness…and it was all this and even more.

Baja California has always been a big road trip destination for Californian surfers, so we had the advantage of good information and tips from friends and good guides to help us explore it.

PUNTA SAN JoSE

Our first stop was San Jose, a long right break that’s usually crowded on the weekends with San Diego surfers that come for the weekend, but it was a weekday, and the waves were pretty small…so we had it all to ourselves! And the nice guys from the little fishing camp. Such a beautiful place. We were even able to get some longboard waves.

Baja is a 1250 km long peninsula and, except for the North and the South, it’s basically unpopulated. It mainly has one single big paved road that goes all the way from the north to the south. This road keeps moving from the Pacific Ocean shore to the Cortes Sea shore, so you’ve usually got to drive for a good amount of miles in dirt road to get to the beaches, which sometimes requires a 4x4 vehicle.

We don’t have a 4x4 van, but it has a very high clearance, and that definitely helped a lot. We are so so proud of the behavior of the van on this trip, it took us where a lot of cars wouldn’t get, and we were able to enjoy a lot of amazing spots entirely for ourselves, some of the best places we’ve ever camped.

PUNTA BAJA

We cook in our van most of the time, and we always try to find fresh produce to cook healthy and tasty meals. But when you can get the fresh mussels yourself on a sunset in a beautiful point surrounded by the ocean while the sun is setting…that’s another level! :)

Another sunset, another spot for ourselves!

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bahía de san luis gonzaga

Surfers usually stay on the Pacific Ocean coast, but the Sea of Cortes has some of the greatest beaches we’ve ever seen, and it’s really worth it to spend some days exploring it. We spent some time around the San Luis Gonzaga Bay just swimming, fishing and having a relaxed time.

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We got to this beautiful beach on an afternoon, but there was a guy charging $10 for crossing his road in order to get to it. Since all beaches are public in Mexico, you can stay there as long as you get there, so we decided to try to find an “alternative” way (through the bushes!). We lasted about 100m before we got stuck on the sandy terrain. We had to go back with a shameful face to that same man to ask him for help. And he just responded with a smile and came with his truck to help us. Mexican people are always willing to help. Thanks!

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Our van is custom built, we converted it all ourselves. And even though we are very proud of how good and solid is everything, there was a closet that couldn’t stand the bumps and ended falling down. Some of the roads would just put everything upside down.

One of our must go places was a stretch of coast called The Seven Sisters, a set of seven perfect right pointbreaks that are one next to each other and can become a dream come true for surfers. Camping is just awesome, and even though you can camp at any of the breaks, El Cardón is definitely the most popular because the owners of a Rancho nearby have put some trash cans and water so it’s very easy to end up staying there for weeks.

We got there on a morning and everything looked quiet. Sunny weather, calm ocean…so we took the longboard for some fun small waves. But this is a El Niño year, and we didn’t know that there was an incredible swell approaching and we couldn’t believe our eyes when the waves started to get bigger and the break just went truly epic. We had a big, perfectly oriented swell that generated clean overhead walls that went forever, making 10 turns in 1 minute rides and walking along the beach back to the start for another dreamy carousel ride. Oh. And there was never more than 5 people in the water. Some of the best waves of our lives.