Life by the Water in Baja Sur

February 18 – March 10, 2022, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

I love beach-hopping. A few years back we spent a month doing just that in Texas. Despite the bad weather, I thought it was a fabulous journey. There seems to be very little bad weather here in Baja so beach hopping here is even better. You can camp for free on most beaches in Southern Baja. If your vehicle has 4WD you can turn down almost any arroyo as you drive along the coast and find a lovely place to spend the night – sometimes very secluded, you being the only camper there. Our friends at Roaming About did just that. But unfortunately, we are not 4WD. So our options for beach camping were limited. But despite these limitations, our options were still often spectacular.

I mean where else can you visit a beach and hot springs in the exact same place? Like the ones, we visited at Playa Agua Caliente.

Of course, just walking along the beach and soaking in the scenery is a good time.

In Cabo Pulmo, we hiked in the hills and had some amazing views of the landscape and water. At Playa Frailes, I made tracks down the beach following a mystery animal swimming out in the water. It looked like a sea lion to me.

Playa Miramar in Cabo Pulmo National Park.

Cabo Pulmo National Park. We had a fun happy hour with our friends on top of the nearest rock in the distance.

There are good fairly well-marked trails in Cabo Pulmo Park. Here is a view from the Circuito Nasty Trail.

My trail at Los Frailes chasing a mystery animal in the water.

Looks like a Sea Lion to me.

Hike on the beach at La Fortuna.

Punta Gasparino south of Todos Santos on the Pacific Ocean side of the peninsula.

Actually, even though I love the beach, I’m not a very traditional beach person. I don’t spend much time just sitting in the sand – reading or sunbathing. I don’t get into the water much, although I did get in a few times once we got far enough south for the water to be warmer.

Whale feet!

Fully submerged.

I just love being on the edge of things. And being on the edge makes it easier to look out over the water and visualize where I am on the planet.

Gazing out over the water is actually a pretty big pastime in Baja. Perhaps people are contemplating their place in the world as I do, but more likely they are looking for whales. Sitting in camp chairs with binoculars at the ready, they watch for water spouts out in the distance followed by giant creatures shooting up into the air. And if they are lucky a whale may breach close enough to the shore that they can get pictures like this.

What goes up must come back down.

Humpback Whale off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Sometimes the beach has even more surprises. I thought nothing of it when 4 guys drove up in a truck and a 4-wheeler and walked down to the beach with a bucket where we were camped at La Fortuna. I was taking pictures of some nosey burros when one of the guys called me over. They were releasing baby turtles! “Laudes!” Leatherbacks in English. These turtles can grow to the size of a Volkswagon Beetle.

Sixteen turtles were released.

We are not sure if the volunteers who released them were affiliated with any official group.

Those who touched the turtles wore latex gloves, both to protect the turtles and to protect the releasers from salmonella.

A baby leatherback sea turtle makes it to the ocean in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The turtles really struggled to get to the surf, and were often washed back. Sometimes they landed on their backs, and had to right themselves. The volunteers let them struggle until dark. The effort is a natural part of the experience.

Baby Laudes make their way to the water.

Watching the turtles and watching the dog. Sea turtles are endangered partly due to preditors – like this stray dog who was very interested in the release.

The beach is a good place for quiet reflection at twilight.

And, of course, a great place to watch the sun go down.

The Waterfall

The sea/ocean isn’t the only water in Baja. While in Cabo Pulmo, Greg and I decided that we wanted to do a trip inland in El Burro to visit a waterfall at Rancho Ecologico Sol De Mayo outside of the town of Santiago. We invited our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya to join us. There was much discussion about other features in the area including hot springs and a stunning canyon hike where friends of Mark and Liesbet’s ran into rough-looking men on horses with guns they assumed were cartel, as well as the price to visit the falls, 150 pesos (around $7.50 – which seemed steep) per person. We finally settled on just visiting the waterfall and the hot springs if we had time. Mark decided to stay in Cabo Pulmo with Maya since dogs were not allowed at the waterfall.

The price of the falls was worth it! And we spent so much time there we had no time for hot springs, much less wild places with scary guys.

To get to the waterfall we had to climb down a stone staircase into a canyon. Photo by Liesbet.

Liesbet gets into the water.

Liesbet decided to climb up the falls -a bit of an athletic feat. Greg and I hiked back up out of the canyon to reach the top of the falls. We met here at the top.

Greg poses for a pic.

Once at the top of the falls we kept walking following the river bed. The river and falls were pristine – worth the entrance fee to protect this beauty.

Liesbet getting ready to slide down a mini-fall (the water is hidden from view on the other side of the big rock). Another tricky endeavor but she did well. We took pics but you will have to check her blog to see if she posts them.

Another mini-falls. Here is where we turned around. I imagine we could have gone further but we hadn’t planned on spending as much time here as we did.

Outside the gate to the park was a small zoo with parakeets, a peacock, goats, and sheep. Here are just a few pics for fun.

Goat.

Goat.

Parakeets.

* All pics are click to enlarge. Once you have them enlarged you can view them in a slide show. Also, you can hover over the pics to see captions.