Life by the Water in Baja Sur

Sunrise at Playa Agua Caliente.

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.

The view outside the van door at Playa Agua Caliente. People dig out pits that fill up with water from a hot spring. At high tide, the pits wash away and have to be rebuilt the next day. The water is seriously hot!

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.

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.

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.

Humpback whale breaching in the Sea of Cortez.

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.

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

Looking east as the sunsets over Playa Costa Azul.

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

The sun sets over Playa La Pastora on the Pacific Ocean.

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.

The waterfall.

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.

* 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.

10 thoughts on “Life by the Water in Baja Sur

  1. You’ve got some beautiful photos here – the beaches, the whales, the turtles…. all eye-popping. Baja certainly has plenty of variety when it comes to natural wonders! Glad you all are having so much fun. Stay well!

  2. This is a great collection of photos and experiences, Duwan. The perfect theme! Thanks for mentioning our blog – and for not posting any photos of me sliding down that little waterfall, legs in the air. 🙂

    We hope you are finishing up your Baja time with a bang! I’ll send you a message soon. Very limited internet right now…

    1. Thanks Liesbet. It was a theme I loved. I’d love to come back with a 4WD sometime and really beach hop!

      We cross the border today. We are in Puerto Penasco – so we are ready to go somewhere else.

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