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The Baja Experience –
Central Baja!
The small town of
San Quintin is rich with fishing opportunities.
For those traveling by motorhome, RV or VW micro-bus, this is the ultimate
adventure.
Baja is tailor-made to be explored. It has hundreds of miles of coastline,
many of which are small patches of sand lined with small huts that beg
for overnights campers, some of whom stay for weeks. Don't be in a hurry
and put away the watch.
This section is the heart of our Baja Experience. It gets out of the
tourist towns and inches south from Ensenada to the tip of the peninsula,
and back up again. This Central Baja area covers the area from Ensenada
to Bahia de Los Angeles. We then shift gears (pages, actually)
to continue through Lower Baja.
Highway 1 curves back and forth from the coast to the inland areas
and initially, the scenery here is largely agricultural. Travelers often
get stuck behind large, slow-moving trucks and progress can seem slow.
Still, it's a couple of easy hours from Santo Tomas is San Quintin,
(pronounced "San Can-teen"). It's a small community, with
rich fishing grounds in the Pacific. Fresh oysters and clams are sold
on the side of the road in what resembles a a fruit stand in the States
(or Stucky's in the South).
Mmmm; calamari for
dinner tonight!
On the north side of the town, on the east side of the road, is Mission
Santa Isabel, a very clean restaurant with authentic Mexican food.
Locals and truckers eat here often, which is also a reassuring sign.
Some of the locals here are blonde-haired and blue-eyed, something of
a shock in the middle of Mexico. This is because the area was inhabited
by Germans in the early 20th Century.
A good overnight stop is The Old Mill. Located on a large bay,
it's run by the helpful Brenda Hayes, has has a restaurant/bar with
satellite TV and RV hookups. Brenda can arrange fishing charters, which
go out of Bahia de San Quintin.
The next landmark is El Rosario. Highway 1 makes a sharp left
into the "warm country," marking a slow crossing into the
high desert central Baja. If you didn't fill up with gas in San Quintin,
do so here. Summers can be extremely hot, so have plenty of water on
hand.
It's 124 km to the next best pull-over stop, Catavina. Along
the way, giant cacti grow up to 40-feet tall. Those who did not heed
our earlier gas warnings can get it here from locals who sell it out
of the back of their pickups at an abandoned station. It's about 15
pesos a liter. If it's getting dark, Hotel La Pinta, a Baja motel
chain with clean, moderately-priced rooms, is available.
It's another 100km to the turnoff at the Bahia de Los Angeles
junction. There's an option to continue down Highway 1 toward lower
Baja or go the 66km to Bahia de Los Angeles. The latter sits on the
eastern Baja coast.
The water is officially called the Gulf of California but is also known
as the Gulf of Mexico or Sea of Cortez. Its a definite side trip for
fisherman; yellowtail and other hard-fighting game fish can be found
almost all year long. Beachfront accommodations are available for around
200 pesos. The road to here, although paved, is full of potholes, has
no services and must be driven slowly (around 50 kph).There are small
grocery stores in town.
 Next
stop on the Party Bus: Lower Baja
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