March is for Baja!

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pyrotyro

pyrotyro

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coloRADo
Finally getting to do something I have been dreaming about since the first time I saw Dust to Glory... We are going to BAJA!

We have been very lucky to buy ourselves a window of about a month that we can spend down south of the border with the goal to chill on remote beaches and find delicious tacos. Despite reading every trip report ever written and watching every youtube video out there, I don't want to make my usual mistake of getting over zealous and planning too much to do. So my tactic is to find cool spots/ activities, mark them, and store that info to make decisions on the fly.

Dates are not set in stone (we have events before and after the trip) but looking like 3/8/18 (ish) through 4/4/18 (ish)

Like I said, no set route at this point, just the usual spots. Heres a rough map of what heading down might look like, and then who knows on the way back up.

baja map screenshot.png

So! Looking for any tips/ thoughts/ suggestions as well as putting out feelers if anybody would like to join us for some or all of this trip.

Who are we? We are a engaged powercouple with two dogs, a JK on 37s, an rtt trailer (in construction) and a strong sense of adventure.

cjxKdn0DQnmDyR9wGOfYAg_thumb_68d.jpg
 
Saints&Sailors

Saints&Sailors

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I'm jealous of your adventure and curious about the details - I've heard conflicting reports about safety, prep, etc. Hopefully you can enlighten the group so others can follow in your path.

One day I hope to make the trip too!
 
Jroettele

Jroettele

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Overall, Baja Mexico was a lot easier then I thought it would be. Let me see if I can break everything down.

What you need to have to travel in mexico.
  1. Valid passport
  2. Driver licenses
  3. Mexican Auto insurance.
  4. Auto registration.
  5. Mexico travel visa.
I recommend entering mexico at Mexcali. It was really easy. The guy at the border will ask if you need a visa. The immigration office is on the north side of the street. You can exchange money on the south side of the street. Speaking of money. Here is what our experience was. I carried Pasos, Dollars and a Visa credit card. I found that most hole in the wall restaurants take pasos, and sometime dollars. Most, but not all gas stations take credit cards. But we did find some that only took pesos. (for instance the Pemex at Bahia de LA).

Some of the distances can get vast between gas stations. Especially past Bay of LA. I brought a extra 10 gallons in jerry cans and rotopax. I didn't need that much. But I would deferentially take a extra 5 gals next time. This is because we would burn a entire tank in between gas stops. So there was not much factor of safety.

As far as safety, I felt totally safe. Be aware of your surroundings. We did feel safer on the Sea of Cortez side then the pacific. Don't bring any guns, unless you want to go to Mexican jail. I did bring my machete for a little additional security. Never had any issues with the police. Went thru multiple Military check points. They ask where you are from and where you are going. Once they did ask me to open the back. But wasn't a big deal. I found that if I roll down my windows the whole process went faster (my windows are tented).

The roads are a mixture of really nice new paved highway and really old axle bending pot holes. You can add at least 1-1.5 hours to anything google maps says. The 5 south is mostly nice until you get to the dirt portion around coco corner. Plan a extra hour for that portion. The 1 is overall good, but there about 100 miles of pot holes. There is a lot of camping. We only had to pay for camping a few time. I would recommend Playa a la Gringa in Bay of LA. It was free. Really beautiful spot. There is no free camping north of Ensenada that we could find. I recommend punta cobra. It's about 45 mins to the south.

Bring plenty of water. Don't count on your cell phone for data. I lost data once I left mexicali. I only had voice service in the major towns like San Felipe. We would be interested in joining for a portion of this trip. I didn't get a chance to camp at punta cobra. I think that about sums it up. I deferentially want to go back. Any questions please feel free to message me. I'll also post some pictures.
 
pyrotyro

pyrotyro

Rank III

Advocate II

588
coloRADo
Jroettele said:
Overall, Baja Mexico was a lot easier then I thought it would be. Let me see if I can break everything down.

What you need to have to travel in mexico.
  1. Valid passport
  2. Driver licenses
  3. Mexican Auto insurance.
  4. Auto registration.
  5. Mexico travel visa.
I recommend entering mexico at Mexcali. It was really easy. The guy at the border will ask if you need a visa. The immigration office is on the north side of the street. You can exchange money on the south side of the street. Speaking of money. Here is what our experience was. I carried Pasos, Dollars and a Visa credit card. I found that most hole in the wall restaurants take pasos, and sometime dollars. Most, but not all gas stations take credit cards. But we did find some that only took pesos. (for instance the Pemex at Bahia de LA).

Some of the distances can get vast between gas stations. Especially past Bay of LA. I brought a extra 10 gallons in jerry cans and rotopax. I didn't need that much. But I would deferentially take a extra 5 gals next time. This is because we would burn a entire tank in between gas stops. So there was not much factor of safety.

As far as safety, I felt totally safe. Be aware of your surroundings. We did feel safer on the Sea of Cortez side then the pacific. Don't bring any guns, unless you want to go to Mexican jail. I did bring my machete for a little additional security. Never had any issues with the police. Went thru multiple Military check points. They ask where you are from and where you are going. Once they did ask me to open the back. But wasn't a big deal. I found that if I roll down my windows the whole process went faster (my windows are tented).

The roads are a mixture of really nice new paved highway and really old axle bending pot holes. You can add at least 1-1.5 hours to anything google maps says. The 5 south is mostly nice until you get to the dirt portion around coco corner. Plan a extra hour for that portion. The 1 is overall good, but there about 100 miles of pot holes. There is a lot of camping. We only had to pay for camping a few time. I would recommend Playa a la Gringa in Bay of LA. It was free. Really beautiful spot. There is no free camping north of Ensenada that we could find. I recommend punta cobra. It's about 45 mins to the south.

Bring plenty of water. Don't count on your cell phone for data. I lost data once I left mexicali. I only had voice service in the major towns like San Felipe. We would be interested in joining for a portion of this trip. I didn't get a chance to camp at punta cobra. I think that about sums it up. I deferentially want to go back. Any questions please feel free to message me. I'll also post some pictures.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for sharing, and awesome photos! Seems pretty straight forward, thanks for the list of documents it seems pretty simple but Im sure its harder in person. Sounds like going Mexicali to Ensenada would be quicker then through Tecate. Then camping south at Punta Cabra for the night before heading towards San Felipe then down towards BoLA... Who knows what we will find between the two! So are you saying you're interested in heading down again in March??

Saints&Sailors said:
I'm jealous of your adventure and curious about the details - I've heard conflicting reports about safety, prep, etc. Hopefully you can enlighten the group so others can follow in your path.

One day I hope to make the trip too!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the support! I have also been getting conflicting info about safety, so I figure its somewhere in the middle. I think the biggest part is cruising through the border areas and then not looking for trouble. We shall see!
 
Jroettele

Jroettele

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Anaheim, CA
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If my scheduled is free, then yes. I will only be able to join for a 3 day weekend. Let me know what dates you guys were thinking.
 
pyrotyro

pyrotyro

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coloRADo
Jroettele said:
If my scheduled is free, then yes. I will only be able to join for a 3 day weekend. Let me know what dates you guys were thinking.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. We have an event in Sedona the first weekend of March, so we should be in Mexico before the second weekend (10/11). It sounds like the first part of our trip is a lot like your last trip. What would you want to do/see if you were to come in March? Further south thgen BoLA? Sounds like a lot of driving from the border...
 
D

DezertRat

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Enthusiast III

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Yuma AZ
https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/two-weeks-az-cabo-az.10857/#post-169650

Heres my trip! Lots of fun

Theres not much to see if you go from ensenada to san felipe IMO...unless you want to go Mikes Sky Ranch or go up to the forest just north of Ojos Negros....another cool option i thought about was to go from mexicali to la rumorosa and from there cross the mountains to ojos negros and from there to ensenada! Its really beautiful up there...lots of ranches and Laguna Hanson might have water
image.jpg
 
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cody_hop

cody_hop

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Traveler I

98
Bristol
You'll love it! Baja is pretty safe compared to mainland Mexico. I'm on a race team and have been going down there since 2012 and have never had a problem. If you go thru Mexicali it's a straight shot to San Felipe and there's tons of trails there. My favorite place is probably loreto. There's a few missions not far from there you can visit. I'm sure you can find some old race files on score internationals website to find some good tracks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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montyPR

montyPR

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Super stoked for you guys, I'm planning on going July....started planning....first trip, super excited as well. I'll keep following your thread for tips. Be safe and safe travels!
 
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