The last stretch of desert highway before La Paz was the hardest. Gone were the curves that whipped us around low mountains, the deep oranges set off against hues of greens and beige, the glimpses and then jaw-dropping vistas of the coast. Before us lay four hours of straight highway across a mostly flat desert. Sure, there were some hills. Every once in awhile an interesting cactus might pop-out of the shrubby scenery, a swirling mini-dust twister or two would appear in the distance, but mostly it was just me, Ana, and Princess fighting to stay awake to make it to La Paz.
And given what we were seeing, I was feeling skeptical about La Paz.
How could flat-lining desert and a city of over 250,000 people plus tourists equal, much less top, what we’d already seen? Maybe, this was all just another metaphor? Another rule of the road to teach us that it’s not about reaching “la paz,” it’s about the things you learn on the journey there?
And maybe that’s a good lesson. Or maybe it’s complete B.S. Either way, it’s not something I learned in La Paz.
The desert heat and monotonous road must have been clouding my thinking, because La Paz was beautiful. And it was just as easy to leave civilization behind in La Paz as it was anywhere else in Baja Sur.
So, without further ado.
***
La Paz
We spent a week La Paz. While we did something different every day, the easy rhythm we’d established by the time we reached it caused the days to fade and fold into each other in my mind.
La Paz for me was beach to boat to surfboard to beach and then back again, differentiated mostly by moments that were meant to be mundane.
- The daily 20-minute + battle to back the Jeep out of the tiny driveway without hitting another car or the giant poorly-placed-in-hindsight planter.
- The three bad eggs—as in black eggs—that Ana cracked when making breakfast which promted another round of “que ascos” and a flurry of disinfectant (this time in the kitchen).
- The time I actually walked into the famed Oxo (spoiler alert, it’s just a convenient store, don’t get too excited).
- The day Princess got washed (for the second time) while parked in the dirt parking lot near Cerritos Beach without our consent. And the moment we realized we didn’t have any money to pay for the wash, so we sped off, dust flying around us, coating Princess’s newly washed exterior.
And save for two out of three of our ill-fated trips to Playa Balandra, the days were easy, the sun and the water were inviting, and La Paz proved to be exactly the haven of tranquility you’d expect from a place called peace.
** The City Center, Malecón
We didn’t spend much time in the actual city of La Paz, an afternoon/evening at most, but even that glimpse felt like uncovering a gem. On the walk from our AirBnB to the malecón (beach promenade/boardwalk) we passed walls covered in vibrant street art, artists studios, galleries, and cute clothing shops.
There were open air jewelry markets, tree-lined streets, chic bars and coffee shops. The malecón was gorgeous—running paths, beach access, and the deep blue waters of the Bahía de La Paz.
We stopped in stores, got a drink, walked the beach, visited the Oxo, and watched the sunset.
It might have only been an evening, but it was enough. I was already loving La Paz.
Playa Balandra and Playa Tecolote
** Balandra by Jeep, Round 1
Our ill-fated love affair with Playa Balandra started on our first full day in La Paz.
Playa Balandra has been dubbed one of the most beautiful beaches, if not THE most beautiful beach in Mexico. It’s also the setting of almost every post-card for La Paz. From Playa Balandra you can lay on white sand beaches next to turquoise waters; hike up a small hill and get an aerial view of the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) and its many shades of blue; or get up close and personal with “El Hongo,” a rock formation at Balandra that looks like a mushroom and, you guessed it, is on all the La Paz postcards (Note: You have a link and not a picture here because there were so many people around El Hongo that I wouldn’t have even been able to edit them out . . . but keep reading, because we’ll get to that).
So, naturally, we decided to visit Balandra first.
Because Balandra is so famous, it’s also heavily visited. We were out the door and at Balandra by 8:43 a.m. I know, because I looked directly at the clock as we pulled in, and I asked myself if any beach without waves really warranted such an early start.
Regardless of what Balandra warranted, it required and even earlier start. At 8:43 a.m. we were too late. The 200 people allowed on the beach in the morning were already there. We had the option of returning for the 2:00 p.m. timeslot or coming another day.
Other than talking about maybe returning at 2:00 p.m., we didn’t have a plan or a cell signal to come up with one. So, we took a left as we exited Balandra, heading in the direction of what we thought might be another beach. We guessed right and found ourselves at Playa Tecolote.
** Playa Tecolote
More populated than Balandra, Playa Tecolote has restaurants near the beach entrance, places to rent kayaks, bathrooms. But if you keep driving past the entrance, along the beach, and towards a curve of the water off in the distance, then you’ll eventually find yourself here:
And you’ll mostly find yourself alone.
We parked Princess, set up the canopy, and rolled out the yoga mats (for beach lounging, not beach yoga).
Except for a mid-morning scramble to pull the canopy away from the rising tide, some haggling over the purchase of a beach blanket, and the occasional walk, we spent the rest of the day somewhere between awake and asleep on Tecolote.
All thoughts of a 2:00 p.m. return to Balandra well behind us.
** Balandra by Jeep, Round 2
While all thoughts of returning to Balandra at 2:00 p.m. were behind us, Balandra itself was still on our “must see” list. We decided to attempt it again our last day.
As it turned out, we actually did see it the next day when we took a tour to Isla Espiritu Santo (stories and pictures below), but that entrance to Balandra was from the water. And since we entered from the water, we stayed in the water.
We wanted to see Balandra from the beach though. We wanted to hike up the hill. We wanted those sweeping views.
So, we were going back. And to make sure we saw it, we were going back at 6:30 a.m. our last day.
Amazingly, we were not first in line for Balandra, but we did make it onto the beach this time. As with our first trip, I wondered if any beach warranted such an early start. Perhaps, on a different day Playa Balandra would have. But on that day, it didn’t. It was overcast. The beach felt crowded. I was cold. And there were bees.
Oh my god, there were bees everywhere. From 7:00 a.m. when we entered until 1:00 p.m. when we left it felt like one giant bee swatting, dodging, cringing, shimmying-out-of-the-way beach session.
To top it off, we had to do all of that swatting while we were tired and cranky. Not only had we been up since 5 a.m., but we’d sacrificed our morning coffee to get there.
Rule of the Road #9: Never sacrifice your morning coffee for the beach.
To make matters worse, we didn’t even hike up the hill. I mean, just look at the water and the sky . . .
An hour before our beach time was up no words were even needed. We started packing. We were done with the bees. We were done with the beach. We needed some coffee.
Bye, bye Balandra.
To be fair, I’m 100% sure Balandra can be beautiful. The day we saw it from the water on our boat tour of Espiritu Santo, the water was the typical Baja Sur turquoise as you can see in the picture Ana and I took from the boat.
But it was still exceptionally crowded.
We avoided the crowds by laying out on the front of the boat, occasionally jumping overboard to cool off. But given how easy it is to find a pristine, empty beach in Baja Sur, it felt like Balandra was overblown, or more likely, that the very dubbing of Balandra as “the most beautiful beach” had caused it to overflow with visitors, losing a bit of its pristine charm.
Either way, for me, Balandra is not the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen in Mexico. I’ll take Playa Armenta or Isla Coronado and the islands off of Loreto anyday.
Isla Espiritu Santo
When you read about La Paz, anything about La Paz, you read about Isla Espiritu Santo, an island (an archipelago, really) in the Gulf of California. The waters around Espiritu Santo are home to whales, sea lions, dolphins, sea turtles, and fish of every shape, size, and color. It is a mecca for diving and snorkeling. It’s home to pristine beaches, protected coves, and, as we learned on our tour, ancient burial grounds.
It’s another “must see,” and we booked a boat tour to see it for the second day in La Paz.
For those of you who enjoyed hearing about the lead-up to our boat tour in Loreto, I’m sorry to disappoint you. This was not that. It was efficient, professional, and we were on our boat headed out into the gulf in no time for beautiful views, translucent waters, and the scary scream rock pictured below.
We snorkeled.
We headed into the water after eating ceviche on the beach.
We jumped into the water by the aforementioned ancient burial ground.
And we learned a few facts along the way.
My two favorites (aside from the spotting of the scream rock):
- The goats on Espiritu Santo drink sea water. Yes, sea water. Talk about survival of the fittest.
- There are at least 38 species of plants and animals that are endemic to Espiritu Santo (that number might be off, but the point is, it has a lot of unique species, maybe even more unique than a saltwater chugging goat).
And most importantly, we swam with sea lions. More accurately, around sea lions or near sea lions. There were sea lions very close to us while we were in the water.
It was mostly a cool experience, but it also kind of stunk. Literally, not the best smelling snorkel I’ve ever taken. Sometimes when I surfaced, I didn’t want to breath.
Notwithstanding, I’d do it again.
Cerritos Beach & Todos Santos
** Cerritos Beach
The only thing I knew I wanted to do in Baja when we started planning the trip was surf. From the beginning, as Ana mapped out the route, I would look at it and compare it to blogs about Baja surfing. Where could I surf? Which part of the route had waves that I could ride? Where were the waves consistent enough that they would be there in August?
That turned out to be La Paz. Or, more accurately, Cerritos Beach which sits about an hour from La Paz on the Pacific Ocean side of Baja Sur. If Cerritos wasn’t working, we could travel a little further south to the Cabos. My fingers were crossed for Cerritos though, and luck was on my side.
So, day 3 we were up early, driving through a series of dirt and sand roads, making our way there.
After almost two weeks of staring at tranquil, flat bays seeing an ocean with breaking waves was almost a shock. Stepping into the Pacific and its chilly waters was absolutely a shock. But it was a welcome one.
Because I am still a fairly beginner surfer, I opted to hire a guide for the day. I wanted someone who knew the break and the waves to help me identify them. I also wanted someone to keep me from looking like a total kook in the line-up.
Even better than helping me spot waves, I also got a gorgeous board for the day, beach chairs, and burritos for lunch. Ana spent the day lounging in a beach chair. I spent it somewhere between catching my breath in the water, catching my breath on the beach, repplying massive amounts of sunscreen, and eating a whole lot of burritos.
It looked something like this.
Though in my mind, I looked more like this (sans sunscreen and matted hair).
Much like the first set of photos, it was not a perfect surf session.
There were nose dives and wipeouts.
There were a few moments of getting caught between sets before I could get to the channel and get in the clear. I spent a lot of the day turtle rolling—under rather than on top of the board.
But there were other moments too.
The moments when my strokes aligned just right with the speed of the wave. The ones where I felt the board lift and pushed myself up, feet landing firmly on top. The moments I made the drop and surfed toward the beach or down the line.
Those moments felt like exactly the type of alignment that I’d been looking for when I decided to get on the road in the first place. And it was those moments that made Cerritos my favorite day in Baja.
** Todos Santos
Cerritos Beach wasn’t the only draw to the Pacific side of Baja Sur. About 20 minutes from the beach sits Todos Santos, an artsy little town complete with cobblestone, open air markets, and The Hotel California. (In honor of which, Ana and listened to the Eagles on the drive).
We’d talked about going there before we’d left La Paz, but post-surf sesh had a bit of a debate. It was close to sunset and, and an unwritten rule of the road is don’t drive after dark. We settled on a short visit, which is all we needed. Most of Todos Santos is dirt roads and small houses. It’s only the town center that is developed. Once we got there, we walked down the streets, window-shopped/table-shopped at the markets, checked out the art.
After a debate about the safety of getting into what was either a long line or a mob of men outside of an ATM, I decided to risk it. We’d be back on the road to rural areas of Baja Sur in just a day, and we needed to replenish the money that was stolen in Loreto. (And, to be clear, I was not going to the ATM in Loreto ever again). It turned out to be fine. The group was half-line/half-mob and mostly just a bunch of men with nothing better to do than to talk outside the ATM.
Gas money back in our pockets, we headed out of Todos Santos and back towards La Paz against the backdrop of an orange sky.
A perfect ending to a perfect day—wipeouts, nose dives, and bad sunscreen pics included.
And a solid week in and around La Paz. In fact, I wouldn’t have had it any other way, except for maybe the bees at Balandra, those, perhaps I could have done without.