MÉXICO
Baja California
“Where the desert meets the sea”...a phrase you imagine reading in an ancient storybook. The idea is counterintuitive and yet it does exist in certain climates around the world.
The Baja California Peninsula is a narrow strip of land in Northwestern Mexico that extends over a thousand kilometers and separates The Pacific Ocean from The Gulf of California. It includes almost three thousand kilometers of coastline from Tijuana in the north to Cabo San Lucas in the south. It's no quick drive, but if you're up for a road trip.....this one is spectacular! You pass an extremely active ocean on one side with epic waves filled with life and golden desert hills on the other. Roughly sixty-five islands surround the Baja region.
Tajmi touched down at the Southernmost tip in the city of San Jose del Cabo. From here, my slipshod "plan" was to drive North and feel the warm air flowing through the windows. Solo journeys are always fun!
I rented the cheapest car available online. I'll admit this is a bad habit. It often puts me in strange situations. After a few phone calls in broken Spanish, a lift in a beat-up van, and a contract signed in a run-down hotel room slash office, I was set. They gave me the keys to an old Duster SUV, a viable vehicle for any potential dirt roads I would surely come across. With zero pesos in hand, it was time to hit the road!
Well, sort of… About twenty minutes in, there was a toll station, which, of course, only accepted cash. A large pile-up of cars started growing in the line behind me. To my embarrassment, the toll officer was forced to orchestrate each one reversing far enough to give me room to pull a u-turn. I drove all the way back into the city to locate an ATM. After my Mexican scavenger hunt, I was back at the toll station. I kindly nodded to the officer, who clearly remembered me. I laughed as I drove off. These are the best moments when traveling, when no plan becomes a fun memory.
Ready to roll, for real this time, I drove North along the coast, admiring the giant cacti to my right and waves crashing to my left. The music was blasting, the windows were down, and I could smell the saltwater.
This was the feeling of total freedom, not knowing what you will discover or who you might encounter along the way.
It was only a one hour drive to Cerritos Beach, a very low key strip of beachfront hotels and hostels, sitting quietly under the shadow of the giant historical hilltop hotel known as Hacienda Cerritos.
This beach has some of the best surf on the coastline, and whether you’re staying here or not, many seem to stop in for a successful day out on the surf. The waves were a little big for my liking, so I opted to watch while I sipped on a passionfruit Margarita and snacked on a ‘tostada de pescado’.
It was time to keep going and locate my room for the night in El Pescadero, the next town up. With a number of unmarked dirt roads, it was challenging to find the house with a lack of google maps (honestly, what did we do before the internet?!). Thankfully the owner was able to drive out to the main road to find me, guiding me back to her beautiful little property she called El Chapil, a family run mini- hotel. It was very dark when I arrived, so it wasn’t until the next morning I noticed the amazing garden next to the house. The owner Daphne is a chef and a mother, running a small farm on her property. As I walked out of the house, she handed me fresh green guava that had just been harvested out back. The smell was out of this world! It was like the scent of sweet candy, with a hint of sour filling your nose at the same time. I explored the garden and for the first time discovered what a banana flower looked like; a giant tear shaped pod with hues of deep red, purple and yellow. The air filled with the smell of citrus blossoms, and suddenly I felt a sense of peace here. This place was like her own little sliver of the planet, her own ecosystem where she provided nourishing food to her family and her guests. I could tell Daphne took pride in the world she created.
I later learned that it's somewhat common in El Pescadero to manage your own land and grow your own food.
I was amazed at how many hidden farm to table restaurants were scattered along the little dirt roads. Tucked away behind a thick jungle you could stumble into a storybook scene, with lights strung all along the trees, elegant table settings, and waiters wearing linen bringing you a handwritten menu of the day. Each ingredient was either grown in the garden next to your table, or sourced locally earlier that day. It was impressive and unexpected, and made for spectacular evenings with new friends.
I knew only one familiar face in this region, and her name was Patricia. A fabulous painter and a true artist on so many levels, she was there to greet me with a smile and to show me the lay of the land. For the next week, the words, “rock balancing,” “meeting my Shaman on a hill at 6:00am,” and, “sleeping in the desert alone with no windows or doors,” were part of the conversation. Patricia walked up wearing a large scarf wrapped around her head, dressed in the colours of the desert. For days we explored different areas of the region, heading a bit further North to the town of Todos Santos, and stopping at the stunning Hotel San Cristobal to gawk at the interior design. Between staring at the stars and picking up treasure on the beach, Patricia guided me to the best coffee beans, local cuisine, and places to buy the perfect caftan (designed by herself, of course!). I began to learn what this region offers under the surface, and the richness of creativity.
Baja Craftsmanship:
Because Mexico is a large and diverse country, each region offers a number of different crafts native to their area. Within the Baja, you find a few different materials which are often integrated into the work of the artisans.
Abalone is used for the meat (to eat) and for the shells in a variety of products that include jewelry, chess boards, decorative figures and home decor items like frames or mirrors. If you’re not familiar with these shells, they give off an iridescent appearance like a multicolour pearl, and always with unique lines.
Leather work is common in Baja California Sur, meaning the south. High quality leather goods produced for horseback riding, include saddles, holsters, chaps, carrying bags and belts.
You also find woodworking here. Choya is the most common wood utilized for furniture design. This wood has a very interesting appearance, almost as thought it has holes, but they are in actually the interior skeleton of a specific species of cacti.
Palm leaves create Torote Fiber, used for basket weaving. These special baskets are assembled by tightly weaving the fibre while wet. When the fibers become wet once again after completion, they expand, creating a beautiful waterproof basket!
After spending two weeks here, I understood the depth of creativity this region offers lies below the surface.
Hidden within organic markets, ex-pat communities, new property developments, local farms, and a large array of arts & crafts, I discovered a real sense of community. Although small, it worked symbiotically, creating a little ecosystem of its own, not entirely different from the alliance found between the desert and the sea. This was a quiet little world in the Baja, away from all the hustle and bustle of Cabo San Lucas. I began to understand the charm, and how easily it could lure you in. I pictured staying here, already planning out a new imaginary life in my head. I wanted to stay and journey the rest of the peninsula in the old Duster, day dreaming of making my way all the way up to Tijuana. But, alas! it will have to wait for another Tajmi adventure. I came with a purpose, and after driving up and down Highway 19 one too many times searching for goods, it was now time to depart Mexico.
