Mexico: First Impressions

After all of that prep work, it was time to enter Mexico and we were feeling all of the things… nervous, excited, a little sad, etc. I’ve mentioned before how I get a little down after leaving my family and this time was no exception.  After a full two weeks of quality time, we said our goodbyes, got a little teary eyed, and vowed to see each other at some point on our journey- what better time for them to take a trip to Central America than the time Zach and I are driving through!? We quickly diverted our attention away from the sadness of leaving the comforts of “home” by indulging in one last American meal… McDonalds breakfast :) Is there anything better? OK fine, there definitely is, but I LOVE me an Egg McMuffin. 

As we drove toward the border, we ran through our list of everything we needed to cross into Mexico one last time and planned our final stops for fuel (it is cheaper in AZ than MX or CA) and any last minute American food to bring across the border.  There are very specific rules for what you can and cannot cross the border with, but some food like Quaker brand oats are more expensive in MX so it’s a good idea to stock up on dry goods in The States. Plus, Cheez-Itz aren’t available anywhere else, so naturally I brought a Costco size box with us :) Mostly, limitations concern certain produce and seeds so we made sure to exclude them from our shopping list.  In addition, we thought way too hard about where to hide all of Miles’ CBD goodies that we give him for anxiety and for his joints, but eventually just stashed them under a bench seat. We weren’t really sure what was allowed in regards to CBD and border crossings because there isn’t much information online, so worst case- if we got searched, we thought we’d just play dumb.  If you couldn’t tell by my previous post or the previous sentences, we are planners; we are rule followers. But as we crossed the border from Calimex, CA, USA, to Mexicali, BCS, MX (whoever named these cities is so clever) nobody seemed to give a s***. Which is just depressing. All that planning and no one cared!…. whatever. 

Let me back up. We chose to cross through Calimex/Mexicali for a few reasons; 1) It was the most appropriate route for where we were heading for our first night; 2) It is never really busy; 3) Because it is never busy, they are pretty relaxed compared to other crossing points- like Tijuana. As we entered the crossing, there was no wait, several lanes stating “nothing to declare”, and a parking area for “self declaration”.  We parked in the area for “self declaration” for several reasons. Because we have a dog with us, we read we needed to self declare to show his Health Certificate.  We also knew that we needed to go inside the offices to purchase a Temporary Import Permit as well as Tourist Cards.  Tourist Cards are not needed if in the country for 7 days or less, but for us, we are going to be in the country for a couple months at least. Also, if you don’t get your passport stamped, you can run into issues when exiting Mexico through Belize or Guatemala, so purchasing Tourist Cards ensured we had our paperwork in order.  In addition, you don’t need a Temporary Import Permit if only driving in Baja, but do if you are crossing over to mainland Mexico.  SO, we went inside, purchased our TIP and Tourist Cards, but no one seemed to know what to do with Miles. They instructed us to just continue through the border lanes and we would get further direction. Except for the fact that we didn’t get further direction. No one stopped us. No one was checking passports, paperwork, searching vehicles. Nothing. We just sort of got waved through, so I’m glad we went inside and proactively got all of our paperwork sorted out! It will help us down the road when we are crossing the Sea of Cortez or exiting Mexico.

Once we were in, it was time to find our first night’s camp.  We had already scoped out a few places just North of San Felipe and settled on one- Pete’s Camp.  San Felipe and the surrounding areas are pretty Americanized. It is a short drive from the states and most everyone speaks English.  They had beach front camping, palapas (little shady huts), bathrooms, and an on site restaurant and bar. At $18 a night it didn’t seem terribly expensive, but ohhhh how naive we were.  We ended up staying there for 2 nights for a total of $36 (while the rest of the month we only ended up spending an additional $31 total for comparison).  But we felt safe and it allowed us to get our bearings. 

Our set up at Pete's Camp

Sunset Selfie

Miles is a beach dog now.

Speaking of safe, Mexico has been under fire for many years for its violence in relation to drug cartels. It seems as if all people hear in mainstream American media are horrifying news reports riddled with violence or about how the southern borders are out of control with people trying to cross illegally. I’ve been to Mexico a few times now. Mostly to resort towns, but once to an extremely poor village where I interacted with the locals while building houses for the community, ran around with my friends at just 15 (unsupervised), and practiced Spanish with some neighborhood kids. I’ve worked with Mexicans, I’ve travelled to poor countries around the world, and, while I'm far from an expert, in my experience nothing is ever what it is portrayed to be in the media.  As we were preparing to embark on this journey, we were inspired to travel to Mexico and continue south by other overlanders sharing their experiences who are making the same journey- down the Pan-American highway.  We were quickly finding that this route is extremely common! People have been traveling in their overloading rigs for decades.  There are countless online communities created for the sole purpose of sharing information about where and where not to go, travel tips, vehicle sales, just sharing each other’s experiences in general, etc. There is so much good to be experienced. But there are also things to watch out for.  We prepared for this trip for years, so we made it a point to seek out advice from other travelers- good and bad: you will get scammed so know what to watch out for, don’t drive at night because road conditions can be poor, follow your intuition just as you would at home- if an area feels sketchy and your gut is telling you to leave then leave, crimes are generally petty and non-violent so protect yourself and your belongings by not being flashy with electronics or jewelry, and most importantly- stay curious and open minded. In addition, there are official sites that help determine what areas are safe to travel and are updated in real time. There is SO much good to be experienced and that is what tempted us to head south in the first place.

Even though we felt extremely prepared, some people around us weren’t so sure. I’d say the #1 question people asked us before we entered Mexico was: are you bringing a gun? People were very concerned for our safety and even though these types of questions were stemming from genuinely loving places, it was always a little disheartening and even made us a little nervous. Were we crazy for doing this? Or was the media just getting in to people’s heads?  As far as I’m concerned, I’m in less danger of going into a Walmart in Mexico than I am in America. I would never go into a dangerous area of Phoenix or San Francisco or Oakland by myself or even at night, so I certainly wouldn’t start doing that as I travelled South. In my personal experiences during the last 5 months, I felt more danger in certain areas of Vancouver, Canada, and rural North Carolina, USA, than I have at any single moment in Mexico. That’s not to say that there aren’t dangerous places in Mexico, but that there are dangerous places everywhere.  As we navigate this journey through Latin America, we are doing a lot of up front research, making it a point to meet people on the road so that we have contacts of people on similar journeys, and sticking to places that feel SAFE. 

Ok, now enough with all the seriousness that was the last couple paragraphs and back to the beauty of Baja!

After we spent way too much money at Pete’s Camp, we continued South. There are two main highways that connect Northern Baja to Southern Baja, the 1 and the 5. The 1 follows the Western Coast and the 5 the Eastern Coast.  We went down the 5 which eventually connects with 1 and continues through Southern Baja, zig zagging its way from coast to coast.  Except that the 5 isn’t TOTALLY finished.  It is still very much under construction which means that all of the sudden we would be directed to get off the road and through rocks and dirt to circle around the stretches being worked on.  Usually there are no signs, and sometimes giant sections of the road are completely removed with a 4 foot drop to the ground beneath it. If you weren’t careful and didn’t see it, it would be like you were driving off a cliff- hence why you don’t drive at night in MX :) 

We found a stopping point to break up the treacherous drive to Southern Baja since a lot of it was off road or under construction. Coco’s Corner is a legendary place that is really the only sign of life during a 300+km stretch of highway heading south. Coco is 82 years old and has been on his 6 acres in the middle of the desert where it is quiet and beautiful and peaceful for the last 30 years after retiring from a career in construction. He has made his living since then selling beers, water, and coca-cola to passing travelers. He has a large lot for parking vehicles of any size, and allows anyone to park overnight/camp on his property for no charge, just as long as you buy a beverage and sign his guest book.  He even has about 4 RVs on site for people to sleep in if they need a bed- no charge.  Over the last 30 years he has hosted an estimated 500,000 travelers and has 11 guest books where people have written their stories of their journeys, where they’re from, or just a simple hello.  He keeps track of his favorites and is eager to talk to everyone that comes through.  He’s even been instrumental in helping people who have broken down, blown out a tire, or needed medical attention. In those situations, he’s even let folks take his truck to seek help, so long as they bring it back with a full gas tank. People have come through on unicycles, tandem bicycles, motorcycles, RV’s, vans, hitchhiked, many on trips down the Pan-American highway- just like us; and others on journeys around the world. We bought a couple beers for $25MXN each (a total of $2.50USD- our camping fee for the night. Quite a difference from the $18 we had just paid!) and chatted with Coco for hours.  We were the only ones there that night, but as we looked through his guest books it seems he used to get 10-20 people a day.  As of now, the highway 5 that is under construction is being re-routed, and this means that the only road connecting Northern to Southern Baja no longer goes by Coco’s place- we had to drive 6km off-road to get there and it seems as if the distance and road condition are discouraging people to visit Coco’s Corner. Coco lives alone with his kitty, gets around in a wheelchair because he lost both of his legs just beneath the knee, and gets by mainly on PB&J sandwiches on Bimbo white bread and Cup-o-Noodles. He was even eager to offer us some soup for dinner.  It’s meeting people like Coco that make this type of travel so much richer for us. Coco says, “take it easy,” when referring to driving on rough roads in Baja, and since leaving his place we quote him every time we go off road. I think that’s his motto in life, to “take it easy,” and it shined through every interaction with him.

Coco, the legend himself.

Coco's Ranch from above

His sign from the main highway. 6km's off-road and you're there :)

Hanging out in Coco's house

Taking it all in.

On our 4th night we found our first *free* camp.  Prior to entering Mexico, with the concern from our family and friends, we vowed to pay for camp sites for the added security and safety they provide until we felt fully comfortable to find something on our own.  After all, wild camping is how we prefer it.  1) It’s free; 2) It’s usually less crowded; and 3) You can usually find more remote, untouched places.  By that 4th night, we had gotten the hang of grocery shopping, getting out Pesos from the ATM, fueling up, filling our water tank, and even going through the many Military Checkpoints along the highway.  These checkpoints are there for the public’s safety - ensuring people aren’t smuggling drugs or weapons, but being that there typically aren’t Military personnel with machine guns waving over vehicles on standard highways in The States, they can be a little jarring. We had a few ask us to get out of our vehicle so they could inspect the inside, opening some cabinets or the rear doors to check our “garage”. We had some just ask us a few questions like where we are heading, where we came from, are we on vacation, etc. and wave us through. Some didn’t even stop us at all. In the end, throughout these four days, we felt completely comfortable and felt we could seek out a wild camp site. We typically only ever stay at places that other overlanders have stayed at previously and ones that are extremely well reviewed. We do this by finding locations on iOverlander and choose the best option for the area we want to stay in from there. We found one on a beach in Mulegé stayed there for 3 nights. We had the beach to ourselves for the most part. Some locals came through to fish for clams and scallops and even offered us some. It was peaceful and we enjoyed every second of it.

Our first campsite from above. Mulegé Baja, MX.

Beautiful sunsets from here.

From there we basically beach-hopped for the next week. Our favorite being Playa Escondido in Bahia Concepcion.  We did have to pay for this one but it was WELL worth it.  Its water was crystal clear. Its sand was white. Its water was calm- perfect for swimming. It had clean (pit) toilets. It came with a palapa. We could drive right up on the beach with the water 20 meters from our van door. Local vendors would come by to sell everything from banana bread (SO GOOD) to shrimp to handmade goods. There were HUGE sea turtles in the water along with the most colorful fish. And there were bioluminescence!! We met some amazing folks there- some whom we’ve camped with a few times since, and others were kind enough to lend us their stand up paddle boards to view the wildlife beneath us during the day and the bioluminescence glowing beneath our boards at night.  It was probably one of the most magical things we have ever done.  Gliding out on glass-like water, under the milky way, with no moon, and neon blue streaks trailing our boards and paddles. It was absolutely incredible.  It’s somewhere I hope to return one day, because if that doesn’t sound magical enough- in high season, there are whales and dolphins and even more to see!

Playa Escondido. Soaking up the view from our backyard for the next few days.

Playa Escondido, Bahia Concepcion, from above.

View from our "bedroom" window at Playa Escondido.

Reading and drinking coffee from our shady Palapa. Playa Escondido.

Showing our new friends all about the drone. Valentin (2yo) was very impressed.

On of our beach camp locations.

We swam a ton.

Another beach camp site.

After beach hopping we were moving on to the cute little town of Loreto and eventually over to the Pacific Coast where we planned to meet up with our new Argentinian/Brazilian friends and check out the festivities for Dia De Los Muertos. Stay tuned for more Baja goodies!