After a rather relaxing week and a half on the east, it was time to push on and head further south along the Baja California Sur peninsula. If you missed part one, I’d definitely recommend you give it a read. If not for my video of us swimming with whale sharks alone. In part one, we started out in La Paz and slowly moved south to La Ventana. With a week and a half up our sleeves, we decided to spend three days in Cabo San Lucas (snooze fest) before our third house-sit of the trip, a week in the quaint, colonial town of Todos Santos.
Cabo Pulmo National Park
Before leaving La Ventana we did a day trip down to Cabo Pulmo National Park, boasting the best snorkelling on the peninsula. The two and a half hour drive was the perfect excuse for us to listen to a few bicycle touring podcasts, which only made us more nervous for our upcoming trip.
If we had found some reasonable accommodation we would have loved to stay here and go on a few tours. We heard there are schools of manta ray that are easy to find in the morning, which would have been unreal. Alas, a day trip would have to do. I know I said Bocas del Toro had unbeatable snorkelling, well this place might just take the cake. In terms of a healthy reef and a bustling marine life, it was a close comparable.
Cabo San Lucas
Well. If there was a place we both regret spending three nights, this would be it. Let me paint the scene that is CSL: Cancun meets San Diego in a love affair we wanted no part in. Not to sound too harsh, people are there to have fun and they’re spending a good amount of time doing it. And sure, with the right frame of mind at the very least it’s a great people watch. It just didn’t feel like we were in Mexico anymore.
We avoided the waterfront and stuck to the back streets where we were staying. Our airbnb was probably the worst one we’ve stayed in (what is that weird smell?) so that didn’t help our overall experience either.
We avoided the day tour of the ‘End of the World’ and opted for a more relaxing beach day at Chileno instead, just a short drive away from the city centre.
With the whole coast being lined with resorts of varying degrees of luxury, it meant the beach wasn’t too crowded. Any way, we were happy to just potter around. And spotting this sea lion in the harbour was pretty rad too!
Cerritos Beach
On the way, we stopped off at Cerritos surf beach, a nostalgic experience as the thumping Pacific ocean (complete with aggressive shore dump) kept us playing in the waves. Wow – How I miss it so!
Todos Santos
We would have come here anyway, but our third housesit beckoned us to Todos Santos for a full week. Our first and second sit’s were pretty amazing, so we were excited for the trifecta experience. And I have to say, it seriously did impress. On arrival, we first drove to our villa by the ocean to meet two Americans who had recently retired here. Who could blame them? This two-bedroom abode, complete with gardener, housekeeper and swimming pool was simply put, perfect. I could get used to this!
Here we looked after two Gordon Setter dogs whose routine was going to keep us busy. Up at 6am, two walks a day and plenty of treats and attention throughout, we rather enjoyed the sameness of it all. Especially with a place like this to relax, to swim, to read and to write – of which I did plenty!
During our stay we were privy to some pretty sensational sunrises and sunsets. The below picture is taken from where I’d sip my morning coffee each day.
Something else Todos Santos is famous for is the Hotel California. You know, the one the Eagles wrote about (correct me if I’m wrong Brad?). The current owners of the hotel may disagree, but by all accounts our research prevailed. I can attest, it is such a lovely place.
The top rated ‘thing to do’ in Todos Santos is to visit the turtle hatchery, which happens daily at sunset. Volunteers collect eggs along the coastline, assist with incubation and release the new hatchlings into the sand before the tides eventually take them away. Human intervention prevents the turtles from a potential threat from animals and cars on the beach. Ensuring they have the best fighting chance of survival once they’ve made it into the roaring surf. Watching the tide push and pull at the defenseless baby turtles was painful to watch (and tediously slow). At the same time, it was amazing to see nature at work.
One thing we really enjoyed in Todos Santos was the food. We loved getting our fresh, organic veggies from Kale (a pretty ironic name, no?). Delightful pastries from Taller 17, local and imported wine from La Popular and some seriously good margaritas from The Green Room.
Sadly, this closes our Mexico chapter as we flew from here up north to San Francisco. The US being our final country together on the world tour. I have to say, since departing Baja, it’s been a complete whirlwind. Complete with catching up with friends (such fun) and frantically trying to source everything we need for our cycle (less fun, and way more expensive.) But I’m happy to report, both were way more fun than sitting at home worrying about COVID-19.
To bring you up to speed, Moo and I cycle out of San Diego today! My next few posts might be a little out of order as we navigate our bikes, the trail, internet access and everything else in between. You can follow along on IG @avaycay, where I’ll try to report as much of the cycle as possible.
Until then xo