Our 37 day Baja California road trip

I don’t have an actual bucket list but in my head is a short list of “hope to do before I die” items. The most prominent of those few items has been a road trip spanning the length of the Baja California peninsula, camping all the way down to Cabo San Lucas and back.

Various friends of ours that had already done it said, without question, we had to go. Then there were the friends and family that warned us of imminent danger, even though they’d never been. This January we packed up our truck camper, finally ready to make the trek we’d dreamed of for years, and set off to find out for ourselves whether Mexico was the dream that our friends said it was or the danger the media made it out to be.

I’ll jump right to the punchline, it was an absolute dream.

For 37 days straight, along with our friends Seth & Drea, we camped (mostly for free) on white sand beaches, falling asleep and waking up to the melody of either the Sea of Cortez or the Pacific Ocean. Most of the time in total seclusion, other times camped alongside fellow nomads, surfers, and many, many dogs. The food was incredible, the Mexican people could not have been more kind and accommodating, the roads were in far better shape than we anticipated, and the pace of life slow…just like we like it.

The Baja California Peninsula has over 2,000 miles of shoreline and we just barely barely scratched the surface. This trip gave us the opportunity to experience overland travel in another country and we absolutely fell in love. I feel beyond fortunate to have had this opportunity but I’m afraid this item can’t simply be crossed off the list because our love affair with Baja has only just begun. With any luck, we’ll be back again next winter to explore more roads, more beaches, more villages, and more fish tacos. And hopefully with a little more Spanish under our belts.