Read about Los Cabos and the entire southern tip of Baja California in this photo essay of a trip to Baja California Sur.
When you're done reading the report, take the
BCS Quiz to test your knowledge
and reveal one last photo.
Baja California Sur
BAJA (RHYMES WITH HA HA)
Bugged.
Got the Baja bug in June (as opposed to the bah humbug which I get in December). So I bought a pair
plane tickets for my wife and me and down we flew to Baja California Sur for a week. Now, it's
The "El Arco" rock arch at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.
Photo #265AA30 "caboarco" Menu |
quite hot in BCS in June so it would have been more sensible to get the Baja bug in December and
avoid both the Mexican heat and Christmas all at once. But the Baja bug is not under direct, willful
control — at least not for me. I never know when I'll end up down there.
We flew into Los Cabos. You know — where that big rock arch is. The entire 1,000 mile stretch of
the Baja California peninsula comes to a dramatic finale here with "El Arco" and the other giant rocks
collectively known as "Land's End". Anybody who goes to
Cabo has to see El Arco. And if you've come this far, you just have to have your photo taken as
Say "queso" under El Arco.
Photo #265AA34 "arcocheese" Menu |
you stand under El Arco. When you get back home people will ask you if you saw El Arco. You can
show them your photo.
Owing to El Arco and to the nice, big bay with the pretty beaches it shelters, many tourists visit
Los Cabos, even in June. They take tour boats across the bay to see El Arco. When they get back to
their hotel on the beach, they can buy nice trinkets without getting up from their beach loungers.
Boatload of tourists in San Lucas bay en route to El Arco.
Photo #265AA37 "cabotourboat" Menu |
Hardworking Mexican vendors sell their wares on the Los Cabos beach.
Photo #265AC35 "beachtrinkets" Menu |
Report continues on
Page 2 below.
DESERTED DESERT BEACH
No hotels here (thankfully).
Photo #265AC27 "bcscactus1" Menu |
Outta Here.
Los Cabos was all well and good, but I was soon itching to see the Baja boonies. We drove up the
east coast and the hotels quickly turned to cactus. Baja is desert. Baja is beautiful.
We poked around until we found an off-the-beaten-track beach to camp on — Señor Juan Castro who
operated the open air restaurant there said it was OK. Here the fishermen easily outnumbered the
Pelicans greet sunrise over the Gulf of California.
Photo #265AB06 "pulmosunrise" Menu |
tourists. Heck, the pelicans outnumbered the tourists. Every morning around 5:30 they would show
up in their pickups with their banda music blaring, drop their boats in the Gulf, and disappear
over the water into the sunrise. I'm talking about the fishermen, not the pelicans. The pelicans
just flew by gracefully.
Sr. Juan ferried us in his boat over to a rocky
Who covered my beach with bowling balls?
Photo #265AB11 "roundrocks" Menu |
point for a day of snorkeling and beachcoming.
It sure got hot under the mid-day Baja sun. We found shade under some overhanging rocks. The rocks
here were as interesting as the marine life. They were worn smooth and round by eons of wave wash
They went thataway.
Photo #265AB22 "thatawayrock" Menu |
and left strewn over the point like a graveyard of oversized bowling balls. Another large boulder
was carved to resemble your mouse pointer just before you click on its photo. Back at camp, Sr.
Juan and his wife served up "Today’s Catch" and Tecate. This is Baja living.
Sr. Juan and wife Maria cook up another beach-side masterpiece.
Photo #265AB30 "juanmaria" Menu |
Report continues on
Page 3 below.
LA PAZ
Sunset puts the La Paz Cathedral in a divine light.
Photo #265AC01 "lapazcathedral" Menu |
A Peaceful City.
Next stop was the city of La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur. I was here years ago, having
come across the Gulf of California on the ferry from mainland Mexico. I promptly got very sick on
something and didn't come around until, days later in Mazatlan, a pharmacist took pity on me and
prescribed over-the-counter antibiotics (it would seem most medicine is over-the-counter in Mexico).
Despite this experience, La Paz had seemed like a nice place and I wanted to give it a second chance.
We got an economical hotel room, washed off the beach sand, and set off to explore the streets. We
saw the Cathedral, browsed the stores, enjoyed the restaurants, walked the seaside promenade,
stopped for drinks at a nightclub — vacation stuff. La Paz was much better to me the second time
around.
The palm-lined, seaside promenade in La Paz.
Photo #265AC05 "lapazseawalk" Menu |
My wife stops to smell the rose of a sunset over the La Paz harbor.
Photo #265AC08 "lapazssana" Menu |
Report continues on
Page 4 below.
BCS WEST
Closing the loop.
Before leaving La Paz, I remembered to buy a casette of music. We needed a soundtrack for the
drama to be enacted outside our car's windows as we headed back toward Los Cabos, a spectacle
This celebrity looks simply stunning in a burgundy gown (but she got a little thorny when I snapped this shot).
Photo #265AC14 "redcactus" Menu |
starring a cast of thousands, performed on the BCS desert stage. During intermission I stopped
the car to play paparazzo and captured some quite candid shots of the celebrities.
Stars of the BCS theatre gather at intermission.
Photo #265AB08 "bcscactusyucca" Menu |
BCS back road.
Photo #265AC17 "bcsbackroad" Menu |
Travelling south now down the Pacific coast, we began
to close our loop around Baja California Sur. We took a side trip down a back road to
find a deserted beach and, surprisingly, a shady, cool grove of palm trees.
A rare grove of palm trees.
Photo #265AC24 "palmsup" Menu |
Secluded beach on Pacific coast of BCS.
Photo #265AC19 "bcswbeach" Menu |
This stretch of the peninsula, centered around the town of Todos Santos, has been populated by
artists of various ilks — painters, potters, sculptors. Given the austerity of the landscape that
Paintings for sale in a roadside art gallery.
Photo #265AC29 "bcsart4sale" Menu |
surrounds them, one might presume that most of these artists have a predilection toward existentialism.
We stopped at a roadside gallery where my wife picked up a painting. This painter likes cactus too.
Report continues on
Page 5 below.
LOS CABOS REVISITED
Plunge, gorge, and generally splurge!
Ultimately, we found ourselves back where we began — Los Cabos. One more night in BCS and it's
Lap of luxury — Hotel Villa del Palmar, Los Cabos.
Photo #265AC33 "hotelpalmar" Menu |
time to pamper ourselves. We checked into one of those ritzy hotels on the beach that I had rejected
when we first arrived a week before. Pools, fresh towels, attendants, dinner and a show — this
too is Baja living.
Clipper ship in Los Cabos' San Lucas bay with the rocks of "Land's End".
Photo #265AC36 "clippership" Menu |
After dinner the view from our balcony permitted an easy goodbye to El Arco. I know from experience,
however, that it won't be so easy to bid farewell to the Baja bug. It'll bite again someday soon.
Who knows, maybe someday you'll find me alongside the BCS highway selling my photographs of cactus.
[ end of report ] June, 2000
Now that you've finished the Trip Report, take the
BCS Quiz
to test your knowledge and reveal
one more photo.
New Galleries
