November 8, 2023 • 42 mins
Have you wanted to travel to Baja in your campervan but just not sure how safe it is? What documents do you need? How easy is it to find campsites?
We take a deep dive with van lifer Brooke Alexander, who drove Baja in her campervan last winter and is planning another trip this year.
We navigate through the nitty-gritty, like border crossings, military checkpoints, and Mexico's indispensable FMM card. Brooke talks about finding campsites, essential gear, and why she recommends bringing your own toilet!
Links Mentioned in this Podcast:
We take a deep dive with van lifer Brooke Alexander, who drove Baja in her campervan last winter and is planning another trip this year.
We navigate through the nitty-gritty, like border crossings, military checkpoints, and Mexico's indispensable FMM card. Brooke talks about finding campsites, essential gear, and why she recommends bringing your own toilet!
Links Mentioned in this Podcast:
- Car Insurance for Mexico (Lewis and Lewis) or (BajaBound)
- Air Compressor for Tires
- Go Treads
- iOverlander
Other Helpful Links for Mexico:
Follow Brooke Alexander:
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you wondering if it's safe to travel to Baja in
your campervan?
Do you crave sunny beaches,cheap campsites, amazing food
and a winter playing in thecrystal clear water of the Sea
of Cortez?
We travel to Baja every year onour sailboat and just love that
part of the world, but I wascurious just how different it is
to travel by campervan.
In this episode of the WaywardHome podcast, I interview a
(00:21):
woman who did just that lastyear and she's planning on
making the trek to Baja againand staying even longer this
time.
Hopefully, by the end of thisepisode, you'll be packing your
bags and heading to Baja in yourcampervan too.
Let's go.
Welcome to the.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Wayward Home podcast all about van life, boat life
and nomadic living.
We'll bring you tips,interviews and stories from the
road and on the water.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Now here's your host, kristen Haynes.
Hey there, I'm Kristen Hayneswith thewaywardhomecom, and I
spend half the year in mysprinter van and half on my
sailboat in Mexico, and I hopeto inspire you to achieve your
nomadic living dreams.
So it is November and it'sgetting close to that time of
year when us boaters and vanlifers start thinking about the
sunny beaches and warm waters ofBaja California in Mexico.
(01:03):
So we've traveled to Baja, butonly on our sailboat, and van
lifer Brooke Alexander, ourguest today, goes in her
campervan.
Brooke has been living in herDodge ProMaster campervan since
2020 and has also traveledextensively over the US and
through Baja, so she has somegreat tips and advice about
(01:23):
exploring Baja in a campervan,and I'll talk about the sailboat
side of it and we'll talk aboutsome differences between seeing
Baja by land and by sea.
So, brooke, I'm so excitedyou're here.
Thanks so much for joining theWayward Home podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so great.
So first of all, let's talk alittle bit about Baja.
I just love going there on myboat.
I think it's such a specialplace because it has desert and
(01:45):
ocean.
I don't know any other placereally like it.
So when did you first go toBaja and what inspired you to go
down there.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So I first went to Baja I guess it's technically
still this year, because I wentin January of 2023.
I spent three months there.
It had always been something Ithought about when I moved into
the van and just didn't know ifI was going to be able to make
it work.
But I found some seasoned Bajatravelers and joined a caravan
with them.
So I kind of got to know theropes and now I'm planning my
(02:14):
own trip this year.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Oh, fantastic.
And when you'd heard about Bajabefore and going in the van,
we've only actually driven toBaja.
We haven't even driven to Bajain a van.
Actually, we've driven toPuerto Penaesco in a van, but I
feel like the van experience isa little bit different than the
boat and you have some differentconcerns to worry about.
Driving versus.
We're kind of really farremoved from land and people.
(02:35):
So what were some of your topkind of concerns?
At first, about crossing theborder and going to Baja.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, I just in general get anxiety when I cross
borders.
I've always felt that way, evenif I don't have anything to
hide.
It's just kind of a scaryfeeling, and especially going
into a country where I speakdecent Spanish, but sometimes
they might use words I'm notfamiliar with because I don't
use an everyday language.
So I was really nervous tocross the border, and that was
actually very simple.
(03:02):
Depending on where you crossthat.
They do a quick search of yourvan.
I think two officers came in myvan, opened my cabinets, asked
me a couple of questions, askedme if my dog would bite, and
then said go on your way.
So it was much simpler than Iexpected.
The thing that kind ofsurprised me, I would say, is
(03:22):
that there are checkpointsthroughout Baja, so it's not
just at the border.
There are, I think, sixmilitary checkpoints in between
where you cross that and Cabo.
So it's kind of like you'recrossing the border six times.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, we've also gone through those military
checkpoints when we've driventhe Porto Penaresco in Sonora,
which is similar to Baja, inwhich I don't think you need an
import permit for your vehicleto drive to Sonora or Baja.
Correct, you didn't need to doan import permit for your car,
right.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Correct.
You just have to get your FMMcard, which is quite confusing.
There's not really any clearsigns on where you get that when
you cross the border by land,so you kind of have to know
ahead of time that you need toask someone for it and figure
out where to get it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, that's also a really good tip, because we had
a hard time finding theimmigration and customs office
as well and we've done twodifferent border crossings and
they're kind of a nondescriptrandom buildings.
So where did you cross and howdid you figure out that office?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, so I crossed through Tecate, which is
actually a really small bordercrossing.
Mexicali and Tijuana are the bigones that a lot of people cross
through.
Tijuana is really close to SanDiego, but Tecate is where I
crossed because the group that Iwent with had crossed so many
times and they said this is thebest experience that they've had
because it's so small.
I think we waited maybe fiveminutes to cross the border,
(04:40):
whereas some of the biggercrossings you might wait hours,
and so the FMM card was prettydifficult there.
Even though my friends hadcrossed there before, they still
didn't really quite know whereto find it, and so we wound up
kind of crossing, parking andwandering around for a while.
I think we technically crossedback into the US on foot and
(05:02):
then walked across the footbridge and got our FMM there.
So people were helpful once weasked, but it was kind of like
nobody says anything when you gothrough, and I do know somebody
who went quite a far ways downand had to go back to the border
and get an FMM.
So make sure you get that.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Oh man, yeah, and for people who don't know what FMM
is, that's the visa, the touristvisa, and it lasts for six
months, and so that's what youneed if you're going by boat or
by van, and so I think that'skind of the main thing you have
to do.
At the border, and with ourSprinter, when we brought it
down to Sonora, they did inspectit, like they did with yours,
and they looked at our batteriesand they said do those go with
the van?
Because I think if you do bringnew things into Baja, they
(05:42):
could charge duty.
Did you hear anything aboutduty, or did people warn you
about that?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, and they asked, I think, when we crossed, if we
had, like you know, exorbitantamounts of alcohol or food, or
you definitely don't want tobring produce across the border
either way going to or fromMexico.
So what we did was just kind ofempty our refrigerators and
just take dry goods and then, assoon as we cross them to a
grocery store and fill them.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, totally.
There are a lot of grocerystores in Mexico that have lots
of food.
But if you want specialty itemslike we eat mostly vegetarian
and that's kind of hard to do inMexico if you don't want to eat
just beans and lentils all thetime.
So I tend to bring in, you know, some tofu and some soy curls
and some other like weirdproducts that are hard to find.
Did you bring anything inparticular that?
(06:28):
Oh, and I tend to have a hardtime finding really good coffee
there.
Maybe you have a tip becauseyou're a coffee aficionado like
me, but I have the hardest timefinding really good coffee in
Baja.
So I bring tons of coffee fromthe States.
But what are your likespecialty items?
And if you have any coffee tips, I'd love to know them.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, I'm also vegetarian, so I did bring some
you know, fake meat options,plant-based protein options, but
I did find that the furthersouth you get where, the more
vacation hotspots are, likeChoros, santos and Cabo.
You can find things like thatvery easily there.
Even in La Paz, at Walmart theysell beyond meat products and
things like that.
(07:03):
So that was good to find outand now this year I won't have
to bring so much of that stuff.
Trying to think if there wasanything else that I brought.
I don't think so.
Pretty much everything else Iwas able to find, or I kind of
just adapted my diet to what wasthere.
There's lots of like reallygood fresh fruits and things
(07:23):
that are somewhat different thanin the States.
Bye, guys.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yep, yep, I found that too with the jicamas, the
papayas, like all kinds ofthings that you don't typically
find, that are fresh and reallygood, like tropical fruits, that
those were my favorite thingsto get in Mexico.
But for me it was harder tofind greens, like especially
kale and arugula and stuff.
La Paz was easier, but as aboater going to La Paz is really
complicated because you have togo down a very long narrow
(07:49):
channel to get into the marinas.
Then you have to figure out howto get to the grocery store,
and so often we don't go to LaPaz.
We're sort of in these smallrandom towns that don't have as
good of groceries.
But when we did go to La Paz itwas fantastic.
They do have good stores there,but this year we might not go
there.
So I'm thinking like what do Ihave to bring?
Yes, I do remember.
Do I need to grow my ownarugula on the boat?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I do remember greens being hard to find.
Well now I guess I eat moresalad than I used to, but I was
traveling with a friend who atespinach every day and he had the
hardest time because hecouldn't find any greens to go
with his breakfast in themorning.
And then the coffee thing.
Yeah, there's a real lack ofgood coffee.
(08:30):
Instant coffee is a major thingin Baja, so I wound up buying,
I think, cheap coffee at thegrocery store for the first
month, maybe I was there.
And then, when you get into thecities, some of them do have
more modern style coffeehouseswith fancy coffee, and so I
bought bags of beans from them.
La Paz definitely.
(08:51):
Cabo Soda, santos, pescadero.
Sometimes the farmers marketsin little towns that have expats
have little coffee stands, sothat's a good place to check for
some good coffee.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Awesome.
That's good advice too, andalso what's funny is we love
IPAs and those are sometimeshard to come by in Baja, so we
tend to bring a bunch fromCostco and I know we do mostly
Corona, but sometimes you justcrave that different flavor, and
so that's something else wetend to bring down there.
I don't know if you alsobrought that.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, I didn't bring that, but that is something I
will be bringing.
That's so funny.
We have very similar diets anddrinking habits.
Yes, IPAs were very scarce.
Even I think we went to one ortwo breweries down there and the
IPAs are just not the same.
But I think I wound up drinkinga lot of different things there
(09:41):
, similarly to eating differentthings.
There were a lot of really goodlike fresh not fresh, I guess
canned cocktails or canned likemargaritas and things that were
actually fairly low alcoholcontent and taste really great.
So I kind of kept those in thefridge instead of having beers
in the fridge, and I've actuallystill got two left.
(10:02):
Surprisingly, I kind of stuckthe band on the way back because
I had been so used to drinkingthem there that I was like, well
, now what am I going to do inthe US without these?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That is great advice.
I did see those and I wasworried they would be too sweet
so I didn't buy them.
So I'll have to give that a trythis time.
So that's fun, let's see.
So I'm curious about.
So something I get all the timefrom people and readers of the
Wayward Home is do you feel safein Mexico?
Be careful, the banditos aregoing to get you Like it's not
safe down there.
I get that all the time and I'mwondering if you also, and for
(10:33):
me on the boat and even when wewent to towns to get groceries,
I always felt safe.
I never had any weirdexperiences in Baja.
People were lovely to me and,yeah, I thought it was fantastic
.
And I'm just wondering, fromyour perspective, what did you
experience and what do peopletend to say to you as well?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I definitely got that from family members when I said
I was driving to Mexico, forsure, and sometimes with fellow
RVers.
If you kind of meet like theretiree crowd, they kind of have
that feeling sometimes.
But I had a wonderfulexperience in Mexico.
I have told everyone I feltsafer there than I ever did in
(11:10):
my New York City apartment.
It was everyone there washelpful.
If you needed anything,everyone was willing to talk to
you.
I never had a single bad thinghappen to me and you know, after
a while, since I was there forthree months, I did split up
from my caravan and I was bymyself for quite a while.
I was even parked at one pointon the beach by myself for an
(11:32):
entire week and no one botheredme ever.
I felt completely safe.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
That's so good to hear.
Yeah, and that's what I'veheard from other van lifers
who've been down there as well,and that's something I'm happy
that my listeners and readerscan hear from both of us is that
we've always felt very safedown there and in terms of
safety, like the roads and likecell phone signal.
As someone who drove throughBaja, what was that like?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, so the roads are adventurous and so, from
what I hear from people who havebeen going for many years, they
are great now and I wouldn'tsay that they're terrible by any
means.
But there are spots on the roadwhere it's just like the road
is deteriorating and it's justfull of potholes and quite a few
(12:17):
sections where it's a verynarrow two lane highway, like
there's not any shoulderwhatsoever, so if you were to
bump somebody you would probablyjust fly off the road.
So it does take a little moreconcentration driving through it
and there are quite a fewstretches of no cell signal.
So I would absolutely recommend, if you're driving with anyone,
(12:37):
that you take walkie talkies.
That was super helpful for usin case anybody needed to stop
or needed help with something.
We always kept our walkies onon the same channel and we could
reach out to anybody, anybodyaround.
So that was that was reallyhelpful.
There is a new highwayconnecting, I want to say, cabo
(12:59):
and the West Coast, like Tonosfrom the airport.
I think it's a toll road andit's like brand new and super
fast and super beautiful, butthat is not the case with the
roads up North.
So probably from the first halfof Baja, baja California, as
opposed to Baja California, sir,which is below.
(13:20):
Those roads are definitelyworse.
There's only one way down, soyou have to take them.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, and did you spend a lot of time in the North
or did you guys kind of drivethrough the North to get to Baja
Sur?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
We went relatively quickly.
We stopped in Valle deGuadalupe wine country and
stayed a night there, which I'llbe staying a lot longer on this
trip in wine country, justbecause I'm interested in that
area a little more.
And then I was with a surferand there was a record swell.
So we did stop on some beachesin the North for surfing, which
(13:57):
I probably wouldn't stop at onmy own, but they were really
cute little towns.
They were very, very tiny townswhere all you do there is surf.
There's one taco stand and surf.
So I would say the North mostpeople blow through it.
There are some cute littlestops.
It's worth it for a day or two.
It's probably not where you'regonna spend the most of your
time, yeah and it's probablyreally remote.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
We sailed down the outside of Baja and we stopped
at a lot of those small townsand it had a very remote feeling
.
I think that was 2020 and 2021.
And, yeah, there wasn't muchgoing on and I didn't have
Starlink at the time, so Ibasically had no phone signal
almost the entire outside ofBaja and so it felt I think that
contributed to the remoteness.
But now that there's Starlink,I think it's a little bit easier
(14:38):
to be there.
But did you experience thatfeeling of it seem wild and
remote?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Absolutely, especially with how rugged it is
.
It's just like these ruggedrocks and cliffs and you're like
, wow, I'm in the middle ofnowhere, like it's just ocean
and rocks, and if you're luckythere's a taco stand, but
probably not.
Yeah, it's very remote and wedefinitely used Starlink quite a
bit.
There were times when we didn'twanna to set up the whole
(15:05):
Starlink and so you weredependent on if there was one
business there that might haveWi-Fi, and then everybody, all
the servers are connected to it,everybody who needs to contact
home is connected to it.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
So yeah, oh, how funny.
And for those long stretcheswhere you didn't really have a
lot of phone signal, did youreally do anything in particular
like download maps and downloadcampsites beforehand?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, definitely, that's.
One of my tips for sure is todownload a map.
Never rely on Google Maps inBaja, not only for the lack of
signal, but just for the lack ofclarity in some of the roads.
They just it's not alwaysperfect and up to date and so,
for example, the main road thatwe traveled down is newer and on
(15:46):
the map it was still taking youon the old road, which is not a
road you should be driving onanymore.
It's not maintained.
So, yes, I definitely haddownloaded maps.
I would say carry a paper map,just in case, for some reason,
you don't have access to yourphone anyways, it's good to have
a paper map and definitelydownloaded a lot of things to
(16:08):
listen to.
There are big stretches wherethere's no radio stations or one
radio station, and it kind ofsounds the same for hours and
hours on end.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
That's a good tip to bring something to entertain
yourself, because that's apretty long drive through
Northern Baja At least takesmaybe a couple days, right, if
you're going to just drivestraight through.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, I would say probably two days minimum, but
probably two or three days.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, wow.
So yeah, let's chat about howto find campsites.
Like I know this is verydifferent for you and me,
because we have cruising guidesand this is what, like, we go to
an anchorage and this tells uswhere to go, which anchorages to
go, so we read these extensivebooks to figure out where to
stop along the coast of Baja.
But I'm sure you have manydifferent methods, and so I'm
(16:52):
curious how you find places topark your van.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, I definitely use Ioverlander a ton.
I take it with a grain of salt.
Some of the posts on there areolder and those beaches either
don't exist anymore or areprivate now or you kind of just
got to go with the flow.
If you're using something likethat, I would say I actually
paid for a lot more campsites inBaja than I normally do,
(17:17):
particularly in the popularareas Like Baja.
Concepción is a beautiful bay.
It has like three maincampgrounds.
They're like $20, and while Iwould not usually pay that in
the US, it is absolutely worthit.
You are right on the sand onthe bay in a beautiful place.
So I did find it interesting,as far as campgrounds go, that
(17:39):
they don't take any reservationslike in the US.
So you could call ahead of timeand say do you have a spot for
us tomorrow?
And they would say call me backat 9 am tomorrow and I will
tell you if there's a spot.
And there was one spot, onecampground in Loretto that the
guy said we don't have room, butI will make room for you.
(17:59):
So there were no actual spotsbut crammed us into a corner
together, and so it was justreally interesting because you
just have to go somewhere, notknowing if you have a spot to
stay or not, but the people areso friendly, they don't make it
work.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
That sounds very Mexico-style to me, because
things don't always run by thebook like they do in the US,
which tends to be fairlyregimented, but when you get to
Mexico it's like, oh you know,the rules are just everywhere
and you never kind of know whatto expect.
And that's some of the fun ofBaja as well, I think.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, well, for sure.
You just kind of pull up on thebeach and set up your camp and
then eventually somebody walksaround and says they're
collecting money and they giveyou our receipt.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So that's too funny.
So it sounds like you did findsome beautiful like beachfront
camping.
Is there a lot of that in Baja?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh, yes, I would say probably 90% of where I camped
was on the beach in Baja andit's really gorgeous and ranges
from all different things.
So, like I said, bahiaConcepcion is on the sea of
Cortez side.
It is very calm, beautifulplace to go out on a kayak or a
paddleboard.
And then there's on the otherside, on the Pacific side, like
(19:11):
Pescadero, cerritos, those arebig surf beaches, crazy waves,
very different sand.
It's just totally different.
And then Cabo Palmo NationalPark where a lot of people go
diving.
That beach is actually all rock, it is not sand.
So totally different view there.
And yeah, there is just.
(19:33):
I mean, it sounds like boringto some people when you say I'm
gonna go camp on the beach forthree months.
Some people are like I can't dothat.
But they're very different allover the place.
So it's different experienceson each side.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, that's really interesting and I'm curious what
the campgrounds like.
Are they anything likecampgrounds in the States where
you get like a picnic table anda fire ring and stuff, or what
are they like?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
But mostly not.
Some of them.
I don't even know if I ever hada picnic table.
Don't think I did.
Some of them on the beach havea Palapa and they're usually
like an extra $5 if you have aPalapa as opposed to not having
one.
They're nice if you have agroup of people and you wanna
have like a little shady spot orstore your paddleboards and
(20:19):
things in there when you're notusing them.
But we did find that they alsoare magnets for bugs, mosquitoes
, sometimes mice, so you kindagotta watch with black widows.
So they look beautiful inpictures because you have this
beautiful little palm frondPalapa next to your van.
But they're not quite aspractical as they look in
(20:41):
pictures.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
But interesting.
So the bugs live up in thefronds sometimes.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, I mean it's kind of like a tree.
So yeah, they live there.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Just something to watch, if you have pets or
things Totally, and do they havebathroom facilities and showers
?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Some of them have bathroom facilities and usually
they're kind of just like anouthouse, just like a pit toilet
.
They vary on range ofcleanliness.
I would say always bring yourown toilet paper.
I don't expect that to ever bethere.
Some of the campgrounds thatare maybe in towns it might have
a shower.
It's not probably guaranteed tohave warm water.
(21:23):
That's just that's kind of likea real luxury in Baja to have a
warm shower.
First of all, to have a showerand second of all to have a warm
shower is a real luxury.
So I would say, go in thinkingthat you're not going to get a
warm shower and then when you do, you'll be very pleasantly
surprised.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
So do you recommend people bring their own toilet to
Baja?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Absolutely yes, and you don't have to have, like an
actual toilet or anything fancy.
I take a bucket and kittylitter.
It is just easier when you'reon the beach.
In the middle of nowhere.
It's not appropriate to burywaste on the beach, and so it
just is much easier to use kittylitter and Bag it up and throw
it away when you leave.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Oh cool.
So the way that works is youjust, you know, use a bag in in
the bucket and then you addkitty litter, go add more, and
then you can use it like acouple times and keep Adding
that to get rid of the smell,and then when you leave, you
just throw it out.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
That's kind of how that works, yeah and I would say
that's probably what mostpeople do.
It's just easier.
Some people that havecomposting toilets have said it
can be difficult to find likecoconut core or things for their
composting toilets.
So if you have that, I wouldsay bring it ahead of time or
have enough until you get tosomewhere like Cabo that has big
(22:36):
enough pet stores that mighthave right.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
That's interesting.
And yeah, and did anybody youknow bring like a portable
toilet, like that you have to gointo a bathroom and empty, or
did they not usually do that?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I don't think so I think we had talked to enough
people who had been there beforeand said that finding gum
stations was not as Easy as youwould want it to be, and that
your life would be much simplerif you just brought a bucket.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I know totally, if you had like a big RV with the
like black tanks, like I don'teven know where you would dump
that, I'm sure they have itsomewhere in Baja.
But since I'm not an RVer, I'mnot really in tune to that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, I mean I would imagine it would have to be at
one of in one of the biggercities.
I can't, I don't think there'sany Infrastructure for that in
in the small towns.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, yeah for sure.
And did you ever stay in likean RV park situation?
I think I've seen photos ofthat where people have like a
pool and more facilities.
Did you try that, or were youmostly doing beach camping?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I did.
I stayed in a campground inLoretto, in the city, which is
actually where I found my dogand they had.
They had showers and bathroomsand they had a washing machine,
but it was broken, which is alsolike, don't, don't depend on
(23:50):
that.
And I stayed at another one inLa Paz, which was quite
interesting.
I'll have to send you a pictureof it sometime.
They was one of thosesituations where you call ahead
and they said we promise willfit you in, but it was like I
Mean a jigsaw puzzle like I hadto.
Three people had to leave and Ihad to back in and yeah, and
(24:13):
they had showers and, I think, acommunal kitchen.
I didn't stay anywhere that hada pool.
The only place I even saw apool at a campground, I want to
say was in San Felipe, andBecause San Felipe is so close
to the US, it's always it's likea, often a first stop for
people when they cross theborder.
It's just a few hours.
Because of that, the prices arereally high, because some
(24:37):
people might only go as far asSan Felipe, and so we opted to
stay at a very cheap place thatdidn't have any amenities like
that, but the pool campsiteswhere I want to say like 40 or
$50 us.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, I could see that because in Puerto
Pena's go you also have a lot ofpeople that cross the border
and don't go any further andthere's beautiful beach
campgrounds there, but I thinkthey're like at least 50 a night
and so they're more catering tothe people who aren't really
going deep into Mexico.
And what's funny when you saythat similar to the marinas in
Baja are insanely expensive.
They're, like you know, similarto the US, if not more like.
(25:12):
There's one, that Marina thatwe went to south of Loretto
called Porto Escondido Marina,and it's beautiful.
But if you want to stay on thedocks it's like a hundred bucks
a night and I'm like what?
Like it is so expensive but youhave to book a longer stay for
it to be cheaper.
But still, I was pretty shockedby you know Just how much the
but they're probably gouging meAmericans and Canadians that
come down just by making thoseprice their audience, you know,
(25:34):
so they can get away with it,but I thought that was really
interesting.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I believe it might be that Marina it sounds familiar
there's.
There was a beach campsite thatwe stayed at and from there you
could hike a couple of milesand and get to the Marina and we
had heard a lot of people wouldSneak into the showers there
because they weren't manned, butthere were showers.
Some people were saying, if youwant to hike that far, yes, get
a free shower, yes and I'vetaken a lot of showers there and
(26:03):
they're the nicest showers I'vefound in Baja.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
They actually use like fancy products, really hot
water, like it's really awesome,and there's a restaurant there.
That's a beautiful with a viewof the huge sear I think they're
the Sierra Madres, but thesehuge mountains back there and
you can get a pizza out of thewood fire pizza grill.
So it's kind of like a littletaste of fanciness in the middle
of nowhere, but the pricesreflect that.
Yeah, yeah, if you're, if youhave a chance to check it out,
(26:28):
yeah, do the hike.
Yeah, what were some of yourfavorite areas of Baja that
you're going to go back againthis year?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, like I said before, if I ate, a Guadalupe is
wine country.
It is just stunning.
It's mountainous, beautiful andthere are several wineries that
will let you park overnight, ifyou know, if you buy wine from
them.
We went to one of the biggestwineries which is on harvest
host, but you don't have to beon harvest host to stay there
(27:01):
and their wine is really goodand incredibly cheap.
I want to say like six dollarsfor a really good bottle of wine
.
Yes, so the tasting was like anormal tasting price.
It was like twenty dollars orsomething to do the tasting, but
the bottles were justincredibly cheap.
I know some people bought casesof them to keep with them for
the time they were in Baja and,yeah, that's a really great area
(27:23):
.
There are some more expensiveand more fancy wineries as well.
It's kind of just depending onyour taste.
They also have, like you know,luxury hotels there and you can
sleep in wine barrels and do allthose kinds of things.
If you're interested in that, Ithink I'm gonna be there
actually for Christmas this year, so we might do a hotel or
(27:44):
something just for something tosplurge on for the holidays.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, I've heard great things about that place,
but I haven't been.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
I know I have a friend wholives in San Diego who actually
goes down there for just, youknow, for weekends and things
like that.
So another place I wanna goback to for sure is the beaches
outside of La Paz.
Some of them are justabsolutely stunning, and
Tagalote is one of the popularones.
(28:14):
It gets incredibly crowded,especially during Escapar, which
is a van gathering, and I meanthere was probably over 1,000
vehicles there for the eventlast year.
Yeah, playa Balandra is one ofthe has been rated one of the
most beautiful beaches in theworld.
You cannot camp at it, but youcan visit and they kind of limit
(28:37):
your visit to half a day.
I believe you can either go inthe morning and then they clear
out the beach and bring in theafternoon crew, or vice versa
and Pichilingue, which you mayhave gone to in your sailboat,
because we see lots of sailboatsanchored out there.
It's beautiful and my favoriteplace probably is somewhere
(28:58):
along the East Cape.
So between like Cabo PulmoNational Park and San Jose del
Cabo, there's a stretch of beachwhich is starting to be
developed, but it's stillrelatively undeveloped, so
there's nothing for severalhours.
So if you stock up your van.
You have water and you haveeverything you need.
(29:19):
You can kind of go out thereand just plant yourself for a
while.
So I did that for a while andjust.
It was an incredible experienceto wake up in the morning and
there would be whales breachinglike right.
You could see them right outyour door and like things I
never thought possible.
When I moved into a van I waslike this is incredible.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
That's really cool that you could see that from the
beach too, because that's oneof the joys of being in the
sailboat anchored at theseplaces is you just have this
front row seat to all thiswildlife.
And you're right, it does comeinto the bays, because we've had
whales, dolphins, stingrays.
I don't know if you've seen theMobula rays leaping out of the
water, but it's just.
It's really interesting thewildlife you see down there.
It's very populated withwildlife and I know a lot of
(30:04):
it's actually gone, because mostof the shark population is gone
.
A lot of it's over fished.
We had a hard time evencatching a fish last year but
there's still a lot of wildlifeto see, so it's one of my
favorite parts.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, there was way more wildlife than I had ever
expected.
I've heard people talk aboutyou know, going on the whale
watching boats and things likethat, but I didn't realize from
the beach how much you could see.
Pretty much every night andevery morning on the beach you
could see whales on both sides.
So there were humpback whalesand gray whales, because it is
(30:37):
migration season and calvingseason, and so also you could
see lots of babies, which wasincredible.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
That's so cool.
Have you heard of the?
There's a little bay that's onthe Pacific side, ignacio, maybe
, where you can go and take aboat out to be with the
humpbacks and their young.
Did you do that?
Are you thinking of doing thatthis year?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, so we because I was with a group that went down
in January.
We were early, so we stoppedjust outside of Guerrero Negro.
The bay is called Ojo de Libreand we went on a boat and we saw
several whales because theywere just starting to come in.
But the captain said that therewere probably somewhere around
(31:18):
like I think 30 or 40 whales atthat time and there are like
2,500 that come in season.
So like we were like right atthe beginning of it I know that
people who were going back uparound end of February-ish kind
of got like the best show andI've seen all of their pictures
and videos Like the whales comeright up to the boat.
They're like.
(31:38):
They like want to be petted,like puppies, like they are,
like I guess they're very, veryinteractive and, from my
experience at least, like theboat tour company was pretty
ethical, like they didn't doanything to bring the whales to
them.
They kind of just exist andcome up on their own.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
That's incredible and that's something I would like
to do sometime.
Which is a little bit harder onthe boat, cause you have to
find somewhere to dock it andthen you got to get a car and
drive over there, so it's easierfor you in the van, definitely
yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And like that place I want to say it was called
Mario's, I can't quite remember,but they have camping.
There's a campground on site soyou can camp there and then get
up and do like the earlymorning boat tour and go out and
see the whales, or I mean youcan stay as long as you want,
but that's ideally what youwould do is, you know, go on the
morning one before it gets toocrowded and you're fighting for
(32:29):
space on a boat.
But the camping was also veryaffordable there I don't want to
say it was like maybe $10 orsomething, and then you can go
out right in the morning.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Very cool, fantastic.
There's just so many places toexplore in Baja, and you went
with a group last year, so areyou planning a solo trip this
year?
Are you meeting people, or howis that working?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So I'm going to cross the border with two friends
Well, right now it's two friends.
We don't know, there might bemore people that join us and we
are going to do the holidaystogether and then kind of it's
up in the air.
I'm pretty used to traveling bymyself, so once I get to a
certain point I kind of feellike we'll probably split up and
then meet back up, and that'sjust kind of how we all travel
(33:10):
in general.
So it makes sense to do thesame in Baja, I think, crossing
the border.
You can absolutely cross theborder by yourself, it's
perfectly safe.
But I think a lot of us justfeel comfortable crossing the
border together.
You know, in case somethinghappens, like somebody knows
where you are.
You know we have tabs on eachother, and that was the first
couple of days through the northpart of Baja, where there isn't
(33:32):
anything and there isn't cellsignal.
It just is easier to do withother people.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, that makes total sense because, yeah,
there's way more in Baja Surtowns and people and cell
signals.
It feels a little less remoteand better to be on your own,
I'm sure.
So I wanted to ask you aboutgear, like essential gear you
think people should bring, orwhat you wish you had.
You know you didn't have, butwhat you're bringing this year.
Anything you can recommendabout gear?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yes, definitely so.
Walkie-talkies is the numberone.
So I would say, if you don'tget anything else, get
walkie-talkies so that you cancommunicate with people and you
don't have cell signal, becausethat's going to be frequent,
that you don't have cell signal.
Second, I would say, get somesort of traction boards,
something to get yourself outwhen you get stuck.
I got stuck a couple of times,one in the sand, one in the
(34:19):
rocks and sand, and actuallythat time I wound up having to
get pulled out by a friend.
So that was a little bitridiculous.
But the time I got stuck in thesand I was by myself and I have
Gotreds, which I highlyrecommend.
They take up hardly any space.
They fold up very small.
They can also be used asleveling blocks, which is like I
(34:41):
love things that work more thanone function in the van.
So Gotreds are like my absolutefavorite gear item I have.
I have used them to get out ofsand many times.
They're easy to use on your ownand I would say mud is the only
thing they're not great at, andthere's not really going to be
mud in Baja.
So for Baja they are a must andthey just take up so much less
(35:04):
space than those dry attractionboards when you have such
limited room in your van.
I would say two other thingsthat I would recommend are these
are like not must-haves, butnice to have Something to air
down your tires with.
So if you have like a presetsthat you can just air down your
(35:24):
tires quickly and then acompressor to put air back in
your tires, it just makes it somuch easier to drive on sand or
on some of like the really,really rocky areas.
It's just a lot nicer.
I had a compressor with me, butnot the air down tool, so I was
able to borrow that from afriend and I think I will
definitely have my own this yearand I'll probably have even a
(35:47):
better compressor.
My compressor took quite awhile to air my tires back up,
but I mean, if you have time,you don't need anything fancy,
and even as slow as mine was, Ialso liked it to other people.
So that's definitely somethingI would bring?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah, that's a great tip.
Yeah, did you bring like stuffto go in the water with, or are
you bringing that this year?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
So I bought a snorkel , which is quite funny because I
don't like fish and I probablydidn't even really anticipate
going snorkeling when I broughtone.
I would say if you have one,bring one.
If you plan on snorkeling,bring that stuff.
You can buy it there, but it'sgoing to be at a premium because
everyone needs one.
And what I didn't know is thatif you plan on swimming a lot or
(36:31):
surfing or doing anything inthe water, you probably want a
wetsuit.
The water is much colder than Ianticipated.
It's not very warm and youdon't want to be in it very long
if you don't have a wetsuit on.
So if you plan on swimming ordoing anything in the water,
definitely bring a wetsuit,because they are more difficult
to find there for sure.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Definitely that's great advice because sometimes
when we've been on the boat inthe winter, or even in March
when we went last year the waterwas very cold and I did wear a
3-2 wetsuit for a long time butonce we reached we were in the
water actually way longer than Iwould recommend.
We're there until aboutmid-June and it was so hot but
the water was about 85 by thetime we left.
(37:13):
So by May and June it's reallywarm and I was just swimming
everywhere with no wetsuit andit was just fantastic for
snorkeling and swimming.
But I know, if it's not warmwater it's definitely May or
June or September or October,but in the winter it is cold and
we definitely wear wetsuits allthe time.
But yeah, it depends on whattime of year you're in the sea,
because the water I think in thesummer it gets up to like 90
(37:34):
there, because I have someboater friends who stay all
summer.
I don't know how they do it,but the water gets really warm
but the air is also really hotand that makes it hard to sleep,
especially if you're in a vaneven a smaller space in the boat
and I imagine it gets evenhotter unless you have a way to
run an AC unit.
So I don't think a lot of vanlifers go in summer.
I don't want to be there on theboat either.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
No, I was just thinking that.
I was thinking that by the timeI left at the end of March it
was so hot in the van already itwas like 90 degrees on the East
Cape when I was deciding that Ineeded to leave.
It was just kind of getting tobe unbearable already, and it
was only March, so I cannotimagine being there in June or
(38:18):
some other month that's hotterthan that.
Yeah, it was a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
I know and that's something we noticed with the
boat as well, as when we wereout at anchor we got more
breezes off the water and thewater there was cooler, like
maybe 70.
But then, when we'd walk to thebeach and we'd walk to where
some of the vans and the truckcampers were, we're like, oh my
gosh, it's hot, because the sandgets hot.
It just makes you get that landheat coming up, and so it is a
warmer experience, I think, ifyou're in the van and you have
(38:44):
to leave a little earlier,something for people to keep in
mind.
All right, so, brooke, you havesome more tips to share with
people thinking of making thejourney this year.
Yeah, what other advice do youhave?
Speaker 2 (38:56):
So when you are going to cross the border by land in
a vehicle, you have to haveMexican auto insurance.
Your US policy does not coveryou driving in Mexico, and so
you'll need to purchase a policy.
You can typically purchase like10 days a month, three months,
(39:16):
six months.
I think I did a six monthpolicy for the valuation I put
on my van and what I thought Ineeded.
I think it cost me like $300for six months, something like
that.
There are definitely higherplans, lower plans.
Search around.
Baja Bound is a company that alot of people go with.
(39:39):
It's very gringo, friendly.
You can also, though, searcharound and find cheaper rates
with smaller companies.
I used Lewis and Lewis, andthat's who I'm going to use
again.
They had by far the best ratefor what I was looking for, so
that's what I would recommendthere.
If you have any pets, you needto have proof of all of their
(40:03):
vaccinations, and you need, Iwould say, print out paper
copies to have with you, andyou'll also be asked for your
vehicle registration when youcross the border, so make sure
that you have that with you.
So those are my main things.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah, I'm glad you remembered to mention about
insurance, because even when webring our van to Puerto
Penaresco to work on the boat,we still have to have insurance.
You know, whether it's our oldAstro or the newer Sprinter.
Yeah, the US insurance does notwork.
So that's so important that youbrought that up.
So thank you for rememberingthat tip.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Also depending on how long you're going to go, for I
have heard people say that theyhave been able to freeze their
US policy so that they're notmaking payments on their US
policy when they're not using it.
So contact your company and seeif there is a pause that you
can put on it if you're going tobe gone for several months.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Yeah, that's also a great advice, so cool.
Well, yeah, thanks for sharingall this amazing information.
I hope it inspires more peopleto make the trek, and you're
going to be posting about it,I'm sure, on your Instagram
account, so let people knowwhere to come.
Follow you.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Sure, my Instagram account is the name of my van.
It's named Prime the ProMaster,and you can see my rescue dog
that I picked up while I was inBaja last winter.
He's going to be going back tohis hometown and see if he
remembers anything.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Wow, yeah, I'll make sure to link to your social
media and the show notes and,yeah, and hopefully we'll run
into each other at some pointdown there.
You know it's hard to make theboat and the van be at the same
place at the same time, but younever know, we'll be in touch
and yeah, I hope you haveanother great season in there
and I'm excited to follow yourupdates.
Thanks for having me.
Well, you can follow Brooke'sadventures on her Instagram
(41:52):
account.
You'll find that link below inthe show notes, and I'll be
posting about boat life from myaccount, which is at the Wayward
Home.
I hope you enjoyed this episodeof the Wayward Home podcast.
Remember to like, subscribe andleave a review on Apple Podcast
.
It really helps me reach morepeople who are interested in
nomadic living.
I'll see you next time andthanks for tuning in.
Are you wondering if it's safe to travel to Baja in
your campervan?
Do you crave sunny beaches,cheap campsites, amazing food
and a winter playing in thecrystal clear water of the Sea
of Cortez?
We travel to Baja every year onour sailboat and just love that
part of the world, but I wascurious just how different it is
to travel by campervan.
In this episode of the WaywardHome podcast, I interview a
(00:21):
woman who did just that lastyear and she's planning on
making the trek to Baja againand staying even longer this
time.
Hopefully, by the end of thisepisode, you'll be packing your
bags and heading to Baja in yourcampervan too.
Let's go.
Welcome to the.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Wayward Home podcast all about van life, boat life
and nomadic living.
We'll bring you tips,interviews and stories from the
road and on the water.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Now here's your host, kristen Haynes.
Hey there, I'm Kristen Hayneswith thewaywardhomecom, and I
spend half the year in mysprinter van and half on my
sailboat in Mexico, and I hopeto inspire you to achieve your
nomadic living dreams.
So it is November and it'sgetting close to that time of
year when us boaters and vanlifers start thinking about the
sunny beaches and warm waters ofBaja California in Mexico.
(01:03):
So we've traveled to Baja, butonly on our sailboat, and van
lifer Brooke Alexander, ourguest today, goes in her
campervan.
Brooke has been living in herDodge ProMaster campervan since
2020 and has also traveledextensively over the US and
through Baja, so she has somegreat tips and advice about
(01:23):
exploring Baja in a campervan,and I'll talk about the sailboat
side of it and we'll talk aboutsome differences between seeing
Baja by land and by sea.
So, brooke, I'm so excitedyou're here.
Thanks so much for joining theWayward Home podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so great.
So first of all, let's talk alittle bit about Baja.
I just love going there on myboat.
I think it's such a specialplace because it has desert and
(01:45):
ocean.
I don't know any other placereally like it.
So when did you first go toBaja and what inspired you to go
down there.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So I first went to Baja I guess it's technically
still this year, because I wentin January of 2023.
I spent three months there.
It had always been something Ithought about when I moved into
the van and just didn't know ifI was going to be able to make
it work.
But I found some seasoned Bajatravelers and joined a caravan
with them.
So I kind of got to know theropes and now I'm planning my
(02:14):
own trip this year.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Oh, fantastic.
And when you'd heard about Bajabefore and going in the van,
we've only actually driven toBaja.
We haven't even driven to Bajain a van.
Actually, we've driven toPuerto Penaesco in a van, but I
feel like the van experience isa little bit different than the
boat and you have some differentconcerns to worry about.
Driving versus.
We're kind of really farremoved from land and people.
(02:35):
So what were some of your topkind of concerns?
At first, about crossing theborder and going to Baja.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, I just in general get anxiety when I cross
borders.
I've always felt that way, evenif I don't have anything to
hide.
It's just kind of a scaryfeeling, and especially going
into a country where I speakdecent Spanish, but sometimes
they might use words I'm notfamiliar with because I don't
use an everyday language.
So I was really nervous tocross the border, and that was
actually very simple.
(03:02):
Depending on where you crossthat.
They do a quick search of yourvan.
I think two officers came in myvan, opened my cabinets, asked
me a couple of questions, askedme if my dog would bite, and
then said go on your way.
So it was much simpler than Iexpected.
The thing that kind ofsurprised me, I would say, is
(03:22):
that there are checkpointsthroughout Baja, so it's not
just at the border.
There are, I think, sixmilitary checkpoints in between
where you cross that and Cabo.
So it's kind of like you'recrossing the border six times.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, we've also gone through those military
checkpoints when we've driventhe Porto Penaresco in Sonora,
which is similar to Baja, inwhich I don't think you need an
import permit for your vehicleto drive to Sonora or Baja.
Correct, you didn't need to doan import permit for your car,
right.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Correct.
You just have to get your FMMcard, which is quite confusing.
There's not really any clearsigns on where you get that when
you cross the border by land,so you kind of have to know
ahead of time that you need toask someone for it and figure
out where to get it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, that's also a really good tip, because we had
a hard time finding theimmigration and customs office
as well and we've done twodifferent border crossings and
they're kind of a nondescriptrandom buildings.
So where did you cross and howdid you figure out that office?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, so I crossed through Tecate, which is
actually a really small bordercrossing.
Mexicali and Tijuana are the bigones that a lot of people cross
through.
Tijuana is really close to SanDiego, but Tecate is where I
crossed because the group that Iwent with had crossed so many
times and they said this is thebest experience that they've had
because it's so small.
I think we waited maybe fiveminutes to cross the border,
(04:40):
whereas some of the biggercrossings you might wait hours,
and so the FMM card was prettydifficult there.
Even though my friends hadcrossed there before, they still
didn't really quite know whereto find it, and so we wound up
kind of crossing, parking andwandering around for a while.
I think we technically crossedback into the US on foot and
(05:02):
then walked across the footbridge and got our FMM there.
So people were helpful once weasked, but it was kind of like
nobody says anything when you gothrough, and I do know somebody
who went quite a far ways downand had to go back to the border
and get an FMM.
So make sure you get that.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Oh man, yeah, and for people who don't know what FMM
is, that's the visa, the touristvisa, and it lasts for six
months, and so that's what youneed if you're going by boat or
by van, and so I think that'skind of the main thing you have
to do.
At the border, and with ourSprinter, when we brought it
down to Sonora, they did inspectit, like they did with yours,
and they looked at our batteriesand they said do those go with
the van?
Because I think if you do bringnew things into Baja, they
(05:42):
could charge duty.
Did you hear anything aboutduty, or did people warn you
about that?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, and they asked, I think, when we crossed, if we
had, like you know, exorbitantamounts of alcohol or food, or
you definitely don't want tobring produce across the border
either way going to or fromMexico.
So what we did was just kind ofempty our refrigerators and
just take dry goods and then, assoon as we cross them to a
grocery store and fill them.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, totally.
There are a lot of grocerystores in Mexico that have lots
of food.
But if you want specialty itemslike we eat mostly vegetarian
and that's kind of hard to do inMexico if you don't want to eat
just beans and lentils all thetime.
So I tend to bring in, you know, some tofu and some soy curls
and some other like weirdproducts that are hard to find.
Did you bring anything inparticular that?
(06:28):
Oh, and I tend to have a hardtime finding really good coffee
there.
Maybe you have a tip becauseyou're a coffee aficionado like
me, but I have the hardest timefinding really good coffee in
Baja.
So I bring tons of coffee fromthe States.
But what are your likespecialty items?
And if you have any coffee tips, I'd love to know them.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, I'm also vegetarian, so I did bring some
you know, fake meat options,plant-based protein options, but
I did find that the furthersouth you get where, the more
vacation hotspots are, likeChoros, santos and Cabo.
You can find things like thatvery easily there.
Even in La Paz, at Walmart theysell beyond meat products and
things like that.
(07:03):
So that was good to find outand now this year I won't have
to bring so much of that stuff.
Trying to think if there wasanything else that I brought.
I don't think so.
Pretty much everything else Iwas able to find, or I kind of
just adapted my diet to what wasthere.
There's lots of like reallygood fresh fruits and things
(07:23):
that are somewhat different thanin the States.
Bye, guys.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yep, yep, I found that too with the jicamas, the
papayas, like all kinds ofthings that you don't typically
find, that are fresh and reallygood, like tropical fruits, that
those were my favorite thingsto get in Mexico.
But for me it was harder tofind greens, like especially
kale and arugula and stuff.
La Paz was easier, but as aboater going to La Paz is really
complicated because you have togo down a very long narrow
(07:49):
channel to get into the marinas.
Then you have to figure out howto get to the grocery store,
and so often we don't go to LaPaz.
We're sort of in these smallrandom towns that don't have as
good of groceries.
But when we did go to La Paz itwas fantastic.
They do have good stores there,but this year we might not go
there.
So I'm thinking like what do Ihave to bring?
Yes, I do remember.
Do I need to grow my ownarugula on the boat?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I do remember greens being hard to find.
Well now I guess I eat moresalad than I used to, but I was
traveling with a friend who atespinach every day and he had the
hardest time because hecouldn't find any greens to go
with his breakfast in themorning.
And then the coffee thing.
Yeah, there's a real lack ofgood coffee.
(08:30):
Instant coffee is a major thingin Baja, so I wound up buying,
I think, cheap coffee at thegrocery store for the first
month, maybe I was there.
And then, when you get into thecities, some of them do have
more modern style coffeehouseswith fancy coffee, and so I
bought bags of beans from them.
La Paz definitely.
(08:51):
Cabo Soda, santos, pescadero.
Sometimes the farmers marketsin little towns that have expats
have little coffee stands, sothat's a good place to check for
some good coffee.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Awesome.
That's good advice too, andalso what's funny is we love
IPAs and those are sometimeshard to come by in Baja, so we
tend to bring a bunch fromCostco and I know we do mostly
Corona, but sometimes you justcrave that different flavor, and
so that's something else wetend to bring down there.
I don't know if you alsobrought that.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, I didn't bring that, but that is something I
will be bringing.
That's so funny.
We have very similar diets anddrinking habits.
Yes, IPAs were very scarce.
Even I think we went to one ortwo breweries down there and the
IPAs are just not the same.
But I think I wound up drinkinga lot of different things there
(09:41):
, similarly to eating differentthings.
There were a lot of really goodlike fresh not fresh, I guess
canned cocktails or canned likemargaritas and things that were
actually fairly low alcoholcontent and taste really great.
So I kind of kept those in thefridge instead of having beers
in the fridge, and I've actuallystill got two left.
(10:02):
Surprisingly, I kind of stuckthe band on the way back because
I had been so used to drinkingthem there that I was like, well
, now what am I going to do inthe US without these?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That is great advice.
I did see those and I wasworried they would be too sweet
so I didn't buy them.
So I'll have to give that a trythis time.
So that's fun, let's see.
So I'm curious about.
So something I get all the timefrom people and readers of the
Wayward Home is do you feel safein Mexico?
Be careful, the banditos aregoing to get you Like it's not
safe down there.
I get that all the time and I'mwondering if you also, and for
(10:33):
me on the boat and even when wewent to towns to get groceries,
I always felt safe.
I never had any weirdexperiences in Baja.
People were lovely to me and,yeah, I thought it was fantastic
.
And I'm just wondering, fromyour perspective, what did you
experience and what do peopletend to say to you as well?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I definitely got that from family members when I said
I was driving to Mexico, forsure, and sometimes with fellow
RVers.
If you kind of meet like theretiree crowd, they kind of have
that feeling sometimes.
But I had a wonderfulexperience in Mexico.
I have told everyone I feltsafer there than I ever did in
(11:10):
my New York City apartment.
It was everyone there washelpful.
If you needed anything,everyone was willing to talk to
you.
I never had a single bad thinghappen to me and you know, after
a while, since I was there forthree months, I did split up
from my caravan and I was bymyself for quite a while.
I was even parked at one pointon the beach by myself for an
(11:32):
entire week and no one botheredme ever.
I felt completely safe.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
That's so good to hear.
Yeah, and that's what I'veheard from other van lifers
who've been down there as well,and that's something I'm happy
that my listeners and readerscan hear from both of us is that
we've always felt very safedown there and in terms of
safety, like the roads and likecell phone signal.
As someone who drove throughBaja, what was that like?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, so the roads are adventurous and so, from
what I hear from people who havebeen going for many years, they
are great now and I wouldn'tsay that they're terrible by any
means.
But there are spots on the roadwhere it's just like the road
is deteriorating and it's justfull of potholes and quite a few
(12:17):
sections where it's a verynarrow two lane highway, like
there's not any shoulderwhatsoever, so if you were to
bump somebody you would probablyjust fly off the road.
So it does take a little moreconcentration driving through it
and there are quite a fewstretches of no cell signal.
So I would absolutely recommend, if you're driving with anyone,
(12:37):
that you take walkie talkies.
That was super helpful for usin case anybody needed to stop
or needed help with something.
We always kept our walkies onon the same channel and we could
reach out to anybody, anybodyaround.
So that was that was reallyhelpful.
There is a new highwayconnecting, I want to say, cabo
(12:59):
and the West Coast, like Tonosfrom the airport.
I think it's a toll road andit's like brand new and super
fast and super beautiful, butthat is not the case with the
roads up North.
So probably from the first halfof Baja, baja California, as
opposed to Baja California, sir,which is below.
(13:20):
Those roads are definitelyworse.
There's only one way down, soyou have to take them.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, and did you spend a lot of time in the North
or did you guys kind of drivethrough the North to get to Baja
Sur?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
We went relatively quickly.
We stopped in Valle deGuadalupe wine country and
stayed a night there, which I'llbe staying a lot longer on this
trip in wine country, justbecause I'm interested in that
area a little more.
And then I was with a surferand there was a record swell.
So we did stop on some beachesin the North for surfing, which
(13:57):
I probably wouldn't stop at onmy own, but they were really
cute little towns.
They were very, very tiny townswhere all you do there is surf.
There's one taco stand and surf.
So I would say the North mostpeople blow through it.
There are some cute littlestops.
It's worth it for a day or two.
It's probably not where you'regonna spend the most of your
time, yeah and it's probablyreally remote.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
We sailed down the outside of Baja and we stopped
at a lot of those small townsand it had a very remote feeling
.
I think that was 2020 and 2021.
And, yeah, there wasn't muchgoing on and I didn't have
Starlink at the time, so Ibasically had no phone signal
almost the entire outside ofBaja and so it felt I think that
contributed to the remoteness.
But now that there's Starlink,I think it's a little bit easier
(14:38):
to be there.
But did you experience thatfeeling of it seem wild and
remote?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Absolutely, especially with how rugged it is
.
It's just like these ruggedrocks and cliffs and you're like
, wow, I'm in the middle ofnowhere, like it's just ocean
and rocks, and if you're luckythere's a taco stand, but
probably not.
Yeah, it's very remote and wedefinitely used Starlink quite a
bit.
There were times when we didn'twanna to set up the whole
(15:05):
Starlink and so you weredependent on if there was one
business there that might haveWi-Fi, and then everybody, all
the servers are connected to it,everybody who needs to contact
home is connected to it.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
So yeah, oh, how funny.
And for those long stretcheswhere you didn't really have a
lot of phone signal, did youreally do anything in particular
like download maps and downloadcampsites beforehand?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, definitely, that's.
One of my tips for sure is todownload a map.
Never rely on Google Maps inBaja, not only for the lack of
signal, but just for the lack ofclarity in some of the roads.
They just it's not alwaysperfect and up to date and so,
for example, the main road thatwe traveled down is newer and on
(15:46):
the map it was still taking youon the old road, which is not a
road you should be driving onanymore.
It's not maintained.
So, yes, I definitely haddownloaded maps.
I would say carry a paper map,just in case, for some reason,
you don't have access to yourphone anyways, it's good to have
a paper map and definitelydownloaded a lot of things to
(16:08):
listen to.
There are big stretches wherethere's no radio stations or one
radio station, and it kind ofsounds the same for hours and
hours on end.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
That's a good tip to bring something to entertain
yourself, because that's apretty long drive through
Northern Baja At least takesmaybe a couple days, right, if
you're going to just drivestraight through.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, I would say probably two days minimum, but
probably two or three days.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, wow.
So yeah, let's chat about howto find campsites.
Like I know this is verydifferent for you and me,
because we have cruising guidesand this is what, like, we go to
an anchorage and this tells uswhere to go, which anchorages to
go, so we read these extensivebooks to figure out where to
stop along the coast of Baja.
But I'm sure you have manydifferent methods, and so I'm
(16:52):
curious how you find places topark your van.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, I definitely use Ioverlander a ton.
I take it with a grain of salt.
Some of the posts on there areolder and those beaches either
don't exist anymore or areprivate now or you kind of just
got to go with the flow.
If you're using something likethat, I would say I actually
paid for a lot more campsites inBaja than I normally do,
(17:17):
particularly in the popularareas Like Baja.
Concepción is a beautiful bay.
It has like three maincampgrounds.
They're like $20, and while Iwould not usually pay that in
the US, it is absolutely worthit.
You are right on the sand onthe bay in a beautiful place.
So I did find it interesting,as far as campgrounds go, that
(17:39):
they don't take any reservationslike in the US.
So you could call ahead of timeand say do you have a spot for
us tomorrow?
And they would say call me backat 9 am tomorrow and I will
tell you if there's a spot.
And there was one spot, onecampground in Loretto that the
guy said we don't have room, butI will make room for you.
(17:59):
So there were no actual spotsbut crammed us into a corner
together, and so it was justreally interesting because you
just have to go somewhere, notknowing if you have a spot to
stay or not, but the people areso friendly, they don't make it
work.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
That sounds very Mexico-style to me, because
things don't always run by thebook like they do in the US,
which tends to be fairlyregimented, but when you get to
Mexico it's like, oh you know,the rules are just everywhere
and you never kind of know whatto expect.
And that's some of the fun ofBaja as well, I think.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, well, for sure.
You just kind of pull up on thebeach and set up your camp and
then eventually somebody walksaround and says they're
collecting money and they giveyou our receipt.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So that's too funny.
So it sounds like you did findsome beautiful like beachfront
camping.
Is there a lot of that in Baja?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh, yes, I would say probably 90% of where I camped
was on the beach in Baja andit's really gorgeous and ranges
from all different things.
So, like I said, bahiaConcepcion is on the sea of
Cortez side.
It is very calm, beautifulplace to go out on a kayak or a
paddleboard.
And then there's on the otherside, on the Pacific side, like
(19:11):
Pescadero, cerritos, those arebig surf beaches, crazy waves,
very different sand.
It's just totally different.
And then Cabo Palmo NationalPark where a lot of people go
diving.
That beach is actually all rock, it is not sand.
So totally different view there.
And yeah, there is just.
(19:33):
I mean, it sounds like boringto some people when you say I'm
gonna go camp on the beach forthree months.
Some people are like I can't dothat.
But they're very different allover the place.
So it's different experienceson each side.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, that's really interesting and I'm curious what
the campgrounds like.
Are they anything likecampgrounds in the States where
you get like a picnic table anda fire ring and stuff, or what
are they like?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
But mostly not.
Some of them.
I don't even know if I ever hada picnic table.
Don't think I did.
Some of them on the beach havea Palapa and they're usually
like an extra $5 if you have aPalapa as opposed to not having
one.
They're nice if you have agroup of people and you wanna
have like a little shady spot orstore your paddleboards and
(20:19):
things in there when you're notusing them.
But we did find that they alsoare magnets for bugs, mosquitoes
, sometimes mice, so you kindagotta watch with black widows.
So they look beautiful inpictures because you have this
beautiful little palm frondPalapa next to your van.
But they're not quite aspractical as they look in
(20:41):
pictures.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
But interesting.
So the bugs live up in thefronds sometimes.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, I mean it's kind of like a tree.
So yeah, they live there.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Just something to watch, if you have pets or
things Totally, and do they havebathroom facilities and showers
?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Some of them have bathroom facilities and usually
they're kind of just like anouthouse, just like a pit toilet
.
They vary on range ofcleanliness.
I would say always bring yourown toilet paper.
I don't expect that to ever bethere.
Some of the campgrounds thatare maybe in towns it might have
a shower.
It's not probably guaranteed tohave warm water.
(21:23):
That's just that's kind of likea real luxury in Baja to have a
warm shower.
First of all, to have a showerand second of all to have a warm
shower is a real luxury.
So I would say, go in thinkingthat you're not going to get a
warm shower and then when you do, you'll be very pleasantly
surprised.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
So do you recommend people bring their own toilet to
Baja?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Absolutely yes, and you don't have to have, like an
actual toilet or anything fancy.
I take a bucket and kittylitter.
It is just easier when you'reon the beach.
In the middle of nowhere.
It's not appropriate to burywaste on the beach, and so it
just is much easier to use kittylitter and Bag it up and throw
it away when you leave.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Oh cool.
So the way that works is youjust, you know, use a bag in in
the bucket and then you addkitty litter, go add more, and
then you can use it like acouple times and keep Adding
that to get rid of the smell,and then when you leave, you
just throw it out.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
That's kind of how that works, yeah and I would say
that's probably what mostpeople do.
It's just easier.
Some people that havecomposting toilets have said it
can be difficult to find likecoconut core or things for their
composting toilets.
So if you have that, I wouldsay bring it ahead of time or
have enough until you get tosomewhere like Cabo that has big
(22:36):
enough pet stores that mighthave right.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
That's interesting.
And yeah, and did anybody youknow bring like a portable
toilet, like that you have to gointo a bathroom and empty, or
did they not usually do that?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I don't think so I think we had talked to enough
people who had been there beforeand said that finding gum
stations was not as Easy as youwould want it to be, and that
your life would be much simplerif you just brought a bucket.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I know totally, if you had like a big RV with the
like black tanks, like I don'teven know where you would dump
that, I'm sure they have itsomewhere in Baja.
But since I'm not an RVer, I'mnot really in tune to that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, I mean I would imagine it would have to be at
one of in one of the biggercities.
I can't, I don't think there'sany Infrastructure for that in
in the small towns.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, yeah for sure.
And did you ever stay in likean RV park situation?
I think I've seen photos ofthat where people have like a
pool and more facilities.
Did you try that, or were youmostly doing beach camping?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I did.
I stayed in a campground inLoretto, in the city, which is
actually where I found my dogand they had.
They had showers and bathroomsand they had a washing machine,
but it was broken, which is alsolike, don't, don't depend on
(23:50):
that.
And I stayed at another one inLa Paz, which was quite
interesting.
I'll have to send you a pictureof it sometime.
They was one of thosesituations where you call ahead
and they said we promise willfit you in, but it was like I
Mean a jigsaw puzzle like I hadto.
Three people had to leave and Ihad to back in and yeah, and
(24:13):
they had showers and, I think, acommunal kitchen.
I didn't stay anywhere that hada pool.
The only place I even saw apool at a campground, I want to
say was in San Felipe, andBecause San Felipe is so close
to the US, it's always it's likea, often a first stop for
people when they cross theborder.
It's just a few hours.
Because of that, the prices arereally high, because some
(24:37):
people might only go as far asSan Felipe, and so we opted to
stay at a very cheap place thatdidn't have any amenities like
that, but the pool campsiteswhere I want to say like 40 or
$50 us.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, I could see that because in Puerto
Pena's go you also have a lot ofpeople that cross the border
and don't go any further andthere's beautiful beach
campgrounds there, but I thinkthey're like at least 50 a night
and so they're more catering tothe people who aren't really
going deep into Mexico.
And what's funny when you saythat similar to the marinas in
Baja are insanely expensive.
They're, like you know, similarto the US, if not more like.
(25:12):
There's one, that Marina thatwe went to south of Loretto
called Porto Escondido Marina,and it's beautiful.
But if you want to stay on thedocks it's like a hundred bucks
a night and I'm like what?
Like it is so expensive but youhave to book a longer stay for
it to be cheaper.
But still, I was pretty shockedby you know Just how much the
but they're probably gouging meAmericans and Canadians that
come down just by making thoseprice their audience, you know,
(25:34):
so they can get away with it,but I thought that was really
interesting.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I believe it might be that Marina it sounds familiar
there's.
There was a beach campsite thatwe stayed at and from there you
could hike a couple of milesand and get to the Marina and we
had heard a lot of people wouldSneak into the showers there
because they weren't manned, butthere were showers.
Some people were saying, if youwant to hike that far, yes, get
a free shower, yes and I'vetaken a lot of showers there and
(26:03):
they're the nicest showers I'vefound in Baja.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
They actually use like fancy products, really hot
water, like it's really awesome,and there's a restaurant there.
That's a beautiful with a viewof the huge sear I think they're
the Sierra Madres, but thesehuge mountains back there and
you can get a pizza out of thewood fire pizza grill.
So it's kind of like a littletaste of fanciness in the middle
of nowhere, but the pricesreflect that.
Yeah, yeah, if you're, if youhave a chance to check it out,
(26:28):
yeah, do the hike.
Yeah, what were some of yourfavorite areas of Baja that
you're going to go back againthis year?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, like I said before, if I ate, a Guadalupe is
wine country.
It is just stunning.
It's mountainous, beautiful andthere are several wineries that
will let you park overnight, ifyou know, if you buy wine from
them.
We went to one of the biggestwineries which is on harvest
host, but you don't have to beon harvest host to stay there
(27:01):
and their wine is really goodand incredibly cheap.
I want to say like six dollarsfor a really good bottle of wine
.
Yes, so the tasting was like anormal tasting price.
It was like twenty dollars orsomething to do the tasting, but
the bottles were justincredibly cheap.
I know some people bought casesof them to keep with them for
the time they were in Baja and,yeah, that's a really great area
(27:23):
.
There are some more expensiveand more fancy wineries as well.
It's kind of just depending onyour taste.
They also have, like you know,luxury hotels there and you can
sleep in wine barrels and do allthose kinds of things.
If you're interested in that, Ithink I'm gonna be there
actually for Christmas this year, so we might do a hotel or
(27:44):
something just for something tosplurge on for the holidays.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, I've heard great things about that place,
but I haven't been.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
I know I have a friend wholives in San Diego who actually
goes down there for just, youknow, for weekends and things
like that.
So another place I wanna goback to for sure is the beaches
outside of La Paz.
Some of them are justabsolutely stunning, and
Tagalote is one of the popularones.
(28:14):
It gets incredibly crowded,especially during Escapar, which
is a van gathering, and I meanthere was probably over 1,000
vehicles there for the eventlast year.
Yeah, playa Balandra is one ofthe has been rated one of the
most beautiful beaches in theworld.
You cannot camp at it, but youcan visit and they kind of limit
(28:37):
your visit to half a day.
I believe you can either go inthe morning and then they clear
out the beach and bring in theafternoon crew, or vice versa
and Pichilingue, which you mayhave gone to in your sailboat,
because we see lots of sailboatsanchored out there.
It's beautiful and my favoriteplace probably is somewhere
(28:58):
along the East Cape.
So between like Cabo PulmoNational Park and San Jose del
Cabo, there's a stretch of beachwhich is starting to be
developed, but it's stillrelatively undeveloped, so
there's nothing for severalhours.
So if you stock up your van.
You have water and you haveeverything you need.
(29:19):
You can kind of go out thereand just plant yourself for a
while.
So I did that for a while andjust.
It was an incredible experienceto wake up in the morning and
there would be whales breachinglike right.
You could see them right outyour door and like things I
never thought possible.
When I moved into a van I waslike this is incredible.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
That's really cool that you could see that from the
beach too, because that's oneof the joys of being in the
sailboat anchored at theseplaces is you just have this
front row seat to all thiswildlife.
And you're right, it does comeinto the bays, because we've had
whales, dolphins, stingrays.
I don't know if you've seen theMobula rays leaping out of the
water, but it's just.
It's really interesting thewildlife you see down there.
It's very populated withwildlife and I know a lot of
(30:04):
it's actually gone, because mostof the shark population is gone
.
A lot of it's over fished.
We had a hard time evencatching a fish last year but
there's still a lot of wildlifeto see, so it's one of my
favorite parts.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, there was way more wildlife than I had ever
expected.
I've heard people talk aboutyou know, going on the whale
watching boats and things likethat, but I didn't realize from
the beach how much you could see.
Pretty much every night andevery morning on the beach you
could see whales on both sides.
So there were humpback whalesand gray whales, because it is
(30:37):
migration season and calvingseason, and so also you could
see lots of babies, which wasincredible.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
That's so cool.
Have you heard of the?
There's a little bay that's onthe Pacific side, ignacio, maybe
, where you can go and take aboat out to be with the
humpbacks and their young.
Did you do that?
Are you thinking of doing thatthis year?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, so we because I was with a group that went down
in January.
We were early, so we stoppedjust outside of Guerrero Negro.
The bay is called Ojo de Libreand we went on a boat and we saw
several whales because theywere just starting to come in.
But the captain said that therewere probably somewhere around
(31:18):
like I think 30 or 40 whales atthat time and there are like
2,500 that come in season.
So like we were like right atthe beginning of it I know that
people who were going back uparound end of February-ish kind
of got like the best show andI've seen all of their pictures
and videos Like the whales comeright up to the boat.
They're like.
(31:38):
They like want to be petted,like puppies, like they are,
like I guess they're very, veryinteractive and, from my
experience at least, like theboat tour company was pretty
ethical, like they didn't doanything to bring the whales to
them.
They kind of just exist andcome up on their own.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
That's incredible and that's something I would like
to do sometime.
Which is a little bit harder onthe boat, cause you have to
find somewhere to dock it andthen you got to get a car and
drive over there, so it's easierfor you in the van, definitely
yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And like that place I want to say it was called
Mario's, I can't quite remember,but they have camping.
There's a campground on site soyou can camp there and then get
up and do like the earlymorning boat tour and go out and
see the whales, or I mean youcan stay as long as you want,
but that's ideally what youwould do is, you know, go on the
morning one before it gets toocrowded and you're fighting for
(32:29):
space on a boat.
But the camping was also veryaffordable there I don't want to
say it was like maybe $10 orsomething, and then you can go
out right in the morning.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Very cool, fantastic.
There's just so many places toexplore in Baja, and you went
with a group last year, so areyou planning a solo trip this
year?
Are you meeting people, or howis that working?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So I'm going to cross the border with two friends
Well, right now it's two friends.
We don't know, there might bemore people that join us and we
are going to do the holidaystogether and then kind of it's
up in the air.
I'm pretty used to traveling bymyself, so once I get to a
certain point I kind of feellike we'll probably split up and
then meet back up, and that'sjust kind of how we all travel
(33:10):
in general.
So it makes sense to do thesame in Baja, I think, crossing
the border.
You can absolutely cross theborder by yourself, it's
perfectly safe.
But I think a lot of us justfeel comfortable crossing the
border together.
You know, in case somethinghappens, like somebody knows
where you are.
You know we have tabs on eachother, and that was the first
couple of days through the northpart of Baja, where there isn't
(33:32):
anything and there isn't cellsignal.
It just is easier to do withother people.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, that makes total sense because, yeah,
there's way more in Baja Surtowns and people and cell
signals.
It feels a little less remoteand better to be on your own,
I'm sure.
So I wanted to ask you aboutgear, like essential gear you
think people should bring, orwhat you wish you had.
You know you didn't have, butwhat you're bringing this year.
Anything you can recommendabout gear?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yes, definitely so.
Walkie-talkies is the numberone.
So I would say, if you don'tget anything else, get
walkie-talkies so that you cancommunicate with people and you
don't have cell signal, becausethat's going to be frequent,
that you don't have cell signal.
Second, I would say, get somesort of traction boards,
something to get yourself outwhen you get stuck.
I got stuck a couple of times,one in the sand, one in the
(34:19):
rocks and sand, and actuallythat time I wound up having to
get pulled out by a friend.
So that was a little bitridiculous.
But the time I got stuck in thesand I was by myself and I have
Gotreds, which I highlyrecommend.
They take up hardly any space.
They fold up very small.
They can also be used asleveling blocks, which is like I
(34:41):
love things that work more thanone function in the van.
So Gotreds are like my absolutefavorite gear item I have.
I have used them to get out ofsand many times.
They're easy to use on your ownand I would say mud is the only
thing they're not great at, andthere's not really going to be
mud in Baja.
So for Baja they are a must andthey just take up so much less
(35:04):
space than those dry attractionboards when you have such
limited room in your van.
I would say two other thingsthat I would recommend are these
are like not must-haves, butnice to have Something to air
down your tires with.
So if you have like a presetsthat you can just air down your
(35:24):
tires quickly and then acompressor to put air back in
your tires, it just makes it somuch easier to drive on sand or
on some of like the really,really rocky areas.
It's just a lot nicer.
I had a compressor with me, butnot the air down tool, so I was
able to borrow that from afriend and I think I will
definitely have my own this yearand I'll probably have even a
(35:47):
better compressor.
My compressor took quite awhile to air my tires back up,
but I mean, if you have time,you don't need anything fancy,
and even as slow as mine was, Ialso liked it to other people.
So that's definitely somethingI would bring?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah, that's a great tip.
Yeah, did you bring like stuffto go in the water with, or are
you bringing that this year?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
So I bought a snorkel , which is quite funny because I
don't like fish and I probablydidn't even really anticipate
going snorkeling when I broughtone.
I would say if you have one,bring one.
If you plan on snorkeling,bring that stuff.
You can buy it there, but it'sgoing to be at a premium because
everyone needs one.
And what I didn't know is thatif you plan on swimming a lot or
(36:31):
surfing or doing anything inthe water, you probably want a
wetsuit.
The water is much colder than Ianticipated.
It's not very warm and youdon't want to be in it very long
if you don't have a wetsuit on.
So if you plan on swimming ordoing anything in the water,
definitely bring a wetsuit,because they are more difficult
to find there for sure.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Definitely that's great advice because sometimes
when we've been on the boat inthe winter, or even in March
when we went last year the waterwas very cold and I did wear a
3-2 wetsuit for a long time butonce we reached we were in the
water actually way longer than Iwould recommend.
We're there until aboutmid-June and it was so hot but
the water was about 85 by thetime we left.
(37:13):
So by May and June it's reallywarm and I was just swimming
everywhere with no wetsuit andit was just fantastic for
snorkeling and swimming.
But I know, if it's not warmwater it's definitely May or
June or September or October,but in the winter it is cold and
we definitely wear wetsuits allthe time.
But yeah, it depends on whattime of year you're in the sea,
because the water I think in thesummer it gets up to like 90
(37:34):
there, because I have someboater friends who stay all
summer.
I don't know how they do it,but the water gets really warm
but the air is also really hotand that makes it hard to sleep,
especially if you're in a vaneven a smaller space in the boat
and I imagine it gets evenhotter unless you have a way to
run an AC unit.
So I don't think a lot of vanlifers go in summer.
I don't want to be there on theboat either.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
No, I was just thinking that.
I was thinking that by the timeI left at the end of March it
was so hot in the van already itwas like 90 degrees on the East
Cape when I was deciding that Ineeded to leave.
It was just kind of getting tobe unbearable already, and it
was only March, so I cannotimagine being there in June or
(38:18):
some other month that's hotterthan that.
Yeah, it was a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
I know and that's something we noticed with the
boat as well, as when we wereout at anchor we got more
breezes off the water and thewater there was cooler, like
maybe 70.
But then, when we'd walk to thebeach and we'd walk to where
some of the vans and the truckcampers were, we're like, oh my
gosh, it's hot, because the sandgets hot.
It just makes you get that landheat coming up, and so it is a
warmer experience, I think, ifyou're in the van and you have
(38:44):
to leave a little earlier,something for people to keep in
mind.
All right, so, brooke, you havesome more tips to share with
people thinking of making thejourney this year.
Yeah, what other advice do youhave?
Speaker 2 (38:56):
So when you are going to cross the border by land in
a vehicle, you have to haveMexican auto insurance.
Your US policy does not coveryou driving in Mexico, and so
you'll need to purchase a policy.
You can typically purchase like10 days a month, three months,
(39:16):
six months.
I think I did a six monthpolicy for the valuation I put
on my van and what I thought Ineeded.
I think it cost me like $300for six months, something like
that.
There are definitely higherplans, lower plans.
Search around.
Baja Bound is a company that alot of people go with.
(39:39):
It's very gringo, friendly.
You can also, though, searcharound and find cheaper rates
with smaller companies.
I used Lewis and Lewis, andthat's who I'm going to use
again.
They had by far the best ratefor what I was looking for, so
that's what I would recommendthere.
If you have any pets, you needto have proof of all of their
(40:03):
vaccinations, and you need, Iwould say, print out paper
copies to have with you, andyou'll also be asked for your
vehicle registration when youcross the border, so make sure
that you have that with you.
So those are my main things.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah, I'm glad you remembered to mention about
insurance, because even when webring our van to Puerto
Penaresco to work on the boat,we still have to have insurance.
You know, whether it's our oldAstro or the newer Sprinter.
Yeah, the US insurance does notwork.
So that's so important that youbrought that up.
So thank you for rememberingthat tip.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Also depending on how long you're going to go, for I
have heard people say that theyhave been able to freeze their
US policy so that they're notmaking payments on their US
policy when they're not using it.
So contact your company and seeif there is a pause that you
can put on it if you're going tobe gone for several months.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Yeah, that's also a great advice, so cool.
Well, yeah, thanks for sharingall this amazing information.
I hope it inspires more peopleto make the trek, and you're
going to be posting about it,I'm sure, on your Instagram
account, so let people knowwhere to come.
Follow you.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Sure, my Instagram account is the name of my van.
It's named Prime the ProMaster,and you can see my rescue dog
that I picked up while I was inBaja last winter.
He's going to be going back tohis hometown and see if he
remembers anything.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Wow, yeah, I'll make sure to link to your social
media and the show notes and,yeah, and hopefully we'll run
into each other at some pointdown there.
You know it's hard to make theboat and the van be at the same
place at the same time, but younever know, we'll be in touch
and yeah, I hope you haveanother great season in there
and I'm excited to follow yourupdates.
Thanks for having me.
Well, you can follow Brooke'sadventures on her Instagram
(41:52):
account.
You'll find that link below inthe show notes, and I'll be
posting about boat life from myaccount, which is at the Wayward
Home.
I hope you enjoyed this episodeof the Wayward Home podcast.
Remember to like, subscribe andleave a review on Apple Podcast
.
It really helps me reach morepeople who are interested in
nomadic living.
I'll see you next time andthanks for tuning in.
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