Camping the Baja

My campsite on the beach, El Requeson, Bahia Concepcion, Baja Sur.

I am spending almost every night in van, until lately (more on that later), that is why I bought my Sprinter and converted it to a camper van.  And things are working out great with my van (until recently), with a couple of exceptions which I will get to in a minute.  First, I have not "wild camped" once since I got into Mexico, it has just not felt right.  Even though there are many spots listed on iOverlander, I have not felt comfortable simply pulling off the main highway, and driving down some random dirt or sandy road to camp on the beach.  First of all, the roads suck, and my van is not a 4x4, so getting stuck in the sand is a real possibility if I am not careful.  And second, I just do not think it would be safe to simply drive down some road and camp.  This is not to say that it is unsafe here in Mexico, that is totally not true.  Mexico gets a bad rap about crime, drugs, guns, etc. (just ask our President, who is convinced that everyone who crosses the border into the USA from Mexico is a drug dealer, criminal, a generally bad person), but I have felt totally safe during my travels.  I like the Mexicans, they are great people.  The Baja is totally safe, probably safer than many parts of the US, though you do need to be smart, be sensible, be logical.  Safety in numbers is the rule for camping in the Baja, and so far, I have camped at campos, campgrounds, and I have not had any problems.  And actually, the only report I have gotten about bandidos, and I heard of this event from more than one person: people camping by themselves on the beach were robbed at gunpoint.  This event took place only a couple of beaches away from where I was camping at El Requeson along Bahia Concepcion.  Nobody was hurt, and the folks were apparently camping alone.  I never camp alone, and if there are no other campers at a particular spot, unless it is a developed campground, with workers around, a fence, a gate, I do not camp.  Be smart, stay safe, and you will really enjoy your camping experience in the Baja.

Ok, the only two issues I have had camping in my van during this trip, are related, related to the wind.  I have had to cook in my van way too much, even making coffee in the morning.  I can cook in my van, but I prefer not to unless I have no choice.  During this trip, I often have had no choice, it has just been too windy to use the two-burner outdoors, even in lee of my van.  And pretty much every time I make use my stove, in my van, even to simply make coffee in the morning, I set off the smoke alarm.  Good to know that it works, but how annoying, to me, and anyone within earshot.  I realize that it is expected to be windy at the beach, but man, it has been really windy most days, evenings, just tough to cook outside.  And the second issue on this trip is that I have had to spend way too much time hanging out in my van, just too windy most evenings, and even too cold, to chill outside after the sun goes down (well I actually do "chill" outside, just not the right kind of "chilling").  I have really begun to suffer from RV-envy, really would like to have a tad bit more living space in the van.  I still really like my layout, design, I just would like to have a bit more room to move around when confined to the fan virtually every night because of the wind.  Things are fine, I can still work on the computer, download images from my various cameras, write, etc., it is just that I would enjoy a bit more space.  Maybe next time.

Since I crossed the border into Mexicali and began my journey south in the Baja, starting in San Felipe, and now in Cabo San Lucas, I have camped at all kinds of campgrounds, at a bunch of different campsites, some with great facilities, some without any facilities.  The costs have ranged from $100 pesos per night, to $500 pesos.  Some have had nice bathroom facilities, flush toilets and hot showers, other places have had no facilities.  Some campsites have had just amazing views, while at others, I have looked out of my van to see a concrete wall.  Some have been campsites on the beach with nothing between me and the water except sand, others have been in a town.  And some campgrounds are filled with semi-permanent residents (mostly from Canada) who stay put in their often huge RVs for the winter, while other places are filled with vagabonds like me, just passing through on that search for the perfect beach.  People are generally friendly, such is the nature of these folks, people you meet in campgrounds in general, though many kind of keep to themselves.  As I suggested above, many of the folks I run into at campgrounds here are Canadians, mostly from BC and Alberta, and I am totally ok with that, I like Canadians.  There are many from the US here as well, mostly from western states such as California, Arizona, and even up to Idaho and Washington state, all generally nice people, some even interesting people.  Regardless of the situation, the nature of different campgrounds and sites, it has been interesting journey, well worth every minute.  Below is a slide show of most of the places where I have stayed during my Baja adventure, starting in the north, and moving south.  I hope this gives you a sense of what it is like, to Camp the Baja.

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