Baja! 1,900 miles in a T100.

[calixto]

Not exactly a Land Cruiser but a great Toyota truck none the less. I just got back from an epic surf trip to Scorpion Bay and Abre Ojos in Southern Baja. We drove over 1,900 miles on mixed terrain including about 200 miles on washboards and salt flats. The T100 is about 9 years old and showing it's age but it is a perfect Baja truck being reliable and not too flashy....especially since there have been a bunch of shootings and car jackings/kidnapings lately. Most of the Americans that have been jacked have had huge tricked out new rigs with trailers hauling bikes &/or jetskis. We weren't able to get all of our boards inside the camper shell this time, which was kind of a bummer, but it didn't really seem to pull too much extra attention. The military was out in force along hwy 1 and we went through about 6 check points. We also saw about 6 different Humvee trucks loaded with .50 cal machine gunners just waiting to light something up cruising the highway. While we didn't do anything too crazy offroad we did definitely put the T100 through it's paces on the wash boards and sand. It was definitely comforting to have a reliable truck considering how remote much of Southern Baja can be.

The waves at Scorpion Bay were insane. A little on the small side but definitely some of the longest rides I have ever had in my life....and I have surfed Pavones and Mundaka when they were doing their thing properly. Longest in the world??? I heard a guy got a 4 minute ride at Scorpion Bay last year when all the points were lining up perfectly. The camping set up is also really cool. Abre Ojos didn't really behave for us this time but we got it scoped out for the next trip.

Anyway, here are a couple pics of the rig and the landscape.

[calixto]

Pics Below.

[Moe R]

That's it ? 2 pic's?? 1900 miles? Surf ? Pic's? Scotty I need more power.I can't hold her, She's breaking up, she's breaking up! Captain that's simply illogical

[calixto]

Got a decent amount of pics but wanted to put up a couple with the truck due to the content on this site. My camera batteries died around day 6. Waiting to get the surf shots back from my buddies camera. Most of my water shots are out of focus with water marks still on the lens. Doh! It's still sketchy Mex so I didn't get to take the nice camera. Always next time. Here are a couple more.

[calixto]

How about that snake. This dude was crazy.

[SOCALFJ]

Awesome, more pics please!

[dealmaker]

X2!!!

Originally Posted by SOCALFJ

Awesome, more pics please!

[Hltoppr]

Ahh...San Ignacio and Guerro Negro! Great places!

Glad you guys had a good trip!

-H-

[cpg]

What kind of gas mileage do you get in that truck?

Thanks for the trip report.

[calixto]

Yeah, San Ignacio was amazing, wish we could have hung out there longer than a couple hours. I was surprised that the little cities on the Sea of Cortez side were way nicer than the Pacific. I guess the little marinas bring in boating tourist dollar better than surfers do on the Pacific. Not sure about gas mileage but it was pretty decent. The T100 has a smaller V6 in it. We got damn close to running out coming back to Guerro Negro from Bocano and Punta Abre Ojos. The gas is way cheaper down there so if you are heading down wait & fill up after you get over the border. I will say it was pretty empty down there..good time to hit up Scorpion Bay while the crowds are low. I guess there are something like 300 people there on average June, July, August.

[AdventureBuddies]

Dude! Let's see pics of the waaaaaaaave!

[calixto]

Here are a couple but like I said above most of my surf shots with the water housing came out pretty bad. These are the last day we were at Scorpion when the swell had pretty much died. I shot mostly video of the surf. At least in these you can see how the wave sets up. This is only 2nd point...keep in mind that 3rd, 2nd and 1st sometimes all hook up.

[made4surf]

I might be in Abre at the begining of July, let me know if your going to be down there.

[calixto]

Cool. Have you been before? Check out Bocana up the road also, it looked fun. There is a pretty protected little camp resort "Rene's" down the road from Abre that is pretty chill.

[made4surf]

Been going down there with my parents for around 25 years now, they also have a house in town.

La Bocana is pretty cool but I still like Abre more, and the fishing at Renes can be unreal. Next time you go make sure you bring a pole in case its flat.

[charleston]

wow! Sure wish I lived a little closer to real surf, but seeing waves peel like that for hundreds of yards would be worth the drive! Got any shots of the swell in action?

[latinoguy]

Calixto,
Can you elaborate on the drive legs and drive times that you did to get there?...I have driven the baja before but never marathon style...more like 6-8 hours driving per day....
A buddy and I are planning a late August trip for a week...thinking about sticking to points in baja norte (between Punta San Jose and San Quintin...)

[made4surf]

I've found that from TJ I can usually get to San Quintin in about 5 hours, and around 12-14 to Abre.

BTW, how long have you lived in the valley? My mom grew up there and I still have an uncle and grandma there.

[calixto]

Yeah my buddy that got the surf shots is still out of town...to be honest we didn't get too many surf shots because we were out there the entire time. I got a couple on a smaller day but like I said above I had issues with my water housing & the pics are lousy. I'll put up the ones my buddy took when he gets back in town & sends them to me.

Yeah the driving down there isn't too bad if you plan ahead. 1)Don't take anything down there that you would be upset if it got stolen. 2) Never drive at night!!! can't stress this enough. 3) Always make sure you have plenty of water, gas and food and a spare tire or two especially if you are doing some remote exploring 4) take a reliable but not flashy vehicle and try to fit everything inside 5) try to camp in secure spots especially around bigger cities eg San Quintin. I've heard there have been a lot of car jackings/robberies around San Quintin/Quatro Casa area. There is a good secure/cheap hotel in San Quintin(about 5 hours) called THE OLD MILL that you can't miss. Not sure I would camp out at Quatros Casa's right now. A surfers girlriend got raped there a couple months back. Are you surfing down there? If so check out the book THE SURFERS GUIDE TO BAJA it has every spot and camping info..even if you aren't surfing it is a great refernce book for all the different spots....you will have tons of options between TJ & San Quintin but after that there isn't a whole lot of options until you get to about Seven Sisters(8 hours) or Guerrero Negro(9.5).

Just be smart and you'll have a great time. Have fun.

[calixto]

Sorry it took so long. Here is a shot of just a section of one of the points (3rd) doing it's thing.

[GreenBomber]

Oh man, you scored!

Not to "hijack" but...

Me and a buddy went to the Wall about 2 months ago and pretty much got skunked. Luckily there was only one other camper there, so at least we got uncrowded surf.

Unfortunately, my axle shaft broke in San Quetin, and almost died... My wheel flew by me at 40mph, we dropped to the pavement and slid for about 50 yards off the side of an embankment... took a bus home, walked through TJ at 2am with all our stuff... One of the smartest things I've ever done!! Best part my truck was in one piece the next week I went down to fix it.

Look MA! No axle!




We got one good day of surf... (Lobos)

[calixto]

Holy shit...that is pretty much worst case senario! Two of the worst cities to hang in Baja. Did a SQ mechanic patch your rig up to drive home or how did you get it back? Glad you guys were okay. I've heard the wall can be fickle. Here are a couple shots of one of the point breaks around 7 sisters during that bomber swell at the end of Nov begining of Dec. It got heavy. We are actually down around the corner in the Billabong shot.

[GreenBomber]

Man its amazing how identical all the points look down there. Oh man I can't beleve you guys got to go down for that swell...!!!! I bet it was heavy but I bet some of the points probably groomed it out nice. My dad was down at Cardon at the time but he said it was too big for him.

Its scary how good the roads are these days down there though. I decided Im going to ditch my 4runner soon and get a 2wd for Baja... haha.

Nah I had to go back and fix it.... My dad's #1 rule growing up always told me "never travel through baja with one rig". Since noone wanted to go since of the crazy cartel guys, I had to go alone with my buddy. Ended up eating crap, funny how that works.

Luckily, I got a new axle shaft assembly with pressed bearings, a new drum, shoes and wheel cylinder, slid on new brake lines, an axle seal and bolted her up and drove home. I had all my tools down there with me, but, I still needt go back to the states to get the part!

[charleston]

Originally Posted by calixto

Sorry it took so long. Here is a shot of just a section of one of the points (3rd) doing it's thing.

Wow that place is incredible!! I bet it holds big surf too, I can only imagine....

[Skillet]

Hey...

I recognize a few of those places...

[calixto]

Too funny Skillet. That church was pretty awesome. We had to get going but I would to have loved to hang in San Ignacio for a little while.

[Skillet]

Originally Posted by calixto

Too funny Skillet. That church was pretty awesome. We had to get going but I would to have loved to hang in San Ignacio for a little while.

It was raining pretty hard when we got downtown on that trip. We ate at a cool little place and got the hell out.

Couple years ago when I went through there on my XR600, we stayed for a day and ate at another great restaurant where the manager (Victor) treated us very well. I think he was a little light in the loafers, if you get my drift.

I really like that little town, like paradise in the middle of nowhere-ville.