Agua Verde, Baja Sur Mexico
- Thread starter umpqua
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Shazaam, I'm techno.
I'm planning another trip to Mexico around the Christmas/NY holiday at the end of this year. Will probably be 3 weeks door to door. Might go back to the baja or preferably south of Puerto Vallarta, La Manzinillo in particular. It would be great to have some fellow cruiser drivers along. Did some fairly good 4x4 ing in baja.
Let me know if anyone is interested in a trip south of the border at the end of this year. Mexico is the best.
I'm planning another trip to Mexico around the Christmas/NY holiday at the end of this year. Will probably be 3 weeks door to door. Might go back to the baja or preferably south of Puerto Vallarta, La Manzinillo in particular. It would be great to have some fellow cruiser drivers along. Did some fairly good 4x4 ing in baja.
Let me know if anyone is interested in a trip south of the border at the end of this year. Mexico is the best.
Looks like a great trip. More pics?
x2 on the pics!! Also interested in the route, etc. Got it posted somewhere else, or gonna post it up here?
Had been planning a route thru Copper canyons and then Topoloblampo ferry to Baja. But I don't have any experience in Baja to know where to plan to come north toward CA.
Thanks!
I;ve been to Agua Verde a few times. It's an awesome place.
keep us posted
Check out Lost World Expeditions, they may be in your neck of the woods right now as they just got back down that way. They post on here occasionally but are more focused with their site.
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- #8
I will get some more pics and try to post them.
Left Portland on the afternoon of 12/21 and drove to No. Cali for the night. Picked up quite a bit of snow in the Siskiyou's. Folks were chaining up and the cop at the check point very quickly waved us through. Camped out in the cruiser the first night in a closed campground, safely away from the highway.
Arrived San Diego after driving through EPIC holiday traffic on I-5. Stop and go for no apparent reason from Sacramento south. I-5 north had been closed for a time due to a truck wreck in the snow. Warmed up though closer to SD. Stayed in a cheap hotel on the US side of the border on the 22nd.
Up early on the 23rd. Already gassed up and would need NOTHING from Tijuana south for quite a ways. There is a new border crossing at TJ and it took us all of 30 minutes to get the FMM and papers for the car as that is needed if you are crossing from Baja state to Baja sur. Through the border crossing a rolling quickly south by 8am on the toll road all the way to Ensenada. Total of the three tolls to Ensenada 90 pesos (about 7 bucks). Well worth it....good road. Drove all the way to Guerrero Negro the first night. 450miles. Get on it early and stay on it. The idea being to get to the good stuff and away from all of the border troubles the first night. NO reason that I know of to hang anywhere around the US border. Troubles. Stayed the evening of the 23rd at the Cowboy Hotel in GN. I recommend it. Cheap ($3usd), clean and has a safe place to park. Also, really good food at the hotel.
Up early (it's a theme) on the 24th. Christmas Eve. Drove GN to Mulege. 175 miles. Easier day. Got a few things in Mulege (cool town) and a margarita then left for Bahai Conception. Camped out at Escondido. If you go you will notice the first beach visible from the road before Escondido is Santispac. It should be called SantisPACKED because there are lot's and LOT's of motor homes on this beach. A small city. Escondido in NOT visible from Mex 1 and you need a high clearance vehicle to access it. Not 4x4 but it's steep and rough enough to keep the wine and cheese blue hair crowd out. We stayed there 3 nights and met some pretty cool people. There were probably 4 sets of campers there when we arrived and another came there while we were there. Make no mistake about it though, this is a great spot. Free with Palapa's. Nice, easy vibe. A local came by one morning selling shrimp. Nice! Started getting a bit crowded for us and I wanted to push on to Agua Verde as I'd been there once before an loved it.
Said or so longs and left Escondido on the morning of the 27th. Drove to Loreto, 85 miles (another nice town) for supplies; more beer, more tequila, more ice, limes and of course shrimp and scallops. The road to Agua Verde is about 30 miles south of Loreto and then another 30 miles or so on a dirt road. The road itself off of Mex 1 is ok quality wise but I give it an 8 for scenic beauty. You are driving through the desert with little to no traffice. As you descend to the Sea of Cortez and Agua Verde you are treated to remarkable views but you had better keep you mind on the task at hand; driving. The side of the road plummets hundreds of feet to the canyon floor and this would be a "one shot" error if you found yourself of the road. I'd give it about a hundred rollovers. To find the beach at Agua Verde I would suggest driving into the "town" of Agua Verde itself and then backtrack down the hill that you climbed to reach town and look for a rough looking road to the right, headed for the Sea of Cortez. This is a fun 4x4 road through an arroyo that is about a mile long before reaching what is a spectacular beach. The beach itself is about 3 miles long. There were two other groups camping there but they were so far away that it seemed as though you had it all to yourself. If there is a better beach anywhere I've yet to find it. The folks that we spoke with there in there 4x4 truck with camper were staying for 3 months! What a life. This is a great, great place.
We stayed at Agua Verde for 3 nights. Drinking, eating, sitting around the fire and walking the beach. A great place to decompress. We left on the morning of the 30th and headed for the Pacific coast to see if we could see any whales. We arrived at some small town (can't remember the name) that afternoon and camped in the parking lot of the place where you rent boats to go into Magdellana Bay. I guess that we were early in the season as not many whales were around. We pushed off early from there the next morning and headed for the mission at San Javier. The road to San Javier was probably the roughest washboard road that I've ever encountered. Slow going but the scenery and beer was cold. The mission itself and the town on San Javier are both very pretty. We stayed in a little family place off the square that night for $30. As it turned out there was very little hot water in the shower and we ended up cooking a nice dinner for the family outside on there outdoor kitchen. Oh well. A good experience anyway.
The next morning New Years eve back to Mulege for fiesta. We stayed at some hotel ($40) that was nice enough and they DID have hot water. The band in the square started playing at 10pm and played literally till 7 the next morning. These people take there parties seriously. Nice friendly group though with many cervezas consumed.
New Years day we began the trip north towards the border. We camped at the Bay of LA which in my opinion wasn't worth going back to. It was however far enough (35 mi) off of Mex 1 so we enjoyed the evening. Crossed back over the border into the US at TJ after dark on the evening of the 2nd. Stayed in a hotel in San Diego the 2nd, with a friend in Santa Clara on the 3rd and back in Portland on the 4th.
A little over 4K miles on the trip. Gas in Mexico was about $3.15/gallon. Obviously spent a LOT of money on fuel on this trip. Mex 1 is a very dangerous highway. It is narrow and the shoulder is non existent. There are many, many crosses along this road. Guardrails are damaged. Livestock is on the highway. People pull out in front of you. Trucks. Busses. SLOW is the operative word here. We saw a rollover with fatalities on the return trip. Military checkpoints all along the way manned by what appear to be 15 year old kids with automatic weapons. No drugs? No guns? No problemo.
I have been to the Copper Canyon and would love to do that trip again with others. Organize the trip and I'm game.
Let me know if you have any questions. If you haven't been to the baja or Mexico in general you should go. It's a great trip.
I'll try to post up some pics.
Left Portland on the afternoon of 12/21 and drove to No. Cali for the night. Picked up quite a bit of snow in the Siskiyou's. Folks were chaining up and the cop at the check point very quickly waved us through. Camped out in the cruiser the first night in a closed campground, safely away from the highway.
Arrived San Diego after driving through EPIC holiday traffic on I-5. Stop and go for no apparent reason from Sacramento south. I-5 north had been closed for a time due to a truck wreck in the snow. Warmed up though closer to SD. Stayed in a cheap hotel on the US side of the border on the 22nd.
Up early on the 23rd. Already gassed up and would need NOTHING from Tijuana south for quite a ways. There is a new border crossing at TJ and it took us all of 30 minutes to get the FMM and papers for the car as that is needed if you are crossing from Baja state to Baja sur. Through the border crossing a rolling quickly south by 8am on the toll road all the way to Ensenada. Total of the three tolls to Ensenada 90 pesos (about 7 bucks). Well worth it....good road. Drove all the way to Guerrero Negro the first night. 450miles. Get on it early and stay on it. The idea being to get to the good stuff and away from all of the border troubles the first night. NO reason that I know of to hang anywhere around the US border. Troubles. Stayed the evening of the 23rd at the Cowboy Hotel in GN. I recommend it. Cheap ($3usd), clean and has a safe place to park. Also, really good food at the hotel.
Up early (it's a theme) on the 24th. Christmas Eve. Drove GN to Mulege. 175 miles. Easier day. Got a few things in Mulege (cool town) and a margarita then left for Bahai Conception. Camped out at Escondido. If you go you will notice the first beach visible from the road before Escondido is Santispac. It should be called SantisPACKED because there are lot's and LOT's of motor homes on this beach. A small city. Escondido in NOT visible from Mex 1 and you need a high clearance vehicle to access it. Not 4x4 but it's steep and rough enough to keep the wine and cheese blue hair crowd out. We stayed there 3 nights and met some pretty cool people. There were probably 4 sets of campers there when we arrived and another came there while we were there. Make no mistake about it though, this is a great spot. Free with Palapa's. Nice, easy vibe. A local came by one morning selling shrimp. Nice! Started getting a bit crowded for us and I wanted to push on to Agua Verde as I'd been there once before an loved it.
Said or so longs and left Escondido on the morning of the 27th. Drove to Loreto, 85 miles (another nice town) for supplies; more beer, more tequila, more ice, limes and of course shrimp and scallops. The road to Agua Verde is about 30 miles south of Loreto and then another 30 miles or so on a dirt road. The road itself off of Mex 1 is ok quality wise but I give it an 8 for scenic beauty. You are driving through the desert with little to no traffice. As you descend to the Sea of Cortez and Agua Verde you are treated to remarkable views but you had better keep you mind on the task at hand; driving. The side of the road plummets hundreds of feet to the canyon floor and this would be a "one shot" error if you found yourself of the road. I'd give it about a hundred rollovers. To find the beach at Agua Verde I would suggest driving into the "town" of Agua Verde itself and then backtrack down the hill that you climbed to reach town and look for a rough looking road to the right, headed for the Sea of Cortez. This is a fun 4x4 road through an arroyo that is about a mile long before reaching what is a spectacular beach. The beach itself is about 3 miles long. There were two other groups camping there but they were so far away that it seemed as though you had it all to yourself. If there is a better beach anywhere I've yet to find it. The folks that we spoke with there in there 4x4 truck with camper were staying for 3 months! What a life. This is a great, great place.
We stayed at Agua Verde for 3 nights. Drinking, eating, sitting around the fire and walking the beach. A great place to decompress. We left on the morning of the 30th and headed for the Pacific coast to see if we could see any whales. We arrived at some small town (can't remember the name) that afternoon and camped in the parking lot of the place where you rent boats to go into Magdellana Bay. I guess that we were early in the season as not many whales were around. We pushed off early from there the next morning and headed for the mission at San Javier. The road to San Javier was probably the roughest washboard road that I've ever encountered. Slow going but the scenery and beer was cold. The mission itself and the town on San Javier are both very pretty. We stayed in a little family place off the square that night for $30. As it turned out there was very little hot water in the shower and we ended up cooking a nice dinner for the family outside on there outdoor kitchen. Oh well. A good experience anyway.
The next morning New Years eve back to Mulege for fiesta. We stayed at some hotel ($40) that was nice enough and they DID have hot water. The band in the square started playing at 10pm and played literally till 7 the next morning. These people take there parties seriously. Nice friendly group though with many cervezas consumed.
New Years day we began the trip north towards the border. We camped at the Bay of LA which in my opinion wasn't worth going back to. It was however far enough (35 mi) off of Mex 1 so we enjoyed the evening. Crossed back over the border into the US at TJ after dark on the evening of the 2nd. Stayed in a hotel in San Diego the 2nd, with a friend in Santa Clara on the 3rd and back in Portland on the 4th.
A little over 4K miles on the trip. Gas in Mexico was about $3.15/gallon. Obviously spent a LOT of money on fuel on this trip. Mex 1 is a very dangerous highway. It is narrow and the shoulder is non existent. There are many, many crosses along this road. Guardrails are damaged. Livestock is on the highway. People pull out in front of you. Trucks. Busses. SLOW is the operative word here. We saw a rollover with fatalities on the return trip. Military checkpoints all along the way manned by what appear to be 15 year old kids with automatic weapons. No drugs? No guns? No problemo.
I have been to the Copper Canyon and would love to do that trip again with others. Organize the trip and I'm game.
Let me know if you have any questions. If you haven't been to the baja or Mexico in general you should go. It's a great trip.
I'll try to post up some pics.
Sounds like a great trip! Thanks for the writeup!!
But still want more pics, pretty please??
But still want more pics, pretty please??
I might be heading to San Carlos, Sonora for Christmas. Nice little town on the Sea of Cortez just north of Guaymas.
great photo... Baja is still one of my favorite place and after seeing this thread I've got to figure out when to get down there again.
Wow, I have got to make this trip happen though i prefer to convoy with several rigs, maybe spend more time on the less paved road.
Ahhh the good life.
Hey, umpqua! You still planning on doing Mexico this Christmas/New Years? I've been considering it and joining you since you posted this thread back in January. I live over in John Day/Canyon City and it wouldn't be too difficult to meet up and caravan down. I need dates you're considering leaving and returning to get the time off at work. I'm 59 yrs old and it'd be nice to see Mexico before I'm 60 