Exploring Beaches

Today we went exploring. We started up near Todos Santos, 15 kilometers north, and went out a dirt road about a mile to Punta Lobos. We’d heard two versions of what we’d see: lots of sea lions, or lots of fishermen and their pangas (small open fishing boats). Version 2 was correct, at least today. The beach was backed up by an estuary and stretched to the north about 2 miles. A sign indicated because it was a turtle nesting area, no driving on the beach was allowed. This prohibition seems to be largely honored except right at the estuary at the south end of the beach where the fishermen use their trucks to move their pangas back and forth from the shore.

Our second beach, down another mile-long road was called San Pedrito. Our camping books said there used to be a full hook-up RV park there, but it was washed away 4 years ago by a couple of hurricanes. According to the story we were told, the land was subsequently sold for redevelopment, but because the sellers didn’t own the land, the development never proceeded. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard some version of this story up and down the Baja. The former campground is once again a campground, although with no amenities. We talked to several folks who said someone does come by to charge for the camping, but they weren’t absolutely sure they had any authority to do so. But since the fees were only $50 a month, and they did haul away the garbage when they came, everybody pays up. This place had quite a different personality from the beach where we’re staying at Los Cerritos. Most of the folks here seem to be surfers, in small vans or tents. A number of them we talked to were a bit longer in the tooth than your mental image of surfers might be. We were there about 12:30 in the afternoon and several of them were already quite drunk – but at least in a friendly way. Two different groups invited us in to chat and share their shade, but did not offer us a cold one.

We’re now back home and chilling at the beach. We’ll go over to a neighbor’s this evening for happy hour, which consists of taking our chairs to the top of the sand dunes, along with a couple of beers. We don’t have a plan for tomorrow but think we’ve decided to stay here one more night before going back to Los Barriles.