Winter In Baja – Part 2

I’d already been in Baja for a month and it was awesome. The Mexican beach vibes were exceeding any of my expectations and falling into a fantastic group of traveling friends made it even better. The Escapar a la Baja vanlife event was wild, so wild that when I departed Tecolote Beach I decided to hibernate in an AirBNB apartment for a week to take advantage of hot showers, laundry, and quiet time. As Friday approached I checked out and headed across town. It was Carnival weekend in La Paz, as well as Super Bowl Sunday, and someone in the Baja Crew group chat mentioned a karaoke bar downtown. Whelp, here we go again!

In the States I rarely pay for camping, but in Baja I was learning that I enjoyed the simple pleasures of warm (sometimes even hot) showers, dish washing facilities, onsite laundry machines, and of course pools and hot tubs. Rolling into Campestre Maranatha I was welcomed by all of the above, as well as the members of the Baja Crew primed and ready for a wild weekend.

Baja in a Truck Camper Part 2 Film

We cheersed a few cold ones at the pool for happy hour then caught taxis downtown in search of microphones and a singalong set list. On Saturday we lounged in the sun, cooled off in the pool, and as the light faded we headed back downtown to wander the Malecón and the Carnival street festival before watching fireworks over the bay. Sunday was the pinnacle of the weekend. We taxied to the Malecón early and reserved a table in a waterfront bar to watch the Super Bowl and the Carnival parade at the same time. The vibrant sunset, neon lights, and flamboyant parade made for a colorful, wild night.

Surviving the trifecta weekend in town I planned to head out solo and get back to work, but the Baja Crew had other ideas. We packed our rigs and rolled south past Todos Santos to Los Cerritos where we checked into a beachside campground. It was nothing fancy, basically a parking lot with 2 toilets, no shower, and quite often no water, but what it lacked in amenities it made up for in proximity to the Big Fun Beach Club. We’d learned that they had a daily happy hour that started at noon with 10 peso cerveczas (around $0.50), and prices went up only 5 pesos per hour until evening. Nothing could go wrong here!

The benefit of happy hour starting at noon meant that I could wake up early, get a few hours of work done, do a barefoot beach run, make lunch, and by the time the clock switched to PM I was ready to go. Mixed in with happy hours at Big Fun we checked out a rooftop infinity pool bar, took over a karaoke night in a local restaurant, surfed, watched whales spouting offshore, and partied late into the night in Dennis and Crystal’s camper.

We ended up staying at Cerritos Beach for more than a week, and might have stayed longer, but most of us were in need of a resupply and with another weekend rolling around we decided to move the party to the quintessential Baja fiesta center, Cabo.

As we packed up to leave I snuck in a bit more work while Scott took his surfboard out to catch a few more waves. While paddling out he chatted with a girl who said she was in town for a friend’s 40th birthday party and soon enough me and Scott were squeezing in to a truck and rambling a few miles up the coast to their bungalow for a birthday brunch. They were staying in a fairly fancy house high on the hill with great views of the ocean, and after dirtbagging it for so long in my truck camper I felt a bit out of place. We enjoyed a great meal, fun conversations, and a few beers before walking back to the campground to head south.

Scott and I rolled into another beachfront campground in Cabo, again basically just a parking lot, and set up next to the rest of the Baja Crew. It was the weekend so we spent several days sun bathing, crushing cheap tacos and Big Macs, checking out beach bars and night clubs, and all the guys even got henna tattoos on our lower backs to match Reece’s real life tramp stamp. I’m not saying that all of our decisions were good ones, but they were certainly fun. Except for Scott’s decision, Sscccooootttttt!!!!!

At this point I’d pretty much been partying with the Baja Crew for several weeks straight. I was able to get some work done in the mornings, but I definitely needed to slow down and really catch up. From Cabo the group split up to check out different areas and I joined Reece and Sabrina for a trip to Los Barrillas. I rolled into town, snagged a spot in the campground, and set up for a productive week.

Reece and Sabrina stayed for a few nights and then rolled north to explore more. I took advantage of the campground and washed a large load of laundry, cleaned the truck and camper, worked every morning, set out for barefoot beach runs in the afternoon, enjoyed sunset beers in the sand, and watched whales spouting offshore. It was a quiet and productive week that I very much needed.

But, as tends to happen with this Baja Crew, I couldn’t stay solo for long. I closed up camp and rolled the rig south to the East Cape to reunite with the crew, anticipating more tacos, cervezas, and karaoke jams!