Well, we did it. We left the USA and drove into Mexico across the land border between San Diego and Tiajuana. We were determined to get to Todos Santos, the promised paradise, and so we prepared as much as we knew to prepare to ensure a smooth crossing. Here’s how it went:
Drove up to the first gate, slowed down expecting to speak to someone but no one was in the booth. Since the other cars were just driving through, so did we.
Drove around a corner to see another set of gates. “Ah”, we said, “here’s a more modern gate. That last one must have been the old gate.” As we approached, our vehicle was photographed and a large, vertically-stacked set of lights were on the left edge of the gate. Still no humans in sight. The light turned green so we drove forward.
Finally, we saw some humans – they were dressed in uniforms and carrying automatic rifles – waving cars through to the main road which had the street signs for the highway and a “Welcome to Tiajuana” sign in Spanish. “Huh?” I said to Erik, “Do we just drive on? Is that it?”.
Erik rolled down his window to ask “where is the place to get a vehicle import licence?” in very broken Spanish. The guy with the big gun just waved us off of the road and told us to wait. “Oops”, he said, “maybe we aren’t supposed to ask questions.”
Turned out the guy with the gun went looking for someone who could speak to us in English. We got instructions to drive around a wall and park and then go into a building to ask for our permit. Perfect.
Erik went into the building and found out that we needed to first validate our tourist visas (which had been completed and paid for online) and get our passports stamped before we could then go to the counter where our vehicle importation paperwork could be completed. No problem. But then she asked us for a printed copy of our receipts that we received when we completed the online visa. Uhh. Sorry. No tengo. After some tough English and Spanish back-and-forth, we were able to email the receipts to her personal account and she then sent them to be printed in her office. On to the next counter.
When getting the importation forms finalized (again, Erik had pre-completed and printed every form, twice), the agent noticed that our registration papers had licence plate stickers on the back and those stickers were now expired. Erik was pretty positive that he’d renewed the plates and just forgot to put the new stickers on the registration papers. Nope. We had expired in September while having fun in the US. Thankfully, the agent agreed that it wasn’t a requirement for us to import the vehicle since we were now using Mexican insurance. Yay.
Back in the truck, only 1 hour later, we then went in search of a cellphone sim card since our US cards would not work in Mexico and we needed data to look up directions /information while driving. Our second store location was the winner, but getting there was wild. Driving in Tiajuana is NOTHING like driving in Canada, well, that’s not entirely true but it’s how it felt. I was the navigator and google maps was not a great resource. Lanes are suggestions, as are stop signs. Traffic circles are not consistently designed (sometimes those in the circle have the right of way while sometimes certain roads entering have the full right of way). Speed bumps are everywhere and rarely marked. Our only warnings were seeing other cars suddenly pop up then down. But the toughest part was telling Erik where to go next. We’ve since gotten better, but that first day sounded something like:
“Here, go right there!”
“Go Right?”
“No, go straight on that street”
“which one???!!”
“Where I’m pointing!”
“I can’t tell where you’re pointing. There are two roads, left or right?”
“There are 5 roads and I want you to go there, where the red car just went”
“Crap, too late. Now what do I do?”
“Next left, hopefully”
“Um, is that even a street??”
“Maybe. There is a car on it. Keep going straight then…”
From the back seat “I really have to pee…”
Although getting two cellphone sim cards with monthly plans activated took way longer than expected, we did manage to use a bathroom and get rolling onto the main highway out of the city without any other major drama.
The highway south to Ensenada was wonderful – smooth pavement, four lanes, and 110km/h speed limit. Our quest for a roadside bathroom, less smooth. Gas stations often have bathrooms but those within the city limits seemed to have closed their doors for COVID. Or, the stations themselves were closed/boarded up. When we did find bathrooms, they weren’t free to use and we didn’t yet have peso coins to put into the turnstiles. And once we did get into the bathrooms, we didn’t realize that we were supposed to get our toilet paper back where we paid. Each stop on our first day was a new lesson for us. We’re experts now.
We had an aggressive goal of making it 5 hours south to the small town of El Rosaria de Arriba. We didn’t have reservations in case we didn’t make it that far. The highway remained smooth and fast but became two lanes with wide shoulders. Thankfully I had read about driving etiquette and learned that these shoulders were meant to be used in a specific way. If someone comes up behind you and is moving faster than you, you move over onto the shoulder so that they have space to pass you without going fully into the oncoming traffic’s lane. And any oncoming traffic, seeing a car passing you, will also slide onto their shoulder thus creating three lanes out of two. We had to watch for oncoming passers and move right and also keep an eye on our rear, but it was really slick and efficient. As Erik put it, “why build a four-lane highway when you can have two lanes and manners”. We were rewarded with coastal views for a good portion of the drive as well as lush hills of vineyards, citrus trees, and some cacti.
We drove all day and, just as the sun was setting, we pulled into our intended hotel and discovered that they had a perfect room for us with two queen beds and a loft with two single beds. Right next door was the Mamá Espinoza restaurant, a famous stop for competitors of the Baja 1000 race. We had to guess at what we were ordering and felt silly saying everything incorrectly, but the food arrived and it was delicious. The chef had just pulled a pumpkin pie out of the oven and shared a few pieces with us. It was the first one she had ever made, she said. (I think).
The next day was sunny, hot, and our first real introduction to the desert. Although the terrain continued to wind up and down and roll with hills and valleys, our scenery became arider and more unique. Instead of vineyards, we were seeing many cardón cactus interspersed with low shrubbery and a few wildflowers. This was a stretch of the highway where the gas stations were far and few so we had a couple of attempts at roadside pees and even managed to find some outhouses at the site of a long-ago closed museum. The other main difference from the previous day was that the shoulders of the highway had completely disappeared and, at times, it felt tight driving the corners when meeting trucks heading north. In fact, to get off the highway, you immediately dropped almost a foot onto sand or dirt, even in the small towns. It was beautiful all the same. We made it to the town of Guerrero Negro where we slept in a super-cute loft room and ate like royalty in the hotel’s restaurant. Sadly, one of the main attractions for this town is its proximity to grey whale frequented areas. When “in season” (mid-Jan – Apr) interested travellers can witness large numbers of whales as they birth their offspring and mate.
The third day of driving was the toughest for no other reason than that it was the third day. The kids were sick of sitting, Erik’s back was starting to bother him, and I was fed up with trying to find decently healthy snacks to have in the car (saying it out loud makes me realize how minor an issue it really was…). The highway stretched from the west coast all the way across the peninsula to the east coast: the coast of the Sea of Cortez (also known as the Gulf of California). We were happy to see the bright blue waters as a change from the (still) fascinatingly huge cordón cactus and enjoyed spotting small beaches with campers and little coves with tiny towns. Our destination for the evening was the city of Loreto. We were in a bit of a rush to arrive so that Claire could log into an online course on time, so we did not spend time seeing the city other than wandering from our hotel to look for food. The hotel had a pool! Yay! But it was very cold water as they had just filled it to get ready for high tourist season. Still, the kids sucked in their breath and went for a swim. We ate a huge meal at a ‘superburro’ burrito spot – the burritos were as large as the kids’ heads. I think our waiter tried to warn us but we smiled and said gracias (because that’s what you do when you think you understand but really have no clue) and the kids astounded everyone by eating them all. Then we were astounded to get the bill and the whole meal cost us just over $12 CAD for 5 big plates of food and Erik’s beer. We took the long way back to the hotel to try and work off those burritos.
The final day of driving felt like the longest even though it wasn’t. We were all very excited so the time passed by more slowly, like that final week before Christmas. After a quick stop in La Paz at a Walmart, having purchased some food staples, we drove the final hour into Todos Santos. We followed Google’s directions and were convinced we’d been led astray when we turned off of the paved road and onto a seriously rutted and rough dirt road. We had to switch to 4wd to get up the hill and over the ruts. We took the next turn and saw an equally rough road ahead of us. Down a rock-jutted slope, up another washed-out hill, and around one more corner, we drove up to the front gate of Casa Rancho. We were greeted by our host, Alex, who showed us around the property and helped us to get oriented. After an hour of unpacking Chuck and getting a bit settled, the kids jumped into their bathing suits to try out the pool. From there, we met the other family that was also staying at the other guest house and the kids made some fast friends. Talk about paradise – hot sun, a pool, and kids to play with!!
Settling into Casa Rancho took us a bit of time, the reason for which is a story of its own, but we quickly fell in love with Todos Santos and the “Baja way of life”. More to follow in the next blog.