Camping in Los Cabos

Migrating North Americans

Like flocks of migrating birds, thousands of Americans and Canadians head south to Mexico to while away the winter. While some pop down for a couple of weeks around Christmastime, others take their migration more seriously.

Like the small community of caravans we found nestled in the scrub around a deserted beach right on the bottom tip of Baja. This place wasn’t listed in the lonely planet – in fact we almost found it by mistake, as the place where we were looking for had no turn-off sign.

Heading south out of La Paz, we overshot our planned beach and ended up somewhere called San Jose del Cabos, which looked like Mexican Florida. We busted a U-turn and asked a lady at a supermarket for directions before finally finding the turn-off, and arriving at tiny Cabo Pulmo well after dark. Cabo Pulmo is at the end of a rough 10km stretch of gravel, and consists of about five or six buildings, a few houses and a handful of dive shops.

Beach camping in random spot

Our plan was to camp on the beach, as we had heard that no beaches in Baja are privately owned therefore it’s perfectly legal to do so. The task of finding a campsite was a lot harder in the dark, but eventually we found this place tucked away and partially sheltered behind a sand dune. We were a touch disconcerted by some of the dogs roaming the streets, and even a lone horse, but none of these, or any people for that matter, disturbed us and we had a really peaceful night under the stars with only the sound of waves crashing in the background

We found the Canadian grey nomads the following day, when we decided it was a bit weird camping in a random spot right near a town. The Canadians' only amenities were a pit toilet and a communal bookshelf arranged under a tree in the centre of the campsite. Although individually, they were well-equipped; most of them got around on quad bikes, and I spotted electricity generators and showers near some caravans. 

Lance and Jennifer, who we met in Loreto, were not only generous enough to drive us to La Paz, saving us an expensive bus ride, they also gave us their tent. We were sick of paying almost as much for accommodation and bus trips in Baja as we had been doing in the US, and worked out that renting a car for a few days and camping would actually work out cheaper.

The beaches on this stretch of coastline are untouched and pristine. The harsh desert landscape comes right up to the sand dunes, to the point where you encounter prickly cactus plants growing out of them. Further south towards the end of the cape the surf picked up – big, glossy waves rolling into shore in perfectly-timed sets.

All of this changes when you hit the southern-most point of the cape – Los Cabos. Isolated beaches make way for big flashy hotels, American fast food joints and jet skis. It took just a lunch-time pit stop to establish that we were glad to have spent our time camping in the middle of nowhere, even if there were no showers!