As our first week at Playa Santa Ines came to a close, we were faced with a choice about what to do and where to go next. We could either continue our push South and try to get down to the Loreto area for our next work week and then to the Southern end of the peninsula the following week, or we could stay at Santa Ines for another week, take it easy, and explore the Mulegé area more. While we technically had the time to make it all the way South, it would require spending most of our weekend driving and would also mean some long days behind the wheel on our way back North. We ultimately decided to stay another seven days at Playa Santa Ines. This speaks to how much we we liked it there as well as our desire to travel slowly, preferring depth to breadth of experience when possible. In travel, as in life, decisions often come down to what you aren’t going to do as opposed to what you are. We know we’ll be back to Baja in the years to come and there’s no need to try to rush through everything on this trip.

Saturday was a chore day. We needed to do do our laundry and get groceries. It can’t be adventure all the time on the road, we still need to make space every so often for the more mundane tasks. However, even these routine tasks can be an adventure with the right perspective when traveling. As Rolf Potts says in his masterpiece of travel philosophy, Vagabonding:

“The secret of adventure, then, is not to carefully seek it out but to travel in such a way that it finds you. To do this, you first need to overcome the protective habits of home and open yourself up to unpredictability. As you begin to practice this openness, you’ll quickly discover adventure in the simple reality of a world that defies your expectations.”

We packed up and went into Mulegé for the weekly farmer’s market there. First though we dropped our laundry off at a lavandería, recommended to us by other travelers, just to the North in a tiny village called Palo Verde. Self serve laundromats are much harder to come by in Baja than in the the U.S. it seems. As was the case with this one, most of them require you to drop your laundry off, they wash it, and you pick it up later. The laundry was located on one of two paved streets in town right across from a well kept school. We handed our bag of laundry to the friendly proprietress and she told us to return that afternoon sometime before 5 when they closed. The adventure here lay in the unpredictability and novelty of the situation. Even though we had good recommendations of the place, there’s still a little uncertainty in dropping off most of the clothes one currently possesses with an unknown person in a dusty village in the middle of the Baja desert and trying to work out the details of when to pick it up in a language you barely speak.

We made our way back South to Mulegé and turned under the large arch that is the entrance to the town center. We found a parking spot in the narrow streets a few blocks from the farmer’s market. It was a small market, especially when compared to what we’re used to in Portland, but there was still a pretty good variety of items. Manuel, who runs the Santa Ines campground with his wife Blanca, was there selling his seashell jewelry. We picked up some fresh carrots and zuchinni, sweet empanadas, and a loaf of bread that was much more substantial than what we’d been able to find at the grocery stores thus far.

After the farmer’s market we decided to spend the afternoon at Bahía Concepción just to the South of town. We’d explored there a bit when looking for a campsite initially, but wanted to spend some more time in this beautiful area. We set our sites on Playa Coyote which had been recommended by a local in San Ignacio we talked with over chilaquiles. As we’d experienced with the other beaches on the bay, this one was pretty full up with campers, some of which looked like they were set up for the long haul. It is a beautiful place and it’s no wonder it’s popular. Turquoise blue water in a calm, half-moon cove lined with red rock cliffs and palm trees, a desert island a mile or so offshore. We found a place to park for a couple hours, made some lunch, and set out our chairs. I also pulled out the snorkel gear I’d brought and took it for it’s maiden voyage. There wasn’t much to see in the sandy-bottomed cove, but the calm water was a good place to try out my gear for the first time, including a wet suit which was nice as the water was a bit chilly.

After a couple of relaxing hours on the bay, we went back North toward Mulegé and the grocery store. With our grocery stock re-supplied, we headed to our final stop before going back to our camp, the laundry in Palo Verde. We pulled up in front where there was a group of kids playing, all smiles and waves. Jocelyn gave them some colored pencils while I went in to retrieve our laundry. It was there waiting for us–clean, crisp, and expertly folded–all for 80 pesos or about $5.

Sunday we packed up again and drove East up into the mountains toward a little village called San Jose de Magdalena. The coastal desert gave way quickly to steep, verdant hills and canyons. After a few miles, the small village came into view in a river valley surrounded by green cropland and palm trees. In just a few miles we had entered something of a different world. We parked the truck and went for a walk along the river. The lush banks and running fresh water were a welcome reprieve from the desert and coastal environs we’d been in the last couple of weeks. The area was beautiful and teaming with life. The banks were lined with Cattail, Palm, Palo Blanco, and Mesquite. Bird song filled the air and schools of fish darted in and out of deep pools in the red rock banks. Since it was Imbolc, the Celtic holiday celebrating the coming Spring at the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, we cut some Cattail fronds to make the traditional Brigid’s Cross later that evening as part of our own small celebration.

Back at camp, we weaved our Imbolc crosses and prepared to make one of our more ambitious camp meals, dutch oven sourdough pizza. We brought sourdough starter with us from home and had prepared the dough the previous evening. We took the dough out of the fridge and built a fire that we let burn down low to get coals for the dutch oven. We baked two small pizzas to perfection under the full moon, a blessed meal indeed.

The rest of the week at Santa Ines was as good as our first. We paddled the kayak, caught and ate more fish including another Corvina and Jocelyn’s favorite Barracuda, and had another campfire get-together with some of our new Canadian friends. We also had a serendipitous meet-up with some internet acquaintances.

I had come across Brian and Christina, known as dirtrailswanted on the internet and social media, a couple years ago when I was looking for inspiration for our Go Fast Camper build out. They have lived out of their GFC for the last few years and their travels, photos, and storytelling have been inspirational to us in our own travels. We’ve been in touch off and on online and we knew we were both currently in Baja and we were working on finding a time and place to possibly meet up. One morning I was paddling the kayak up the shoreline from Santa Ines and saw a couple of rigs parked on the beach up from the campground. Curious, I paddled closer to get a better look. As I got closer, I instantly recognized their dark gray first gen Tundra named Delores. They were camped just about a mile down from us on the same beach! I paddled ashore and we finally met each other face-to-face. Quite a piece of Baja Magic making this connection happen.

On Friday night we drove up the beach and camped with Brian and Christina and some other friend’s of theirs, Mark and Jenny from the other Portland in Maine. We were treated to a little rain and a rare desert rainbow over the water. That night we had good conversation and to top things off, bioluminescence that made the sand glow as the waves crashed ashore. It was so fun to finally make this online connection a real life one and I look forward to sharing a camp site with them again soon.

Next up we continue heading South to Loreto.

Thanks for reading!