Strong bioluminescent waves encountered walking back along the beach from dinner
We were heading south along highway 5, looking for our next great boondocking spot. The problem was that we had limited time there as a group. I had to be back in Texas of all places by early March. But we wanted to explore the whole peninsula, all the way down to Cabo. So the conflict was wanting to stop at every cool boondocking spot versus making miles south to get to Cabo. The miles won the debate this time. We decided that the stuff along highway 5 was more of the same. It was time to head inland, then back out to the coast further south at Bahia de los Angeles!
Up until now, the highway had been of relatively good quality. We had only encountered some rough pavement exiting San Felipe, then smooth pavement south since. Where were all the terrible roads everyone talks about in Mexico? We were about to find out, as we arrived at the junction of highway 5 and highway 1.
I neglected to get a good picture inside the restaurant so you’ll have to settle for a picture of our rigs parked outside.
But first, lunch at Mariscos in Chapala (Nva. Chapala)! The junction of highway 5 and highway 1 is a bit of an informal trucker stop. Most things in Mexico are informal – that will drive the rule followers nuts. There is a gravel pull off and possibly an establishment at the junction, but we decided the place a kilometre south looked more promising. The decor inside is rustic wood and stone, with a bare particle board roof to ruin the total effect. But it still looks very nice. Espanyol was the language we needed to order in. A lot of menu pointing later and we had orders in. I don’t even remember what I had so it wasn’t memorable food. I do remember them being out of the more interesting drinks so a Coke was my beverage.
My tied down kayak acted as a wind direction indicator at our last spot
Onward we went, now down highway 1 past the last bit of improved road at the junction of highway 5 and highway 1. Now I could see what people were talking about with the infamous narrow and crappy Mexican highways. The lanes are narrow, with no shoulder and often a steep drop off from the pavement. You definitely don’t want to have a wheel drift off here. But they usually have a white line right at the edge of the pavement and reflective bumps that warn you that your tire is right on the edge of the pavement. I only had one near miss right at the start before I calibrated to the narrow road. You definitely need to know how to put your right tires at the edge of the pavement when a semi comes by going the other way. There is no room for error between your mirrors and a semi. Both of you have tires right up against the right side of the road to pass with a couple of feet to spare between your vehicles mirrors.
But what if you encounter a wide load on the road? Of course, this is the first thing that happened getting on the narrow highway, just a couple of klicks down the road. Fortunately, I was following a semi at the time which demonstrated how to let the wide load pass properly. The semi comes to a stop on the road with his flashers on. His wheels are right on the edge of the pavement, and so were mine stopped behind him. I put my driver’s side mirror in for good measure. The wide load coming the other way crawles past you with inches to spare. For all I know his tire is hanging off the edge of the road, but the pass is very slow and careful. I certainly was not passing the semi after this – he was my guide during my first time down these narrow roads!
We made it down highway 1 and turned back east toward the Gulf of California coast, going down highway 12. This highway was no worse really, other than a bit more windy and some construction. Mexico highway construction does not bother with a building a proper paved detour around construction. You are expected to drive down a rough gravel bit built around the construction. You certainly won’t be speeding through construction zones with this level of quality detour! The scenery down here is amazing, the wild desert cacti kept distracting me from my careful driving on the narrow road. But we were hell bent on getting to our next spot, so no stopping this time!
Mercado Xitlati
My first stop in Bahia de los Angeles (BdLA) was one of the two main grocery stores, the Mercado Xitlali. When I say “main” I mean something slightly bigger than a convenience store. The store is a bit off the beaten path, hanging a right at the end of the main street, then down a side street that definitely has third world vibes. But the store is bright and cheerfully colored on the outside, so it’s easy to spot. There is a little of everything, but not much selection.
One of the nicer beach front houses
One thing you will always have in even the smallest store is beer. Tecate is the beer around here, not Corona. It’s ok, the regular brew has a 4.5% alcohol kick, not exactly ‘lite’. I prefer the Modelo Especial that is just a little harder to find down here. I see a couple shopping around that are obviously not from here either, so this out of the way store must be not too bad. But I’m not happy with my fruit selection, having grabbed the last of the remaining bananas. It’s off to the other main store, the La Isla, located at the beginning of main drag, easy to find and park at. Again, the selection isn’t great, but between the two stores you can get most of your basics.
The couple I saw in the other store are here now and we strike up a conversation. I find out that my multi-story shopping method is pretty much what you have to do in BdLA (or any small town here) in order to maximise your selection. This town is definitely limited in selection overall. There is no ATM. Some places take cards for payment, but not if the internet is down. Always have cash available as a backup. That’s kind of tricky with no ATM in town. Lesson learned: bring lots of cash to BdLA. If you think you might want to try electronic payment, note that there is no cell service in BdLA either. Judging by the towers I saw, they are beaming wireless internet overland to BdLA. Starlink exists too, I saw a truck driving around with a dish perma-mounted in the back.
My camp spot view
We had scouted out a spot on iOverlander a few kilometers out of town, along the beach. Driving in, we pass a bunch of abandoned buildings on our way to the beach, then head north down the road to where the pin is. Carolyn is leading the way and stops suddenly, proclaiming the road ahead to be too sandy. Nobody is arguing the point – we all hoped to avoid another round of an RV buried in the sand.
Camp view from the Kayak
Turning around can be a pain on these narrow tracks, but try turning around four rigs and a car. Let’s just say it took a bit of coordination and backing up. We head back to the abandoned buildings. There are some good spots to park just past the barbed wire separating us from the buildings. We decide this might be a good place to try to camp – worst case is someone will come and kick us off or ask for money. That’s how rural Mexico works folks.
Sunset from our camp
Now, it turns out there was a ‘private property’ sign just down the road from where we turned into the beach. Yet no one bugged us the whole time. The military drove by, waved, and asked if we were OK. In fact, by the time we left, we had attracted a couple more rigs just down the road from us. It’s an annoying fact of boondocking that some people camp where they see other people camping assuming its OK. Little do they know we are taking a chance, and the odds go down of us being left alone if the group of rigs gets even bigger. Not much you can do about it – it’s a free country.
Dogs are A-OK at Roca Vela
There is a good reason others camped near us. We were beside a nice gravel/sand beach, with some low shrubs to provide somewhat of a wind break. Some abandoned buildings were beside us which made for some interesting photography. The unusual feature of the site was its walking distance from Roca Vela Restaurant. We walked down the beach late in the afternoon, walking into the restaurant to claim our reservation. The outdoor seating area is a large screened room with a beach sand floor overlooking the water.
Roca Vela entrance at night
One of our number couldn’t do the beach walk, but drove over to the front entrance. That entrance is magical too, being a tunnel created out of cactus wood according to the googles reviewers. It has been all strung out with lights for a cool effect after dark. I even shot a little video walking in during the day. Not quite as magical, but still cool. We again were faced with having to order in spanish, but between our server knowing a little english, us knowing a little spanish, and my phone’s googles off-line translator we managed to order some amazing food and drinks. My choice was a cold food dish called Ceviche served in a large margarita glass. I’ve never had it before so this was all new to me. It’s marinated/cooked seafood and veg in a tomatoey lemon sauce, refreshing and so tasty! Evidently the tomato ‘broth’ is a variation on the normal appetiser this is. The margaritas were decent too – just perhaps a bit small, however the fruit drinks have tons of fruit hiding tons of alcohol here. But since most were walking back down the beach to our rigs, it didn’t really matter.
Bioluminescent waves are magical
My Sony caught the light of the waves better
Not only was the restaurant an amazing experience, but the walk back down the beach was even better. As our eyes adjusted to the dark, we noticed the waves lapping the shore were glowing. As we went further down, the glow increased, bright enough to capture photos and video of it. Not only that, but rocks or sand thrown into the water created a disturbance setting off blue light wherever particles hit the water. I have to say this was one of the most fascinating phenomena I have had the privilege to see. It was fortunate that it eventually occurred to me that the lights might be bright enough to photograph, because now I have a memory to share. Photos don’t do it justice though, you need to see it in person, and play with it. You create your own light show skipping rocks and throwing sand in the water. Some video worked out decent too. I recommend viewing it in the dark on a phone to replicate the feel of being there.
Good times at Roca Vela
The experience was fleeting. While I hustled over to my rig to get my big camera for some good night shots of the waves, they quickly faded out, being almost gone by the time I got back with my Canon DSLR. Oh well, at least I got some cool shots with my Sony pocket camera, and even my Pixel 6 Pro phone. Remember, the camera you have with you is always the best camera. Talking to a long time visitor later about the lights we found out that we were fortunate to have seen such bright bioluminescence, it does not occur that often along that beach. All I know is that I will hold onto the memory of that walk back down the lit beach to my dying days.
China’s place – great tacos!
One unexpected thing that really came to the forefront in BdLA was the large number of restaurants in towns down here. There may not be an ATM in BdLA, but you have your pick of many eating establishments, ranging in size from a taco booth to full sit down restaurants. The taco booth sized place was a pit stop in town that ended up having a great carne taco. The beef down here may not be the best, but the locals know how to cook and spice it into something divine.
The smoked tuna tortillas were excellent
Another great place was attached to a campground we visited in what I’ll call our great cinnamon roll hunt. One of the long time visitors to the area had told us about these things and we went hunting all over for them. We finally had to go back to the campground he was in for further hints as to where we might find these rolls. Rolls were found eventually and pronounced to be ‘meh’. Not everything turns out to be divine in Baja. But the Campo Archelon where he was camped has a great little place called Siete Filos café. We dropped in briefly on the way to finding our cinnamon rolls and resolved to return for the great smelling coffee and baked treats, plus smoked tuna for brunch, mmmmm!
Best Mocha EVER.
This place did not disappoint on a return visit, the smoked fish was top tier, and I say this as someone who has smoked his own fish; I have high standards! Also the Mocha I had was the best ever. The chocolate was dialed up to 11, without being too sweet. I’m salivating just thinking about it. If I was staying at Campo Archelon, I’d be spending WAY too much time in the cafe. I never even got to the baked goods on my first visit!
The docks
I did a bit of exploring around the area with the motorcycle. Driving in town here is easy – one main street to go down to a T, then left for the dock, right for the second grocery store. The dock is a pretty busy place at times – lots of fishing boats going in and out of the water here. You could drive up with an RV but be aware the road is often parked with trucks/trailers on both sides leaving one lane of driving to the dock. But there is a good turn around designed for a truck and trailer, so smaller rigs can turn around easily there. I watched the fisherman at work for a while hauling boats and gear in and out.
Parked at the end of the spit road. Walk from here.
Going away from town on the motorcycle, I went out to what the sign says is “San Francisquito” park. The googles pulls nothing on this, calling it “Punta la Gringa” instead. The road to the park passes our campsite, being pavement with washed out bits and an under construction section with the previously mentioned cart path quality road around it. The pavement ends and you follow a sand/rough rock road to the park, at which point the road improves, driving along a spit that you can park on as well for some boondocking. One of our group stayed overnight and remarked that it is a bit of a party spot – lots of noise late into the night. But when I was there, it was quiet campers, and fishermen at the shore.
I parked the bike at the barrier marking the end of the “road” and walked down the spit a ways. The spit curves from east to south. It starts as a connection to an island, with ocean on both sides, being large gravel hump. At the island, it then separates the ocean from the estuary on the other side. There are birds all over the estuary, thus the preservation as a park by Mexican standards. I never made it to the tip of the spit – it was just a little too hard walking with me not having brought water along. I was close enough to see what was what – time to head back to prevent dehydration. The park was good enough that we came back as a group, touring the otherside of the spit by the island a bit more. It’s a pretty cool boondocking spot, if you can tolerate more people around you.
I just wanted a doggy selfie and got a lot of doggie lov’n
I have to say BdLA was one of my favorite small towns so far. If only it had a cell tower and an ATM… Real time, I’m writing this much further south in Baja – not too far away from having to high tail it north to Texas, which makes me sad. But I’m sure I will find things to love about north east Texas too once I’m there. In the meanwhile, there is much more to come on my Baja adventure – tune in next time as I head for a more industrial town, with some new king tide drama!
