Baja

I think I may have neglected mentioning that my kids and I are going to Baja, Mexico this summer. We leave today!

My husband first suggested Baja when we realized a bigger international trip was way off the table. Initially we considered driving, but we quickly realized that was a bad plan because (a) we’d have to borrow or rent a car as their aren’t electric car charging stations in Mexico and (b) we didn’t feel safe driving through the northern part of the peninsula. Luckily flights to Cabo are relatively cheap, so flying didn’t make the trip impossible.

I’m not super interested in Cabo San Lucas or any of the super tourist spots in that area, so we’ll be taking a bus up to La Paz, which is about 2.5 hours north of Cabo (on the mainland side). Our bus will take about 3.5 hours to get there and our flight is about 3.5 hours so the travel tomorrow won’t be too bad (so much better than two five hour red eye flights and a five hour layover in Mexico DF!).

We’re spending the entire two weeks in one AirBnB that’s about two miles outside the city center. It has a little pool and a rooftop barbeque and eating area which is shared with the other three condos. During the first week the kids and I will be taking some intensive Spanish classes in the mornings and I’ll be giving them swimming lessons in the pool in the afternoon and later, when my husband comes, we’ll be hitting up the beaches and snorkeling a fair amount.

I deliberately planned this trip to be very low key, because after our whirlwind 2.5 weeks in Colombia I knew I wanted something that required little or no change of scenery. I’m so glad too because after the last four weeks I really need the rest.

It might not be the best idea for us to take a trip like this with all the uncertainty surrounding our tenant situation, but I do think we did a nice job of keeping it low-cost. The flights (and buses to La Paz) were just under $1800 and the AirBnb was $1000. The classes were $400 and we’ll spend very little on food there as our kids don’t like to eat out (at least the first week we’ll eat exclusively at home). I’m not sure how much all the touristy stuff will end up being, probably around $700-$1000 as their are some incredible places to snorkel and we don’t want to miss out. But summer is the low season in Baja (it’s basically a desert so it’s HOT, and the whale sharks aren’t around again until October) so hopefully nothing will cost too much, and I already got some recommendations for local snorkeling trips so we don’t have pay the bigger online tourist site prices. All in all it will probably cost about half of what Colombia cost, which makes me feel better about it, even though it is a lot.

One of the reasons I want to travel to Spanish-speaking countries in the summers with my kids is to see if we find anywhere we’d be interested in living. I must admit I knew next to nothing about the southern half of Baja but I’ve been blown away by how amazing it is. I am really excited to check out La Paz (and some of the coastal spots that are a day trip away), and to see if it’s a place we may want to live some day

I don’t know if I’ll be posting daily updates like last time, at least before my husband comes, but I’ll definitely keep you updated!