Beach-front with barracuda and 'banditos'

On recommendation from one of our crew, who had been to Baja several times, we stayed at Salsipuedes ("leave if you can" in Spanish) the first night. Salsipuedes is a small outpost north of Ensenada situated on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The drive off of Mex. 1 to the campground is rugged -- the rocky dirt road switches back several times until it reaches a lookout offering an extraordinary vista of the ocean.

After a morning of hiking and surfing, we had a lunch of fish tacos and were off to San Quintin, hoping to make it before the sun went down. The drive was long, though Mex. 1 was reasonably well-paved for this stretch.

We arrived in San Quintin by twilight. At a hotel and restaurant called Cielito Lindo, some locals told us to camp near the hotel and not on the beach down the road because people camping there had been robbed by "banditos" recently. Most of the travel books on Baja point out that banditos have provided for a more authentic stay than most visitors care for, but we decided to go ahead and camp by the beach because we had a group of eleven.

After two days on the wide, sandy beach, enjoying the water, collecting seashells and feasting at night on fresh barracuda, we fell prey to banditos the final night. Our slumbering crew was robbed of a small Coleman stove, a pair of sunglasses and a few other small items. We were lucky to leave San Quintin unharmed.

Heading south with five fewer people (the weekenders headed home), the remaining group fit comfortably in a large GMC Vandura. When we arrived in Guerrero Negro, we decided to stay in a hotel rather than search for a campsite. The hotel El Morro was clean and reasonably priced and had a quaint restaurant where we enjoyed an excellent meal featuring fresh shrimp and halibut.

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