Our Experience with Vanlife in Baja, Mexic0
Being completely honest, we were initially unsure about traveling to Baja, Mexico in our 1974 VW bus. A different country, with unfamiliar roads and a language we really don’t speak very much of. Driving a classic car around means a high risk for sudden break downs, and roaming a new country worried us at first.
After months of hearing the vanlife community talk about winter in Baja and realizing how many of our friends were making the trek down, we decided to shove our worries aside and plan to go as well. We prepared by reading through all the rules of crossing the border, what route we were going to be taking and loading our parts bag with a few extra items (just in case). We knew there were many other nomads heading down at the same time as us, but as usual we cruised at our own speed and crossed the border alone. While safety in numbers is a very valid method of travel, we started our journey alone to not slow anyone down with our VW pace of movement.
Turned out, it was all very easy. Sure- we got searched heavily crossing the border, but with nothing to hide and not that big of a rig to check through, we were on our way relatively quickly after filling out all of our immigration paperwork. Everyone at the border was kind and respectful, making us feel welcome and excited for the travels ahead.
We spent 6 total weeks down in Baja, Mexico. In that time after crossing the border in Mexicali, we went south along the eastern side with views of the Sea of Cortez along the way. We crossed through the mountains to the Pacific side towards Guerrero Negro with some of the largest Cardon Cacti we had ever seen before making our way east once more to get to La Paz. After spending a couple weeks on the beaches near La Paz at a vanlife gathering with many friends new and old, we were able to make a loop of the bottom section of Baja Sur visiting Todos Santos, Cabo San Lucas, Cabo Pulmo and La Ventana. We drove over 2,000 miles total including some incredible dirt roads leading to beaches unlike any we had experienced before.
