Family Vacations: The Sea Of Cortez

La costa del mar de Cortez

The eastern coast of Baja (The gulf of California or sea of Cortez side) is much more desolate than the Pacific side; it's drier, and more inaccessible. The Mexican government hopes to change that as they are now extending Carreterra 5 south from Puertocitos to Cataviña.

El Cortez

SaraGrace reserved this hotel on line through Bajatours; If you go don't. Either just show up or call the hotel directly. It's significantly cheaper that way. The hotel is directly on the beach. The (dimly lit) rooms are humungous.

View from our hotel

Sunrise about to peak

Sunrise closer

Closer
Closer

Boom! It's here
Boom! It's here

This hummingbird is easier to find than the last one in Rosarita

Baja Java

Baja Java is about the only place north of Los Cabos and south of Tijuana where you can get an espresso drink. We had eaten here on previous trips to San Felipe, and were looking forward to our re-visit on this trip.

She almost ran us over as we were crossing the street to get to her restaurant
They tried to give me an 8:1 exchange rate, even though the casa de cambio across the street was giving 13:1
They short changed me 50 pesos, and argued with me over it

Big smiles

Puertocitos

I first went to this speck on the wall town almost 20 years ago with Russ and Ken (one of the many times Russ was on hiatus form Lehmer's with the mistaken assumption that there was a dive shop here (There wasn't) But there are some hot springs here.
The hot springs appear at low tide - there are 5 in all. Initially, they are "skin removal" hot, but one by one, as the tide comes in and starts to flood them, they become usable. Each pool in turn is usable for about 45 minutes; with a "Ooh! It's way too hot but I can just bear it" at the start of the 45 minutes to a "Damn that got cold fast" at the end, when you move on to the next pool (which is now just barely too hot). It's lots of fun and reeks of sulfur.

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...And points south

Up until about 3 weeks ago, the road south from Puertocitos was impassible. Not even my friend Brett has managed to drive it, and he has a monster truck that he has taken all over Baja. Now, they have begun a (planned) 2 year upgrade to pave the road all the way to join Carretera 1 somewhere between Cataviña and the Bahía Los Angeles junction. We proceeded south from Puertocitos in search of someplace to eat and found Christina's.

View from the road to Christina's

Christina's Beach

On the way back to San Felipe

Abuelita's

Not sure if this was really the name of this taco stand; but it was run by a grandmother, her sister, daughter, and helped out by the 2 grandkids. classic Baja.

Baja Shrimp Tacos