We've been driving around southern Baja trying to figure out where to stay when the parts for our truck finally come in. We've checked out quite a few beaches, the mountains, and several cities and towns. We even considered renting a house or apartment, but realized it wasn't quite in the budget. We need a place that's relatively close to La Paz, that's accessible by rental car, and that's close enough to a store that we can easily resupply. The guy at the shop said it could take up to two weeks to complete the repairs, so we want to make sure we really like the place we decide to call home.
Playa San Pedrito definitely fit the bill. It's about an hour from La Paz just south of Todos Santos, about a mile off the main highway, down a dirt road. It's populated mostly by surfers who spend all winter there for the huge waves. After hanging out with some friends for a week we really grew to love the chilled out vibe. Malta also loved it because of all of the resident dogs who come down to spend the winter with their families. Best of all, it's completely free to stay here.
It felt so much like home we started adding onto the campsite. Several of our neighbors had built elaborate stone walls, fire pits, and even rock sculptures; so in the spirit of keeping up with the Joneses we decided to add some low walls around our camp with a walkway to the beach, a hammock stand, a gray water pit, and a palm frond stall for our outdoor shower with a paved pad to keep our feet out of the sand.
Our morning routine was to sip coffee while watching surfers ride the waves.
Our evening routine was to was to sip beers while watching the sunset.
A steady stream of camp dogs visited throughout the day.
Besides all the dogs, we would get the occasional visitor from the sea.
Although we love Baja, due to concerns over time and money, we've been pretty anxious to move on to mainland Mexico. So when the shop called a week ahead of schedule to let us know that our truck was done, we were elated.
We almost wanted to pick up the truck and leave the next day. But when we thought about rushing away from the little home we had made on San Pedrito we got a little sad. And when some other overlanders that we had been looking forward to meeting got in touch to let us know they were heading our way, it gave us the perfect excuse to stay for one more weekend.