The lush date palm grove, San Ignacio.
It is a little sad to begin the return trip North. The good news is now you know all the great spots to stop for a swim, grab delicious food and buy cold beers. Another piece of good cheer is the inviting town of San Ignacio.
Misión San Ignacio Kadakaamán
The friendly village of San Ignacio offers stunning vistas, a beautiful misión and a real taste of life on the Baja Peninsula. We were a little worn down by this point in the trip, but made sure to take advantage of one of the many hiking trails on offer. Information on the city and trails are expertly provided by Jane Beard Ames at Casa Leree.
Always wear a dress when walking through a cacti field.
We followed a path from behind Casa Leree toward a large cross on the hilltop. After so many hours and days of viewing cacti from afar, it was so lovely to be up close and personal. Don't get too personal, though, as even a light brush against certain cacti can be painful.
Río San Ignacio
This quiet town is a great place to try the local specialty empanadas de datil (date turnovers) or pan de datil (date bread). Anything with dates will be tasty here. We struck out in finding any awesome tacos, but we did find a stand serving up filling Baja style hamburgers, complete with an onion ring and sliced avocado.
Find this sign and you will find a tasty burger!
Now you are only 10 hours to Tijuana, yippee! I hope we get to drive through more desert!
Yay!
We needed to get back to the Tijuana Airport to return our rental car before the short 3 hour border wait at the pedestrian crossing, fun! Obviously, we needed one last meal. So, to Erizo and do not delay!
Tosatado de Atún.
Erizo is in a swanky section of TJ and is owned by one of the city's most revered chefs, Javier Placensia. After our long trip North, it was nice to settle into this lovely, open restaurant and try out several of the fresh and tasty tostadas and a few small plates. This tuna tostada hit all the right notes: salty, sweet and creamy, the tuna here is fresh, tender and buttery. Tasting a bit like Hawaiian poke with it's sesame seeds and soy sauce, plus delightful little bits of super caramelized onions, we were glad we ordered 2 off the bat. Tostadas like this can be found around town at the fancier cevicherias, but this is my favorite.
The service here is wonderfully attentive. Several years ago I had a memorable meal here complete with icy maracuya (passion fruit) pisco sours. Ask for this if you have a leisurely afternoon ahead of you. They also have a great selection of Mexican artesanal cervezas. Tiniebla is made in Tijuana and was our favorite here. We appreciated the light hops and nice spicy/fruity perfume of this witbier and welcomed it's sharpness after so many cans of light Mexican beer.
Carpaccio de Pulpo.
This octopus dish was as delicious as it was beautiful. The pulpo was sliced impossibly thin and bathed in the house sauce, a kind of ponzu made with soy and lime. The veggies here offer such nice contrast--crunchy cucumber, sweet little cherry tomatoes and bright crisp slices of nopal (cactus) which had been cured in salt. We ate this on the provided tostadas horneadas (baked tostadas). Baked instead of fried, these clean tostadas are perfect here, super toasty and light. Erizo has some really excellent house made condiments which you should try on everything. The chili oil here is really HOT!
Chiles Güeritos Capeados de Marlin Ahumado y Queso.
These tasty morsels were chilis stuffed with smoked marlin and cheese. The name indicates a lighter chile (güerito) which is battered (capeado) and fried. I was hoping they'd be a bit more like the fried stuffed chilis we had in our tacos at Mc-Fishers in La Paz. These were similar in ingredients, but just didn't pop in the same way for me. I was definitely wanting more smoke from the marlin and more heat from the chili. This was still great and the sauce was citrusy, tangy, a little sweet and totally delicious.
Cocinita de Pescado.
This pretty little taco was an interesting take on the famous 'cocinita pibil' (literally buried piglet) from the Yucatan. I liked the idea of this taco and the fish was tender and flaky with a flavorful sauce and crunchy pickled onions. This just didn't quite work for us, sadly.
This shrimp ceviche tostada was nice and light with a flavorful green sauce studded with jalapeños, cilantro and with lots of tender chunks of shrimp. The sauce and preparation reminded me a lot of the popular agua chile ceviche style but this was not as acidic.
I have saved the best for last, my dearest darlings. This tostada was perfect for me. A crunchy tostada is the base here with a light spread of the creamy house chipotle sauce, meltingly tender and sweet thinly sliced crudo (raw) of yellowtail, a lovely bit of perfectly dressed seaweed salad, lightly pickled cucumbers, crunchy raw red onion and a few slices of perfect avocado. Need I say more?
Erizo Cocina de Mariscos, Av Sonora 3808, Col. Cacho, 22020 Tijuana, Baja California
With the exception of the churros we ate while waiting in the border lIne, this was our last feast of the trip. We ordered accordingly with several beers, many tostadas and a few small plates. Still this meal, with tip, was about 40$ for 3, which is a great deal, if you ask me (or anyone!).
From here it was off to the airport to return our rental and then a taxi to the border where we had 3 short hours to stretch out our legs. We crossed at around 1pm on a Sunday, a mistake I have made before. When will I ever learn? This meant a very long and hot wait. Get some churros to pass the time and practice glaring at the jerks who cut the line.
Now for that recap I promised. The following is the itinerary from our 10 day, 9 night trip. After getting a ride to the San Diego side of the border, we walked across and took a taxi to the Tijuana Airport. Here we rented our car--you cannot take a US rental to Baja-- and drove to our hotel where we parked in the secure (but super tight!) Hotel Ceasar lot. This enabled us to get out of TJ quickly on our first day of driving the following morning. I rented from Avis because they do not require you purchase their damage liability waiver and I could use the coverage provided by the credit card I used. Check with your card to make sure you are covered properly. For 10 days, we paid about 250$.
If you are taking your own car, be sure to get 3rd party liability insurance, a requirement in Baja. This is easily and inexpensively purchased online. We also made sure to get a visa at the Tijuana airport, since we were going to be crossing from Baja Norte to Baja Sur. This is also supposedly required, though we have never been asked for it. At around 20$, I say better safe than sorry. It is valid for 180 days. This may also be purchased at the visa building directly to the right when you drive across the border. OK, boring! See our plan below, this is easily adjusted depending on length of trip, mood and focus.
Day 1: Crossing the border, taxi to airport, pick up rental car, check in at Hotel Ceasar, park car and eat a million tacos.
Day 2: Up and out early AM to drive to Guerrero Negro (10 hours), eat sea urchin in Ensenada, stuff yourself on quesa tacos and oysters in San Quintin and get to your hotel by sunset.
Day 3: Whale watching from 8am until noon. Drive to Mulegé (4 hours).
Day 4: Drive from Mulegé to Loreto, stopping at lots of beaches on the way (2 hours).
Day 5: Drive from Loreto to La Paz (4-5 hours). We spent 2 nights here.
Day 6: Start the trip North. We actually returned for 1 more night in Loreto, but you could go to Mulegé or all the way to San Ignacio if you leave La Paz super early.
Day 7: Loreto to San Ignacio (6 hours). Stop at your favorite beach on the way back up to take the sting out of the trip's inevitable end.
Day 8: We have again reached the unavoidable long portion of the return. You might choose to travel from San Ignacio to Ensenada (9 hours). This way, you could eat more sea urchin! Otherwise, you could go the additional 1.5 hours to Tijuana for the night (tacos!). Similarly, you could just return your rental car and cross back over.
This 9 night, 10 day trip, complete with rental car, gas, unlimited food and drink, whale watching and general good times came to about 700$ per person. I'd have spent twice as much, it was so unbelievably fun, delicious and beautiful.
Any which way you do it, this is going to be the trip of a lifetime! Have fun!
From here it was off to the airport to return our rental and then a taxi to the border where we had 3 short hours to stretch out our legs. We crossed at around 1pm on a Sunday, a mistake I have made before. When will I ever learn? This meant a very long and hot wait. Get some churros to pass the time and practice glaring at the jerks who cut the line.
Now for that recap I promised. The following is the itinerary from our 10 day, 9 night trip. After getting a ride to the San Diego side of the border, we walked across and took a taxi to the Tijuana Airport. Here we rented our car--you cannot take a US rental to Baja-- and drove to our hotel where we parked in the secure (but super tight!) Hotel Ceasar lot. This enabled us to get out of TJ quickly on our first day of driving the following morning. I rented from Avis because they do not require you purchase their damage liability waiver and I could use the coverage provided by the credit card I used. Check with your card to make sure you are covered properly. For 10 days, we paid about 250$.
If you are taking your own car, be sure to get 3rd party liability insurance, a requirement in Baja. This is easily and inexpensively purchased online. We also made sure to get a visa at the Tijuana airport, since we were going to be crossing from Baja Norte to Baja Sur. This is also supposedly required, though we have never been asked for it. At around 20$, I say better safe than sorry. It is valid for 180 days. This may also be purchased at the visa building directly to the right when you drive across the border. OK, boring! See our plan below, this is easily adjusted depending on length of trip, mood and focus.
Day 1: Crossing the border, taxi to airport, pick up rental car, check in at Hotel Ceasar, park car and eat a million tacos.
Day 2: Up and out early AM to drive to Guerrero Negro (10 hours), eat sea urchin in Ensenada, stuff yourself on quesa tacos and oysters in San Quintin and get to your hotel by sunset.
Day 3: Whale watching from 8am until noon. Drive to Mulegé (4 hours).
Day 4: Drive from Mulegé to Loreto, stopping at lots of beaches on the way (2 hours).
Day 5: Drive from Loreto to La Paz (4-5 hours). We spent 2 nights here.
Day 6: Start the trip North. We actually returned for 1 more night in Loreto, but you could go to Mulegé or all the way to San Ignacio if you leave La Paz super early.
Day 7: Loreto to San Ignacio (6 hours). Stop at your favorite beach on the way back up to take the sting out of the trip's inevitable end.
Day 8: We have again reached the unavoidable long portion of the return. You might choose to travel from San Ignacio to Ensenada (9 hours). This way, you could eat more sea urchin! Otherwise, you could go the additional 1.5 hours to Tijuana for the night (tacos!). Similarly, you could just return your rental car and cross back over.
This 9 night, 10 day trip, complete with rental car, gas, unlimited food and drink, whale watching and general good times came to about 700$ per person. I'd have spent twice as much, it was so unbelievably fun, delicious and beautiful.
Any which way you do it, this is going to be the trip of a lifetime! Have fun!