How To Eat, Surf, And Be Merry In Baja Sur
As told by the Mexican marsupial, Baja Koala.
Presented by the state of Baja Sur.
Baja California — which is actually a peninsula off northern Mexico and not in California at all — has long been a part of the American west coast surf fable.
Big Wednesday saw the gang head down for fights, romance and long, cobbled points. Then throughout the 70s, few places represented the counter-cultural flow (of drugs) more than the mystical land with Tex Mex names like ‘Scorpion Bay’.
The most recent fable — that of the two Aussie surfers who met an unfortunate and freakish end near Ensenada in the north — was a negative one. But any real traveler knows that throwing the baby out with the bathwater is sure way to end up a curtain-twitcher who never goes anywhere.
Baja is a curious place — it’s literally an 800 mile, top-to-bottom peninsula that geologically (and geographically) has just about everything you could wish for: mountains (wine, snow etc), cobbled points, beaches and reefs, desert. Jaques Cousteau even called the area the ‘Aquarium of the World’ due to the Sea of Cortez being so rich in sea life.
The UNESCO World Heritage site is particularly rich in mammals — sea lions, dolphins, whales etc — and whilst the Koala isn’t traditionally a native to Baja, it has at least one living relative on the strip. Stab High alum and man-who-sands-down-his-fins-to-protect-his-feet-from-wayward-fingerflips, Kevin ‘Baja Koala’ Meza, is a self-confessed “Mutt”, meaning his mom’s American and his Dad’s Mexican, specifically from Baja.
“I try to do the summer time in Baja Sur, because it’s more exposed to south swells, and that’s kind of the time to be in the Southern Pacific,” Kev tells us. “And then winter time I’m more up here.”
“Here” in this instance being Ensenada, a culturally-rich city of about half a million, approximately 70 miles from the US/Mexico border, where Kevin’s saluting the dipping sun with a beer.
“I’ve been back and forth for a while,” says the Koala of his Ensenada-to-Cabo set up. “Flights are super cheap. If there’s a north swell I’ll come up this way, if it’s a south swell then I’ll go down to Cabo. It’s pretty easy.”
Seeing as Baja’s more familiar as a concept rather than a destination for surfers who grow up anywhere other than California, we thought it apt to ask Kev, aka the Baja Koala, why it’s such an awesome place to be based.
Considering this piece was commissioned by the tourism department of Baja Sur, we’ll be focusing primary on Baja’s southern half.
Eating/Drinking
Baja’s southern state is particularly renowned for it’s culinary offerings, and whilst Kev can draw a detailed map to all his favorite beach-shack taco joints, he suggests that if you like seafood, you can’t go too far wrong.
“All the seafood in the area is all super fresh, good, and cheap,” he says. “You can get dollar tacos on the side of the road everywhere; some people get sick, some don’t. Depends on your metabolism and whether you’re used to gringo food and not used to heavy salsa.”
The Baja Koala laughs, then points out that when it comes to food in Baja Sur, you can go as high-end as you can afford.
“A lot of famous chefs from other parts of the country, like Mexico City, have been coming in and getting all gourmet,” Kev explains. When asked for a couple of top-end names he points to ‘Flora’s Field Kitchen’ in San José Del Cabo and ‘Café de Ciudad’ in La Paz, being two of the most renowned spots in the region (although mentions to bring the credit card).
And just a general rule in Mexico, don’t drink the tap water.
Surfing
If you haven’t worked out that there’s an abundance of surf in Mexico by now — apart from Puerto and Barra — then we can’t help you. And the almost 1,000-mile stretch that is the mystical Baja California has to be one of the most wave-blessed stretches in the country.
We weren’t about to ask the Baja Koala to open his glistening dome and divulge a lifetime of Baja Sur secrets, but he explains that he doesn’t really need to, as there are enough great waves to go around that people know about, many of which you can surf in boardshorts.
“The roads have improved and somehow the waves are less crowded,” says Baja Koala. “I’m not sure if that’s because people are spreading out and going to more spots, but it’s been really mellow lately.”
My early surf-mag memories via express courier from the States are littered with images of noughties adventurers like Brian Conley hitting Baja in crazy (for the time) 4WD/pop-top camping set ups. And whilst plenty are still into that, you don’t necessarily need all the gear, regardless of how much of an idea you have.
“This time of year at the beginning of December I see so many rigs going down to Cabo. Like all day long they’re passing San Miguel or Ensenada in these sick, giant, European-style transformer trucks, all diesel, all solar, all set up,” says Koala. “But I have a friend who goes in his Toyota Corolla and makes it all the way,” says Koala.
“Makes it all the way,” referring to the more well-known secrets in the area. Further than that, the limits are your rig and your imagination. There’s lots of coast and lots of ocean, not to mention the Sea of Cortez on the eastern side of the peninsula.
I ask Kevin whether he’s had any particularly memorable trips to the desert. He scoffs and says, “Yeah,” like it’s the most obvious question in the world, before elaborating.
“Me and my good friends used to head in every first good run of south swells we got,” he says. “We’d just go in pretty unprepared and end up burning those agave trees for bonfires, cooking fish, have one board, surf for two or three weeks, just living in the dirt, scoring. We’d just go with $100 and see what happened.” He laughs, then continues.
“Other people who were doing the same thing but were more set up, would always be like, ‘Hey you guys wanna have dinner and some drinks, or whatever?’ And usually everyone’s pretty cool.
“If you break down, there’s a Facebook group chat now called, ‘Talk Baja’ and you’ll go on that and see everyone put like, ‘Hey I just broke down…’ There’s a community. It’s easy, and it’s pretty safe, unless you’re looking for trouble in the middle of the night or partying or trying to score drugs.”
Extra-Curriculars
“Ah man, there’s so much stuff to do down here besides just surfing,” Baja Koala says. “There’s always something going on. We just had the Baja 1000 race, they have that every year. I normally steer clear of that scene.
“But there’s insane whale-watching towards the north of Baja Sur this time of year as the whales start migrating south, then down in Cabo there’s hiking spots, mountain biking around Punta Lobos; there’s a lot of stuff to do besides surfing. Lots of local people come here on holiday, like domestic tourists fly up here for the food and the fiesta.”
‘Fiesta’ is certainly the first thing that comes to mind whenever ‘Cabo’ gets thrown out, and Baja Koala says that Cabo’s what you make of it. If you want to party, then you’ve come to the right place.
“All the bars are popping,” he says. ‘Cabo has a full club scene — Squid Row, Mango Deck, the whole zone in that touristy area is blowing up. It’s crazy the last six-to-seven years to see how much it’s grown.”
The Baja Koala’s quick to point out that he’s no grumbling nimby about Baja coming up either adding, “Yeah there’s pros and cons for sure, but I think the pros outweigh the cons: more jobs, people are getting more ahead, it’s a lot safer…”
When pushed for a final word on somewhere he clearly loves and has a vested interest in. The Baja Koala pauses for a moment and reflects.
“I can’t complain,” he begins. “It’s cheap — like you tip your mechanic down here, it’s that cheap. It’s accessible, it’s fun, there’s waves. For the most part everybody’s pretty friendly and wants to help you out and talk to you. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”
