San Jose del Cabo - San Diego USA

18 February 2022 - Having errands to do in the Land of the Big PX, and having the boat hauled and on the hard, we rented a car we could take into the US and drove the length of Baja California (what took us a month and a half of admittedly leisurely sailing to cover, we drove in two long days). The drive was a bit tense on the two-lane highway through the desert but, during daylight when we could see, the views were spectacular. Often we could see the sea or the ocean. We saw Isla Natividad, Isla Cedros and Islas San Benitos out on the Pacific, and we passed the signs for Asuncion, Punta Abreojos, San Ignacio and San Quintin, all places we passed coming down in the boat.

Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez

We crossed the border after some minor perturbations (we did not have the golden ticket for the short line, no pre-clearance and had to drive contra-flujo to get into the correct line) then got into our hotel in San Diego around midnight. We took hot showers and racked out. The wx is much colder in California than on the Cape 9 degrees further south.

We broke up the 20+ hour trip with an overnight stay in Santa Rosalia, a little town on the Sea of Cortez several hours south of the border. The highway that runs the length of Baja California zigs and zags from one side of the penninsula to the other. The scenery is deepest desert, shockingly punctuated by the blue of the Pacific on one’s left side at times, or the Sea of Cortez on one’s right hand at others. It is a stunningly beautiful, if rugged, drive. One must be certain not to run out of gas there.