ODO: 305, 228
What do we do with our time if we don’t want to hang out on the beach? Two words: Cactus Sanctuary! This was an odd place. It was completely deserted when we arrived, made all the weirder because it shares a packing lot with a mausoleum. The sanctuary itself is a maze of paths that roughly make a circle, leading through various kinds of cactus and flowering desert plants with a lot of shade. There were many overgrown parts, and dead or dying cactus throughout. It was a short wander through some interesting plants, but did not make our list of must see, or return to places. They can’t all be winners right?
From the Cactus Sanctuary we headed back over to the east coast. We tried to like the coast near La Ventana, but the vibe was odd and it was extremely crowded and windy(which makes sense, it’s a kite surfing meca), so we headed a little further south and discovered our new favorite beach. White sands, no crowds, and water you could swim in! We spent two days watching rays jump and swimming in the ocean before deciding to explore more of the beaches on this side of Baja.
The other thing beaches are good for on the east side of Baja….. snorkeling! We started at Los Frailes, and the bugs were so bad we had to pack up and leave in a hurry first thing in the morning. We headed up to Cabo Plumo, and the snorkeling was amazing. Early in the morning, there was no wind, and all the fish were out. The reef runs along the beach and around the point, so there are unlimited places to snorkel. We saw needlefish, parrotfish, tiny bright tropical and stripped fish, scorpionfish and a million other things.
After getting out of the water, and running from the bugs at Cabo Plumo, we found ourselves enjoying the second best sashimi on the peninsula at Smokey’s in Los Barriles, three thumbs up! Full of fish and guac, we resupplied and headed back to our favorite beach for another two nights. The wind had started to pick up, but we decided to swim anyways. We called it angry ocean swimming, aka our pretend S.E.A.L. training. Treading water when the ocean is mad is easily 3 times as hard as when it’s calm, but we’re trying to take advantage of warm ocean water as much as we can.
Once the wind became too blustery, we decided to pack up and head back to Todos Santos, where we stumbled into a winefest. For whatever reason, everyone was wearing white or tan, very brave. We had dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, Tres Galline (the caprese made KoKo rethink not liking tomatoes) and came back to enjoy our new favorite bar, Shaka’s, where we were able to spend the night out front after making friends with the owner. They even have a shower we can use whenever we want!
The next day we decided to try something a little different, and stayed in an Airbnb. This was our first night indoors since the race, and we took advantage of it to permethrin the inside of tent. It was a funny cube/loft tiny house that was a medium walk to the beach, and a long walk to our bar. We did some laundry, got some water, took a real, real shower, and picked up my surfboard! While the shower was nice, staying indoors made us miss our tiny home and appreciate all the work we did to make it cozy.
