Travel to Mexico

Moon Handbooks Baja

Format: Paperback
Author: Joe Cummings
ReleaseDate: 10 October, 2004
Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing, Moon Handbooks
Rating:

Better than Lonely Planet Book
Then I found this book and i have to say it is much better. I purchased the lonely planet book first, then misplaced it. The history, natural history and other tidbits included made me that much more excited about traveling in Baja. Not to mention it is more thoroughly written, better descriptions of destinations and how to get there. I feel this book will better prepare me for the trip. As others have already mentioned it's not just a great book on Baja, its a superbly written travel book in general. .

Unpretentious and Comprehensive
I say unpretentious because unlike many other travel books it features mainly black and white photographs that give it a certain aura like an old black and white movie that seems to suit the Baja. This is an unpretentious travel book but fairly thick almost 600 pages long. The book is very detailed like a Michelin guide with page after page of details and information on all aspects of the Baja peninsula including roads, maps, beaches, entertainment, restaurants, hotels, etc. It is an excellent guide and makes a nice souvenir.

Cummings Covers the Waterfront...And the Backroads
I found myself reading it repeatedly on my trip, not just for hotel and restaurant info, but like a novel--for the sheer pleasure of it. You couldn't ask for a better travel book on Baja. The sidebars and thumbnail histories are so well-researched and expertly delivered that I rank it not just among the best travel books on Mexico, but among the best books of any kind. The concise discussion of the ejido system and of the changing rules for foreign real estate purchases are just two small examples. Cummings touches on every aspect of Mexican society and its interaction with the people to the north, in addition to giving the essentials on gas stations and bus schedules and airports and resorts-all in the delightfully understated style that has become his hallmark.

Especially useful for me were his mention of side roads that lead away from the transpeninsular highway into the mountains of the interior. I took a number of them and often found pristine desert, unchanged for centuries. The route from Loreto to the Mission of San Javier was particularly good. The landscape was similar to Arizona, except that many canyons had oases of palm trees with only the cries of roosters and goats breaking the silence so that you could feel you were in a bygone time in ancient Mexico or Mesopotamia. Cummings calls the road suitable only for 4wd high clearance vehicles. It must have been improved since, because I drove it with an economy rental car with wheels the size of oreos and a hefty 3. 5 inches of clearance. If one proceeds slowly and carefully there is no problem, though I would not have gone on if there were any sign of rain.

The best beach by far that I found was that of Todos Santos. It is very clean and unsullied by automobiles, probably thanks to a sign near the parking area that not only warns against taking vehicles onto the beach, but also notes the amount of prison time assigned to violators. And the waves are fabulous: 15' rolling tubes that explode into 40' towers of spray, a natural drama one can watch for hours with only pelicans and the occasional crab for company. It's typical of Cummings' sense of the drama of travel that he tells the best way to get to this great beach: "follow Calle Topete across the palm-filled arroyo. . . the first sand road on the other side. . . turn left just before the low rock wall. . . ", but let's you find out on your own what a delight the access road itself is: an inconspicuous lane that runs about a half mile between high stone walls on one side and a line of mango trees on the other, ending in a tunnel through a thicket of bamboo that emerges onto the parking area (shaded!). Bicycles and walkers are on an equal footing with autos, and the tiny scale of the sandy track almost compels you to roll down your window and say hola. Ojala that it stays that way.

Playa San Pedrito, a dozen miles to the south, is also charming and unspoiled, but far from any place to buy food and drink. Punta Conejo, sixty miles to the north, is the most desolate section of Pacific coast I've ever walked. In three days I saw not one person, nor one bit of shade of any kind: no palapas, no trees, no cliffs. . . even the towering cacti keep at least a quarter mile between themselves and the surf at all times. If Mexico were a nanny state, one would be required to purchase a parasol before venturing onto the beach.

The beaches on the other side of the peninsula are also very nice, but lack large waves, the Sea of Cortez being much like the Red Sea, a huge body of saltwater separated from the ocean by miles of desert. I was there in September, and I often had to get out of the water to cool off, rather than the reverse, which holds true on the Pacific year round. The eastern coast of Baja is probably ideal in January and February. Here, too, Cummings is comprehensive. Nothing escapes his notice, with the exception of the exceptional qualities of the Hotel Moro just outside Santa Rosalia. Senor Espinosa's rambling hacienda style hotel is a work of art. Cummings makes unjustly short shrift of it in calling it "tourist-oriented". I would call it beauty-oriented, with its elegant terrace overlooking the water, and its aviary, and its cool pool set in a profusion of tropical flowers. It's a far greater value than the "venerable Hotel Frances", where you pay twice the money for a room in the midst of a lovingly restored industrial plant far from the water.


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click image or link for details on these Mexico travel books.

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