BajaNomad

Baja Bound

sbbeeboy - 2-23-2020 at 01:37 PM

I found your group this morning and have spent the last couple hours reading posts. Thank you for this amazing resource!
This is my first trip to Baja Sur.
I will be staying just south of Mulegé In Coyote Bay for 10 days starting this next Friday and am curious if any of you have suggestions for fishing, food, must sees and dos while I’m there.
Do I bring my own fishing gear, or are there resources there?
Grocery suggestions?
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

David K - 2-23-2020 at 02:15 PM

Welcome to Nomad!

First off, this is the Baja Events forum, so the moderator will be moving this to the Q & A forum at some point... No worries!

Playa Coyote is at Km. 107. 14 kms. south is Playa Buenaventura (Km. 93) and Mark & Olivia's cantina with their famous cheeseburgers and seafood.

To the north, at Km. 108.5 is Bertha's Restaurant and Km. 114 is Ana's Restaurant.

There are small stores in the area, but anything significant will be found in Mulegé (Km. 130-135).

Must sees? Well, California's fourth Spanish mission is at Km. 134 and under the highway bridge to the west. Founded in 1705, the Mulegé mission church we see today was built between 1757 and 1766.

The many missions are passed by as you travel down the peninsula, 27 are in Baja. If interested here is a bit more:
http://www.vivabaja.com/missions1/

JZ - 2-23-2020 at 03:20 PM

Avoid Mark & Olivia's Cantina. Very bad experience the last two times we stopped there, November and December.

In November, Oliva got us all excited for some burgers. 5 mins into drinks she tells us they are out of propane. Didn't even apologize, just said it in a matter of fact tone and walked off.

Not that big a deal, chit happens, so we decided to stop again in December. I had been talking the place up to friends. We pull up and neither Mark or Olivia were there, only the cook and 2-3 others who didn't seem to work there, but were "looking after the place."

We go to order, and the cook says he's tired and done for the day. It was like the middle of the day.

We had passed up Santa Rosalia and Mulege to stop there with 5 starving ppl. That place is a travesty with its sh*tty service.



[Edited on 2-24-2020 by JZ]

Mr. Bills - 2-23-2020 at 06:11 PM

Unfortunately, I must add another less than perfect review for Playa Buenaventura.

We also stopped there in December between Christmas and New Years while Mark and Olivia were apparently away in Ensenada. The only people there were the cook and two very nice couples from Northern California who were renting a house or trailer for the holiday and watching the place in the owners' absence. Oh yeah, there was also a young family who arrived later with an irascible child who seemed particularly irate because there were no cheeseburgers.

Hopefully the owners were on a supply run because the restaurant was out of nearly everything. But I will stand up for the cook - what he did have was tasty and the drinks were strong enough to put me down for the count soon enough.

Although the place may not have lived up to previous Internet reviews, in the end the people on site at the time were nice, the available food was reasonably good, the toilet worked and the shower was hot (after I figured out the valve diverting water between toilet and shower - one or the other, no water supply to both at the same time).

Could have been better, could have been a lot worse.

David K - 2-23-2020 at 06:23 PM

Gee, that's terrible, JZ.

While I am not down there as much as others, my visits in 2007, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019 were all fantastic.

Photos available!:light:


Pacifico - 2-23-2020 at 06:23 PM

irascible... I had to look that one up! :lol::lol::lol:

StuckSucks - 2-23-2020 at 06:32 PM

Quote: Originally posted by sbbeeboy  
I will be staying just south of Mulegé In Coyote Bay for 10 days starting this next Friday


Just so you know what you're in for:









mtgoat666 - 2-23-2020 at 06:43 PM

Quote: Originally posted by JZ  
Avoid Mark & Olivia's Cantina. Very bad experience the last two times we stopped there, November and December.

In November, Oliva got us all excited for some burgers. 5 mins into drinks she tells us they are out of propane. Didn't even apologize.

Not that big a deal, we decided to stop again in December. I had been talking the place up to friends. We pull up and neither Mark or Olivia were there, only the cook and 2-3 others who didn't seem to work there, but were "looking after the place."

We go to order, and the cook says he's tired and done for the day. It was like the middle of the day.

We had passed up Mulege to stop there with 5 starving ppl. That place is a travesty with it's sh*tty service.


Been like that for decades... but they have repeat customers that are accepting of flakyness. Whatever.

Turtle soup!



JZ - 2-23-2020 at 06:45 PM

Ok, back to the main topic.

Op, tell us a little more. What type of vehicle do you have? How offroad capable is it? We can give you a bunch of trails to run in that area.

The islands in the bay are fantastic.

advrider - 2-23-2020 at 07:09 PM

I've only had good luck there, with amazing food and drinks! Hope it stays that way, I know they are trying to make improvements. I would guess it's not easy running a business in Baja and trying to take sometime off.

mtnpop - 2-23-2020 at 07:47 PM

Well, the place is usually packed on Taco Tuesday from a large contingent of folks from town. Pretty popular no matter what the fringe group likes to spout.
They are usually involved in the community of Mulege also.
Not many places along Mex 1 are perfect 100% of the time.
Not hard to find naysayers about everything. We have never had a problem there but maybe we are the luck ones...

JZ - 2-23-2020 at 08:15 PM

Quote: Originally posted by mtnpop  
Well, the place is usually packed on Taco Tuesday from a large contingent of folks from town. Pretty popular no matter what the fringe group likes to spout.
They are usually involved in the community of Mulege also.
Not many places along Mex 1 are perfect 100% of the time.
Not hard to find naysayers about everything. We have never had a problem there but maybe we are the luck ones...


Naysayer? Pretty sure this is the first bad review I've made about any restaurant or hotel in Baja in my 17 years on the board. There is a big problem there.



[Edited on 2-24-2020 by JZ]

BajaBlanca - 2-24-2020 at 02:33 PM

sbbeeboy! Welcome to Bajanomad!

You are going to love the beach there...On your way, if you have the time, visit San Ignacio with its huge square, huge mission church and wonderful feel.

Santa Rosalia is next big town and if you go up the main street behind the train wagon, there is a church that is prefab and designed by Eiffel of Eiffel tower.

Besides that, there is a hotel way up on the hill called the Hotel Frances. It is old, quite small but I love the history inside it.

Mulege is fun to walk around but the beach you are going to is superbly beautiful. There are small grocery stores that are easy to find.

Let us know how it goes!

sbbeeboy - 2-26-2020 at 04:08 PM

Thanks to all of you for these recommendations and suggestions.
I’ve rented a Dodge Durango and we should be able to get around fine on and off road.
Picked up a couple sets of snorkeling eqpt and have fishing license. Hoping to meet a local fisherman that’ll help and may look into a charter trip as well.
Again, thanks guys and gals!

advrider - 2-26-2020 at 08:18 PM

If you go to San Ignacio you should do a whale tour. Talk to Rubie in the town square on the West side next to a restaurant. One of the most amazing things I've done!

basautter - 2-27-2020 at 04:42 AM

Quote: Originally posted by advrider  
If you go to San Ignacio you should do a whale tour. Talk to Rubie in the town square on the West side next to a restaurant. One of the most amazing things I've done!


Agreed! Visiting the whales is really a great experience. I am guessing they are still around, but this can be confirmed.

sbbeeboy - 3-11-2020 at 08:00 AM

Thanks to all of you for these recommendations and suggestions.
I’ve rented a Dodge Durango and we should be able to get around fine on and off road.
Picked up a couple sets of snorkeling eqpt and have fishing license. Hoping to meet a local fisherman that’ll help and may look into a charter trip as well.
Again, thanks guys and gals!