GypsyJan
Nomad
Posts: 489
Registered: 10-29-2013
Location: Baja Coast
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Mood: "If a dog will not come to you after looking you in the face, examine your conscience." Woodrow W
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Remote Hacienda Nestled in Baja outback (Re-Edited)
http://www.haciendaelcaprichobaja.com/
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
Hacienda El Capricho: Calle Camino Real No. 1 22701 El Gato, Baja California Mexico;
Tel: 52 664 304 2236
Getting there
Hacienda El Capricho can arrange transportation from the border, or from the town of Primo Tapia, south of Puerto Nuevo for a fee. If you are driving
yourself, you don't necessarily need four-wheel drive if the road is dry, but high clearance helps. Heavy rains make the dirt road impassable.
"From the toll road (Cuota), exit at Cantamar and turn right (north) onto the free road. You will see a bridge over the free road, and just before the
bridge, there is a road on the left that takes you up and over the bridge with a small sign for Hacienda El Capricho. Follow the signs to pass Pretty
Horses Rescue and Black Cross Wines and continue up into the hills. More specific directions are given when you make a reservation.
Stay
Rooms start at $100 per night and accommodate two people. There is a two-room suite that can accommodate four people.
My car bounced along the rough dirt road as I drove deeper into the Baja hills. All around me in the dry, rocky terrain were the myriad shades of
silvery gray and brown that make up the natural palette of the desert scrub brush. Occasionally, the whine of a dirt bike broke the silence, throwing
clouds of dust in its wake, but for the most part, all was quiet and I was alone on the road, wondering not for the first time. if I was going the
right way. Then, as the road took me to higher elevations and I passed behind a ridge, the vegetation changed, and suddenly I was in the midst of
green grasses, stately oaks, flowering buckwheat and a scenic lushness I had never imagined, watered by natural springs and underground streams.
For most of us in San Diego, a getaway to northern Baja might entail heading to a coastal destination between Tijuana and Ensenada, or maybe a
wine-tasting and gastronomic extravaganza in the now ultra-popular Guadalupe Valley. It's all out there and readily accessible.
Way off the beaten path, however, down several bumpy, dusty miles inland from the coast near Puerto Nuevo, exists an amazing slice of Baja that few
visitors have any inkling of as they speed along the coastal toll road. If they were to take the dirt road that runs east from Primo Tapia into the
mountains, after about 40 minutes they would arrive, as I did, at the sculpted iron gates of Hacienda El Capricho, in the midst of abundant natural
beauty and tranquillity.
Hacienda El Capricho is the realized vision of Alberto Ortiz, a Chula Vista high school Spanish teacher for the past 17 years, who grew up in Tijuana
but moved to San Diego as a teenager and attended San Diego State University.
I feel so fortunate to be a part of two cultures, he observes. I have the best of both worlds. Since childhood, he had been visiting the land, part of
the sprawling Rancho El Gato, which has belonged for generations to a close family friend. Even at a young age, he says, I fell in love with it. I was
lured by the nature, the birds, the animals, the peacefulness. It was as if there was a mystical force that called me to be a part of it.
In 1998, he bought his 4 hectares (almost 10 acres), and began building his dream. It's been a constant construction project, ever since, Ortiz
laughs. There is always something more I can add, something I can improve."
The design of the gracious hacienda, constructed of the beautiful, locally produced bricks that incorporate bands of color that range from cream to
terra-cotta to black, was inspired by the romantic life in the pueblos of southern Mexico depicted in the movies Ortiz loved as a child, and by the
architecture he admired on trips to San Miguel D'Allende, Michoucan and Jalisco.
From the start, Ortiz visualized a serene guesthouse on the property. The friends he spoke with about it thought the idea crazy, considering how far
from the main coastal road the land is. He was determined, however, and when someone remarked, �this is your capricho, i.e. a quirky whim, he knew
he had found the name for what he hopes will one day be his retirement home.
The hacienda currently has four spacious, rustically elegant guest suites with private baths. Two more are due to be completed soon. Each room is
unique, some with such features as a romantic hanging bed, tiled fireplace, or even a huge, in-room stone whirlpool bath. Ortiz's goal is to have 10
rooms, but no more than that, he explains. "I want it to be small enough that I can provide personalized service and enjoy my guests enjoying my
home."
Hacienda El Capricho is truly off the grid, with electricity provided by solar panels and backup generator and water from a well. (Drinking water is
brought in jugs). There is no phone service or Wi-Fi, although there is one spot on a nearby hill where it is possible to pick up some cellphone
service from far-off towers if you stand on a certain rock, just so.
In the well-appointed kitchen, excellent meals are cooked for the guests and served al fresco on outdoor patios, or more casually at the inside bar. A
number of weddings and other events have been held in the large courtyard. Last year, Ortiz hosted an opera and wine dinner, attended by 150 people
who traveled the precarious road in the dark of night to dine, drink Baja wines and enjoy opera singers from Tijuana, a mariachi band and dancing
under the stars.
"One of my goals," Ortiz says, "Is for this place to become known for supporting the arts. I will present performances of opera, classical music,
ballet folklorica and special themed weekends devoted to activities like painting workshops, learning about nature through hikes and knowledge
sharing, or exploring relaxation and wellness techniques"
It was on one of these special Health and Relaxation weekends that I was introduced to Hacienda El Capricho with a half-dozen other guests. On that
Saturday, we enjoyed Reiki healing sessions to align our chakras, facials, massages, and, as the sun set behind the mountains and a gazillion stars
lit up the sky, finished the day with a guided temazcal (traditional sweat lodge) experience, led by a well-known spiritual healer from Tijuana.
Meals at Hacienda El Capricho are often served on outdoor patios.
The next morning, I walked with Ortiz to a neighboring rancho, also self-sufficient and off the grid. Afterward, we visited the dairy, where excellent
cheeses are crafted from the milk of cows wandering the fields, and munched on fresh figs and pears right off the abundantly producing trees. Ortiz
showed me a small adobe that predated the founding of Tijuana. In his childhood, this was the home of a colorful, and possibly mad, elderly lady whom
Ortiz later fictionalized in his self-published novel El Capriccio del Karol. He then suggested we lunch at a nearby restaurant.
Restaurant? All the way out here? I asked incredulously? Yes, he replied, on weekends my neighbors serve food and drinks on the patio at their house
for the people that come on dirt bikes and ATVs.
As we seated ourselves around a table at tiny El Varaero to enjoy a lazy afternoon of camaraderie, cervezas, homemade tamales, pozoles and salads
picked fresh from the family's organic garden, I marveled at the comings and goings of riders likewise enjoying the beautiful Baja outback. I found
myself never wanting to leave, even if it meant giving up my phone and Wi-Fi forever."
[Edited on 3-9-2017 by GypsyJan]
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Mula
Super Nomad
Posts: 1653
Registered: 8-16-2011
Location: San Nicolas y Lopez Mateos
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This link did not take me to anything about the Baja Outback. Only a condo in Cabo.
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fishbuck
Banned
Posts: 5318
Registered: 8-31-2006
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I saw an Iguana! He was cool!
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
"Life's a Beach... and then you Fly!" Fishbuck
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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It worked for me.
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Sweetwater
Senior Nomad
Posts: 915
Registered: 11-26-2010
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Mood: chilly today hot tomale
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Perhaps my translate button is malfunctioning?
Suckers Suite
A hanging room for two people, complete bathroom with rustic steam spa with volcanic stones (extra cost and requires 2 weeks of spa reservation).Total
cost $ 125 dlls 2 night minimum(2 people)
Everbody\'s preachin\' at me that we all wanna git to heaven, trouble is, nobody wants to die to git there.-BB King
Reality is what does not go away when you stop believing in it. -Philip K Dick
Nothing is worse than active ignorance. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832, German writer, artist and politician)
When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I\'ve never tried before. - Mae West
Experience is what keeps a man who makes the same mistake twice from admitting it the third time around.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64480
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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El Gato/ Cantamar Junction, on the east side...
There is (was) a back-country road from the Tecate/Ensenada highway (Valle las Palmas) to Cantamar on the Pacific, we drove (along with The
Squarecircle and others) back in 2005: http://vivabaja.com/305/
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willardguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6451
Registered: 9-19-2009
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I was up there a few weeks ago after the rains, i'll never get all the mud off the 4runner!
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GypsyJan
Nomad
Posts: 489
Registered: 10-29-2013
Location: Baja Coast
Member Is Offline
Mood: "If a dog will not come to you after looking you in the face, examine your conscience." Woodrow W
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The Webpage Link is Good Now
I went back through the post and did my best to take out the annoying bugs.
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