BajaNomad - Why Americans Should Be Thankful for Baja, Mexico

Why Americans Should Be Thankful for Baja, Mexico

MexicoTed - 12-13-2016 at 12:51 AM

Our Latin American neighbor remains the last bastion of total freedom outdoors
By: Wes Siler, Outside Magazine

By all accounts, I�m a red-blooded American male. I drive a lifted truck. I ride a fast motorcycle. I shoot guns. I go camping. I harvest my own meat. I�m listening to Van Halen while I write this. But a lot of the time, this place just doesn�t feel like home anymore. If it�s not somebody telling me how to live my own life, it�s somebody judging someone else about theirs.

So, for the past year, I�ve been running off to Mexico. Last week, my friends and I even celebrated the most American of holidays there, holding our annual outdoor Thanksgiving on a beach in Baja. While we were talking about what we were thankful for this year, something about doing that down there just felt right�right in a way that doing it in America wouldn�t have. I think this is why.

Baja Is an Off-Road Paradise

Want to know if it�s okay to take your truck, motorcycle, or ATV off-road somewhere in Baja? It is. It�s that simple.

Obviously, sticking to dirt roads, trails, and beaches is the best idea. Not only does doing so mean you stand less of a chance of getting stuck or breaking your vehicle, but it also prevents damage to the environment. Plus, leaving a trail is often mechanically impossible. What makes Baja special is its vast number of trails and dirt roads. Locked gates are virtually unheard of.

That freedom to explore allows you to choose your own adventure. My approach is simply to find a beach that looks good on Google Earth, figure out a way to get to it, and then find a way to get down onto the sand once I�m there. If that formula doesn�t produce a good camping trip, you can always move on to the next beach.

In Baja, Solitude Is the Norm

In the United States, beaches where you can take a vehicle are the exception, and you�ll almost always share them with dozens of other people. In Mexico, odds are you�ll have it to yourself.

If you don�t want to camp on a beach, you can camp in the mountains, jungle, or desert. And you�ll be alone there, too. If not, just go a little farther.

This year, we opted to make our little Thanksgiving on-road accessible so a few people without trucks or the wherewithal to navigate through the wilderness could join. We ended up in an organized campground. We had it to ourselves.

This ability to get away from people is inherent to the draw of doing stuff outdoors. So a place that makes finding solitude easy is inherently a better place to play outside.

Mexico Is Full of Friendly People

I�ve been all over the United States this year: upstate New York, the White Mountains, rural South Dakota, the Washington woods, mountain towns in New Mexico, and a lot of places in between. One thing that�s been bugging me is that the typically friendly encounters you�d expect have been absent, replaced instead by polarization, judgment, and suspicion. I hope it�s temporary, but rural America, in particular, just hasn�t been feeling like home.

Know a place where I haven�t had a single conversation about politics? Where I haven�t heard a single racist epithet? Where I haven�t witnessed gay people being disparaged or worse? Where I haven�t had to stand up for anybody based on their race, creed, or religion? You guessed it�south of the border.

Sit down with some locals there for a beer, some tacos, or a smoke, and you�ll talk about where to catch fish, what to catch them with, where they�re from, where you�re from, what their kids are doing, and what they hope they�ll do. You know, the kind of conversations you�d expect to have in a small town with normal people. At least that�s my experience.

Need help in Mexico? Just ask someone. Contributor Chris Brinlee Jr. burned out his clutch while stuck in the sand on a beach I sent him to in Baja. The price for both tow and repair? The $100 or so he had in his wallet, plus a pair of Ray-Bans he was wearing to make up the difference. And the mechanic�s wife cooked him tamales while he waited.

Last Wednesday, after a sandstorm destroyed our tents, we were invited into a family�s home for a big breakfast of eggs and hot dogs. They didn�t have much but were happy to share it.

In Baja, the Food Is Fresh

Mexico has some of the best fishing in the world. On Saturday, my friends and I caught 30 yellowtail. We gave some to the guy who took us out in his boat for $100, put a few on ice to bring home, and, with the aid of beer and flour, turned the rest into fish tacos that we ate right there on the beach.

Driving along and find yourself hungry? You don�t stop at a McDonald�s for sugar and saturated fat. You stop at a roadside taco stand where a grandmother cooks to order. There�s typically very little protein available at local stores in rural places like Baja. Instead, they sell the ingredients you need to turn the protein you catch yourself into a tasty meal. That sounds like an ideal arrangement to this proponent of scoring your own wild-caught meat.

Mexico Is Just a Little Bit Dangerous

Here in the United States, the most dangerous thing most people do is drive their cars. Something they don�t tend to pay attention to, regardless.

Take your eyes off the road while driving in Mexico, and odds are you�ll careen over a cliff, blow out your tires in a pothole, or run into a black cow at night. As a tourist, you�re actually less likely to be the victim of violent crime in Mexico than you are in the United States, but that doesn�t stop the country from having its own little tinge of danger.

Military checkpoints dot the highways. News stories about cartels kidnapping tourists pop up every few years. You hear rumors about corrupt cops, bribes, and carjackings. But in reality, it�s the emptiness of Baja that represents the only real danger. Head way out in the middle of nowhere, and there are no hospitals, no ambulances to take you to one even if they existed, and no one to come along and help you if you get hurt.

Personal Freedom Still Exists There

You�re responsible for your own safety in Mexico. Just like anywhere, that�s more about not slipping and falling or having a car accident than trading gunfire with banditos.

While pulled over at one of the military checkpoints, my dog and I hopped out of the truck so some soldiers could search it. One opened my door, found the big knife and can of bear spray I keep in that pocket, waved them around in the air while making Rambo jokes, and then interrogated me with gusto about the capability of the winch mounted on my front bumper before smiling and telling me to have a good day.

Want to camp somewhere in Mexico? Go camp there. Want to stroll through a small town with a big knife on your hip, a cowboy hat on your head, and your dog off-leash? No one�s going to stop you. Want to catch a fish? Hope you brought bait. In Mexico, at least in the rural places, no one�s trying to tell you what to do. Your ability to conduct an activity safely and without damaging the environment is up to your skill and intelligence, not a sign, a cop, or a social justice warrior. The only thing you can�t do in Mexico is bring a gun along.

And to this American, that freedom is something that just feels right.

Why am I telling you all this? Hopefully, it will encourage you to keep an open mind, to visit, and maybe even to help spread the word that Mexico is a really neat place.

Right now is a great time to visit. In the wake of Donald Trump�s election, the peso has plunged to an all-time low, and crossing the border may not always be as easy as it is in its current, wall-free state. It�s cold here. It�s warm there. And nobody�s going to ask who you voted for, I promise.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2140026/why-americans-should-be-thankful-baja-mexico

BooJumMan - 12-13-2016 at 07:33 AM

:/
2nd article I've seen this year out of Outside Magazine where the author "discovers" Baja and decides it would be best to publish an article on how awesome Baja because it is so uncrowded, yet at the same time tell everyone to go. I just don't get it.

nandopedal - 12-13-2016 at 07:51 AM

Quote: Originally posted by BooJumMan

:/
2nd article I've seen this year out of Outside Magazine where the author "discovers" Baja and decides it would be best to publish an article on how awesome Baja because it is so uncrowded, yet at the same time tell everyone to go. I just don't get it.

No worries Mr BooJumMan, vast majority of americans are afraid of big narcoland.

tiotomasbcs - 12-13-2016 at 07:52 AM

Lawyers, Realators, and Travel Writers... Outside has done other features on Baja; East Cape Surfing. Kinda like shooting yourself in the foot!

David K - 12-13-2016 at 07:58 AM

Thank you, Ted, for sharing the article!
Merry Christmas amigo!!

mtgoat666 - 12-13-2016 at 08:55 AM

Quote: Originally posted by BooJumMan

Most Writers selling pieces to travel mags like outside are lucky to get $500 pay for a fluff travel article like this. That's why you see the same old travel tales again and again. The low pay for travel articles doesnt allow for research or thought much beyond a couple hours of googling.

I think portraying baja as empty desert for unregulated offroading and beer drinking while car camping is patheticly shallow. If i had a subscription to Outside, i would consider not renewing. Prettly lame editors to be publishing such fluff.

David K - 12-13-2016 at 09:00 AM

Goat, why don't you submit an article teaching us the 'correct' way to have fun in Baja?

MMc - 12-13-2016 at 09:12 AM

I have never understand this mentally. It's one thing to share over a campfire it's another to post on the web, so any search engine can put people on it.

Quote: Originally posted by BooJumMan

AKgringo - 12-13-2016 at 09:25 AM

I am in Goat's corner on this one! The more people coming south thinking it is wide open, screw the rules, will lead to more closed areas.

The writer alluded to responsibility, but did not seem to encourage it.

LancairDriver - 12-13-2016 at 12:59 PM

It's best to remember that many parts of the US used to be this way and are no longer. Popularity and publicity bring people. More people change the scene forever, usually not for the better.

fishbuck - 12-13-2016 at 01:59 PM

Yes he forgot to mention all the rattlesnakes and scorpions. Also the bandits and crooked cops.
There that should undo the damage :cool:

DanO - 12-13-2016 at 02:34 PM

Quote: Originally posted by fishbuck

Yes he forgot to mention all the rattlesnakes and scorpions. Also the bandits and crooked cops.
There that should undo the damage :cool:

And the Tarantula Hawks.

BooJumMan - 12-13-2016 at 03:03 PM

Also the bees and wasps! I've been swarmed by bees a couple times now that I think about it.

BigBearRider - 12-13-2016 at 03:22 PM

Not a good idea to bring a big knife.

David K - 12-13-2016 at 03:22 PM

I just wonder why it was okay for you to learn about and go to Baja, but not okay for anyone else to?

In the end, it will be good roads that bring all kinds of people and not magazine articles.

mtgoat666 - 12-13-2016 at 03:37 PM

Quote: Originally posted by MexicoTed

Our Latin American neighbor remains the last bastion of total freedom outdoors
By: Wes Siler, Outside Magazine

Know a place where I haven�t had a single conversation about politics?... You guessed it�south of the border.

Want to camp somewhere in Mexico? Go camp there. Want to stroll through a small town with a big knife on your hip, a cowboy hat on your head, and your dog off-leash? No one�s going to stop you.

I have had lots of conversations about politics in Mexico, same as USA, Mexicans like to talk politics as much as anyone else.

And strutting around with a big knife on your hip is odd in most towns,... and in some towns will get you arrested.

I mean, really, what dum ass Thinks it's important to go to town with a big knife on their hip? Leave the knife in your car. Crikey!

Sweetwater - 12-13-2016 at 04:09 PM

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

I am in Goat's corner on this one! The more people coming south thinking it is wide open, screw the rules, will lead to more closed areas.

The writer alluded to responsibility, but did not seem to encourage it.

That would make at least 2 of us. The more folks abuse privileges, the quicker they are revoked.

Quote: Originally posted by LancairDriver

It's best to remember that many parts of the US used to be this way and are no longer. Popularity and publicity bring people. More people change the scene forever, usually not for the better.

Money has played a huge role in the US losing access to public lands. I know that many private ranches in Wyoming and Montana have successfully closed off access to what used to be available. It's one of my yuuuge concerns about the Trump regime, Utah currently has a law suit to take Federal land and is notorious for selling it off to private developers whether they exploit it for energy/minerals or for private real estate. I'll be watching carefully to see how this goes.

sancho - 12-13-2016 at 04:13 PM

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Goat, why don't you submit an article teaching us the 'correct' way to have fun in Baja?

DK, put away your slingshot, you could never hit Goat anyway.
Not everyone embraces offroading, nor the idea Baja is
there for desrespecting environment or the culture. That
was cheap, carrying a knife, a little respect is called for.
It is not there for the Desinguished Gringo Tourist from NOB to grace
it with it's presence or it's pesos. Since it's the Holidays
and all, I think you should include Goat on your Happy Birthday
Wish List

[Edited on 12-13-2016 by sancho]

David K - 12-13-2016 at 04:17 PM

It was a simple request...
Goat was putting down the article, so I asked him for his theory on what's right.

DENNIS - 12-13-2016 at 04:27 PM

[rquote=1059830&tid=85130&author=Sweetwater
That would make at least 2 of us. The more folks abuse privileges, the quicker they are revoked.

A little bit of aggressive law enforcement would go a long way as well.

motoged - 12-13-2016 at 07:56 PM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666

...

----I think portraying baja as empty desert for unregulated offroading and beer drinking while car camping is patheticly shallow. If i had a subscription to Outside, i would consider not renewing. Prettly lame edit ors to be publishing such fluff.

Yep, agree !

BigBearRider - 12-13-2016 at 10:58 PM

From the US Consulate in Tijuana webpage:

If you carry a knife on your person in Mexico, even a pocketknife . . .

You may be arrested and charged with possession of a deadly weapon;
You may spend weeks in jail waiting for trial, and tens of thousands of dollars in attorney�s fees, court costs, and fines;
If convicted, you may be sentenced to up to five years in a Mexican prison.

Claiming not to know about the law will not get you leniency from a police officer or the judicial system. Leave your firearms, ammunition, and knives at home. Don�t bring them into Mexico.

https://mx.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/tijuana/u-s-citi...

chuckie - 12-13-2016 at 11:43 PM

Outside magazine has always published "puff pieces" like this one.It is marginally factual and encourages one timers to act badly, in a foreign country. The future of off roading in Baja is in my opinion is in doubt as is. The make a buck guys taking wannabe racers into places they shouldn't be is going to be the finite. Its sad in a way, but maybe overdue.

Lee - 12-14-2016 at 05:36 AM

Think there are those who see some truth in the article: fresh food, friendly people, solitude (if you want), off-roading (that I have some issue with when done illegally), and personal freedom.

The vast majority I think from the US will still not be interested in visiting Baja. The negative press far outweighs the positive. I've never met anyone who didn't have a negative reaction when I mention I live in Baja part of the year.

I say it's not for everyone and that ends the conversation.

pacificobob - 12-15-2016 at 08:07 AM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666

Quote: Originally posted by BooJumMan

BigBearRider - 12-15-2016 at 08:47 AM

The author of the article bought an older Land Rover and took it off-road in Baja, and wrote an article or two about the car and the experience. I think he likes Baja.

bajatrailrider - 12-15-2016 at 09:01 AM

Thank you Mex Ted great story about Baja, why I'm here.

Blade Runner

MrBillM - 12-15-2016 at 08:02 PM

While having a knife aboard is obviously a "possible" liability, in near 50 years of Baja travel, I NEVER encountered a problem with the authorities over ALWAYS having one handy.

During various "inspections" by customs and the Army, the Marine combat-style knife I carried under (or behind) the seat was found without any reaction other than "favorable" comments.

Of course, anytime that you're on the wrong side of a written law, you're vulnerable to arbitrary actions from the guys with the guns.

unbob - 1-2-2017 at 08:15 PM

Quote: Originally posted by BigBearRider

From the US Consulate in Tijuana webpage:

If you carry a knife on your person in Mexico, even a pocketknife . . .

You may be arrested and charged with possession of a deadly weapon;
You may spend weeks in jail waiting for trial, and tens of thousands of dollars in attorney�s fees, court costs, and fines;
If convicted, you may be sentenced to up to five years in a Mexican prison.

Claiming not to know about the law will not get you leniency from a police officer or the judicial system. Leave your firearms, ammunition, and knives at home. Don�t bring them into Mexico.

https://mx.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/tijuana/u-s-citi...

Interesting. But hard to take seriously since they sell machetes in Wal-Mart and other stores in LP! I carry and use one frequently when mtb'ing hacking protruding tree limbs, cactus and such on the trail. A very useful tool!

pacificobob - 1-4-2017 at 07:41 AM

Quote: Originally posted by motoged

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666

Yep, agree !

and so do i.

DENNIS - 1-4-2017 at 08:38 AM

Quote: Originally posted by unbob

Quote: Originally posted by BigBearRider

Perhaps not to be dismissed easily based on US consumer logic. There is a "law" [I can't reference it at this moment] known to locals of varying stature, that a pocket knife is limited to a blade length of app. three inches. That includes Buck scabbard knives as well as all others. Perhaps the regulation is based upon concealability [is that a word?].
Machetes are tools as mentioned, just as is a shovel.
Again, the "law" is there only to keep power in the hands of the authorities.