Chillin'' Baja Style along La Bahía de Concepción

As the world's second largest peninsula, Baja stretches south with over 2000 miles of coastline ... so it's not surprising that its beaches are plentiful.  Along the Bahía de Concepción (Conception Bay) area of the Baja, these beaches reach legendary status. Located halfway down the peninsula on the eastern coast, this huge bay of calm, turquoise water invites one to slow down and settle into the rhythm of the sea. Whether that means swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, or simply embracing the art of doing nothing at all, we happily made it our ''job'' to master the art of ...

Chillin’ Baja style.

This “job” consisted of finding a reasonably level patch of sand, paying a modest camping fee (about 250 pesos, or $14 USD), putting out the awning, setting up our chairs, and doing our best to think “cool” thoughts as the midday temperatures climbed into the high 90s. It didn’t take long before we had our beach bum routine down to a fine art.

Located between the towns of Mulegé and Loreto, Bahía de Concepción has long stretches of easily accessible sandy beaches that are set up as informal camping areas. These beaches have limited services ... usually just pit toilets and garbage bins. Since a certain one of us can only manage a few days of ''roughing it'', we devised a plan that we could both live with: a few days of minimalist living on the beach, followed by a few days of “luxury” in one of the nearby towns before heading back to a different beach for a few more days of chillin' time.

There are three beaches on Bahía de Concepción that seem to be the most popular among beach lovers, so we decided to check out all three.

Playa El Requesón

Popular for its white sand and turquoise water, Playa El Requesón featured a unique sandbar that popped up at low tide and allowed us to walk out to a small island just offshore. Once there we "bush-whacked" through the mangroves and enjoying views of the camping area on the other side.

For our 250 pesos ($14) a night, we enjoyed a very clean beach setting and were spoiled with flush toilets that actually worked. Beach vendors set up shop every morning in the parking area offering a variety of wares including fish, shrimp, tamales, fruits and  juices, so there were no worries about going hungry.

But the highlight of our stay at El Requeson was hanging out with two other couples that we had first met while whale-watching in Ojo de Liebre. We spent our lazy days chatting in the shade, sharing travel tales, and celebrating when the lone fisherman of our group caught his first fish. Moments like these capture the easygoing, communal spirit that seems to flourish all across Baja.

Playa Santispac

Playa Santispac gets the award for largest and most popular beach on Bahía de Concepción, but unfortunately didn't win over our beach bum hearts. Because even the biggest RVs on the road can easily get down to the beach, it is popular with caravan groups and large rigs that travel down the Baja. Playa Santispac boasts of two bars/restaurants that offer decent food and occasional entertainment. And the view of the turquoise blue waters in the bay and scattered islands in the distance as you approach it from the highway ... AMAZING!

But a few things left something to be desired. For starters ... more people mean more noise and more garbage and more toilets in need of a bit of TLC. Plus, because the main camping area faces south, shade was hard to come by during the heat of the day. We gave it a try for a day, and ultimately decided to spend more time on our favorite beach on Bahía de Concepción ...

Playa El Coyote

Yes, Playa El Coyote ended up being our favorite beach hangout. Set against some stunning mountain backdrops, the camping spots were more spread out along the beach. This vast shoreline meant that a beach walk from one end to the other yielded a mile's worth of steps and plenty of opportunities to strike up conversations with other campers.

It's a smaller beach than the other two beaches, but that is definitely not a bad thing. With less people using them, the pit toilets were some of the cleanest that I have ever come across. A number of long-term snowbird residents take pride in keeping their slice of paradise in pristine condition. And no worries about staving here either ... local vendors still made a point to stop by here to tempt us with their food and wares. 

And as the midday temps started to rise, it was definitely nice to have the mountain backdrop and scattered palm trees to provide some shade.

The highlight of our stay on El Coyote was sharing stories over a sunset fish dinner with our neighbors and their ever-so-sweet German Shepherd, Athena. 

After sunset, gazing up into the super dark, star-filled sky and watching bioluminescent sparkles shimmer in the waves brought our chillin' beach experience at El Coyote over the top.

 Our Baja beach-hopping plan ended up looking like this ...

One day in Mulegé

Three days at Playa El Requesón (30 miles from Mulegé)

Four days in Loreto (55 miles from El Requesón)

Three days at Playa El Coyote (65 miles from Loreto)

Four more days in Loreto (65 miles from El Coyote)

One day at Playa Santispac (70 miles from Loreto)

One day at Playa El Coyote (5 miles from Santispac)

One day in Mulegé (20 miles from El Coyote)

While there was a bit of distance between the beaches and the pueblos, running up and down that road helped recharge Baby Beest's batteries so she was ready for more boondocking. The powerful sun rays assisted nicely also!

By this point, the temps were starting to head towards 100, so we decided that the town of Loreto, just south of Bahía de Concepción would be our southernmost destination in the Baja. Our beach experiences on Bahía de Concepción, along with the charm of Loreto (more on that in the next blog) gave us the authentic Baja experience that we had been hoping to find.

While we’ve never really considered ourselves the “sit on the beach” type of people, we definitely found out that given the right conditions, we can wholeheartedly embrace a few days of ...

Chillin' Baja Style

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