View Full Version : Mexico and Baja
naturejunkie
05-12-2009, 16:20
So, I've done some backpacking around Torreon, Mexico in the high Mexican dessert, but am considering some more significant undertakings.
I'd like to figure out a good East to West route, meaning the Gulf to the Pacific. And, I am also interested in backpacking Baja.
Anybody have experience with Mexico backpacking or know of some good resources for information?
Thanks!
The Weasel
05-12-2009, 17:02
Junkie ---
From our perspective about 50 miles from the Border with Baja, this is a real, real, REAL good time to be an American backpacking almost anyplace else, such as maybe something around Falluljah, Iraq or maybe Swat, Pakistan. There are more soldiers in Baja and Baja Sur than some parts of Iraq and most of Afghanistan, and there are more police and soldiers being killed there - not to mention the rest of the country - than in Iraq. Honest.
Good resources for information would be almost anything in the US. I'm serious, Dude. NOT a good place to go these days. Other parts of Mexico are better. Sort of like Somalia is better than Iraq. Not good better, just that beheadings, bodies packed in drums filled with acid, and massive attacks with automatic weapons aren't as common in other parts - note that I said as common - as they are south of Tijuana. Except, that is, for almost anyplace within 100 miles of the US border. That's why Cancun is still pretty safe; it was only the Chief of Police and (I think) one bodyguard killed by the side of the road outside of town a few weeks ago.
Really, really, really you should pick someplace else.
TW
modiyooch
05-12-2009, 18:29
I know how to get to divorce beach and lover's beach without paying for the boat ride and it involves rock scrambling.
Nature Junkie, For some good hiking info about Baja, read Graham Mackintosh's book "INTO A DESERT PLACE." It is his account of his hiking journey from San Felipe to Cabo San Lucus and then north to Ensenada. I really enjoyed the book and used it for a guide as I hiked parts of Baja. He also wrote several other books about other hikes and adventures in Baja.
All the talk about the dangers of Baja for gringos is over-hyped. The killings, etc. are mostly due to infighting amongst drug cartels. They have no interest in a backpacker. I have been down there on eight different hikes and have never been bothered. However, I do my best to avoid passing thru Tijuana because that is where most of the drug gangs in Baja seem to be the most active. In fact I am leaving for Baja next week to do some hiking in the San Pedro Martir National Park.
As far as mainland Mexico, I have only hiked in the Copper Canyon area. It is also a great area to hike. John McPhee has a guide book about the area which might interest you.
Siestita
05-15-2009, 01:40
Last month’s flu pandemic remains unpredictable. I’ve made many trips to Mexico (1981 to January, 2009) but I do not plan to return there until sometime after the CDC and U.S. State Department lift their current flu advisory which discourages cross-border tourism. Both personal safety and social responsibility are involved. In the meantime, one can plan.
There are three reasons that Americans fear traveling to Mexico:
1. Cultural shock and inability to comprehend the Spanish language. (It is upsetting when people behave in ways which we have not anticipated.)
2. Prejudicial ‘bandido’ myths North American media have been spreading for generations.
3. Current, factually based reports about violence taking place in specific Mexican localities.
Unfortunately, most of us gringos are so swayed by #1 and #2 above that we never seek to learn about the backpacking/trekking opportunities which Mexico offers. For me, planning a trip to backcountry Mexico (or the USA for that matter) involves Internet research; including making an effort to learn whether or not the particular location which I have in mind has been one of the relatively few places where local conflicts and/or drug violence are taking place. When traveling to Mexico I avoid backpacking near large cities, resorts, and rural areas where the drug mafias are especially strong. For example I do not linger around the country’s borders or hike in the state of Sinaloa.
Siestita
05-15-2009, 01:50
I’ve spend nine enjoyable months in Mexico, during many trips made there since 1973. My most recent travel there was a bus trip to small, Native American town in northern Oaxaca (December, 2008), beach camping ( 2005), and backpacking through a cloud forest (2004).
Several of my favorite experiences have been:
Trekking along roads and trails in Puebla state’s Sierra Norte. I have enjoyed the canyons and ridges immediately east of the town of Zacatlan, and also the area around Cuetzalan.
Hiking on Cofre de Perote, one of Veracruz state’s great mountains. (Nearby Orizaba is much higher, 19,000 feet , but summiting it would entail crossing glaciers and experiencing intense altitude sickness.)
Camping at the beach (with showers, fresh water, and a small store available) in a friendly, safe fishing village in Michoacán—Faro de Bucerias
Camping and meeting locals in the cloud forests of the Manantlan bio-preserve (Cerro Grande), in the state of Colima.
Siestita
05-15-2009, 01:55
My favorite book is a dog-eared copy of The People’s Guide to Camping, Backpacking, and Boating in Mexico which was written by Carl Franz around 1981. Long out of print, it is worth buying second hand thru outlets such as Amazon. Franz’s Camping and Backing guide should not be confused with his more popular book, The People’s Guide to Mexico, which deals with topics such as bus travel, Mexican culture and how to stay comfortably in cheap hotels.
The Camping, Backpacking, and Boating book has great yarns. It explains how to enjoy rural Mexico instead of telling you precisely where to go. Also, Franz and his wife Lorena Haven have a “People’s Guide to Mexico” website which includes some information about specific places, including the Copper Canyon region. Franz sometimes works as hiking/outfitting guide there.
Jim Conradt, a birder, has also authored several accounts of backcountry travel in Mexico, including The Road to Tetlama. Some interesting material is located at:
http://www.backyardnature.net/mexbirds/ (http://www.backyardnature.net/mexbirds/)
And also: http://www.terrain.org/essays/3/harrison.htm (http://www.terrain.org/essays/3/harrison.htm) .
John Fayhee’s Copper Canyon guide is interesting, too. And, even if one does not need or want to use guide services, one can learn about attractive places from their web sites. See for example:
http://colima-birds-butterflies.com/WildExpeditions.html (http://colima-birds-butterflies.com/WildExpeditions.html)
Thanks for your posts, Siestita! I am always looking for new places to hike in Mexico. Those you listed look interesting. I have Franz's "People's Guide To Mexico" and I really enjoyed reading it. I will try to get his guide to camping, etc. Could be just what I need! I misnamed the author of the Copper Canyon book. You got it right when you named John Fayhee as the author.
the goat
05-15-2009, 10:09
TIJUANA, Mexico – The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California.
U.S. consular officials in Tijuana said the victims — two men and two women from the San Diego and Chula Vista areas — were U.S. citizens. The state attorney general's office in Baja California said one of the women was Mexican.
Their deaths are the latest in a string of violence in Tijuana that authorities blame on a bloody turf war between drug cartels.
"I just don't think kids should be going to Tijuana right now," Chula Vista police Lt. Scott Arsenault told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "They ran into the wrong people, obviously."
Bernard Gonzales, a spokesman for the Chula Vista Police Department, said a friend told the women's parents they were headed to nightclubs in Tijuana on Thursday night. They were reported missing the next day when they did not answer their cell phones.
naturejunkie
05-15-2009, 18:20
Thanks all for your input and suggestions. I am planning my trip for late 2010-early 2011, so hopefully things will calm a bit with the border towns. Either way, Tijuana is not on my itinerary. My previous time in Mexico was awesome and I can't wait to get back.
The Weasel
05-15-2009, 18:54
Thanks all for your input and suggestions. I am planning my trip for late 2010-early 2011, so hopefully things will calm a bit with the border towns. Either way, Tijuana is not on my itinerary. My previous time in Mexico was awesome and I can't wait to get back.
Nat-
Even next year, it would be a good idea to stay out of Baja, and even Baja Sur. While I have no doubt that Mexico will solve its problems in those (and other) areas, is simply is not a good time to be a scruffy (as hikers usually are) gabacho in Baja these days. Or even a non-scruffy one, to my regret.
TW
The Will
05-15-2009, 21:47
I'll give another vote for the Copper Canyon area--great stuff.
Also the Maderas del Carmen in northern Chihuahua. . .if you can access.
The Will
05-15-2009, 21:47
I'll give another vote for the Copper Canyon area--great stuff.
Also the Maderas del Carmen in northern Chihuahua. . .if you can get access.
saimyoji
05-15-2009, 22:26
12 yrs ago: my advice:
Get a non-stop bus or a flight to Guymas, Sonora. From there head east to San Carlos on the Sea of Cortez. Nice little town, growing fast, great fishing, diving, boating, there's a Club Med, the crazy scene in Catch 22 was filmed there.......I was there then, 12 years ago. As I was leaving for the last time, a family friend mentioned to me that it was good that I wouldn't have to worry about being kidnapped in the desert for a while.
I know you can drive from the US to San Carlos, but you'd better have the right kinds of people in the car with you......
Wow. I have friends who live in Nogales, on the U.S. side, and in Douglas (both AZ).
The fact that anyone's even considering hiking in Mexico within the next couple of years just boggles my mind.
Just...
wow.
Wow. I have friends who live in Nogales, on the U.S. side, and in Douglas (both AZ).
The fact that anyone's even considering hiking in Mexico within the next couple of years just boggles my mind.
Just...
wow.
I agree 100%, with all the great places to see while hiking why hike into a war zone? The place is currently a complete mess and isn't likely to get much better any time soon. Go to Costa Rica or someplace nice, enjoy the trip, and come home in one piece.