Our last stop in Mexico was to the Baja Peninsula, in particular the towns of La Paz and San Jose del Cabo. This was an incredibly beautiful place but also very expensive compared to the rest of Mexico.  It is unsurprising that people flock here because this place is an absolute gem.  We flew into La Paz and were bombarded with a wave of heat, coming here in the height of summer was probably not the smartest move.  However, we were immediately struck by the beauty of the desert and cacti as we made our way into town, this is what comes to mind when you imagine Mexico. La Paz is a cute little town that mainly revolves around tourism, the boulevard along the beach is a beautiful walk.  We also ate the biggest and most delicious fish tacos while we were here!

While in La Paz you need to organise a snorkelling tour out to Isla Espiritu Santo in the Sea of Cortez. We went with Espiritu & Baja Tours which had a pretty good price of US$80 per person for a full day (including lunch).  We saw beautiful scenery while on the boat and even some dolphins decided to swim along with us! Our first stop on the tour was to see the Sea Lion colony on the island.  There were hundreds of them and we got to jump into the water and swim with them.  One of the baby sea lions even came up to us to investigate.  It was a pretty incredible experience.  We then continued to snorkel around the island and it was honestly the best snorkelling I have done in my life.  I kid you not, you will not be disappointed! We were kicking ourselves that we didn’t have a go-pro to document all we saw, but I guess it is forever burnt into the memory bank.  It was like swimming in an aquarium, there were just so many tropical fish.  We truly understood why the famous Jacques Cousteau called this place “the Aquarium of the World.”

We then stopped for lunch at the most picturesque beach we have ever been to. It is cacti filled desert meets clear blue sea, it is the stuff dreams are made of.  We lounged around in the water, relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere of this incredibly beautiful place. And on our way back to La Paz, we were continually greeted by beautiful scenes.

After a few days in La Paz we took a short bus trip down to San Jose del Cabo. It was a great trip as we got to see the vastness of the Baja desert and cruise by small towns on our way.  The town itself is small and once again based around tourism so we decided that the best way to explore the area would be to rent a scooter and just drive everywhere.  This was the best decision we made.  We took a day trip out to see the infamous Cabo San Lucas where American tourists flock to party.  It looked like a pretty fun place if you had a big group of friends, but wasn’t really our vibe for this trip.  We also stopped at a beach on the way called Playa el Chileno.  A local very kindly invited us to sit under her umbrella and lent us some snorkels to go snorkelling with her.  It was such a relief from the heat to go for a swim, and we even saw a sea snake!

Probably our favourite day was taking the scooter for a ride on a dirt road up the coast. It was completely deserted and offered us stunning bay after stunning bay.  We were even greeted by some beach loving donkeys at one point.  It was so idyllic and special to be the only ones there on beaches that would make the top ten list in any ones book.  If you are ever in this part of Mexico I highly encourage you to get off the beaten track, away from the crowds of Cabo, and discover spectacular deserted beaches.

We adored our time on the Baja Peninsula and would go back in a heartbeat!

Here is a breakdown of our costs for 7 days:

Budget = US$742 (NZ$1,050)

Accommodation – US$195

Activities – US$250

Food/Drink – US$264.50

Travel (incl. Taxis) – US$52.50

Miscellaneous – US$17

Total spent – US$779 (NZ$1,101)

So we were US$37 (NZ$54) over budget.  Pretty good considering how expensive this part of Mexico is. We also paid US$130 (NZ$184) for our flights from Guadalajara to La Paz, but we budgeted separately for this.