“Take only memories, leave only footprints” – Chief Seattle

December, time to escape the snow, the cold, the icy roads. Time to visit Todos Santos again. We love this little town situated on the Baja coast, with it’s quaint little shops, unhurried pace of life, and miles and miles of empty beaches.

Because we have been here before, we didn’t do as much exploring as normal. Instead we busied ourselves with reading books, watching whales, getting our fill of good Mexican food, and securing our daily dose of Vitamin D.

The whales were out in force this year. Sitting on the beach, we would focus our gaze out to sea trying to catch that tell-tale spout. You look and look and then, POOF, the exhalation of air followed by the back of the whale breaking the surface, ending with the fluke waving goodbye to us. Sometimes they were as close as 400 meters from shore, close enough to see the texture of their skin. We joked they were all heading down to a birthing convention down in Cabo. Actually there are only three lagoons in the world where gray whales give birth to their babies – Guerrero Negro, Ojo de Liebre and Laguna San Ignacio – and all three are in Baja! They love the warmer water and spend about three months here. We actually came up with names for them….there was Meredith Gray, Grayson Gray, Christian Gray!!!!

While you often see the gray whales surfacing, it is rare to see the whales breaching. But one day we were sitting in the sand, just gazing out to sea, when all of a sudden up from the depths leaped a Humpback Whale. It continued breaching five or six more times….so high out of the water and then, SPLAT, a huge belly-flop splash!!!! So exciting. They say humpbacks breach to communicate with each other, and it also helps dislodge barnacles and lice that tend to accumulate on their skin. All we know is we were really lucky to catch the show!!!!

Besides watching the whales, the pelicans gave us just as much viewing joy. They are such amazing flyers….seemingly forever in formation, these squadrons soar across the waves, tucking into the curve of the wave to ride the air being thrust upwards, and then a big flap of their wings right before the wave breaks. Top Gun fighter pilots could learn a lot by watching these graceful flyers.

It is said in Baja that if you see a dirt road, take it. Undoubtably at the end you will find something marvelous. We didn’t rent a four wheel drive vehicle, so we had to look for more “pedestrian” dirt roads….Once, trying to find this secluded, out of the way beach, we probably voided our rental contract and risked scraping off our oil pan due to the severity of the ruts, bumps, and divots…but the lure of a beach surrounded by palms kept up going. But alas, about a quarter mile from our destination we came to a locked gate…seems someone bought the land around the beach and did not want to share access. Oh well. We took a different dirt road and ended up at Punta Lobos…a little fishing harbor. Each morning the fishermen head out to sea. They use these heavy 20+ foot, fiberglass, open, outboard powered fishing boats called pangas. They are heavy and sturdily built. To get them into the ocean they utilize this rusty old pick-up to alternately pull the boats as close as possible to the ocean, then putter around and push them the rest of the way into the oncoming waves.

Between 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm they all return, boats hopefully full of dorado, mackerel, sting rays, and octopus. They don’t putter in slowly, instead they carefully time their return to the beach with the waves, gun their engines full bore and scream up out of the sea and onto the sandy beach. The rusty old pick-up then hooks them up and tows them further up the beach.

Food is always on our mind, and Todos Santos if full of amazing restaurants to satisfy our epicurian desires. Our favorite place to eat is right on the beach, with our feet in the sand.

We stayed again at Villa Santa Cruz…..a beautiful boutique hotel with 15 rooms set right on the beach. It is about 15 minutes north of town down a sandy, dusty road, but the distance from town ensures privacy and quiet.

Every night we made it down to the beach to watch the sun set into the sea. Bright, vibrant sunsets.

Relaxation was what this vacation was all about. Todos Santos was the perfect location to unwind, to eat great food, to watch fiery sunsets, and just enjoy each other.