Before 1973, visitors to Mulegé, Mexico arrived by tiny prop plane on the dirt runway next to Hotel Serenidad. The airstrip was built in the 1950s, when the transpeninsular highway that runs north to south along the Baja peninsula was still just a dream in some civic engineer’s mind. The hotel’s longest-running owner, Don Johnson, was an early transplant to Baja California Sur, and he bought Hotel Serenidad in 1968 and turned it into the famed vacation spot it became during that era.
On the mushroom-shaped bar stools, cemented just below the water line at the swim-up bar, sat many a famous traveler. With the palm trees swaying languorously in the breeze, it’s easy to imagine the hotel freshly painted and sparkling, hosting the great Fred Astaire, Charles Lindbergh, and John Wayne.
Mulegé, like most of the towns of northern Baja Sur, is an oasis, a place where a natural freshwater spring made it possible for the evangelizing Spanish missionaries to settle. Up on a hill above town, its mission church is a stocky, stone building with bright white balustrades lining its rooftop and a statue of the Virgin Mary gazing down on the town below. Climb the handful of stone stairs to the lookout point beside the church, and you can watch the sunrise paint the tips of hundreds of palm trees, slowly bathing the entire valley in soft light each morning.
Decidedly sleepy, Mulegé is the place that you come to amble down to California Birrería for birria chilaquiles in the morning, then take a stroll along the riverside, stop for lunch at Histórico Las Casitas (don’t leave without trying the flan), and finish off the day with a beer and some live music out at Mulegé Brewing’s highway bar.
One of the town’s most fascinating historic curiosities is the “prison without doors,” now converted into a museum on its hillside perch, the stark white façade contrasting the coral blue skies. One of the museum’s two docents will explain how prisoners were sentenced here but had day privileges to make their living in town. They were expected to return to the jail to sleep when the evening bell rang. There was little fear that they would escape, with a vast, empty desert behind them and the Gulf of California in front. Using Mulegé as a base to discover Baja Sur, you can explore the local desert, hidden beaches, and incredible wildlife during the day, returning to the town’s laidback bohemian vibes each evening.
Much of the culture and language of the peninsula’s original nomadic peoples was destroyed, first by Spanish colonization and later by subsequent populations of settlers. Some of the most awe-inspiring examples that remain are their ancient cave paintings, preserved by the peninsula’s dry climate and the caves’ isolated locations.
An hour from Mulegé is the San Borjitas cave, with some of the finest specimens of this ancient artwork decorating the 16-foot high ceilings of a long, oval-shaped cave that peers out over a dry riverbed below. Dozens of figures in red, black, and white seemingly reach for the stars on the rock face, their significance and meaning remaining a mystery to archaeologists even 73 years after they were discovered.
From December to April, all along Baja Sur’s coasts, gray, blue, and humpback whales come to breed, give birth, and feed in the mellow waters of the peninsula’s lagoons and the Gulf of California. Located south from Mulegé along the coast, Loreto, Baja Sur’s largest town, is a popular place to whale-watch, eat lunch, and explore the local history museum.
Pleasure cruises leave from the nearby Puerto Escondido Marina, where $1,000+ private charters will take you sport fishing or cruising around the eight islands of the vibrant Loreto Bay National Park that buttresses the coastline. Pods of black dolphins surf in the wake of the boats, and Isla del Carmen is covered with fossilized mollusks that were trapped there when waters receded thousands of years ago, most likely because of tectonic shifts. In the tiny bays tucked into the islands’ edges, you can snorkel to see bright blue and yellow angelfish and the long, skinny Pacific barracuda flitting among the crevices of the shoreline.
Afternoons are a good time to find yourself a seat at El Zopilote Brewing Co. on the town’s main plaza. Or pop next door for a coffee at La Route. After dark, wander into Asadero Super Burro with the locals for the burrito of a lifetime or Santo Cielo for the rosemary-roasted bone marrow or a half a lobster drizzled with salty butter. The next morning, head to Taquitos del Valle for phenomenal fish tacos or over to Café Olé for sweet cafe de olla and eggs with machaca (dried beef jerky).
Heading north from Mulegé, stop in Santa Rosalía, a mining town with a dark history of exploitation, but also incredible architecture—a throwback to the days of the wild, wild west. The French mining company that dominated this town for 69 years left behind French Caribbean–style homes and buildings with symmetrical designs, wraparound porches, and peaked roofs. Their presence alongside the local church designed by Gustavo Effiel gives the sensation that you’re walking through a movie set and not a 140-year-old town.
For lunch, Tacos y Mariscos Calle 6 offers the epitome of Baja-style tacos—the fried scallops are like nothing you will find anywhere else. The town’s bakery, El Boleo, is famous for its “French” bread that isn’t much different from what you will find in bakeries across Mexico, but the locale’s charm and antiquated architecture are enough to merit a visit. Don’t miss Padre Santo Brewing on the marine side of the coastal road that passes through town; it has an excellent red ale hazy IPA called Pecosa, meaning “sinner.”
Don’t let the intense heat of the desert persuade you not to stop at Trés Vírgenes, an eco-lodge just an hour north of Santa Rosalía by car. Afternoons here should be spent sipping a cool drink in the shade, but once the sun starts to set, you’ll experience the spectacular celestial show that is the lodge’s star attraction. Caretakers from the local community host stargazers, hunters, and real-world escapists at this collection of humble cabins.
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The area is a special Conservation Management Unit (UMA), which means the community is committed to maintaining the habitat and wildlife of the area. It auctions off two or three bighorn sheep hunting licenses a year to big game enthusiasts, helping to sustainably cull the population and raising thousands of dollars to support the eco-lodge and other community projects. Guides can take you through the desert that surrounds the Trés Vírgenes (three dormant volcanoes sitting in a line from the eco-lodge to the ocean) and out to see 30-foot-high cardon cactus.
These locations are just a small snapshot of what can be explored in Baja California Sur, but, starting here, you are sure to be captivated by the area and find your way back in no time.
