A full day's journey from Southern California landed us in Pescadero, just south of Todos Santos, a small town that is home to the sometimes playful, sometimes macking A-frames of Cerritos del Playa and Playa el Pescadero. There are few places as pure to a surfer as Mexico. For generations, small groups of surfers have escaped south of the border in search of days filled with uncrowded perfect waves and nights with tacos, tequila, music, and other more meretricious hijinks.
We planned our trip with extreme haste after seeing a massive WSW swell coming in from Japan on the radar. We arrived in Pescadero to find much of the town devastated by Hurricane Marie with buildings either half blown out or completely left in rubble. In order to escape the destruction, we headed to the beach to check the surf. The swell had hit. It was around 8-10 ft. and pumping! We needed to establish a base so we could get out in the lineup.
We sought out a compound called San Pedrito where Brian had stayed before, but, when we arrived, we found what more closely resembled a crack house with a weathered “For Sale” sign. After getting rejected almost everywhere, we landed upon Sierra de la Costa’s last available room. Our hut was a little piece of paradise that would now become our eat, drink, sleep, and surf prep hide-out for the remainder of the trip.
Mexico doesn’t just provide an escape but an alternate experience. It’s a different world down south. Even if the waves would have been small and flat, we would have found an alternate adventure. There are only four things that can ruin Mexico for any traveler: the law, the bandidos, the cartels, or bodily expulsions from bacteria infested food or water. Other than those potentially deadly obstacles, Baja California Sur is a paradise waiting to be experienced by anybody willing and able.
