booking a trip to san carlos in mexico for 3 weeks - april 21st to may 12th. at the moment it is looking like a bit of a solo mission so if anyone is keen on coming let me know.

may is supposed to be peak time for sw swell (apparently the best) and is always meant to be windy. will be good to escape seeing that may is normally our worst month for wind in vic.

few videos of the place:








anyone who has been I would be interested to hear about your experience.

Take the old man Al. Be a lot cheaper for you too.

hm, have been looking at doing san carlos sometime, whats the cost/logistics like with getting over there?

Do you fly to sandiego and go by ground?

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sausage said...

Take the old man Al. Be a lot cheaper for you too.

haha well he wants to come for a bit..


flights at the moment to san diego aren't too bad on qantas with a connecting flight at LA. about $1900 return so similar to getting to maui including the connection and excess baggage...

can fly in from san diego to san carlos for an extra $600 or so but you cannot take gear on the plane.

Hi Al,

Have done this trip. You can take gear down, it just goes in the van that leaves san diego, and gets there after you do. That bus has to go down, because it carries your luggage and all the supplies. I assume you are staying at solosports.

If you do take gear, keep in mind there are no spares.

Great trip - you'll love it. I'm going to try and get back there is sept this year. Going to maui next week with the family.

Baja is fun! Went there for 2 months many moons ago. Nearly wet myself when crossing the border from all the horror stories we were told in the US. Unsurprisingly it turned out no more or less dangerous than driving around outback Australia.

Back when I went there was no Solo Sports at Punta San Carlos. You paid some local a few dollars per day and that was it. No toilet, no water no nothing. Beer, tequila and food was dirt cheap in those days. You just had to make sure you bought enough before you did the 4 hour trip on the dirt road.

We drove South spot by spot based on a hand drawn map some dude gave us back in the Gorge. Had some awesome days on the water and met a bunch of interesting people from all over the world.

Spend a crazy new years eve in Cabo San Lucas. Back then they only had two night clubs and zero high end hotels. We actually camped on the beach were there are now 5 star luxury hotels. We hired out an entire restaurant with 15 people for a new years eve dinner. I think it was US$20 all inclusive (food, booze, mariachi band). Afterwards we hit one of the two night clubs were they had a US$40 cover charge which essentially gave you an open bar. I think 80s glam rock band "La Guns" was playing.

From what I hear the Solo Sports setup is a pretty good mix between providing enough luxury without completely killing the sense of desert adventure.

If you end up going to Tijuana don't draw conclusions. The rest of Mexico is nothing like it.

Al,

See you there! We're down for the May 5-12 Solosports trip. There will be about 6 of us friendly Canadians there for the week. It's been a cold winter of sailing with boots and mitts here on the West coast, looking forward to some warmer air and water down there! Fingers crossed for some good wind/waves.

Chris

That was the good old days, it going back in that direction, but 5 or 6 years ago...big crime rage and a lot of attack on surfers and rape on surfer's wife.....I mean Attack, death and consequence who comes with it. Apparently it is a lot better, so going from San Diego to San Carlos is ok..but the old days that you stop anywhere, surf, eat, windsurf and make a few more km until you reach San Carlos...or punta abreojos seems more risky.

Here what Surfline was saying www.surfline.com/surf-news/baja-update--surfline-san-diego_22001/ in 2009, an article a year before was quite alarmiste...was it a strategy for having breaks to themself?? I don't think so, I've seen some shot of a friend of mine who was at the wrong place, just a few hours later than being at the wrong time also...was quite explicite.

You can fly directly to San Diego as well, that gives your 2 days more of windsurfing. ;-) An amazing spot when it's on fire, hope you catch a lot of south swell!!! have fun!

@NordRoi, I assume you are referring to the drug war that's going on? It was already in full swing way back when I went. Only that at the time the shootings weren't as open and certainly involved tourists.

The real danger came from corrupt police and hold ups at remote beaches.

We camped on one remote beach half way down when we had a visit by some Federales (the Mexican Federal Police). They rocked up in a Humvee heavily armed with automatic riffles. After sussing us out and checking passports they asked if they could stay at our campfire for the night. They told us they cruise the coast line for drug drop offs from yachts coming up from Columbia. They also told us to stay well away from people that don't look like locals or appear to be carrying firearms.

To be honest I don't think i'd want to mess with those guys. They make the NSW police look like kindergarden teachers. That said it does make you wonder how much more ruthless the crooks are given the police isn't really gaining any ground in the drug war.

While in San Jose del Cabo we did see the body of a police officer that had been gunned down. In the paper is was insinuated it was related to a drug cartel.

Yet, the locals I meet while travelling there where super friendly. In the end it's like any country. Keep your wits and stay away from areas that are know to be unsafe. Hell I know areas in LA I wouldn't venture into without an armoured car.