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Baja California Road Report
The latest reports of road conditions and driving conditions along Mexico's Hwy 1 through Baja California.
Our road reports depend on our network of BajaInsider readers to give us the lowdown on the 1000 miles of road between the border and Cabo San Lucas. We also appreciate your 
pictures! But please, be sure they are taken from the passenger's side!
There is still one truisms/joke about driving in Baja...
How many doors on a Baja Roadside rest area? Two, the driver's and passenger's!
Sobriety road blocks are becoming more common, particularly in community problem areas. In May there were 4 fatalities on the road to Pichilinque and the beaches of Balandra and Tecolote north of La Paz. They involved excessive speed, passing in bad areas and wrong way drivers. Now, La Paz police are checking drivers entering and leaving the downtown area for the beaches beginning at about 7PM Thursday through Sunday.
The government of Mexico has instituted new inspection policies along the border with the US. This is aimed to stem the flow of contraband and corruption in Mexico. It is also to check for illegal importation. Taxes can be as high as 23%. For more click here. With the economic downturn raising tax revenue is also a potential inspiration. Drivers bringing items into Mexico for their vessels, homes or transporting goods for others (ie Downwind deliveries) should be prepared to pay the taxes on these items or have them impounded. From personal experience these items can disappear into a black hole at Aduana.
As a tourist you are allow to bring in ONE desktop computer or laptop per person. Additional computers will be taxed, used or new. The minimum taxable amount is $300 USD. This is being stricktly enforced, even at the airport in Cabo San Lucas.
Baja Road Reports from Our Readers
November 14, 2009
San Ysidro to La Paz
Slade Ogletree, Veteran Baja Rider
Q: Is it dangerous to drive to Baja?
A: Yes, if you have to go through Southern California.
We recently drove from San Diego to La Paz arriving Nov. 7. The highway is in fine shape and we only encountered a few short construction delays. One thing that we did notice along the northern part of the route was several recently closed Pemex stations, some in critical areas. We left El Rosario with well over ½ tank and planned to fill up in Catavina, but no gas (or diesel) was available and the stations looked to be closed permanently. We did luck out and find a guy at the turn off to San Felipe with several 55 gallon drums filled with gas that he sold to us at 38 Pesos a gallon. That works out to be about the same price as we found in San Diego!! Still, don’t count on that guy being there when you come by-- Make sure you fill up in El Rosario---the next gas is in Guerrero Negro!
(Editor's Note: The next gas southbound is actually in Santa Domingo - around 25 miles north of Guerrero Negro. According to our Baja Mileage Chart it is 229 miles from El Rosario to Guerrero Negro, therefore it is about 200 miles, mas o menos between, gas stations. There is still no gas service a the turn-off to Bay of Los Angeles. Southbound folks gas up in El Rosario and northbiound folks top off in Guerrero Negro. - Happy Trails)
One more note: Mulege experienced very heavy flooding during T.S. Jimena a few weeks ago. While the highway is mostly repaired already, keep a sharp eye out for stray potholes, slow moving construction equipment, and a couple of short detours. Also, I wouldn’t expect to find many services and hotels there back in operation yet…the water was reported to be 3 feet over the bridge across Mulege River and 4 feet deep in town!
From Loreto to La Paz the road was in as good of shape as I’ve seen it.
Slade Ogletree
Printablle Baja California Peninsula Mileage Chart
October 25-26, 2009
Tecate to La Paz
From Greg Himes, Veteran Baja Driver
I crossed the border at Tecate on Sunday Oct. 25 at 7:30am. I was waved through and not even stopped for a passport check. As it turned out this was a problem as I had no paperwork when I went to imigration the following Tuesday. I had to pay a $300 peso find for not checking in Baja California. It seem that if one crosses an entire state (Baja California) without checking in a fine is levied. The clerk at imigration was very polite and gave me a list of all the places I could have checked in on the way down. In hind sight I should have parked at Tecate and asked for an tourist visa. I would have had to pay the normal fees upon arrival in La Paz, but without a fine. Remember, banks are closed on Sunday and fees must be paid at a bank.
The roads were the same as alway through Ensenda and south to El Rosario. From Catavina to Guerro Negro the pavement seems to have deteriorated in some streaches. I am driving a VW New Beetle with touring suspension and it was a rough ride in lower BC. Guerro Negro is my halfway stop and it was rather foggy.
The next morning I left Guerro Negro in 500 foot visibility which eventially burned off as the sun came up. The was one streach near Viscano where road construction was taking place. One severe pot hole stole a hubcap from my Beetle. A foot search of the area yielded three similar hubcaps but mine was not found. The construction area ended just a short way further and it was a great trip on excellent pavement through San Ignacio on to La Paz. Good news is that there was no significant road damage remeaning from the summer's hurricane and rains.
The low bridges over the arroyos that have been built in the past few years seamed to have held up and kept the road open. The best part of the drive was the lush foalage through BCS. The mountains east of Loreto looked more like a South Pacific Island than the Baja desert.
Drive safely, Greg
September 9- 11
Tijuana to La Paz,
From Bob Walker, Experienced Baja and 18 wheel driver
Road Report and Importation Experience
I drove into the right lane at the border with plenty to tell the Aduana. About 2000 pounds worth, in an 11 year old Toyota Tacoma.
Skating the border wasn’t a good plan, so I went the opposite way. I showed them my FM3, my importation of the boat to Mexico papers, the Capitana de Puerto papers, my old dude card and medical card, and my dog’s (Lucy) Mexicano and American Vet record of shots. I also gave them two sheets of paper of an excel file I had made cataloguing everything in the truck and what I thought its value was. My value came to just under $2000.00. If they chose to make me pay the full gaff, it would have been about $347.00. I arrived at the border at 6:31, no traffic and pulled in.
I left at 10:47, having had some great conversations about life with the Aduana folks, Migration folks and the poor bank woman who had to re type the list, and have the computer jam. But I paid no tax because, perhaps, I was simpatico, honest and the stuff was for a boat and a person who obviously went to the trouble to tag the Mexican bases. I smiled for all that time, made really bad jokes, and gave them my Spanglish, which Mike from La Paz Yachts correctly calls Pocito y malo.
The road from the border through TJ is being widened and made out of concrete. It will either be 6 lanes or maybe 8. A big improvement. The road to Ensenada was normal with small repairs going on. From Ensenada to El Rosario has no problems only some construction, but is its usual aggravating self in the way of a lot of road side businesses that really slow traffic down. Normally I go from Chula Vista to Guerro in one day, but at 3:30 I called it quits in El Rosario. (El Cactus Motel-nice, clean, dog friendly, and the name of my boat.)
Day two I’m expecting road problems and instead get a perfect road, right down to over 50 vados having not only been scraped of debris but also broomed!. Not one bridge out. All the construction of the last ten years was excellent and withstood the storm. There is a new part being built south of Santa Rosalia for about one half mile, but that is it. I counted over 200 utility trucks with self loading booms. (The kind that replace telephone poles.) Most poles had been replaced along the road. Truly amazing. They were dispatched BEFORE the storm got here. (A case of excellent Socialism for those who have an itch with that word.) Cal trans would have taken a year, maybe, to sort of clean things up.
The sad part was Mulege and Constitution. I went into Mulege and it was totally devastated. The people were sitting on walls as if they had just had a bomb go off nearby, stunned, not quite sure what happened, or what to do. Some of the back alleys had lost two feet of soil and their water pipes were hanging in mid air. Their grief and desperation were clear. Mattresses were out against walls to dry. Furniture trashed in the street. Every tenth house or so simply washed away. Adobe walls in partial pieces in the street. And that was the “upper” town. The lower part, by the river was mostly gone. I chose not to photograph there out of respect to them.
The attached picture is of the sign saying to turn left in Insurgentes for Constitution. It was a harbinger of the I beam buildings I was to see that looked crushed by a huge hand. The first four miles out of Constitution toward La Paz every telephone pole had been snapped off like a tooth pick and was lying on the ground. But four feet away those CFE federal trucks had put new poles in and had them wired.
The only oddity of the whole trip was grass, 6 to nine inches high all along the road from Geurro to La Paz. And all the hoofed animals grazing on it. Burros, cows, horses, goats. The whole Baja was Kelly green. The road is excellent, the people are not doing as well. Relief supplies are being collected. Food and water and clothes are needed.
Additional Comments by the Editor
A newspaper in California contacted us about towing a trailer down Baja while I was editing John's story about the road conditions. I forwarded the above information to them along with the additional general information about driving Baja and thought, why not pass it along to our readers as well...
#1 DON’T DRIVE AT NIGHT. It’s not banditos, you have a statistical better chance of being struck by lightening. It’s the cows, 60 to 0 in a hurry! Mexicans LOVE 4 way flashers on their cars. Seen on an oncoming car usually indicates cows, or something else in the road ahead. US statistics show the two most dangerous times on a 2 lane highway is dusk and 2AM (when bars close), these stats translate pretty well to our Baja Highway 1
#1A Get Mexican Auto Insurance. US auto insurance does not cover you in Mexico. In the event of an accident you can be detained until fault and payment is determined. Without insurance, you could be fatally delayed from being evacuated to a more significant healthcare facility. Cost is from $25/day to less than $500/year (depending on car, trailer and value)
#2 Don’t be ostentatious, cover things of value like kayaks and brand new outboards. Keep the volume down and try to remain nondescript. This is good advice for travel anywhere where the locals earn in a year what you may earn in a week or month. If you look like you have too much, someone will relieve you of the ‘burden’.
#3 Don’t push it. Take 2 days in a car or three days from San Diego with a trailer. The road has very little ‘cruise control time’ so you are ‘on’ constantly and it gets wearing. Carry at least one extra tire for each vehicles and some extra gas. Be sure to buy gas in El Rosario, it’s 200km to the next full Pemex stop in Santa Rita, there is a mini station in Catavina now.
#4 Check our Road Report – we rely on reader participation, so during the summer it can get a little stale. rivers should watch for small washouts in the shoulder that can be painful when towing. They can send us a road report when they arrive and help everyone.
#5 Check the weather – We post forecasts every day and every two hours when a tropical cyclone threatens Baja. We have the ONLY English weather report FROM Baja. Don’t be the first to drive through a flooded vado (although there may not even be any more) Should a tropical cyclone ZZZZ materialize, find a nice hotel. Although this too is becoming history, sometimes you can get stranded nowhere on a highway island when roads flood or wash out. But as I said, this is becoming pretty rare. You can also run into gas stations that are shut down or have flooded tanks in storms. Damage usually only lasts a day or two. Hwy 1 is a major transport route for about 20-30% of the ‘stuff’ used here in Baja, so the hwy folks get right on making the road passable.
#5 Don’t carry all your money in one place. Carry a believable amount of cash on your wallet. “Driving while Gringo” is still an offence that could by a cop lunch (or a new set of tires) If you can open your wallet and say look, $20 is all I have, you’ll probably be on your way pretty quick. Obeying the traffic laws is another handy way to avoid mordida, but not always sure. Most traffic fines are less than $75USD, most around $25. Don’t get sucked into the photocopied sheet some cops show that shows fines well over $100. Watch when the signs say the Federal Highway is ending (Carraterra federal terminado – Check my Spanish) Speed limits are usually much lower in these non-highway areas and you need to watch. Only Federal Hwy Patrol can effect a violation on the Federal Highway, they now have video cameras in car and radar and tend to be pretty just.. Three places to watch for this scam are La Paz, Catavina (note: even the trucks do 25mph though there) and Santa Rosalia.
#7 If you need roadside assistance the Green Angels are there to help. These are federally paid, well equipped and clearly marked trucks that roam Hwy 1. Most will refuse a tip for there assistance, there is an esprit du corps that somehow seems to keep these guys squeaky clean. I have never heard a bad Green Angle story. (their trucks have traditionally been green)
#8 Get your tourist visa as soon as you can when entering Mexico or at the consulate prior to your trip. I think in response to the US’s crack down on immigration we see them following the letter of the law on most occasions. If you get to Baja Sur without a tourist visa or valid FM2 or 3, your $18/180 day visa can cost you an extra $50 fine.
#9 On straight-aways consider driving more toward the center of the road. This will give you more time to react and help avoid those little washouts at the shoulder.
In mentioning the shoulder we should also mention that it is also one of the challenges of baja driving. The lack of a shoulder in a majority of your trip. Having a flat along the road may mean setting inin a very dangerous situation. Flairs, cones, reflectors and even rocks, leading away from the shoulder are used to indicate a vehicale in the roadway ahead. Construction crews sometimes use rocks painted white or paint cans with burning diesel rags at night.
As to the safety threat – There has been massive response by the government and not a single attack on the highways of a tourist since last November (prior to the response) I won’t get into specific incidents, but many of the incidents I investigated involved being a ‘gringo tonto’. As I am aware, all of these attacks occurred in the first 100 miles south of the border.
North Americans have some of the tightest internal security (for the good and bad of it) of any nation I have traveled, and Americans pay the price for it. (yet bad thing STILL happen in state and national parks and along our roadways. Americans become ‘unaware travelers’ as a side effect. Finding the most secluded place along the beach to camp isn’t something I would do in at least ½ the countries to which I have traveled. A person who keeps up their awareness can usually tell when ‘the wolves start to circle.’
Just in contrast to all the ‘propaganda’ generated by slanted publications like the San Diego Union Tribune, who would have you believe that you have about a 50-50 chance of surviving a trip to Mexico, was the comment made by the Baja First Timer co-pilot of my friend, John Henigan mentioned above. They suffered three flat tires along the way and in each event the found a local, ready and eager to assist them on their way. Their warmth and willingness to offer what ever they had to resolve the problem melted away any Mexiphobia she had prior to the adventure.
One recent story in the Trib stated that “Kidnapping of Americans in Tijuana was the fastest growing crime segment’ True and false. The numbers off the top of my head were an increase from 14 to 26, yes an 85% increase. (see More than ½ of these events appear to have involved illicit activity, shall we say. Kidnapping is a growing industry in Mexico and the people have just about had enough (note demonstration last weekend) But the victims have been doctors at hospitals, management people of corporations and others that may be protected by deep pockets or kidnapping insurance. In Mexico City there has even been speculation that the list of who has this specific insurance may be available for a price to those wishing to profit.
The important perspective is that more people will visit Mexico by noon tomorrow than will visit London in a year, paints a much clearer picture of the odds of these events. Tijuana, one of the most volatile cities in Mexico had a murder rate of 5.7/100K in 2007. That compares quite directly with Philadelphia, a city of approximately the same size and almost identical murder rate. (San Diego across the line does draw a sharp contrast as it has one of the lowest murder rates, right around 3/100K) Most of these murders have been ‘within the family’ of drug traffickers in TJ. We see a flurry of travel warnings for TJ, yet travel is still encouraged to places like New Orleans (one of the most dangerous non-war zone cities in the world with a murder rate of over 18/100K) About two thirds of American cities rated had a higher murder rate than Tijuana.
Remember, firearms are NOT in option in Mexico for securing your safety. There are military checkpoints, specifically looking for weapons and drugs. Should you have the misfortune of having to defend yourself with a weapon, it is very possible that you would face jail time as well. There is a 1 year minimum sentence for weapons or ammunition.
Drive smart, drive awake arrive safe. Mucho Ojo!
Tomas
