Los Cabos in Mexico: Whales, deserts and vast coastlines in Baja California

At the southern tip of the Mexican Baja California peninsula lies Los Cabos, a paradise for active vacationers and nature lovers. You will still find enough corners away from the tourist resorts that promise peace and quiet. And in winter the region on the Pacific is pleasantly mild.

The whale slowly pushes its mighty body out of the water, its head is submerged again, its body describes a flat arc until its raised tail fin, from which the water runs down in torrents, disappears into the blue. In the background, hotel complexes line the coast. The four whale-watching boats that had grouped themselves in a semicircle behind him rev up their engines again in search of the next humpback whale, which will end its dive, which can last up to 45 minutes, and return to the surface to breathe.

Los Cabos, the region at the southern tip of the sprawling Mexican state of Baja California Sur (BCS), is one of the best whale watching locations on earth. Whale season in Los Cabos is from mid-December to mid-April, when the giant marine mammals swim from the coast of Alaska to warmer waters to mate and give birth to their young before heading back to their feeding grounds do in the north.

At the starting point of the whale tour, the marina in Cabo San Lucas, there is nothing to indicate how close this sublime natural spectacle is. Cabo San Lucas is a rapidly growing city that is something like the Americans’ upscale ballerina – with the price level almost reaching New York standards. This also includes drunk tourists around the marina, where there are bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and a surprising number of pharmacies that advertise Viagra and opioids in their windows.

Sun and beach attracted holidaymakers

Los Cabos is not only a popular spring break destination, but also a golf destination and venue for high-dollar sport fishing competitions. Nevertheless, the region still offers enough corners for those who are looking for peace and nature. Around 3.9 million tourists visited Los Cabos in 2023, almost two thirds came from the USA and Canada.

In the 1970s, 350 sunny days a year and the many sandy beaches meant that tourism development in BCS was pushed forward like a glove. The result was a master plan for the outermost tip of the 1,550 kilometer long, narrow Baja California peninsula, which lies like an outstretched finger off Mexico’s west coast. Los Cabos is also interesting for Europeans, not only because of the mild temperatures of around 25 degrees in winter, but also because of a new direct flight connection.

Between the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, the approximately 30 kilometer long “tourist corridor” was created, where one hotel resort follows the next along the sandy beaches (on most of them there is too strong a current for swimming), supplemented by 18 world-class Golf courses (three more are due to open soon). The holiday region of Los Cabos, also known as Cabo for short, emerged from the two towns and their surrounding area.

Hiking in the desert of La Ventana

When whale watching with the two biologists from Cabo Nature, you quickly forget the hustle and bustle on land. Boat captain and company founder Belem, 33, an oceanologist, and guide Mariana, 28, a marine biologist, are still excited when they spot whales. Before the short detour to the Arco rock formation, a landmark of Los Cabos, Mariana takes out a plastic humpback whale, holds it up and uses the model to explain that each animal has a unique tail fin, similar to our fingerprint. This is how one whale can be reliably distinguished from another.

Humpback whales are not the only ones who migrate from North America to southern climes in the winter months. “Bike!” is heard again and again as a small group of hikers march through the cactus desert of La Ventana in the morning. Hikers and bikers share the narrow paths that lead between the many-armed cacti, some of which are two stories high. Wiry mid-seventies sit on the mountain bikes that pass the group. Many of them head south in their motorhomes from Colorado, Montana or even Alaska in late autumn.

The village of La Ventana on the east coast also offers perfect conditions for kite surfers. “The season starts in October and ends in April,” says Carlos Palarzuelos, 42. He is a guide and manager of the “Todo Bien” hotel. La Ventana means “the window”, and a constant wind blows through this window, which is more of a channel between the offshore Isla Ceralvo and the headland.

The kite surfers have fueled the tourist development of the place. So much so that the luxury broker Engel & Völkers has opened an office on the dusty main street. The epicenter of the development of La Ventana, which once consisted of just five families, was the surfing camp on Playa Central.

VW buses and other camper vans are still parked on the site of the former Shrimp Warehouse. But: “Kite surfing is the new golf,” says Carlos and goes on to say that real estate prices in the region have risen so much that houses in Cabo are sometimes more expensive than in the Hollywood Hills: “That’s why some people are already calling the area ‘ Cabo Hills’.”

The ranch offers tours for tourists

One of the largest landowners in the area is Christy Walton. The widow of Walmart heir John T. Walton, one of the richest women in the world with a fortune estimated at $16.7 billion, fell in love with the country almost 20 years ago and is buying it piece by piece – to preserve it . Your “Rancho Cacachilas” measures a good 170 square kilometers and is located on the eastern side of the Sierra de las Cacachilas, a mountain range east of La Paz, the state capital, whose highest peak is around 1,200 meters high.

Walton designed the “Rancho Cacachilas” as a mixed project: There is the tourist branch with 14 glamping tents with wonderful views of the Gulf of California, around 100 kilometers of hiking and mountain bike trails, mule tours – and at the same time it is still a ranch free-roaming cattle and a farm where horses and goats are kept, cheese is made and vegetables are grown, as well as nature conservation.

The site can only be accessed with a booking and guided tours; it would be too easy for someone to get lost here: “There are places where we don’t have cell phone reception,” says Said Estrada. The 34-year-old was an English teacher in Mexico City and has been working as a guide at the ranch for two years.

On a short hike to a small oasis with a spring and palm trees, he points to an evergreen bush. He gave the mountain range and the ranch its name: Cacachila. “Its red berries are poisonous, not only to humans, but also to cows and goats,” says Said. “They paralyze the limbs. That’s why the rancheros cut them down and burned them. As a result, they are no longer very common.”

A dream realized in El Triunfo

The “Rancho Cacachilas” maintains an outpost in the not far away former gold and silver mining town of El Triunfo, which was founded in 1734: MUVACA (Museo del Vaquero de las Californias) it is called and is dedicated to the ranchero culture, the cowboys of the Baja. It is housed in a historic building, but with its modern staging it looks a bit like a spaceship in this sleepy village with today 350 inhabitants, where a cow occasionally trots leisurely down the main street.

The only hotel in town is run by José Castellanos Hernandez: The “Cabañas El Triunfo” are a collection of small buildings on the edge of an almost dry riverbed. The 68-year-old, who came to the USA from southern Mexico as a teenager and worked his way up from construction helper to restaurant owner in San José, California, had always dreamed of retiring on a farm. He ended up in El Triunfo ten years ago in a roundabout way, bought the property and made his dream come true, including chickens and goats.

He sold the goats again and let the chickens run – their offspring scurry through the riverbed. Then Hernandez began to set up the “Cabañas El Triunfo”. With pool, zipline, beach volleyball court, table tennis tables. An old carriage stands between cardones and flowering bougainvillea bushes, a wind turbine creaks. Everything seems a little improvised in a charming way.

José drives visitors through the sandy riverbed in his restored 1976 VW bus with peace stickers – first to the Chinese cemetery, then to an old mine and then for a sundowner on a plateau overlooking the village and the surrounding hills.

From San José del Cabo to the “Aquarium of the World”

San José del Cabo is about an hour further. The town with the pretty center, whose streets are spanned by colorful pennants, forms the eastern end point of the tourist corridor mentioned above. Although there are a number of souvenir shops here too, in San José del Cabo they alternate with art galleries. The atmosphere is more relaxed than in Cabo San Lucas, everything seems more cultured, the clientele is different, and there is a lively restaurant scene. There are many galleries, some of which are open until 10 p.m. There is a market here on Thursday evenings and local artists exhibit in the open air.

San José del Cabo is a good starting point for tours (four-wheel drive vehicle is highly recommended) to the northeastern Cabo Pulmo Marine National Park, which was founded in 1995 and declared a World Heritage Site in 2005. The famous French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau (1910–1997) called the Gulf of California east of the peninsula the “aquarium of the world” because of its biodiversity.

At the southern end of El Arbolito’s long sandy beach, a local family runs a simple campsite between the dunes of the national park. A couple in their mid-70s, who drove their camper van around 4,500 kilometers from Manitoba (Canada) across the USA to here, rave about the unique underwater world that you can discover while snorkeling here at Cabo Pulmo. “I’ve never seen fish that big. Parrotfish with bright red lips, others look as if they have applied blue mascara,” says the wiry lady.

A look at the national park board proves her right: a wide variety of sea creatures are depicted there, from tiger sharks to bat rays – around 800 different species live here, including five of the seven sea turtles that are endangered worldwide. And of course humpback whales. As expected, they appear almost every minute when looking out to sea.

Tips and information:

Arrival: Condor flies non-stop from Frankfurt to Los Cabos twice a week. Alternatively: connecting connections via Mexico City or the USA (for example with Lufthansa or United).

Accommodation: In San José del Cabo, Luxembourger Nathalie Buchler founded the area’s first boutique hotel 25 years ago: “Casa Natalia” with 18 pretty rooms along a palm-lined courtyard with a pool and a good restaurant, double rooms from 230 euros (casanatalia.com). It’s easier to stay in the three-star hotel “El Encanto Inn”, double rooms from 151 euros (elencantoinn.com). In La Ventana on the beach, the boutique hotel “Todo Bien” is worth it, double rooms from 270 euros (hoteltodobien.com). “Rancho Cacachilas”: Glamping with sea views, from 330 euros per person with meals and an excursion (ranchocacachilas.com). In the gold mining town of El Triunfo there are the “Cabanas El Triunfo”, double rooms from 107 euros (eltriunfocabanas.com). Many international hotel brands such as Hilton, Hyatt, Barcelo, One & Only are represented on the 30-kilometer coastal strip between Cabo San Lucas and San José de Cabo.

Special experience: Cooking class and dinner in the open-air restaurant “Monte Cardón”, on a hill near San José del Cabo with 360 degree views (montecardon.com).

Further information: visitloscabos.travel

Participation in the trip was supported by Visit Los Cabos. Our standards of transparency and journalistic independence can be found at go2.as/unabhaengigkeit.

What unique ⁣marine species can be found in⁤ the Aquarium of the World compared to other dive⁢ spots in Mexico?

1. What ⁤makes⁤ the​ Aquarium of the World in Cabo Pulmo National Park so unique and special?

2.‍ How should one prepare ​for a​ trip to Los Cabos and the surrounding areas, particularly considering its diverse landscape⁤ and attractions?

3. Can you share some ‍recommendations ⁣for accommodations in ‌San José⁢ del Cabo, La Ventana, and El Triunfo that cater to different budgets and preferences?

4.⁢ What are some ⁢must-visit⁢ destinations or activities ⁤in Los Cabos besides its well-known⁤ beaches?

5.⁣ How does the local culture and cuisine influence the tourist experience in Los‌ Cabos?

6. How does the⁤ biodiversity of the Aquarium of the World contribute to the overall ecological balance ⁤of the region?

7. What are some challenges facing the conservation ⁢efforts​ in the national park and what are local authorities doing to address‍ them?

8. In your opinion, what is the best time of ⁣year​ to visit Los Cabos and why?

9.‍ Can you tell us about any local events or ‍festivals in Los Cabos that visitors shouldn’t miss?

10. What advice would you give to someone who ​wants to learn more⁢ about the history and ‍culture of Los Cabos during their trip?