Our next stop was only 106 km north of Cabo San Lucas in the small town called La Ribera. Here we stayed at Hacienda de Palmas Bed and Breakfast for 4 nights. The grounds are park-like and the rooms are updated and clean. We enjoyed having coffee and breakfast in the mornings with the owner Jason, and the other guests. The community is set up with a large kitchen and BBQ area for guests’ use. In the morning Jason has coffee ready by 7:00 am. He also supplies cold cereal, bread for toast, peanut butter, and bananas.
Most of the streets here in town are unpaved with several inches of sand on them. It is very windy most of the year so the sand blows up from the beach which covers everything. The resident of La Ribera’s yards is also covered with sand with some vegetation.
There is a golf course in La Ribera called Costa Palmas Golf Club that according to the GolfPass website 100% of the players recommend this course and is listed as one of the top 100 courses. Other than golf, there is sport fishing. Anglers catch tuna, roosterfish, and dorado in these parts of the ocean. If you are not into golf or fishing there isn’t much for activities in town for tourists. So, visitors travel to the surrounding areas. There is plenty to do and see within a couple of hours of La Ribera.
There is a lot of construction happening down by the ocean shore. We were told a new hotel is being built. During our stay, we saw a lot of dump trucks and concrete trucks driving up and down the streets all day. We don’t have the details but there is major construction happening here. Some are saying, La Ribera, is an upcoming tourist destination in the near future.
On our last night here in La Ribera, we experienced a brownout. We were told by an owner of a restaurant that someone had hit a power pole in town. It took approx. 12 hours before we had full power. Since everything run off of the power grid, we didn’t have running water including the ability to flush toilets or use the sinks. Most restaurants had to close during this time, not because of lack of lighting but because of lack of water.
Efren’s Restaurant Bar and Grill was one of our favorite places to eat in La Ribera during our stay and is conveniently located just across the highway from the hotel.
Providencia Restaurant Bar and Grill is located within walking distance of our hotel. It’s little on the pricy side but the food was good and we enjoyed our dinner.
We drove north 30km from La Ribera to Los Barriles. In Las Barriles, forget about cars, it’s all about the quads and open-air Jeeps. There are ATV rental shops in town if you don’t have your own. Kitesurfing, kiteboarding, and fishing are popular sports here in Los Barriles. You can charter a fishing boat. Snapper, Roosterfish, jackfish, Mahi Mahi (Dorado), swordfish, or a yellowfin tuna is what an angler is fishing for. It’s been said that the resident sea lions have been known to snag them right off the line. So watch out!
We had lunch at Cactus Bar and Grill. This is the only restaurant we know of in Baja that serves pretzels instead of tortilla chips and salsa with our cocktails.
Cabo Pulmo National Park has located 26 km from La Ribera about half of that distances is a bumpy dirt road, so it’s slow going but worth the time.
On June 6, 1995, the then president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, decreed Cabo Pulmo as a National Park. This area is home to the only living coral reef in the Sea of Cortez. There is no fishing allowed in this National Park. This park is one of the most successful National Park in the world.
The Marine Park consists of three bays, Las Barracas, Cabo Pulmo, and Los Frailes. Cabo Pulmo is the most popular with scuba divers due to the unique concentration of coral reefs.
EL BAJO: This reef is truly special and so close to the edge of the submarine canyon. It’s about 500 yards long and 30 yards wide and up to 50 feet deep. It runs south to north with sand on both sides. In the winter months, a lot of stingrays come to reproduce in the sand. There is also have a large community of garden eels that live there year-round. The reef has 7 kinds of corals, hard and soft, as well as the largest concentration of fish, both resident and migratory.
We had lunch at Tito’s Restaurant Bar and Grill with its eclectic style and interesting menu it adds to the flair of the town.
On our way back to Las Paz, there is an old gold and silver mining town called El Triunfo.
The first mine in El Triunfo was established by Manuel de Ocio in the late 1700s. Ownership of the mine was temporarily transferred to the Spanish Crown. However, the mine remained largely unsuccessful until 1878.
In 1862, silver and gold were discovered in the southern Baja California Sur mountains, miners from Mexico and the United States rushed to settle in El Triunfo. Many of these miners had also participated in the 1849 California gold rush.
In 1878, the mine was taken over by the British El Progreso Mining Company and became more successful. Once the largest city in Baja California Sur, it was home to more than 10,000 miners.
El Triunfo was the first town in the region to install electricity and telephones. Pianos and other instruments were brought to El Triunfo from around the world and a piano museum still exists. When mines shut down in 1926, most of the townspeople left to look for work elsewhere.
The smokestack that measures 47-meter-high was once thought to be designed by Gustave Eiffel designer of the famed Eiffel tower though no conclusive evidence of his involvement in the project has been located.
In recent years, to attract tourism, many of the original buildings have been restored and converted into restaurants, museums and boutiques.
In the courtyard of the museum, there is a restaurant where we had lunch. The food and service were excellent and we really enjoyed our time here.
We arrived back to La Paz and to our home on wheels. We enjoyed our time exploring new areas of Baja California Sur.
Our next adventure! is a ferry ride to mainland Mexico. Time to hit the road!