Let me introduce myself and this online community…
My name is Ron “Gomez” Hoff and I have lived and worked in Latin America for a significant portion of my adult life and for the last 25 years here in Mexico, where a few years after arriving I would meet the love of my life – Cristina. We married and eventually moved from the Rosarito Beach area down to a very small and remote, seaside fishing village outside of San Quintin called La Chorera, fronting San Martin Island.
Here we would build our forever home where we live completely off-grid and where I first started Talk Baja back in 2008, beginning as a simple, stand-alone discussion group / forum. I really only intended for it to serve as a gathering place for a small collection of my like-minded friends to share stories, pictures and experiences of a common love we all shared – the mystical and amazing Peninsula of Baja California, Mexico!
Much to my surprise, our “small group of friends” quickly grew but I will never forget the support and participation of several of those founding group members.
I fondly remember some of their forum “handles” like martycortez, dennis, bajaguy, longlegsinlapaz, gruñon, msterieus, durrellrobert, j.p., bigwoo, soulpatch, docrey, churro, larry, tjsue, pauldavidmena, wessongroup, sargentodiaz, rts551, bobh, blowhole, beachbum, cdn_johnny, bwall and many others.
And my own handle that some of you may remember – “bajagringo”.
In 2013, I made the decision to move the forum to social media, choosing Facebook’s Group Platform as the best fit, and the decision turned out to be a very good one. Our main Talk Baja group alone today has well over 170 thousand members averaging nearly two million visits each month, representing the largest online discussion group-forum for the Baja California Peninsula today.
Our online community has evolved into a large and culturally diverse group of members including a broad mix of Americans / Gringo’s, Mexicans, Canadians and more who help make this a very rich and unique, multicultural experience where a wide spectrum of points of views and life experience come together to create some fascinating and dynamic discussions.
The fast growth of our Talk Baja community would eventually force us to create a series of additional Baja themed sub-groups and pages under the Talk Baja brand, covering topics such as weather, road conditions, sportfishing, border crossing information, crime / safety, van life, help in moving to Mexico, safe camping options and other related topics of interest, attracting well over 800,000 total members, followers and subscribers today.
And we are still growing!
While the move to Facebook was extremely successful, it came at a price; we left out an estimated 25 to 30% of the public today who simply choose to avoid using social media.
So, we built this website as an option for those who prefer to standard websites and offer a discussion forum format here that is available to our entire Talk Baja community along with a built-in travel guide as well as pages giving good advice for travel safety in Mexico, driving tips, and much, much more.
And our Weather Page here on TalkBaja.com is widely recognized as the most comprehensive and informative source for weather and storm information for the Baja Peninsula today!
We are honored and humbled by the continued growth of this amazing online community that is Talk Baja and we hope that you find this website useful and enjoyable to use. Please feel free to reach out to us via the contact form with any questions or to share any comments or suggestions.
Welcome to Talk Baja!
Ron & Cristina
