[BajaBundo]

I love the northern gulf region in the cooler months and over the years we have spent a lot of our winter vacation time in San Felipe. We had often camped along some of remote beach areas south of town but in 2008 our campsite was raided, taking everything including our tent, sleeping bags, spare clothes, personal items in the tent, cooking gear and everything else.

But we didn’t give up and started spending more time heading south to Puertecitos and Gonzaga and since 2012 we started exploring further south of Gonzaga to some of the remote fish camps along the gulf. But no more.

The first several years we always got a very warm and welcome feel when we would venture into a remote fish camp south of Gonzaga and established some good friendships with some of the old timers who have lived and worked there for decades. On our return trips we would bring along several boxes of canned goods, boxed milk, coffee, sugar and cigarettes as well as a couple of 5 gallon containers of gasoline to leave with them which they always welcomed. In return they would let us camp for a several days, take us out fishing and cook some amazing meals for us.

These last couple of years however have been different to the point where we have felt increasingly unwelcomed and during our trip last winter we found all of the familiar faces were now gone. They were replaced by mostly younger, unfriendly men including one who openly carried a gun in his waistband. They seemed to be sizing us up as potential victims and needless to say, we quickly got out of there.

Heading back north we stayed the night at Alfonsinas where a local told us that for the last several years the cartels have been slowly taking over the gulf coastline from San Felipe to Bahia de Los Angeles.

We are thankful for the years we were able to enjoy that region of Baja but have decided that we will now stick to exploring down the Pacific side. We are planning to spend this winter in areas around San Quintin, El Rosario and Punta San Carlos. If we have time, we might sneak down to Cataviña with a side trip out to maybe Punta Canoas. And for the winter of 2023/24 we are thinking about further south to Bahia Asuncion, La Bocana and Abreojos maybe.

It pains us to say goodbye to San Felipe as we have so many great memories from that area but at least now we will get to discover and spend time in other areas of Baja.

Sending our condolences to the families of those police officers.