Mexico is well known for being a beautiful tourist destination. Who can resist the tempting charms and allure of Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, or Puerto Vallarta, right? But when Arthur suggested an Eco-Tour to San Ignacio in Baja Mexico, Keishia was a bit skeptical. Who’s heard of San Ignacio and what is there to see there?. As it turns out, Arthur saw the lagoon at San Ignacio in a documentary on whales many years ago, and it was on his bucket list. A “must see,” if you will.
Here is why San Ignacio is special. In a marvel of Mother Nature, gray whales make an annual voyage from the cold waters of Alaska to this beautiful lagoon from February to April. In the protected waters of the lagoon, the whales give birth, mate, and enjoy the warmer temperatures of Mexico. How do they find this location? Listen, we suppose whale GPS is pretty powerful! It never fails; the whales have been here year-after-year since at least the 1700’s.
So for our anniversary trip, we decided to make San Ignacio Lagoon an adventure for the Guniverse.
San Ignacio is about 550 miles south of San Diego, and is populated with less than a few hundred people. There isn’t a whole lot of information about how to get to San Ignacio because it’s a very remote location. But through Google and Trip Advisor, we found a direct Alaska Airlines flight from LAX to Loreto, Mexico and planned our journey.
The view of the Sea of Cortez
From Loreto, we had a pretty peaceful 3 ½ hour drive (through some fun military checkpoints and bag searches) to San Ignacio. We hired a driver so that we could just sit back and relax and enjoy the view along the Sea of Cortez.
At soon as we hit San Ignacio, we were immediately off the grid when we arrived to the Desert Inn. The Desert Inn was a quaint little spot, and is truly the only “hotel” in this little village. On our first night, we hung out awhile in the restaurant and lobby (only spot you could grab a little WiFi). We saw a couple that was on the plane with us and had some tequila shots (hey, it is Mexico) into the late night and then we all turned in, and prepared to travel to the lagoon the next morning.
Keishia and saguaro cactus
From the center of San Ignacio, it was another 90-minute bumpy drive to the lagoon along a Sagaro cactus filled landscape.
We found Kuyima Eco-Tourism Lodge to be the most economical whale-watching lodge in the area. As we pulled into the camp, we were blow away by the natural beauty and awesome views of the San Ignacio Lagoon.
For 4 days and 3 nights, we experienced nature at it’s best. If you truly want to be an eco-traveler, you prepare yourself for socially responsible travelling and environmental sustainability. In short, the natural environment is the primary attraction for the eco-tourist.
Remember the old South Park episode in which the character (played by Jennifer Aniston) says, “Take only photographs and leave only footprints.” Cartman totally made fun of her, but we get the point! That was the environment we found ourselves in. Simple. Pristine. Unspoiled. And it was spectacular.
Kuyima Eco Lodge cabins
The cabins at Kuyima were charming and quaint. We went in February, which was pretty windy and blustery for this Los Angeles based couple, but the rooms were amazingly insulated. We slept in opposite twin beds at night and listened to the wind and ocean howl.
Kuyima composting toilet
Kuyima Bathroom Sink
Kuyima solar water heater
Fresh Lobster Dinner
Fresh Scallop Dinner
Keishia about to get in a panga boat
We enjoyed the emphasis on using solar power, composting, and water conservation. We took cowboy showers once a day, heated by solar water heater (the water was amazingly hot), and there were composting toilets, no Wifi, and very limited electricity. What’s more, there were little portable/compressor toilets in the room, only for use in the middle of the night, but it was helpful to not have to face the “coyotes” at 1am when you have to pee.
Can you believe we ate so well? Before we arrived, we erroneously thought, oh this will be stale camping food. Oh no, we had 3 square meals a day. And guess what? The food was the most delicious thing we could have imagined. Oysters, scallops, fish, ceviche, and lobster all from the local lagoon and fishermen. There was a “cattle call bell” rung with each meal at 8 a.m., 1 p.m., and 7 p.m. There were about 15 other people staying at the camp during our stay and the meals were family-style and the conversation was delightful.
How about those whales? You’ll have to watch our video to see how amazingly close we came to these 40-ton creatures. Every morning, we took two small little panga boats into the cold waters of the lagoon. It didn’t take long before whales in every direction surrounded us. It’s hard to describe in words. So seriously, watch the video for the full experience! We almost got our hands on 1 or 2 whales.
The founder of Kuyima telling the story of Kuyima
The experienced staff…Maggie, David, and Roberto were more than happy to share their knowledge and joy about the whales and the topography of this special little region. Along the way, we took small excursions to mangroves, oyster farms, met with scallop fishermen, took a desert hike, and visited a desalting water plant, etc. The founder of Kuyima was even available one night to tell us about cave paintings and the history of this beautiful camp and region.
San Ignacio is a hidden gem for the curious traveler. The residents of the lagoon truly depend on fishing and whale-watching tourism for commerce. But this is a small village with an incredibly big heart!
We were happy to contribute to the local economy and development of this United Nations World Heritage Site. We’ll be back for sure. Perfect travel designation for groups, families, and animal lovers.
