Baja California

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Baja California
<map lat="30.504041769989986" lng="-114.61188179686616" zoom="6" float="right" height="350" />
state
Country: Flag of Mexico Mexico
Population: 2,490,000
Seat: Mexicali
Licence Plate: Baja California
Motorways:

Baja California is a Mexican federal state. It borders the state of Baja California Sur to the south, the state of Sonora to the east, the U.S. state of Arizona to the northeast, but without a possibility to cross the border, and the U.S. state of California to the north. Its capital is Mexicali. The most frequented border crossing in the world is in Tijuana, Baja California. Another important city is Ensenada at the Pacific Coast. The south of Baja California is hardly populated and a desert, be prepared for that. Anyway, the only road to hitchhike on most of the time is highway 1 which goes all the way down to Baja California Sur. In Baja California, there are many checkpoints of the military. If you make friends with them, they can be helpful in finding you a lift.

It may be extremely easy to hitch in mainland Mexico, but in the Baja California peninsula, it's a completely different story! In Baja California, there is only one road, the HWY 1, which isn't hell to hitchhike on but requires a lot of patience: there are often large distances in between cities (which are barely even cities, rather a few ranches and cactus farms) and even larger distances between petrol stations (example: El Rosario is the last one before Guerrero Negro, about 360 km further down in Baja California Sur). Getting stuck in the middle of the desert is NOT fun, and many people can only take you from town to town as it is local traffic or gringos doing one of the many races down in the Baja. Also, unless you are planning on staying in Baja and going back up towards the USA-Mexico border, you should hitchhike from Mexicali south. If you plan on heading to mainland Mexico from the Baja, you must take a ferry in either La Paz or Cabo San Lucas towards Mazatlán or Topolobampo. From La Paz to Topolobampo costs $970 MXN (approx. $53 USD) and to Mazatlan costs $1102 MXN (approx. $60 USD) (June 2016). Prices for both destinations are given on the BajaFerries website but when I crossed in February 2016, the Mazatlan ferry was being refitted.

Playa del Amor

The Lovers’ Beach is a hidden cove near Cabo San Lucas, at the southernmost tip of Baja California peninsular.