Western Coast: San Quintín and Environs

Few Baja travelers realize it, but there's more to twin towns San Quintín and Lázaro Cárdenas than just a highway and a few Pemex gas stations. In contrast with the untamed desert that lies south, this swath of Pacific supports a population of 10,000 and will likely continue to grow, in part due to its natural beauty. Situated among 12 extinct volcanoes, the rocky landscape around the bays of San Quintín makes for fascinating hiking, and the waters off the coast offer the best fishing on the peninsula—that's why adventurous Americans have been coming to these dusty towns for some two decades.

Meanwhile, the region's seafood restaurants and fish taco stands make it a great place to stop for a bite, especially if you're going to be on the road for a while. Traveling down the peninsula, you won't find restaurant options this varied again until Guerrero Negro. North of San Quintín, along with beaches made for clamming, Camalú has a great seafood restaurant on a bluff over the Bay of San Ramón called La Cueva del Pirata.

But what's most distinctive about the region is the way it has become rural Baja's own little "melting pot," a place still very much in the process of establishing a cultural identity of its own. On the one hand, the area continues to see tremendous growth in Mixteco and other indigenous populations, most of them arriving from the impoverished Mexican state of Oaxaca, where about a third of the population speaks an indigenous language (and nearly half of that group is monolingual.) Then, on the other hand, there are the Americans, infamous for their ability to transform other cultures whether the cultures like it or not. San Quintín's sportfishing businesses are custom-tailored to the needs of their predominantly Californian clientele. The fishing is apparently so good that many American retirees have built (or parked their mobile) homes here, and restaurants like the famous Old Mill exist largely to serve the burgeoning English-speaking population.