Outdoor Fun in Los Cabos

by Alex Navarro for Destino Los Cabos Magazine

If you want to experience real adventurous tourism, you came to the right spot, Baja has it all! Anything and everything from the truest form of ecotourism to high tech gear activities.

If you are leaning more towards an ecotourism experience, you might want to plan a hiking trip up to La Sierra La Laguna. Imagine hiking from nearby Todos Santos up to the valley of the “Reserva de la Biosfera de la Sierra La Laguna” which is a National Reserve Park, and spend a few nights there camping or renting a cabin enjoying the pine forest. You can do this hike with or without assistance of donkeys to carry the load and these trips can be planned through a few Sierra La Laguna outfitters online. A specialized guide or advisor is recommended.

Another amazing activity not to be missed while in Baja is scuba diving at Cabo Pulmo reef which is also a National Reserve Park. This place has real world class scuba diving and the area is majestic. Nearby is Los Barriles where you can experience great fishing and also world class kite surfing. But for unreal kite surfing, the spot is La Ventana which is north from

Los Barriles and south of La Paz. People from all over the world come here for the awesome winds.

If your adventure is of a different type and maybe you are looking for fossils and cave paintings, north of San Jose is the place. Las Casitas is a very special place for fossils where you might even find a huge whale backbone fossil in the middle of the desert. Also you can discover some cave paintings near San Dionisio, which is a stunning canyon near Santiago.

Well, if you are near the Oasis town of Santiago, you have to visit and take some high jumps off the huge boulders in the famous waterfall at Fox Canyon. And maybe later check out the next canyon where at Santa Rita ranch you can enjoy dusk in the thermal hot springs, one of my favorite spots in the world. There is a great camping area there as well as rental cabins.

For more adrenaline, Baja has many amazing zip lines, there is one nearby Santiago in the town of Miraflores, and by the way there is a very fun waterpark near here in the little town of Caduano. Other great zip lines are at El Tule arroyo in between San Lucas and San Jose and another cool one at Costa Azul canyon.

If off-roading is what you are seeking, Cabo and its surrounding areas have numerous options. Everything from motocross, atvs, buggies, BRP-Can Am, and even Baja 1000 style racing. The trails and sand dunes around are perfect to have a blast on your vacation.

Must do activities while visiting Cabo are snorkeiling and trying surf lessons. Santa Maria Bay is one of my favorite snorkeling beaches, and for surf lessons you have to visit Cerritos beach any time of year or Acapulquito beach during the summer time. SUP is also very popular in Cabo and a couple of places to practice it is at Palmiila beach or Medano bay.

Cabo has some really cool high tech activities like fly boarding and water jet packing. As well as bungee jumping and submarine tours.

And still adventurous but less tech, something always fun to do is going sailing and whale watching. And now is the whale watching season, so be sure to try to book a tour and get out in the sea at “land’s end, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez”, a famous saying down here.

As you can see, Cabo and Baja in general have so much to offer if you are looking for adventure and fun times. And what I mentioned above are just some things to do, there are so many more things you can do down here like wakeboarding, skateboarding, spearfishing, sky diving, mountain biking and even renting a bike for riding around downtown San Jose, which is also one of my favorite things to do.

Other fun things you can do down here is play golf, tennis, do outdoor yoga, and go go-karting with the family. Nightlife and partying is also adventurous and fun, but that is another story.

So no doubt Cabo is a real fun place, now all we have to do is decide what fun things to do and in what order because it will probably take a little time to get down the list. Happy 2017 everyone!!!

PRINCIPLES OF ECOTOURISM

Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement, participate in and market ecotourism activities should adopt the following ecotourism principles:

• Minimize physical, social, behavioral, and psychological impacts. Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect. Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.
• Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Generate financial benefits for both local people and private industry.
• Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climates.
• Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities.
• Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment.