Fly or Drive?

Hopefully will get a few more posts online soon. We have some photos from spring-summer travels to share.

drive
Grey car is good for getting dirty, hard to tell!

We have recently completed a drive in our own car from La Paz to San Francisco for a short summer break from the heat and to reset our visas. (We brought the car south in February.) Some cruisers drive back and forth, and others prefer to fly. The cost for two persons flying is comparable, but it’s nice to have a car in the Baja.

Mexico Highway One is quite scenic and traffic is pretty light for a mostly 2-lane road. Safety there is not a concern, (other than there is minimal shoulder on much of the road, being well focused while driving is important, and it is not recommended to drive at night) and it’s good to be able to bring the volume and types of items one cannot fly with on commercial airlines, large marine batteries for example.

Here are the numbers from our last trip, you can be the judge.

La Paz to Loreto, 237 miles
54.7 litres premium, 741 pesos, $56.20

Loreto to Guerro Negro, 252 miles
64.2 litres, 870 pesos, $65.98

Guerro Negro to Lazaro Cardenas, 254 miles
54.6 litres premium, 740 pesos, $56.12

Lazaro Cardenas to Ensenada, 125 miles
33.2 litres, 450 pesos, $34.13

Ensenada to Santa Clarita, 282 miles
16 gallons, $71.50

Santa Clarita to San Mateo, 343 miles
15.6 gallons, $62.00

total 1493 miles, $345.93 in fuel

2 nights motel $110, 1 night with friends, priceless!
aprox. meals expense, ice for the cooler ~ $100

total expense $556

2 one way tickets Cabo to SFO, currently $456 + airport shuttle & taxi $86 = $542