Todos Santos, Mexico – On a Sunday morning, the bells pealed atop an old mission church with a real mouthful of a name: Iglesia Catolica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Todos Santos. Young women arrived for services in their finest dresses, despite the sweltering heat of late summer.
A block away, a rooster crowed in the courtyard of the police station. The cowbell clanged on the pushcart of a vendor selling paleterias, frozen treats in robust fruit flavors. Soon, the sweet sound of hymns sung a cappella began to drift from the open, unscreened windows of the church.
The village of Todos Santos was stirring gently to life, with no apparent haste.
What a contrast with its neighbor at the tip of Baja California, Cabo San Lucas – 48 miles and a world away to the south.
While Cabo is luxury hotels, raucous night life, recreation and a never-ceasing press of entrepreneurial commerce – craft vendors, time-share pitchmen, tour hucksters – Todos Santos is at its heart a working town. Men head to orchards and ranches by day, old folks sit in folding chairs on the sidewalk in the evening and teens flirt in the central plaza at all hours.
It sits on a hillside just inland from the Pacific shore, and is on the edge of a natural oasis, a catch basin for the rains that fall along the crest of the Sierra de la Laguna to the east.
Expatriate artists, restaurateurs and innkeepers from the U.S., Canada and Europe have been finding their way here over the past 15 years, and their efforts, combined with the historic character of a town founded in 1724, have created an increasingly popular tourist destination – particularly for travelers repelled by Cabo.
“This is a magical place,” said Joce Mathe, a Parisian vacationing with his wife and daughter, as he prepared to head to the coast for a day of surfing.
Any magic derives from a fortuitous convergence. A while back, Mexico’s National Institute of History and Anthropology declared the town a historic district, setting standards for the restoration of buildings that date to an era of 19th-century sugarcane plantations. Many have been painted in bright colors of blue, green, yellow and pink, now charmingly faded.
Artists also have enhanced the village fabric, led by Charles Stewart of Taos, who bounced along the dirt Highway 19 from Cabo with wife Marylou in 1984 (the road wasn’t paved until ’86).
Other contributions have been made by people like Enzio Columbo, who arrived from Italy, bought an adobe home on the central square and opened a fabulous restaurant, Cafe Santa Fe.
What an odd experience to sit at a table on the romantically lit patio and peruse a menu that infuses Italian cuisine with Mexican influences. A dish of linguine with shellfish (mussels, shrimp, clams) is served in a hearty marinara that can be ordered mild, medium or picante. I opted for medium, and was soon wiping perspiration from my eyes.
Todos Santos, said painter Jill Logan, is “becoming a nice, bohemian spot. … The light is just spectacular here. It doesn’t matter what it’s shining on.”
These attributes drew Logan from Laguna Beach, Calif., six years ago. Now she indulges her expressionist style on subjects as diverse as seascapes and Mexican flower vendors. Her gallery, at the corner of Calle Benito Juarez and Calle Morelos, is awash in sunlight.
Overall, Todos Santos is home to about a dozen galleries.
The Hotel California has the feel of one though it is principally an 11-room inn, with restaurant and bar. John and Debbie Stewart, transplanted Canadians, bought it two years ago and spend a great deal of their time deflecting questions about the myth of the place.
For years, local legend held that members of the Eagles stayed here on vacation in the early 1970s, and that the place inspired their 1976 hit “Hotel California.” The story has since been debunked; the Eagles never stayed there, Debbie Stewart said.
Though named the Hotel California when it opened in 1950, the inn later was renamed the Hotel Mission. Several years after the song became a hit, a new owner changed the name back to Hotel California and worked the Eagles angle to the hilt.
“The guy played the song in here 166 times a day,” said Debbie Stewart. “He sold T-shirts. He really sold that story.”
The Stewarts certainly have, with vivid décor, a pool shaded by tropical greenery and an impressive restaurant, La Coronela, where Belgian chef Dany Lamote works the grill in the open kitchen and guests sit at tables on a quiet inner patio.
I made my way to La Coronela for dinner and breakfast, and though the service could be maddeningly inattentive, the food was superb. Cabrilla, a local sea bass, was pan-fried and served with a Vera Cruz preparation – a sauce of tomato and basil, studded with green olives.
When it gets warm and sticky in Todos Santos, relief is a short drive away. Three terrific beaches stretch out just south of town: Playa Los Cerritos, Playa San Pedrito and Playa Las Palmas (also called Playa San Pedro).
Signs don’t point the way, and the roads to the coast are rutted dirt. Once there, you won’t find restrooms, lifeguards, trash cans or any other services. But the beaches themselves are spectacular – long arcs of sand, with clear blue water and some legendary surf breaks.
The swimming can be treacherous, especially when there is a hefty shore break, but there is a gentle swimming area at the north end of Cerritos, sheltered by a long, rocky headland.
The dirt roads to the beaches are indistinguishable from farm roads that crisscross the countryside. I discovered this while trying to make my way to Playa Las Palmas, having decided to follow what appeared to be a local beachgoer.
Soon the road narrowed and the ruts grew ever deeper. Our two-vehicle convoy passed a vegetable patch. Then a tethered milk cow. And ultimately came to a stop in what was obviously this family’s front yard. They all looked at me as if I was an alien who had dropped in from a distant planet.
I said in tentative Spanish that I was looking for the beach with the palm trees. I received a torrent of indecipherable Spanish, accompanied by animated gestures. And smiles all around.
We weren’t in Cabo anymore.
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The details
If you fly into the modern airport at Los Cabos, the car you rent will be calibrated in kilometers. The well-marked drive to Todos Santos on Highway 19 is 124 (77 miles) kilometers, and for this you should allow close to two hours. Plan your flight arrival and departure for daylight hours – this is a treacherous highway even in the middle of the day; driving it at night is nothing short of reckless. Be further advised that your U.S. car insurance is no good in Mexico, so you’ll have to buy coverage when you rent the car.
Lodging: Hotel California, on Calle Benito Juarez at Calle Morelos, has 11 rooms. Rates range from $75-$150. (011-52) 612-145-0525; hotelcalifornia
reservations@hotmail.com. The Todos Santos Inn, at Calle Legaspi and Avenida Topete, has four air-conditioned suites, with two others under construction, and two standard rooms in the historic building. Rates range from $95-$135. (011-52) 612-14-50040; todossantosinn.com.
Beaches: There is a highway speed bump at the southern limits of Todos Santos. Drive south 12 kilometers from this point to reach Playa Los Cerritos. You’ll see a dirt road angling off toward the coast. There is no sign.
To reach Playa Las Palmas (also called Playa San Pedro), drive south a little more than 4 kilometers from the speed bump. Look for a white building on the inland side of the highway called Campo Experimental. The unmarked dirt road to the beach is directly across the highway from this building.
The entrance to Playa San Pedrito, 8 kilometers south of the speed bump, is marked with a broad masonry arch.
There is a campground and RV park at the end of this dirt road. The day-use fee is about $2.
