On to the Next Adventure…

Our nearly six-month stay in the Todos Santos area of Baja California Sur, Mexico has been eventful and educational. Here's what we learned.

Has it really been five and a half months already?

Greetings from Baja California Sur, or as we now call it, the real Southern California.

The weather is beautiful, but alas… it’s our last week here. We’re stopping off in Boulder to see the kids, then heading to Houston to see my parents before we’re off to Costa Rica for Christmas (and the first three months of 2026).

Our nearly six-month stay in the Todos Santos area of Baja Sur has been eventful and educational. And that was what we were looking for.

On the eventful side, two rare Pacific hurricanes ended a multi-year drought by dumping three years’ worth of rain in a mere three weeks in September. The downpours transformed the flora from drab grayish-brown into lush greenery with pops of vibrant color from opportunistic blooms.

On the other hand, the local roads were decimated and the electrical grid buckled. Such is life along the rural Pacific coast, but things got back to normal just in time for tourist season.

I’ve visited the Todos Santos/Cerritos Beach/El Pescadero area many times over the last four years, often coinciding with trips to Los Cabos for speaking engagements. We started out thinking about investing in the area, and we followed the Untourist approach, which says you should live in a place for at least three months before investing in real estate.

That was the educational part. And we learned that for us, rural Baja Sur is a nice place to visit, but we wouldn’t want to live here.

A big concern is water. For example, despite sporting million-dollar homes in the hills, Cerritos Beach doesn’t have its own aquifer. Water has to be trucked in and stored in various-sized cisterns on each property, and that’s a serious concern for an area prone to drought. When water rationing happens, you’re not going to like how it goes down.

The Todos Santos aquifer, on the other hand, was never intended to serve both the area’s historical agricultural needs and a level of population that exploded with expats during the pandemic. The groundwater from the Todos Santos aquifer is simply not being replenished by rainfall as quickly as it’s being used, creating an unsustainable situation for both agriculture and people.

Plus, while it’s nice to get away from it all, living here means required monthly drives to Los Cabos for certain groceries and supplies. You’ll also take spontaneous trips in to town if you need to buy just about any consumer product (like when the coffee maker dies).

What we do love about this place are the Mexican locals. They are the warmest, most welcoming people you’ll meet. Yes, “mañana culture” may be more laid back than you might like when things need to be fixed or otherwise get done, but I think that’s something many convenience-obsessed Americans should learn from.

As far as the U.S. expats here, it’s about what you would expect. Some good, some bad, but always somehow typically American. There are a lot of U.S. expats in Mexico in general, and especially here in Baja Sur. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up to you.

Overall, we love Baja Sur even though we won’t be investing in the Todos Santos area. In fact, we’ve contracted for new construction in San José del Cabo.

Unless you’ve been here a lot, you might simply think in terms of “Cabo.” It’s actually Los Cabos, which consists of the two cities of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, connected by a 20-mile stretch of resort-lined highway known as the Cabo Corridor.

Cabo San Lucas is what many people think of when they think of “Cabo.” It’s the touristy and somewhat tacky spring break mecca. If you want to visit Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo, tourist trap Señor Frog’s, or multiple strip clubs, Cabo San Lucas has got you covered.

San José del Cabo is more tasteful and tranquil. The beaches are less crowded, and more for relaxation than body shots.

The town itself is the cultural center of Los Cabos, with weekly Art Walks, eclectic galleries, and farm-to-table restaurants. San José del Cabo is also 250 years older than Cabo San Lucas and exudes authentic Mexican charm, while still sporting beautiful homes and resorts, its own high-end marina, and much quicker access to SJD (the Los Cabos International Airport).

In other words, San José del Cabo is more our speed at this point. And while the condo we chose is primarily for investment purposes, my wife and I selected a place we could see ourselves living in at least part-time.

More updates on that as construction progresses, but next up for our Untourist research is Costa Rica. I’ve been visiting for 25 years, but again… my philosophy is you don’t really know a place until you live there for at least three months. I’ll be sure to let you know what we discover.

We’ll have one more issue of Further next week before taking a break for the holidays. I hope all is well with you and yours.

Keep going-

Brian

P.S. Ready to transform your expertise into location-independent income and upgrade your life at midlife? Further Premium gives you the complete roadmap, with business-building instruction, financial planning advice, expat guidance, and more.

further: flashback

🎶 Dee Gees – You Should Be Dancing, Hail Satin, 2021 🎶

Did you know the Foo Fighters did an entire album of Bee Gees covers called Hail Satin? Yep, and You Should Be Dancing has it all: Dave Grohl with the falsetto, Taylor Hawkins brings the disco beat, then add the keyboards and the backup singers… it’s fantastic. Many a Gen Xer had to pretend to disown this music when we went hard during the 90s, but let’s face it — everybody loves the Bee Gees. (YouTube)

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