(This post was originally written April 20, 2025)
When we are away from home for the holidays it tends to stir up a lot of homesickness and existential questions for me. I remember this as the hardest time on our trip in South America.
No matter what we did, Christmas 2016 just didn’t feel right. Fresh coconut while wearing a Santa hat and bikini? It was beautiful but I felt so sad! Perhaps it’s the time of the year I enjoy making traditions and decorations the most. I’ve already introduced the girls to paper crafts for all the holidays. Winter snowflakes, Easter eggs, Halloween cats. It’s a good thing we have lots of windows they can hang these crafts on.
This Easter I wasn’t too focused on missing the Polish traditions of pisanki and basket blessing or our newest adopted tradition-Easter egg hunting. Perhaps because there was no Polish church to go to. But also admittedly, I didn’t want the girls to be upset about missing out on these annual traditions. It’s hard to create that kind of magic for a 3 and 5 year old without all the pieces of the puzzle. So I tried to put it out of my mind.
What I did find I missed the most was making a festive Holy Saturday lunch and at least 3 kinds of baked cakes for Easter Sunday.
Luckily we happened upon a historic French style bakery and gorgeous strawberries in the mining town of Rosalita.
It’s also the moment I realized the holiday food prep is exhausting, but it’s what my daughters will probably refer to as “Mami’s good cooking.” So this is my reminder to make memories for future holidays, no matter the long hours of prep or days of baking it takes.
But you might be wondering what is Easter like in Baja??
Semana Santa is a crazy time for camping in Baja California. We were told this within the first week of our arrival. We were dreading it slightly but figured we could endure it- there’s a lot of coastline here! Well it turned out the timing lined up with the start of our journey north. We had to drive through the beautiful blue beaches of Bahia Concepcion- Santispac, El Coyote, and several other very instagrammable beaches. And to top it off- there was a 5 day heat wave happening too!
So, Easter in Baja is like 4th of July in the states. Lots of parties, beach camping, and loud music!
We ended up going to 4 different spots over the course of the week. First-a small fishing town near San Bruno, then Mulegé, San Ignacio, and finally Güerrero Negro. We covered more kilometers that week than we did for the last month!!
We made a new friend, James, who is an expert spear fisherman. He very generously shared his catch with us. And educated us on the ecological fragility of the Sea of Cortez.
Todd prepared most of our fish dishes:
Mulege afforded us some pool time. We stayed in a hotel parking lot and made ample use of their wonderfully clean pool and hot showers!
Next up was San Ignacio- the liveliest town for us that week (which I was actually expecting to be quaint and sleepy). There was an incredible setup for a party/ Easter Saturday festival happening when we arrived. It was amazing to watch the massive infrastructure setup effort and the number of vendors preparing heaps of food.
We also heard a sound check for the band. About 15 men, of all different ages, and a gamut of instruments. They were top notch! I would have loved watching them play at night but the festivities didn’t start until 10pm or so…
So at this 3rd camping location for the week, I unfortunately hit my breaking point. Sadly, in this cutest of cute Spanish colonial towns- San Ignacio. I made it 1 night. The party going got me going somewhat, but I blame it more on the heat.
Temperatures were in the high 80s, no see um fly bites at sunset, and then the loud music at 3am woke up our entire van. To add to the physical discomfort, the campground we were paying for was pretty trashed (not to mention no toilet paper (used to this) or water (not used to this) to flush the toilets!).
Obviously the campground was not prepared for the volume of party goers they received, but I refused to pay for another night so we could use our cassette toilet in our van. NO THANKS!!!
As soon as we hit the road on Saturday afternoon I felt such relief. It still amazes me how quickly my outlook changes as soon as we change our physical location. It really doesn’t take much. We made it to a wild campsite we had been to previously- the sand dunes just north of Güerrero Negro. It was so good to be back to our first wild campsite in Baja. A full circle experience for our trip. A goodbye of sorts.
We knew Semana Santa would be overwhelming. I think we got through it pretty well, but perhaps my patience wore thin very quickly that week. Todd seemed to find the silver lining in most moments. Though I will say-he wasn’t happy when we were all wide awake at 3am in San Ignacio- he likes his sleep!