Your first glance at this week’s ratings for Baja California Sur might make you think that the state just doesn’t cut it for year-round or seasonal living. Of the five places we rate, four are in the twos on our one-to-five scale. The state’s tourism superstar, Los Cabos, only comes in with a humble 4.
0. This place must have problems, you might conclude. But spend some time here and you’ll see that there are tangibles and intangibles not captured in our attempt to convey the essence of Mexico living: attributes that reveal Baja Sur’s raw beauty, frontier spirit and micro-destination personalities.
There are superlatives about the state that just don’t stand out in our rankings. That’s okay. Tens of thousands of desert-meets-the-sea lovers will attest to how Baja Sur living is unlike the rest of Mexico.
It always has been. Just as the Baja Peninsula broke away from mainland Mexico some two million years ago, any discussion of Baja Sur living today must grapple with whether living near the tip of a remote desert can be a sustainable choice. It’s Mexico’s least populated state, has the country’s longest coastline, the greatest amount of protected area and the most uninhabited islands.
The state is mostly jagged mountains and barren coastal plains with almost no surface water. The Spanish and their evangelizing orders only gained a tenuous foothold in the 18th century, leaving a legacy of 16 outpost missions. When it became a state in 1974, Baja Sur was home t.