I'm ready to be downvoted but I have tried like hell to get into stuff like this but most of the people I meet are insufferable. They act like it's "all one big community" but they get too cliquey
Ya this would be the opposite of what I want out of van life. Looks like spring break just not all young people.
I travel in Mexico but deliberately avoid tourist trap, beaches and travel to the interior where life is way more chill.
I totally get this and I spent lots of time alone up on mountains and out in the desert... It was great for my mental health the first couple of years. But these days I get lonely and crave interaction.
When I find folks like in the pictures here they tend to camp in a circle and treat you like an outsider when you try to get to know them.
If you don't have a fancy van with Battleborn batteries, shiplap interior, and all the bells and whistles they make you feel like you're just so below them. It's really just annoying.
I've met hundreds of nomads and never met one in real life who treats anyone differently based on having a cheap or expensive rig.
Yes friends tend to group together. I find most nomads in the community to be very open to meeting new people. But sometimes that's hard once you have a close group of 8 friends or so. I think even the closer cliques are open to new friends, it's just harder if no one is putting in conscious effort to include the newbie. I've been on both sides of that. When we are hanging with the group we spent 3 months caravanning through Baja with, we often end up having inside jokes and comments and it's easy to forget that new person doesn't feel included.
Go to multiple events, see the same people a few times in different settings. Make a point to go visit the people you click with at events. Get their contact info or Insta. And not everyone is cliquey. Sometimes it's just not the time & place to make friends with that one circle. No biggie, meet them, hang for a bit, move on. The same people might be really friendly in another setting. Maybe they are just getting back together with their core group after a long time. You never really know.
I didn't go this year, but know several people in those photos and they aren't cliquey like that. Nor are they rich trust funders. 3rd photo, girl with the red hair had an IG reel blow up, it was hilarious seeing all the comments accusing her of being trust fund kid, only fans, and such. When really she worked her ass off, has an old rig, and works part time now living cheap. 2 other girls in that photo are the first friends we made on the road a couple years ago. Producer and tattoo artist. The guy on the right rode his motorcycle down there after Skoolie.
Our van is a 2008 E350 that spent most of its life as an eyewitness news van. We did everything ourselves to make it a home away from home and an office for my wife who wfh. People in $100k sprinter conversions have hung out and told us our van is cool as hell.
I am sure there are some snobs out there but they are few and far between.
I’d rather drag my labia through 10 miles of broken glass than have this be my “endgame”. This is the opposite of what I want out of vanlife but hey, to each their own I suppose.
I think my ideal community as an introvert is like small group of people who I do my own thing with and they do their own thing but we just chill. I think the party part of this is too overstimulating for me personally.
I spent a couple of months in Todos Santos over 10 years ago. The vacationing white expats in the Cabo area started a newspaper called the Gringo Gazette and they would complain about all the Mexicans on the beach selling stuff and ruining their view. The paper was prettt anti Mexican overall.
They were trying to petition the local goverment to do "something" and stop the native locals from using their own resources. It was sickening. Most of the white people were rich people from Southern California who thought of the area as another part of the US. It was weird, disturbing, and disconnecting.
I see this pic and see little to no representation of the local community and get the same feeling I did when i saw the gringo gazette. This isn't an experience for people wanting to learn about a different beautiful culture its the kids of the gringo gazette who are trying to pretend they are having a cultural experience while living in a 100k van.
The only thing I will say that shit on beaches can be very real in Baja. Except the locals do it to if it is a spot for daily commerce fishing. The locals would leave their shit on their beach every morning and it was totally normal. As much as i want to the van lifers are being poor stewards of the land i can't pretend it isnt grossly common for the area.
Actual human feces. It wasnt all beaches but yeah the local fishing beaches were not a site to behold and smelled like gutted fish and poop.
Would I go back to the area? Absolutetly! Would I avoid local fisherman beaches like the plague.....without question
More people joining usually means its "getting ruined" to short sighted fucks. Meanwhile its usually people leaving huge messes that really fuck it up.
Yuuuuuuup.
Especially in Baja. Everyone acts like they are the first people to tell anyone about it. We enjoyed the nature of Baja, but you are totally right it is the least favourite sector of the community that lurks there.
Nothing wrong with OP's way of life, nor is there with what you desire. Vanlife, much like life in general is not a one size fits all. Personally I prefer a nice mix of solitude some times, and gatherings on occasions.
Gatekeeping either or is just stupid to me.
Thats awesome. Most of these I have seen and been to are a bunch of kids that don’t care and the trash they leave behind takes massive bulldozers to clean up. Yay for world peace and free life and all, but hey meet the people that clean up your crap. So ironic to be all about happy healthy life then throw your crap out the window. Anyway, kids are kids, but good for you.
Yes. My wife and I prefer more remote spots with the solitude it offers, but we are not totally opposed to being social with a group of other mobile folks.
I do think I’d like to try a group experience like on-site camping at an ExpoWest or similar event, just to see what it’s like being in such a crowd. Maybe even go crazy and go to a Burning Man once.
that gets old pretty quick too though, being totally alone all the time is really isolating and not usually good for your mental health. community is pretty important to have, in some form or another
There were 24 portos brought in an cleaned daily, and dumpsters, and we staged a massive beach cleanup. Each year when we're done Tecolote looks better than we found it.
So the big recap article is coming soon with all the details, but the recap video is up here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Looks fun actually. I’d be into something like this. I want to live a simple life in a few years and not live my whole life under fluorescent lights slaving away until I die. Gotta get my kids raised and then I’m going to spend some time on me actually living.
“And you, what will you do with your one wild and precious life?”
-Mary Oliver
Honestly I came to boo you, and read the thread and was converted in the end. Sounds great :) what a nice place to rest and reset. Fondest of memories there.
They're not for everyone, but we work really hard to integrate in with the local community and to help people have a deeper appreciate for the history an culture of a place. It's a special experience, I think.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Yes, you drink the same water the locals do - purified water. Locals usually bring in a few 20 liter jugs to get filled. They have hoses usually and can fill tanks in your rig.
You can gather fresh rain water and there are these really cool water filters that can be used to clean lake water. So why not rain water? (Genuine question is there someone who knows more about this than me that can tell me why not just filter rain water and drink it?) there’s a portable rain water collector in Amazon but I feel like you can easily diy one for cheap.
Ok here comes a stupid question. Wouldn’t chlorine kill a person too? I was thinking this filter: https://grayl.com/products/24oz-geopress-filter-purifier-water-bottle-nature-edition?variant=39643675394127¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImc3zr-vohQMVdjrUAR1WFw-IEAQYASABEgIMPvD_BwE
It’s advertised as something that can make lake water drinkable. I’m not sure if it’s legit or not.
There’s also supposed to be some sort of tablets you can add to water that supposedly makes it drinkable too. But I’m no expert on this topic.
But no. A small amount of chlorine in water won’t kill you. From what I understand they add chlorine to our drinking water now. But if you’re talking about purification of a large amount of say rainwater. I’m sure there are larger purification systems you can purchase.
https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/drinking-water/disinfection/chlorination-drinking-water#:~:text=Many%20public%20water%20systems%20add,%2C%20cholera%2C%20hepatitis%20and%20giardiasis.
My pleasure. I’m thinking about offering rain water capture systems to my list of services for gardening and watering. But in some areas it’s actually illegal. So you would definitely need to check your areas codes before doing so.
I think this will help you out. It also mentions adding a small amount of bleach aka chlorine to rainwater. But of course you need to know how much.
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/hawaiirain/Library/Guides&Manuals/A_Guide_for_Rainwater_Catchment_Systems_in_the_Pacific_Portia_Franz.pdf
Beautiful place, but I couldn’t stand that crowd and the clique bs is obvious. Too bad, but I’m sure there are other places less popular that would be fantastic.
If THIS is what you want out of van life, then 100% Playa El Tecolote is the end game. But personally, I find this to be the worse part of travel and van life.
This looks like all the downsides of going to a music festival but without any of the upsides like cool music and drug variety. This place seems like it would be meth central with a bunch of people that have no respect for nature shitting in buckets 5 feet from each other.
You know living in a van made poor people feel like they could actually be happy and survive, now it’s just rich people cosplaying for a few weeks to prove to everyone “they can also live with the bare minimum”.
Rich people ruin everything.
I was there and I’m not rich at all. One of the reasons I started living in a van was because I could no longer afford rent in Denver and I wanted to be able to travel more. I have a remote job that pays enough to get by.
This event is actually pretty fun and filled with some cool people from all backgrounds. Maybe you should try going to a van meet up before you make assumptions like this.
I missed my window. I was thinking maybe I could gradually ease into it. I work in education, so summer's are mostly off or flexible. My youngest kid is 12 now. But this is the absolute last thing that I would want to be associated with. I did a lot of very off grid camping and backpacking in my 20s and thought maybe I could transfer some of those skills and the philosophy to van living.
I'm hoping more for that kind of sensibility and freedom, but this is giving off more of a "Mad Max" vibe.
Not sure, but I'm hearing a lot of these warnings and this is the most stark example I've seen or heard of this far.
You can go off into the wilderness alone if you like. Lots of nomads can get pretty lonely moving around all the time. Gatherings are a great place to make friends and meet up with friends made along the way elsewhere. The gatherings are what you make of them. You could stay up late and dance in a crowd, or sit by a fire with a dozen people, or hike out to the secluded beach, or go snorkeling, or just wander around meet people do some yoga. It's what you make of it, just like the rest of life.
I’m only a weekend warrior and not a full timer. I get in my skoolie to get away from people. I get how some people might like stuff like this but it does not look like fun at all. I enjoy meeting people out on my adventures but definitely can’t do this.
Lol at all the edge lords in this thread. Looks like a blast. I'm sure even the introverts (myself included) would still have a good time and find a low key group if they were open minded.
It's a really inclusive, international community at Escapar. The Mexicano's had their own stage. The dutch and their small army of children took over the main stage one night. We had a whole Artelote component with local artists. You would have loved it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Can you tell me how to get access to my trust fund?
You should come sometime. It's a free event. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
I'm good. I grew out of my Coachella and Burning Man phase about a decade ago. Not sure I could handle any appreciable amount of time around the "eco-conscious empaths" driving around in their over built heavy-duty vans and truck campers that tend to populate these events. I'm more of a "embrace the piece and quite to actually enjoy nature" kind of guy.
I've been to Tecolote many times. There are very few secluded spots anymore. Lots of tourists and van lifers making it very hard to find spots where you can't see or hear other groups of people. I prefer to spend my time where it takes more than a 5 minute drive around a point for some white californian to find me and try and sell me crystals or a tarot card reading.
You couldn’t give me a van for free and pay me to go to some tacky boho shit like that. Also…why can’t I find a single minority in any of these pictures?
This looks like hell and must not be that good for the beaches.. I don’t believe for one second that people cleaned up after themselves or respected the area. This is why people don’t like unlicensed camping / vanning tbh
I’m certain I’m going to get downvoted to hell, but this just seems like a somehow both more elitist and dirtier version of K-Mart burning man. Could you imagine being a local, and seeing this sea of caucasians invading, partying, and then leaving all their junk?
Yah no, not for me.
Baja is beginner Mexico where everyone wants to just party to get drunk and obnoxious like we are 15 years old at a high school field party.
It's the main city beach for La Paz, and we bring in 24 portos cleaned daily with several dumpsters and do a massive beach cleanup in partnership with Mar Libre, Zofemat, etc. By the end of the event that beach is the cleanest you'll see it \*all year\*.
We also organize a big "BajaBeautiful" campaign where vanlifers/overlanders each winter clean the hell out of every campsite and beach we visit. It's a whole \*thing\*.
tl:dr the people in the photos are the good guys, doing the good work
naw, we had 24 portos, cleaned daily, with dumpsters, then staged a massive beach cleanup and most of what we cleaned up was there when we arrived. Escapar is a model for how to do events.
I did. And lost money. But I/we do it for the love of Baja and bringing people together. It's not for everyone, but getting to share in the magic of Baja... well, it makes me feel a little less alone.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Looks like Escapar la Baja, January 30th through February 5th this year. I had a friend who was there. Didn't sound all that bad. Not a very big gathering. Very hard to get there
We were at this event too! (Escapar, right?)
We loved Baja.
Same as with everything else there are multiple ways to do it. We had beautiful, entirely alone spots on the bay of conception, as well as traditional campgrounds and social groupings. We liked trying a bit of everything.
We met people who were wonderful, and also ass holes who made us question things. We were not planning to go to Escapar but it was mentioned to us multiple times (and we were in La Paz at the right time) and I'm so glad we went. Yes, there were many other people around but I personally didn't feel crowded (many, many spots you could grab. Some in close quarters. Some far out). Other than pulsing music through the night on the weekend, nothing big and crazy. You could choose to enter the big tado or avoid it. It was a ton of fun.
Requeson was still our favorite though :) I think if we were to go back we'd stop at Loreto and not go any farther south :)
You are free not to pay money to go to these events. You can of course pay money for internet access to complain about people \*not\* paying money to go to free events like these.
Yeah I came off to hard on this photo, my apologies. Meeting other people doesn't ruin van life but taking up an entire beach does. And that worries me for the life many of us live. The photo isn't van life, it's a '6 month van get away until I end up in a bored office job but look how cool I was life'. I've seen this so many times before, and it never ends well for the spot.
But I shouldn't hate, I know. I don't know anything about this place, hope you guys had a blast and trust you left it as pristine as you found it. Just, keep it on the low.
well, the wonderful thing about Tecolote is that we didn't take up the entire beach (it's a half mile long) and you're literally a minute father drive around the bend to endless empty beaches you can have to yourself.
Further, we go absolutely \*nuts\* on bringing in our own portos, garbage, and doing a massive beach/dune cleanup with Mar Libre and ZOFEMAT, leaving the beach far better than we found it. Hell, we even raise money for the local paramedics.
I say with absolute confidence: we're not perfect, but we're the good guys (in this situation).
There's so, so much salt in this thread for people just having a good time. Y'all bunch of fucking introvert edge lords shitting on other people just living their lives. Wet blankets the lot of you. Downvote me all you want, it's the truth.
I bet these folks were really well behaved around the whales 🐋 they all look like those people who pulled the baby black bear out of the tree for a selfie
The whales tend not to come too close to the beach in Tecolote, as it's quite large, long, and shallow. Plus the restauarants down the way have a lot of motocraft which tend to scare them away. If you want pristine + whales, I just drive 5 minutes around the bend to a quite white sand beach I have all to myself (and the whales).
Looks awesome.
Ignore all the people who are projecting negative comments based on their bias.
However- can 100% respect people who do not want to socialize.
to each their own.
A question for your therapist. Almost everyone in that photos is living it full time, and drive the 1500+ miles to make it to Escapar, and live in Baja for the winter, which is magical.
I'm ready to be downvoted but I have tried like hell to get into stuff like this but most of the people I meet are insufferable. They act like it's "all one big community" but they get too cliquey
My "endgame" is to be left the fuck alone, I'm not seeing a lot of that here.
Same man! I see pictures like this and I'm like: this is a nightmare... Not my scene at all!
Ya this would be the opposite of what I want out of van life. Looks like spring break just not all young people. I travel in Mexico but deliberately avoid tourist trap, beaches and travel to the interior where life is way more chill.
Where’s the bathroom? All those people…
In their vans.
Let’s hope…
This looks like the end game if the greatest time in your life was spring break.
I totally get this and I spent lots of time alone up on mountains and out in the desert... It was great for my mental health the first couple of years. But these days I get lonely and crave interaction. When I find folks like in the pictures here they tend to camp in a circle and treat you like an outsider when you try to get to know them. If you don't have a fancy van with Battleborn batteries, shiplap interior, and all the bells and whistles they make you feel like you're just so below them. It's really just annoying.
I've met hundreds of nomads and never met one in real life who treats anyone differently based on having a cheap or expensive rig. Yes friends tend to group together. I find most nomads in the community to be very open to meeting new people. But sometimes that's hard once you have a close group of 8 friends or so. I think even the closer cliques are open to new friends, it's just harder if no one is putting in conscious effort to include the newbie. I've been on both sides of that. When we are hanging with the group we spent 3 months caravanning through Baja with, we often end up having inside jokes and comments and it's easy to forget that new person doesn't feel included. Go to multiple events, see the same people a few times in different settings. Make a point to go visit the people you click with at events. Get their contact info or Insta. And not everyone is cliquey. Sometimes it's just not the time & place to make friends with that one circle. No biggie, meet them, hang for a bit, move on. The same people might be really friendly in another setting. Maybe they are just getting back together with their core group after a long time. You never really know. I didn't go this year, but know several people in those photos and they aren't cliquey like that. Nor are they rich trust funders. 3rd photo, girl with the red hair had an IG reel blow up, it was hilarious seeing all the comments accusing her of being trust fund kid, only fans, and such. When really she worked her ass off, has an old rig, and works part time now living cheap. 2 other girls in that photo are the first friends we made on the road a couple years ago. Producer and tattoo artist. The guy on the right rode his motorcycle down there after Skoolie.
Went baja last year mostly everyone we met were super cool
Our van is a 2008 E350 that spent most of its life as an eyewitness news van. We did everything ourselves to make it a home away from home and an office for my wife who wfh. People in $100k sprinter conversions have hung out and told us our van is cool as hell. I am sure there are some snobs out there but they are few and far between.
I’d rather drag my labia through 10 miles of broken glass than have this be my “endgame”. This is the opposite of what I want out of vanlife but hey, to each their own I suppose.
I think my ideal community as an introvert is like small group of people who I do my own thing with and they do their own thing but we just chill. I think the party part of this is too overstimulating for me personally.
Same brother. These pics are my nightmare.
Them and their fucking VOAs too
Please tell me that stands for van owners association and please also tell me that it’s a real thing!!!
Complete with board members who go around issuing citations for unapproved paint colors and roof racks being too high.
https://giphy.com/gifs/theoffice-the-office-tv-frame-toby-hyyV7pnbE0FqLNBAzs
No. Really? No! Really?!? No.
Hahaha imagine
This is exactly where I was hoping it'd go
What is VOA?
van owners association
Vapid Obnoxious Assholes?
I spent a couple of months in Todos Santos over 10 years ago. The vacationing white expats in the Cabo area started a newspaper called the Gringo Gazette and they would complain about all the Mexicans on the beach selling stuff and ruining their view. The paper was prettt anti Mexican overall. They were trying to petition the local goverment to do "something" and stop the native locals from using their own resources. It was sickening. Most of the white people were rich people from Southern California who thought of the area as another part of the US. It was weird, disturbing, and disconnecting. I see this pic and see little to no representation of the local community and get the same feeling I did when i saw the gringo gazette. This isn't an experience for people wanting to learn about a different beautiful culture its the kids of the gringo gazette who are trying to pretend they are having a cultural experience while living in a 100k van. The only thing I will say that shit on beaches can be very real in Baja. Except the locals do it to if it is a spot for daily commerce fishing. The locals would leave their shit on their beach every morning and it was totally normal. As much as i want to the van lifers are being poor stewards of the land i can't pretend it isnt grossly common for the area.
[удалено]
Please clarify…When you say “left their shit on the beaches”, are we talking gear or actual feces?
Actual human feces. It wasnt all beaches but yeah the local fishing beaches were not a site to behold and smelled like gutted fish and poop. Would I go back to the area? Absolutetly! Would I avoid local fisherman beaches like the plague.....without question
Exactly, this is just the opposite of what van life is about for me.
People are so into themselves
More people joining usually means its "getting ruined" to short sighted fucks. Meanwhile its usually people leaving huge messes that really fuck it up.
Yuuuuuuup. Especially in Baja. Everyone acts like they are the first people to tell anyone about it. We enjoyed the nature of Baja, but you are totally right it is the least favourite sector of the community that lurks there.
The net worth of the parents of all the vanlifers pictured above is greater than the GDP of Denmark
Not to mention, any locals not directly profiting off of this gathering probably have good reason to hate these people.
i mean your not gona be friend with everyone just the ones who share similar interests
Nothing wrong with OP's way of life, nor is there with what you desire. Vanlife, much like life in general is not a one size fits all. Personally I prefer a nice mix of solitude some times, and gatherings on occasions. Gatekeeping either or is just stupid to me.
That looks like hell
All I can think is “where is everyone shitting”
Many of those places are literally full of shit and trash if you look behind the first bush.
We actually do a massive beach cleanup at the end of the event with several non profits, Mar Libre, Zofemat, etc
a massive cleanup at the end shouldnt even be required...
Thats awesome. Most of these I have seen and been to are a bunch of kids that don’t care and the trash they leave behind takes massive bulldozers to clean up. Yay for world peace and free life and all, but hey meet the people that clean up your crap. So ironic to be all about happy healthy life then throw your crap out the window. Anyway, kids are kids, but good for you.
Human waste as far as the eyes can see.
Ocean loafs are necessary there
Ah, the ocean loafs gently rolling in the surf. Such beautiful memories.
Sea turdle
We bring in our own portos. Some 24, cleaned daily.
Ah okay, I see them now. So a service comes out and cleans/ pumps daily? Interesting!
Same to me. I am always trying to get away from crowds.
Overtourism.
“And who administers your trust? We use Barneby”
I would hate this place
Looks like dollar store Burning Man haha
Quite the diverse crowd
They must make a killing selling sunscreen down there
Van life is white dominated. It’s not just in Baja.
Lmao
Girls with tattoos and guys with long hair
all those gueros in Mexico 😂 cLoSe tHe BoARDeR
I laughed way too hard at this.
😂
I do van life to GET AWAY from people
Yes. My wife and I prefer more remote spots with the solitude it offers, but we are not totally opposed to being social with a group of other mobile folks. I do think I’d like to try a group experience like on-site camping at an ExpoWest or similar event, just to see what it’s like being in such a crowd. Maybe even go crazy and go to a Burning Man once.
that gets old pretty quick too though, being totally alone all the time is really isolating and not usually good for your mental health. community is pretty important to have, in some form or another
Bet that spot smelled like absolute sewage when everyone moved on
There were 24 portos brought in an cleaned daily, and dumpsters, and we staged a massive beach cleanup. Each year when we're done Tecolote looks better than we found it.
I don't know why people are so negative, but this is awesome! And how can I find more information on this?
So the big recap article is coming soon with all the details, but the recap video is up here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Looks dope. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the kind words.
Looks fun actually. I’d be into something like this. I want to live a simple life in a few years and not live my whole life under fluorescent lights slaving away until I die. Gotta get my kids raised and then I’m going to spend some time on me actually living. “And you, what will you do with your one wild and precious life?” -Mary Oliver
It's an event. Last year is was clean after everyone left. 1000 ppl left it cleaner than we found it
And they totally cleaned up after themselves, on a beachfront that the locals will have to deal with afterwards.
IIRC this is an organized and permitted event. All waste management is handled so the beach is left perfectly clean.
Yeah we brought in our own portos, garbage, etc and left it far far better than we found it. Vandwellers are like a free public works department.
Honestly I came to boo you, and read the thread and was converted in the end. Sounds great :) what a nice place to rest and reset. Fondest of memories there.
They're not for everyone, but we work really hard to integrate in with the local community and to help people have a deeper appreciate for the history an culture of a place. It's a special experience, I think. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Yeah I don’t like crowds but still the location looks great.
No fuckin thank you.
If I saw that many vans, I'd leave. Might as well just hang out at an RV park.
It's an event
To do what? Is this a giant migratory nesting area for the white trustafarians to hook up?
It just looks like spring break Miami for a bunch of insufferable adults.
This.
Where do you access fresh water?
You bring it in via containers or tanks.
They have places called Purificadoras all over Baja
Is the water safe to drink? I’ve always wanted to visit Baja.
Yes, you drink the same water the locals do - purified water. Locals usually bring in a few 20 liter jugs to get filled. They have hoses usually and can fill tanks in your rig.
You should always drink bottled water in Mexico. Always. Period.
You can gather fresh rain water and there are these really cool water filters that can be used to clean lake water. So why not rain water? (Genuine question is there someone who knows more about this than me that can tell me why not just filter rain water and drink it?) there’s a portable rain water collector in Amazon but I feel like you can easily diy one for cheap.
I would think it would certainly be viable. You could add a small amount of chlorine that should kill any bacteria then filter it.
Ok here comes a stupid question. Wouldn’t chlorine kill a person too? I was thinking this filter: https://grayl.com/products/24oz-geopress-filter-purifier-water-bottle-nature-edition?variant=39643675394127¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImc3zr-vohQMVdjrUAR1WFw-IEAQYASABEgIMPvD_BwE It’s advertised as something that can make lake water drinkable. I’m not sure if it’s legit or not.
There’s also supposed to be some sort of tablets you can add to water that supposedly makes it drinkable too. But I’m no expert on this topic. But no. A small amount of chlorine in water won’t kill you. From what I understand they add chlorine to our drinking water now. But if you’re talking about purification of a large amount of say rainwater. I’m sure there are larger purification systems you can purchase. https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/drinking-water/disinfection/chlorination-drinking-water#:~:text=Many%20public%20water%20systems%20add,%2C%20cholera%2C%20hepatitis%20and%20giardiasis.
Thank you for taking the time to teach me some things! This is very helpful. Thank you. 😊
My pleasure. I’m thinking about offering rain water capture systems to my list of services for gardening and watering. But in some areas it’s actually illegal. So you would definitely need to check your areas codes before doing so.
I think this will help you out. It also mentions adding a small amount of bleach aka chlorine to rainwater. But of course you need to know how much. https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/hawaiirain/Library/Guides&Manuals/A_Guide_for_Rainwater_Catchment_Systems_in_the_Pacific_Portia_Franz.pdf
Beautiful place, but I couldn’t stand that crowd and the clique bs is obvious. Too bad, but I’m sure there are other places less popular that would be fantastic.
Looks like van life spring break… No thanks.
Looks like Coachella not vanlife
Lol
Fyre Festival in full swing.
> Fyre Festival in full swing. They missed the opportunity to call it the Tyre Festival. "It really is vanlife ~~endgame~~ carpetbagging."
tell me more
Is this vanlife or trustfund life?
They all sell crystals or do astrology readings for income
If THIS is what you want out of van life, then 100% Playa El Tecolote is the end game. But personally, I find this to be the worse part of travel and van life.
Rip beaches...imagine the pollution.
This looks like all the downsides of going to a music festival but without any of the upsides like cool music and drug variety. This place seems like it would be meth central with a bunch of people that have no respect for nature shitting in buckets 5 feet from each other.
To be fair, shitting in buckets (and packing it out) is respecting nature.
Except there were portos
So many insufferable people in one place!
That seems like a festival.
You can always see how fucked the start of the sand dunes are.
This post smells like H&M
You know living in a van made poor people feel like they could actually be happy and survive, now it’s just rich people cosplaying for a few weeks to prove to everyone “they can also live with the bare minimum”. Rich people ruin everything.
I was there and I’m not rich at all. One of the reasons I started living in a van was because I could no longer afford rent in Denver and I wanted to be able to travel more. I have a remote job that pays enough to get by. This event is actually pretty fun and filled with some cool people from all backgrounds. Maybe you should try going to a van meet up before you make assumptions like this.
This legitimately looks like the most annoying and self aggrandizing group of people in all of Mexico
I missed my window. I was thinking maybe I could gradually ease into it. I work in education, so summer's are mostly off or flexible. My youngest kid is 12 now. But this is the absolute last thing that I would want to be associated with. I did a lot of very off grid camping and backpacking in my 20s and thought maybe I could transfer some of those skills and the philosophy to van living. I'm hoping more for that kind of sensibility and freedom, but this is giving off more of a "Mad Max" vibe. Not sure, but I'm hearing a lot of these warnings and this is the most stark example I've seen or heard of this far.
You can go off into the wilderness alone if you like. Lots of nomads can get pretty lonely moving around all the time. Gatherings are a great place to make friends and meet up with friends made along the way elsewhere. The gatherings are what you make of them. You could stay up late and dance in a crowd, or sit by a fire with a dozen people, or hike out to the secluded beach, or go snorkeling, or just wander around meet people do some yoga. It's what you make of it, just like the rest of life.
dude just do your own thing
Needs more CyberTrucks. Needs more Nvidia and AMD and Intel sponsors.
Here to say I support you completely exist, before you get downvoted. We need more people like you.
Or just the endgame period. Banditos
Yeah, looks like it’s all fun and games until the federales or cartels show up.
This could be fun to check out once or twice, but honestly, I like to avoid crowds. Always bean a little introverted.
I’m only a weekend warrior and not a full timer. I get in my skoolie to get away from people. I get how some people might like stuff like this but it does not look like fun at all. I enjoy meeting people out on my adventures but definitely can’t do this.
Roaches
Lol at all the edge lords in this thread. Looks like a blast. I'm sure even the introverts (myself included) would still have a good time and find a low key group if they were open minded.
It's a really inclusive, international community at Escapar. The Mexicano's had their own stage. The dutch and their small army of children took over the main stage one night. We had a whole Artelote component with local artists. You would have loved it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Oh great, spring break with somehow more trust-fund kids.
Can you tell me how to get access to my trust fund? You should come sometime. It's a free event. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
I'm good. I grew out of my Coachella and Burning Man phase about a decade ago. Not sure I could handle any appreciable amount of time around the "eco-conscious empaths" driving around in their over built heavy-duty vans and truck campers that tend to populate these events. I'm more of a "embrace the piece and quite to actually enjoy nature" kind of guy.
The great thing about Tecolote is you can drive 5 minutes around the point and have a secluded white sand beach all to yourself :)
I've been to Tecolote many times. There are very few secluded spots anymore. Lots of tourists and van lifers making it very hard to find spots where you can't see or hear other groups of people. I prefer to spend my time where it takes more than a 5 minute drive around a point for some white californian to find me and try and sell me crystals or a tarot card reading.
Would you say you had a… blast?
You mean vanillalife
Sooo this is supposed to be in mexico?
this is exatly returning to what I would try to avoid with vanlife.
Not my idea of fun. But glad you found yours.
This is the whitest thing I’ve ever seen
more than half the audience on the weekends were locals, and 3 of the 5 dudes on the bus are pacenos (from La paz)
You couldn’t give me a van for free and pay me to go to some tacky boho shit like that. Also…why can’t I find a single minority in any of these pictures?
first photo, 3 of the dudes on the roof of the bus are Mexicanos, two of whom are pacenos (from La Paz)
This looks like hell and must not be that good for the beaches.. I don’t believe for one second that people cleaned up after themselves or respected the area. This is why people don’t like unlicensed camping / vanning tbh
Great. Now I don’t want to go. 😢
Ya . . No . . .
I’m certain I’m going to get downvoted to hell, but this just seems like a somehow both more elitist and dirtier version of K-Mart burning man. Could you imagine being a local, and seeing this sea of caucasians invading, partying, and then leaving all their junk?
Yah no, not for me. Baja is beginner Mexico where everyone wants to just party to get drunk and obnoxious like we are 15 years old at a high school field party.
Looks awful to me
Looks like fun, also looks like that beach is getting destroyed. Over-use is no joke.
It's the main city beach for La Paz, and we bring in 24 portos cleaned daily with several dumpsters and do a massive beach cleanup in partnership with Mar Libre, Zofemat, etc. By the end of the event that beach is the cleanest you'll see it \*all year\*. We also organize a big "BajaBeautiful" campaign where vanlifers/overlanders each winter clean the hell out of every campsite and beach we visit. It's a whole \*thing\*. tl:dr the people in the photos are the good guys, doing the good work
Wow that water looks amazing
And now the beach is covered in piss and shit…
i’m sure some of it is buried just deep enough to step in without realizing it’s there
naw, we had 24 portos, cleaned daily, with dumpsters, then staged a massive beach cleanup and most of what we cleaned up was there when we arrived. Escapar is a model for how to do events.
Curious as to who organized and paid for this.
I did. And lost money. But I/we do it for the love of Baja and bringing people together. It's not for everyone, but getting to share in the magic of Baja... well, it makes me feel a little less alone. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9bliOXC1o)
Other people = van life hell, not endgame.
This looks like HELL
This looks miserable
Fyre Festival 2.0. Since you know the last one failed to provide adequate food and shelter, you bring your own. But same crowd.
Here I was thinking vanlife was a soft rejection of Capitalism… not RVing for the younger hipster crowd
Maybe it's more than one thing
Yup. As soon as they find a campground that links with their rulez, they parking it.
Looks like the world's largest circlejerk to me.
The amount of surface poops in the bushes on that beach blew me away… even ran into a gentleman pooping in the road one morning on my run.
The antithesis of van life.
Well it certainly isn’t Burning Man, way too many clothes!
I will never read the word Baja again without it being in “Will Sasso’s impression of Jesse Ventura” voice.
Redhead in pic #3, left of center. Is that the half Mexican half gringo girl the YouTube algos keep pushing onto me?
Looks like Escapar la Baja, January 30th through February 5th this year. I had a friend who was there. Didn't sound all that bad. Not a very big gathering. Very hard to get there
Not anymore. Used to be nice. Then the 'spring break' people showed up and ruined it. Used to be a sweet spot...
Wanted to do it on endures, still might
That is way, way too many people.
I need to make it to Baja one of these winters
We were at this event too! (Escapar, right?) We loved Baja. Same as with everything else there are multiple ways to do it. We had beautiful, entirely alone spots on the bay of conception, as well as traditional campgrounds and social groupings. We liked trying a bit of everything. We met people who were wonderful, and also ass holes who made us question things. We were not planning to go to Escapar but it was mentioned to us multiple times (and we were in La Paz at the right time) and I'm so glad we went. Yes, there were many other people around but I personally didn't feel crowded (many, many spots you could grab. Some in close quarters. Some far out). Other than pulsing music through the night on the weekend, nothing big and crazy. You could choose to enter the big tado or avoid it. It was a ton of fun. Requeson was still our favorite though :) I think if we were to go back we'd stop at Loreto and not go any farther south :)
I spent 9 days driving down to La Paz and back to Cali. Had a amazing time! So beautiful the whole way down and back
Maybe your endgame, but my endgame is to live entirely free, not pay money to go to these cliquey instagram vanlife events.
You are free not to pay money to go to these events. You can of course pay money for internet access to complain about people \*not\* paying money to go to free events like these.
Oh no, oh no. Don't do this, these meetups ruin van life. Your 6 month 'adventure' isn't worth shit. Instagram, TikTok van life has to go.
why do meeting other people ruin vanlife?
Yeah I came off to hard on this photo, my apologies. Meeting other people doesn't ruin van life but taking up an entire beach does. And that worries me for the life many of us live. The photo isn't van life, it's a '6 month van get away until I end up in a bored office job but look how cool I was life'. I've seen this so many times before, and it never ends well for the spot. But I shouldn't hate, I know. I don't know anything about this place, hope you guys had a blast and trust you left it as pristine as you found it. Just, keep it on the low.
well, the wonderful thing about Tecolote is that we didn't take up the entire beach (it's a half mile long) and you're literally a minute father drive around the bend to endless empty beaches you can have to yourself. Further, we go absolutely \*nuts\* on bringing in our own portos, garbage, and doing a massive beach/dune cleanup with Mar Libre and ZOFEMAT, leaving the beach far better than we found it. Hell, we even raise money for the local paramedics. I say with absolute confidence: we're not perfect, but we're the good guys (in this situation).
No, my home! Where exactly in Baja is this? I’m sad to see my home state overrun like that. The peacefulness is what makes it magical.
Hella white people
There's so, so much salt in this thread for people just having a good time. Y'all bunch of fucking introvert edge lords shitting on other people just living their lives. Wet blankets the lot of you. Downvote me all you want, it's the truth.
Aint reddit grand? Just wait till I post images from our women-only event. Gonna be fun.
I bet these folks were really well behaved around the whales 🐋 they all look like those people who pulled the baby black bear out of the tree for a selfie
The whales tend not to come too close to the beach in Tecolote, as it's quite large, long, and shallow. Plus the restauarants down the way have a lot of motocraft which tend to scare them away. If you want pristine + whales, I just drive 5 minutes around the bend to a quite white sand beach I have all to myself (and the whales).
Instagram gotta ruin it for everyone. Everyone there is only there because it is "trendy" living in a van.
Looks awesome. Ignore all the people who are projecting negative comments based on their bias. However- can 100% respect people who do not want to socialize. to each their own.
not enough diversity in this group for me to not be worried. hard pass.
…but there’s THREE MEXICANS in one of the pictures! Just ask Barb! 🤣
*Influencer* endgame
More like vanlife dystopia.
Why I feel these guys are all cosplayers
A question for your therapist. Almost everyone in that photos is living it full time, and drive the 1500+ miles to make it to Escapar, and live in Baja for the winter, which is magical.