The second phase of the new Viaducto in Tijuana is now open and can significantly reduce travel times from Playas de Tijuana toward the Airport and the Border.

Here’s how to use this new elevated route to stay above the city traffic and get a direct connection to the San Ysidro crossing.

I grew up listening. My dad and uncle filled the room with stories, images, and videos of Baja.

Tales of long nights, race miles, the Baja 1000 in ’91 and ’94. Stories about broken parts, long drives, surf trips, tacos, and the kind of chaos that somehow always works itself out.

In my early teens I saw Dust to Glory in theaters and that was it. What once was just a story from my dad, uncle and others became a driving force and something I needed to do.

In this faraway part of Baja, the saying goes: Bad roads bring good people.

Oscar Lopez, an aquaculturist who works at the oyster farm in Estero de Coyote, helped us with the boat. We clambered over the gunwales and stowed our fishing rods in the bow. I was fly fishing, while Melinda was using a light spinning rod.

As the boat plowed out and cut through the maze of mangrove islands, it was apparent that the birds alone were worth the journey.

There is a specific kind of silence in Baja. It’s not the absence of sound, but a heavy, geological patience. For anyone who has spent time on the peninsula, you know it isn’t just a destination—it’s a living, breathing character.

Author A. Muia knows this better than most. She spent nearly two decades on research trips along the Baja Peninsula developing her debut, A Desert Between Two Seas: A Novel in Stories, which recently won the prestigious Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. It is a work that doesn't just describe Baja; it lets the land speak for itself.