Baja over Christmas/New Years

johnl · Joined: 05 Jun 1994 Posts: 1330 Location: Hood River OR

With all the talk about where to sail this winter, it got me thinking about using my Christmas break time for something worth while.... Windsurfing!

Has anybody used Vela, Los Barrilos down in Baja? I've used Vela and I'm a satisfied customer, but I'm not familiar with Baja. Can you get around the airport without speaking Spanish? (working on it, but a long way to go). After having the airlines loose my luggage in Venzeula and having nobody speak English, I wan't looking forward to a repeat.

Also how is the site? And wind during that period?

Thanks for any info

LeeD · Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 1175

You're picking prime time, so you should hit it as good as it can possibly get, but remember, any vacation can be a crapshoot if you only go one week.
Pieter (Dutch) is the main guy at VelaBarriles, and ordered all new stuff this year again, so EQ should be top notch.
Should be as good a spot as any in the world that time of the year, so have a great trip and get great winds!

Bayside · Joined: 27 Sep 2002 Posts: 44

If you are using the Vela hotel the transfer from the airport is painless. Let them know flight arrival times and there is a car waiting and it is about a 1 hour ride to Los Barriles.

Wind seems a bit hit and miss if you only have a few days to stay - of the 3 trips I have made down there in January, 50% of the days have been good sailing. Great swell when it is good though.

mtnview · Joined: 02 Jul 2002 Posts: 53

everything you ever wanted to know about Baja conditions:

http://www.iwindsurf.com/travel.iws?genID=1

windwiner · Joined: 26 Jun 2002 Posts: 128 Location: Berkeley

I went to Los Barriles this past Jan/Feb through Vela and had a great trip. I went by myself last time and am taking my wife and 2 year old daughter with me this coming Dec/Jan. The Vela staff are great, the equipment is in great shape (brand new), and when the wind blows it is a ton of fun on the water. The swell can be world class when it blows for a few days in a row. They also have a bunch of other toys like SUP's and mountain bikes to play with if there is no wind. Like LeeD said at that time of year you'd be hard pressed to find a better location to sail.

allen · Joined: 13 Aug 1996 Posts: 237

I've been down to Los Barriles/La Ventana at the end of '05-'07.
The Xmas/New Years break was quite spectacular, and thus atypical, for windsurfing last yr. w/6 of 7 days in the 5.0-5.5 range for me (6', 200 lbs).
The 2 previous yrs ('05, '06) brought roughly 1 or 2 days of 6.0 sailing in a week (way more typical for the holiday week). Baja is a beautiful place and you have to go down there w/the attitude that you may or may not get a couple of days of good sailing in. Plan on surfing at Todos Santos and snorkeling/kayaking and other stuff like that or you'll be pretty disappointed................

Also, as far as foreign travel goes, Baja is about as exotic as LA or San Diego as most of the people that live and own businesses in the Los Cabos area are from the west coast. English is widely spoken and the locals are helpful and friendly.