Baja Tesla adventure!

[IdaX]

I wanted to start a thread describing the trip down Baja California that I’m doing this winter break. I had seen the destination chargers deployed down the peninsula, and wanted to try them out! We are driving a 2017 ModelX P100D with a basket attached to our trailer hitch for extra space. With me, my wife, and our 4 kids, space is at a premium.

Our first night, we crossed the border in Tijuana and headed south to the supercharger in Ensenada.

The Ensenada charger is a upgraded v2, still quite new. I was able to pull 140kW no problem.

To maximize range for the second day, we stayed the night at Estero Beach hotel at the south end of Ensenada. The hotel is secluded off the beaten path. It’s more expensive than the hotels in town, but it’s nice and it felt perfectly safe for us and the car.

Okay the flaky internet here in Catavina precludes images, but I’ll add those once we get to cell coverage. More to come!

 

[jkoya]

Thanks for posting about your Baja road trip - can't wait to see the pics !!!

 

[IdaX]

Ensenada Supercharger is in a nice, gated hotel parking lot. An easy jaunt from the border, and makes for a great place to top up before heading further afield.

 

[IdaX]

Stayed over the first night at the Estero Beach Hotel, which had a Destination Charger.

On Day 2, we headed south to Hotel Mision Santa Maria. But.... first we took a detour to try to climb San Pedro Martir. The total distance would be right at the edge of our range, but we figured we would turn around once the margin got uncomfortably low. We got about halfway up, to 5500ft, before I chickened out.

Uncharacteristically cloudy in Baja so far!

We totally could have gone a bit further, as we pulled into the hotel with 16% on the battery. Luxury! With bad cell signal and sparse populations down here, though, I didn’t want to push it and run out. Was exciting on the mountain as we had more battery after driving down than we did at the top, which made for an interesting projection in the nav.

Shockingly, we got rated range this day. Had A/C and heat off, just the fan to exchange air. And the going was so slow that even with the basket behind us evidently the drag wasn’t too bad. The up-and-down conserved energy okay too with regen.

 

[IdaX]

The chargers at Hotel Mision Santa Maria are our in front of the checkin area, next to the security booth. The guards and porters were very friendly and interested in the car, so I had a chance to do The Tesla Conversation in Spanish. Definitely a higher degree of difficulty!

Good power from this charger, at 13kW. Another nice hotel, right on the beach, with clean comfortable rooms and friendly staff.

 

[jkoya]

Looks like you are having a fun family road trip - Thanks for the pics !!!

 

[IdaX]

Day 3 was super-rainy on the way in to Cataviña. I love the smell of rain in the desert! We climbed and hung out in the crazy Cataviña boulder field. The foliage here is out-of-this-world — really, the cirio plants look like something from the Star Trek art department.

Beautiful 1000-year-old rock art just outside Cataviña.

The charger in Cataviña is off to the left of the lobby of the hotel.

 

[jkoya]

The foliage here is out-of-this-world — really, the cirio plants look like something from the Star Trek art department.

It does look like something out of a sci-fi movie. Thanks for the updated pics !

 

[IdaX]

Heading south from Cataviña, we stoped next for lunch at the Hotel TerreSal. I somehow didn’t get a shot of the car charging here, but if you stay right to follow the one-way flow when you get in then the chargers are last thing on your right, 330 degrees around the circle. 2 chargers, both seemed quite fast and reliable. We didn’t stay here, but the hotel is new and attractive — looks like a great place to overnight. Guerrero Negro is more of a working town than a tourist trap, but there are the salt works, coastal dunes, and whales to see.

Continuing on, we stayed this night at the Hotel la Huerta in San Ignacio a few more hours down the way. The hotel is beautifully situated a book off the main square but still has plenty of space, and a restaurant and store on the premises to boot. Very nice town, and the hotel was good if not great. The folks working there were very friendly.

The charger however... this one gave me trouble. First I managed to knock out power to the thing by pulling 64A, but even after we got that restored it could eventually only support 2.6kW long-term (!). Yikes. So... don’t stop here to top off on a drive, and don’t count on filling up all the way overnight. Hopefully this is something fixable, but I can’t tell for sure where the problem is...

Chargers are located off to the left of the building as you approach — should be low probability of ICEing over here.

 

[jkoya]

Nice to see they have two HPWCs there !!

 

[IdaX]

Nice to see they have two HPWCs there !!

Tesla has done a good job throughout — 2 HPWCs at every location. Some protection, at least, against malfunction, ICEing, or crowding (ha! Not likely crowding any time soon).

 

[IdaX]

Easy going on to Mulege the following day. We’re staying here for the week. Mulege is a small oasis on the desert coast, filled with palm trees and on a short river. It’s also near the beautiful Bahia Concepcion.

The charger here is at the Hotel Cuesta Real. The hotel here is pretty bare-bones. But it’s sufficiently cheap that you’re at least getting what you pay for. Two chargers located on the right as you approach the main hotel building.

I wasn’t getting full amperage, but it charges quite steadily at 32A (7kW) without complaint.

It was rainy, cool, windy, and kind of not so great weather the day we arrived. Unusual for here! But it cleared up to Sun afterward.

 

[jkoya]

Thanks for the update ! Out of curiosity, how many Teslas have you seen during your trip and have you seen any charging at the hotels you have stayed at ?

 

[IdaX]

Supposedly we might be only the 2nd Tesla to have made it this far South from Los Estado Unidos. PlugShare user Isaiah in a Model 3 was a few days ahead of us,l; he made it all the way to Cabo!

Other than that, this is virgin territory for Teslas.

 

[IdaX]

Some pics from activities around Mulege:

ModelX parked on Playa la Requeson.

Sea kayaking in Bahia Concepcion.

Waterfall west of Loreto, reached by hiking through a canyon.

South coast of Bahia Concepcion

 

[jkoya]

The water looks so clear at the waterfall !!

 

[IdaX]

Water in Bahia Concepcion is super clear too

Shot of the car on Playa Escondida:

 

[jkoya]

Great pics !!! I like how your red Tesla stands out against the earth tones of the landscape.

 

[WarrenInCA]

IdaX; I'm enjoying reading about your Baja adventure.
At some point please consider sharing tips for novice explorers interested in taking their Tesla's into Mexico.

 

[IdaX]

On the way home we took a bit of a detour — from Guerrero Negro up the East coast of Baja on Mexico route 5 to San Felipe. This road is brand new, and the good parts were the best roads we drove on during our whole time in Mexico. 3 miles still unpaved, which wasn’t bad, and then there were about 6 bridges that were out from a hurricane last year, with dirt detours around.

While a bit exciting, the 5 seemed perfectly passable in a Model 3, in case someone wants to try it.

Total distance from Guerrero Negro to San Felipe is like 242 miles, which significantly challenges our 289 rated range with 7% degradation for our 2017 Model X. So we drove reeeeaaaallly sllloooooowwwly so as not to get stranded.

Driving 38mph with no heat or a/c in 65oF weather — ended up overkill! Arrived with 22% left. Well over rated range; we could have theoretically gone 320miles at that rate.