[music] Jorge Meraz: Folks, today we visit one of the most breathtaking spots in Baja, California: Gonzaga Bay.

It's a truly hidden gem and we're diving in right now.

[music] Jorge: South of San Felipe we discovered Bahia Gonzaga, a place where the road less traveled leads to pure beauty.

It's located 80 kilometers south of Puertecitos along the inner coast of the Baja Peninsula.

It's actually within the county of Ensenada, even though we are many hours away from the city.

Let me explain what's here: We have the Papa Fernandez settlement, which is a fishing village with a boat launch, the campground, and the restaurant.

Then there's a few other campgrounds along the coast such as Rancho Grande, Beluga, El Sacrificio, and Punto Final.

There's also a convenience store and gas station here.

And finally, Alfonsina's Hotel and Restaurant, right here.

Let's see that from another perspective.

Papa Fernandez settlement, Alfonsina's Hotel and Restaurant, Rancho Grande campground, and in the distance are the Beluga, Sacrificio, and Punto Final campgrounds.

Today we are visiting Alfonsina's.

Jorge: How are you today?

How are you doing, my friend?

Jorge: The place is Alfonsina's?

Joaquin Cardenas: Yes, Alfonsina's, the hotel.

Jorge: There's also a restaurant called Alfonsina's.

Joaquin: Yes.

Jorge: Oh, look at that view right there.

Do you charge extra for that view?

No?

Joaquin: No, that's free.

Jorge: Oh my goodness, look at that.

So Joaquin, tell me, like, what's the story behind this place?

How did you end up here managing Alfonsina's, you know, Restaurant and Hotel?

Joaquin: Well, that happened this December 30 years ago.

Jorge: Thirty years ago?

Joaquin: In December.

Jorge: You're a young guy.

You've been here for 30 years.

Joaquin: I started when I have 17.

Jorge: You're kidding.

Joaquin: Yes, this business used to own--my mom owned it.

Jorge: Your mom, okay.

Joaquin: And now I run the place.

Jorge: So, did your mom start owning it as--when you were 17 or did-- Joaquin: No, from '61, 1961.

Jorge: So when you were 17, you guys turned this into a hotel?

Joaquin: I start to work here and I tried to continue my mom vision.

She don't do a lot of things and she cannot do it.

Obviously, everything different.

Before are a lot of tourists, but Americans, and are very difficult to come in here.

No roads.

The road only-- Jorge: Road was horrendous.

Joaquin: Actually a dirt road, up road, you know, and-- Jorge: I came here probably 2003, '04, and it was in an off-road buggy Baja beetle, you know, so it was on the, I was on the side of the road because the road was full of craters so you couldn't go on the paved road.

It was on the--I was on the side and it took us so long to get here and now the road's beautiful.

Jorge: Folks, it used to be so hard to get here, but even though it was extremely uncomfortable, people would still make the journey because the payoff was so beautiful.

Interesting fact, on the side of this hotel, that parallel dirt road that runs the stretch of the peninsula, used to be a landing strip for planes, so a lot of people would literally fly small planes out here to stay the night.

Joaquin has transformed this place, enhancing every detail to ensure guests enjoy every moment amidst this natural splendor.

We're here to confirm it for ourselves.

Jorge: Okay, folks, so you know, you've been here before, so you're gonna try this with me.

So the grilled octopus here, it's seasoned with Morita pepper.

And the Japanese ponzu sauce, they call it, because it's combined with lime and soy sauce and this is like a yam, a kamote paste, along with charbroiled vegetables.

Everything they do here is organic because it's just the way it is.

You're in the middle of nowhere and they get their produce from the land here, so we're gonna-- we're gonna try this with the yam paste that they make.

We're gonna add some of these sprouts right here just so that--just so that it's included, and, ah-- This octopus, I'm not joking, folks, is one of the best grilled octopuses I've ever had.

You know, in a lot of places sometimes, you know, it looks nice.

It looks--because somebody puts a grilled octopus in front of you, it just looks amazing, right?

The viewer is like, whoa, but it's not everywhere where it tastes, you know, like a ten.

This is a ten.

I'm just telling you.

This octopus is a ten.

He's mentioned that he's got a chef that he's very proud of and he's really thankful to have him.

You could consider it, you know, I know I consider it like an overzealous, common, over-enthusiastic, but just based on this octopus, I think there's truth to his words because this is one of the best-tasting octopuses I've ever had, hm.

Jorge: Okay, this right here is a beautifully ornamented shrimp ceviche.

Look at that right there, folks.

Check it out.

This is a red shrimp ceviche with morita oils, moritas and morita pepper.

It's funny because the way it's compressed, I would have never thought it'd be-- it'd be shrimp.

This is very good.

It could have been mostly, in many cases, mostly boasting.

But this guy, I think he's got good people next to him because both of these dishes have been really good.

Jorge: So far so good.

I started to wonder what kind of visitors come here.

Joaquin: Well, now we have 50/50: 50 national and 50 international.

Jorge: It used to be 90-plus% American.

Now it's 50/50?

Joaquin: Exactly, a lot of people come in now.

Jorge: Right, right, right.

Joaquin: A lot of people.

Jorge: There used to be also an airstrip right back in the day.

No more.

Joaquin: No more.

Why?

Because the neighbor have a new airstrip, and I don't see reason to have another one or some--is a danger, because now are a lot of people.

Jorge: Got you.

Now that you have more people.

Before it was super-isolated, so an airstrip made sense, right?

But now with so much traffic, it's a danger.

Joaquin: For the business.

Jorge: For the business, okay.

I mean you can't beat the spot, my goodness, Joaquin.

Joaquin: It's nice.

I love it.

Jorge: What do you tell people?

Joaquin: I have all my life here and I still love it.

Every morning, every morning, every sunset.

Jorge: Did you love it from the first time you came because like, as I said-- Joaquin: Actually, I born in Mexico City, but I live here, you know, in the vacations, coming in the vacation.

Jorge: You would come to Baja on vacation all the time.

Joaquin: Yes.

Jorge: And you always loved it?

Joaquin: Always.

I still love it.

Jorge: So, at 17, normally a kid wants to be in the city with their friends.

When they brought you here at 17-- Joaquin: Well, everybody say I'm crazy because when I'm young, 15, 17, 20 years, I work here, start to work here, and everybody say, "Hey, the fisherman, the--" things like that, you know, "he's crazy, you know, he don't like the city," whatever, but now I continue my mom vision and I believe she glad what we're doing here.

Jorge: For sure.

She passed, your mom?

Joaquin: Yes.

Jorge: When did she pass?

Joaquin: Thirteen, fourteen years ago.

Fourteen years ago.

Jorge: I don't know, folks, what do you think?

Did Joaquin make the right choice?

I think he did.

It's truly an astonishing place that nourishes the soul.

In an effort to please his mom and continue her legacy, I think he ended up doing himself a favor, reaching from the beginning what people everywhere wished to have the latter part of their lives look like.

As you can see, there are no grocery stores around here, so everything has to be trucked in.

But Joaquin runs a tight ship, and he has this process down pat.

Yeah, he's got it locked down, and I'm experiencing that in full.

Jorge: These fish tacos you see from Chef Carlos have a bit of a story behind them.

Jorge: These are his famous shrimp tacos.

He says that these shrimp tacos actually made him famous, apparently some sort of media coverage he got where they were highly praised, but it's time for us to check out, you know, how they are, right?

They call them the house shrimp tacos and apparently it's the batter, the seasoning, that the batter has for the shrimp is made out of garlic and parsley.

Now you add other stuff you want, so I'm gonna add some of this, some of this cream which looks really good.

Oh my goodness, I don't think I've ever tasted shrimp tacos with a garlic batter like that, you know, it's a classic dish.

The shrimp batter taco, the, you know, Ensenada-style taco, but the batter has its own taste.

Now, now I wanna get the shrimp out and taste it, you know, sans the tortilla.

I wanna--I wanna taste this batter more.

Oh my goodness, this is so good.

Let's look at this more carefully.

You can see the batter has, you know, condiments there, seasoning, so it's not a simple, simple batter.

He's got his recipe and that's what you want.

Each family, when they make this type of tacos, they have their own family recipe.

He told me that these are heavy in garlic and you can taste it and it makes a difference, wow.

Mm, Joaquin is very proud of his chef, went out of his way to mention him, to praise him.

And I think it's well deserved.

You know, sometimes when I-- when a dish is underwhelming, I'll tell you.

Like, guys, this dish just didn't work for me.

Now you may like it.

But it didn't work for me.

Or I just--we'll just cut it, won't even show it to you if it's something that was-- but so far, everything's been delicious.

You don't know where we're at.

We're in the boonies.

My expectations were not for something this good.

I didn't even think there was gonna be a hotel, coming over here.

I was here over 20 years ago and we stayed in a small fishing cabin.

It was an ordeal to get here.

I was expecting something like a house kitchen, somebody cooking for us out of a cooler and come to find--come to find this.

This is a find, this is a find.

You may wanna--you may wanna log this place in your calendar because this is a find.

Okay, this right here is their Caprese sea bass.

It's a white sea bass with a caprese salsa, lemon, olive oil, and the albahaca vegetable sauce, beautifully decorated, all flowers and fruits that are organic from the region.

Okay, we want some of that seared top goodness.

We've got some flowerage, some cherry tomato, some white sea bass, and let's try it.

Oh my God.

Folks, I hope you've learned to trust me.

I don't give my praise, you know, lightly.

It is so good.

My God, this is--are we experiencing this right now?

A place where every single dish has been delicious?

Come for yourself.

Tell me if I lie.

I feel like somebody dismantling a bomb.

At any moment, a hot potato, you know, it's gonna go off because, come on, there's gotta be a dish that's kind of average.

There's gotta be a dish that's not great.

Because so far I haven't found it.

I mean it just hit me.

How is it possible to be having this luxurious meal way out in the middle of nowhere?

Jorge: You mentioned that Alfonsina's is self-sustaining.

There's a lot of things that people don't see that you've put into this where it's incredibly self-sustaining.

There's no water here.

There's no electricity here.

There's no--what else isn't there?

Joaquin: Nothing, no public service, nothing, nothing.

So we have the own well for water, 16 kilometers from here.

We need to go with the water truck, just go back and forth.

Jorge: So you're organic without trying to be, because you have to be.

Joaquin: I have to be, exactly.

We have to be and actually now we have a very good solar system.

All the rooms have AC 24 hours per day.

Before, no AC.

Now, we have it.

We have solar system.

Everything, we do it with solar system.

You have a big system.

Well, we have over 200 solar panels and more or less 70 lithium batteries, Tesla batteries.

Jorge: Tesla lithium batteries?

Joaquin: We have 6 inverters, 12,000 each one, watts.

Jorge: Well, you're committed to your client, your patrons', comfort, right?

You want 'em to be happy.

Joaquin: Exactly.

Jorge: You also mentioned that you recycle all the grease from your kitchen.

Joaquin: Oh yes, yes, because we cannot kill.

Jorge: Right, you'd kill there.

Joaquin: Everything.

Jorge: You'd be polluting here.

Joaquin: Exactly, exactly.

You can see the water.

Jorge: Pristine.

Look at it, it's transparent, right?

I see crabs running around.

Joaquin: Everything.

We take care of a lot of the natural.

Jorge: Your environment here.

Joaquin: Exactly.

Jorge: Okay, what is your vision now?

offer people?

What do you say to people, you know, other than the obvious?

You know, you look at this and it's like breathtaking.

What do you want to convey to people?

Joaquin: My own opinion, this is unique.

It's something different.

I love Baja.

I believe all Baja is nice, but this is different.

You need to like this.

Jorge: You've got an enclave here, right?

And you've got a unique experience and it's secluded enough, right?

Joaquin: Away from it.

Jorge: Well, you've certainly-- you certainly went all out, Joaquin.

You went all out.

You committed yourself to your mom's vision.

You added your own touch to it.

And you seem by what you tell me and what I've seen, committed to creating a good experience, an unforgettable experience, for your clients, a good job, my friend.

Good job, my friend, good job.

Joaquin: Thank you.

Jorge: Hey there folks, "Crossing South."

Jorge: I can see why people want to live here.

They tell me that all these houses along this strip of land are owned privately.

The view changes so many times throughout the day that you see multiple live paintings as the Earth's rotation gives us different angles of the sun.

What a backdrop.

Everything is enhanced here.

I'm still enjoying the cuisine in this amazing setting.

Okay, so this now is their seafood pomodoro.

If you guys know Italian, you know that pomodoro means tomato, so your tomato sauce, pasta, infused with saffron.

You see some pea sprouts there, baby clams, octopus.

It reminds me of the pasta di mare, you know, I remember when I was in Rome.

Let's add some mussel, some octopus there on the spoonful.

See if we can add some baby clam.

Just so we get a little bit of all the seafood that they have here.

Let's add that to that.

Oh man, what a great taste.

What a great taste.

Jorge: Imagine that I've only had 10s and that pasta di mare, 9, 8.5.

Just--it's really good, but the other part, the other dishes have been such 10s that, okay, it's the only one.

Nobody's perfect, so, amazingly good, amazingly good, and I can say that.

It was really good, better than a high percentage of pastas that I've had, but I think right now the bar is at pretty high.

So let's finish now here with this yellowfin tuna sashimi.

You got your soy sauce, you got your roasted sesame seeds.

You've got some sort of like sriracha, I guess, or Tabasco maybe sauce.

Let's see if we can add a little bit of this soy sauce.

Mm, they're meant to be together.

If the sashimi alone is like a 9, with like the soy sauce that they have here, it just elevates it to 10.

There's something special when you're eating sashimi, yellowfin tuna sashimi, with an island backdrop like that...right?

Joaquin's got a good thing going in here because look at this view behind me.

This was a delightful meal.

I don't know if I can beat this.

This ranks up there, folks.

This ranks up there and one of the experiences to log and to come back to.

I'm so happy we came.

It's "Crossing South," don't go anywhere.

I'm at peace with the universe right now.

More coming your way.

Jorge: What a wonderful way to finish our day.

Don't get me wrong, the roads are wonderful, but still, it's quite a distance to reach this place.

I'm a bit tired.

I'm ready to relax.

So having this delicious food in this amazing environment, it just puts me at ease.

It brings my motor's revolutions down to a slow cruising level.

So as the day winds to a close, nothing beats enjoying delicious food in such a serene environment.

And of course, after the stars finish their show, we have a sunrise over the Sea of Cortez with the eastern sun rising above the bay.

It paints our shoreline in preparation for a second day of activity.

Jorge: On a beautiful Gonzaga Bay morning we're about to go out and tour the bay on boat and we'll see what life throws at us this lovely morning.

It's "Crossing South," folks.

Don't go anywhere.

It's about to get real.

Jorge: We thought we'd already peaked in regards to experiences, but this day would prove to be memorable and unforgettable.

Joaquin subcontracts this boat service for his guests, which takes them to explore the bay.

We find calm waters, multiple coves, and small private beaches.

The water temperature was perfect and so was the sea breeze.

What a perfect day.

Jorge: Joaquin, do you offer this type of tour to your guests?

Is it available or is it something that we're just doing together right now?

Joaquin: [speaking Spanish] Jorge: This is not just for us.

People can rent this if they stay at Alfonsina's.

Joaquin: When you make your reservation, you ask for a ride or-- Jorge: Okay, got you, right.

And how many people fit in a boat like this?

Joaquin: Can be three.

No more than three if they're fishing.

Jorge: If they're fishing, no more than three?

If it's like this, like a-- Joaquin: Six, eight people at a time.

Jorge: Got you, right, right, right, right.

So if it's just a tour and a sightsee, it's about 6 to 8 people.

Joaquin: Right.

Jorge: Folks, just take a look at this.

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm not--I'm not a water person.

I'm afraid of the ocean.

I don't even like being on boats, but this, this was sheer pleasure.

Look at how silky smooth the water is in this protected bay.

I didn't feel afraid for a single moment.

I enjoyed it immensely.

In fact, I was looking forward to it.

So much so that I got a little cocky, okay?

Jorge: Onward towards victory.

Yeah, that's how I felt, no joke.

This completely validates the cliche about enjoying the journey as much as the destination.

Although the destination was also worthy payoff.

This little private beach is amazing, swimming with a school of fish that doesn't fear man.

They can see how clumsy we are at swimming.

These fish, like, I reached out to touch them, and they're not swimming away.

I mean they're just like, dear, stop bothering us.

Oh man, they're all around here.

Ah, there's these little tiger fish, little small ones that look like mackerels.

I don't know what they are.

But it's such a little peaceful private beach.

I mean, look at that behind this, that's like super-small.

And it's for one party, and it's available.

Like if you--if you rent out a tour to come out on a boat for a day, this is literally one of the stops you can have.

Bring your music, bring your barbecue, bring your friends, bring a cooler, bring some food, and then just snorkel, have the kids snorkel here.

Jorge: A true hidden gem if there ever was one.

This spot and its experience would not have been possible or complete if we had not taken this little day trip to snorkel with those fish, and they're not in the middle of the ocean, folks.

That school of fish is literally 5 to 10 feet from the beach, so even an amateur can just walk into the water and be surrounded by this amazing marine life.

Jorge: We hope you're enjoying the show, folks.

There's more to come.

Don't go anywhere.

More "Crossing South" coming your way.

I'm gonna continue swimming with the fish, not the old mobster way, swimming with the fish, but actually swimming pleasantly with the fish.

Jorge: If this old land-dweller can enjoy this experience and feel at home in this environment, you know it's a plug-and-play situation for just about anyone.

I got so comfortable here that it emboldened me to end the day with a little excitement.

Yeah, jet-ski is a lot of fun when you're riding them.

Jorge: I feel like Aquaman with the power to travel across water at incredible speeds.

Eat your heart out, Jason Momoa.

But in reality, folks, I mostly took it easy and avoided any stunts that could end up with me flipping into the water.

Jorge: It's a perfect ending to this incredible adventure in Bahia Gonzaga.

This place is a testament to Joaquin's dedication.

It's a perfect retreat for anyone seeking to unwind in nature's embrace.

We are so happy we got to enjoy all the activities that Joaquin, Alfonsina's, and Gonzaga Bay had to offer us.

We leave this place marveling at the mere idea of what we may get to experience the next time we get to "Cross South."

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