Rancho `La Bufadora'

Mexico / Baja California / Maneadero /
Rancho La Bufadora is a private ranch sharing the bay with La Bufodora. It’s also the last outpost on Baja’s Gold Coast, which stretches from the border to Ensenada. Everywhere else is full of Americanized hotels charging Americanized prices. Here there are a few houses and trailers to rent that you can ferret out, but there’s no hotel. Most visitors never get any further south than the outdoor deck of one of the many restaurants and taco stands.

Rancho `La Bufadora' is ocated 17 miles south of Ensenada, as you begin your descent into La Bufadora, look to the south. See all the little houses and trailers dotting the hillside around the bay? The Blow Hole is off to your right. The houses are all on private land owned by the León family of Ensenada. (An interesting mistake we gringos make is calling them the Toscano’s. The confusion comes because in Mexico both the father’s and mother’s names are used. The father’s name is in the middle, and is the correct last name, as in our patrón, renowned political satirist, José León Toscano—a.k.a “El Tigre.”)

Unless you know someone who has a casa in Rancho La Bufadora, or you don't mind camping in the dirt, you probably won’t experience the real La Bufadora first hand. You’ll just admire the beauty, snap a few pictures of `The Buf' finish your beer and climb back into your car or tour bus. But, if curiosity gets the better of you, and if you start feeling a little tingling in your soul—well, you may be well on your way to getting, as we say in La Bufadora “boofed.” That’s what happened to me many years ago. I was invited to stay with friends at a La Buf house over a long weekend. We all enjoyed the $1.40 breakfast on the patio of Los Gordos, and the sunsets on the patio back at la casa. It was beautiful, peaceful, festive, remote, relaxing and magical. We got together and ought the place the very next week. We were “boofed!”
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   31°43'22"N   116°42'45"W

Comments

  • January 17, 2017 I spent a year in Ensenada when I was 17 years old, a good 41 years ago. Don José León Toscano gave me a job at El Rancho La Bufadora; a bungalo to sleep in; and plenty of tools to learn how to work including kitchen utensils. His wife (Doña María?) taught me how to cook and how to kill chickens, but I failed her as a student, in the killing part... I didn't last long at La Bufadora, but for 3 intense months, I learned to handle wheelbarrows loaded, with 2-3 hundred pounds of rock; using dynamite to remove large portions of rock and dirt; drilling holes in the water well, and since I was the only worker who knew how to drive, I was responsible for driving a 1940 Chevy truck loaded with rocks that I had to empty by myself 2 miles down the road in what would become a pool-the truck seemed to have had survived a nuclear test. My memories take me back to the night I slept in a barn with huge rats. I wore a diver's suit to make it a bit more challenging for the rodents in case they were hungry; I got eaten alive by thousand bed bugs--a whole month worth of itching, scratching and bleeding; and going out to the beach collecting 'mejillones', a kind of mussel sea creature that tasted awful rubbery... I must go back someday and shoot pictures. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska now and I teach broadcasting at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the Unversity of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • We stayed in Rancho LaBufadora for the May Day weekend in 2004. We arrived at night and there wasn't a street light to be seen. Celia;s restaurant and Los Gordos had closed so it must have been after midnight. We found a few people huddled around a camp fire outside a casa and enquired as to where Milo's rental houses were. We were directed to the top of a very steep hill and there was our accommodation for the weekend. What seemed like an extended mobile home, it had 5 bedrooms and a bar-b-que. We settled in and in the morning we were eaten alive by mosquitoes but awestruck by the most beautiful bay in front of us and all the primitive and some not so primitive homes on the ranch. There was something magical about a place where every single building was different, some hand made, some made by a few novice builders and some mobile homes plonked on a square of land overlooking the blue sea. We walked to 'la buf' a rare blow hole at the end of a market selling everything any tourist could ever want! We marveled at the hand painted plates and the speed at which coconuts were stripped and opened. After spending an hour watching the blow hole and taking endless pictures of the surrounding sea and the amazing variety of homes on the ranch opposite, we fell in love...with this paradise. Yes, we had been 'boofed' and as soon as we returned to California, we made plans to purchase a double wide mobile home after securing a square of land opposite Milo's place up the hill and we returned for endless weekends watching our water pila being built and the septic tank being dug. We had electricity wired up to the casa and as luck would have it, there were workmen there one weekend laying pipes for what would eventually become tv and phone lines. We bought our home from the Camp Pendleton quarters being disposed of and shipped our beautiful 4 bedroom home to La Bufadora in two pieces! This was more fun than camping or even going to Disney! Our house arrived a few days later and every weekend we worked on it with a local handyman and furnished it with hand made Mexican furniture bought in Rosarita. The neighbours were a mixture of ex pats, some Europeans (living in IKEA DIY build houses) and Mexicans. What a wonderful bunch of people, all friendly, safe and always willing to lend a hand. We will always love Rancho La Bufadora and yes, although we sold our house eventually, we will return again. We left a piece of our hearts there and we know they will kept safe by the magic of the place.
This article was last modified 6 years ago