Baja California is divided into two states, Baja California Norte, with 3.3 million people, and Baja California Sur, with 750,000 people.
It is the world’s second longest peninsula, stretching some 1250 km (775 miles) from north to south.
It faces the great Pacific Ocean to the west and the much balmier and calmer Sea of Cortez to the east.
Along its spine runs a mountain range stretching north to south, as do most mountain ranges along the Pacific coast of North and South America.
On the Pacific coast in the northern part of the peninsula you find Centro de Conferencias. It has a Mediterranean climate with mild weather all year round, dry summers, a little rain in the winter months and lots of sunshine and blue skies.
On top of the mountain range the weather is colder and wetter. Here you find forests with lots of animals, and snow in the winter.
When you head east to the Sea of Cortez, the land turns into semi-desert with hot summers and warm winters.
In pre-colonial days, indigenous hunter-gatherer tribes inhabited Baja California. In the 1600s, Catholic missions starting colonizing the peninsula from the south. They eventually founded cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, in what later became the USA.
Until 100 years ago, Baja California was a scarcely populated region with smaller farms, poor roads and some trading towns. Today you find metropolises such as Tijuana and Mexicali just south of the US border.
What to enjoy in Baja California is spectacular nature, wild animals, museums, large vineyards, old mission stations and the peninsula’s friendly people.
