Ben Pundole’s Very Own Baja Dream

On a quiet stretch of El Pescadero, where desert mountains meet the Pacific and ancient cacti share the land with tropical fruit groves, Casa de Zorros rises like a modern desert mirage.

Under expansive 11-feet ceilings, the kitchen and indoor-outdoor living room and three beautifully oversized suites — one of them is actually a fully equipped one bedroom house —, the guesthouse distills the essence of Baja into polished concrete, handmade details, sunlit terraces and nights that stretch under star-heavy skies. It’s a place designed for both communion and retreat, where the beauty of Baja, as the locals call it, is lived to the fullest.

“Baja has this raw, expansive beauty that doesn’t need much embellishment,” says Ben Pundole, the creative mind behind Casa de Zorros. “We designed a home that celebrates that energy: playful, soulful, and rooted in its surroundings.”

Baja California Sur has long lured surfers, artists, and expats chasing a life shaped by the ocean. In the past five years, and accelerated by the pandemic, it has stepped into the spotlight. With direct flights in Los Cabos International (SJD) from U.S. hubs and even Madrid and London in summer, Baja is now an easily-reached remote place where design, culture, and hospitality are converging in striking new ways.

In Todos Santos and neighboring El Pescadero, hospitality and architecture have become part of an international conversation. Paradero, designed by Iranian-Mexican prodigy architect Yashar Yektajo, is an instantly recognizable marvel in raw concrete and desert tones. Even the ultra-luxury titans, like Aman and Four Seasons, are entering the conversation, staking out this wild coastline as the next frontier of high-end travel.

ABC Art Baja California, the brainchild of ZonaMaco, the most important art fair in Latin American, is an itinerant art fair that spans Todos Santos, El Pescadero, and San José del Cabo, has become a catalyst for the region’s cultural calendar. Its pop-up exhibitions, performances, and community-driven energy mirror the very spirit of Baja: experimental, collaborative, and a little untamed.

Pundole, a visionary in the global hotel scene, who currently holds the position of Chief Brand Officer for Delano hotels, dreamed up Casa de Zorros from a very personal experience with Pescadero. His deconstructed, multi-building home is shaped to feel both intimate and communal, driven by the subtle choreography of indoor-outdoor living. As he puts it: “We wanted Casa de Zorros to be somewhere you can slow down and feel like you belong, not just to the house, but to Baja itself.”

Casa de Zorros, that is carefully managed by local hospitality experts Casa Hygge, is available for rental on AirBnb or directly on their website: https://casadezorrosmx.com/