David K - 11-9-2003 at 07:53 PM
THE FOLLOWING WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE AMIGOS BOARD, 2002:
Please enjoy a look into the past as I relate my Baja travels from the time I was just a little kid to today (just a big kid). In my last short story
about going to Percebu by mistake, I said we were trying to find Agua de Chale. We were just a mile or so too far north when we turned off the old
Puertecitos road.
Our next trip was a success... We entered the sulfur mining valley (22 miles south of San Felipe) and kept an eye out for the trail over the low,
yellow rock covered hills. Eureka, there it was... and almost mile ahead was a second road that joined the first. Traveling east on a good desert road
(two deep ruts in the sand), it was almost five miles to the beach. Upon arrival, we saw several ocotillo structures or palapas (called 'cabanas'
then). Welcome shade to camp under on the edge of a big white sand beach... it was beautiful! The owner was a friendly man named Luis Castellanos
Moreno who lived in an ocotillo and plywood casita next to the sand dune.
There was an old concrete lined well, just inland from the beach. This we learned was the 'Agua de Chale' (which still appears on some maps). The well
dates back to the early 1900's when this beach was inhabited by a Chinese man named 'Charley'. I have a 1908 Baja map with 'Agua de Charley' on it.
Over time, the 'r' and 'y' were dropped and it became just Agua de Chale. Luis had homestead claim markers and he was quite anxious to make Americans
feel welcome.
In the mid 1960's there were few places to access the beach. Punta Diggs, Percebu, Agua de Chale, and Coloradito where the only places until just
before reaching Puertecitos, as the old road stayed inland the entire distance south of San Felipe. Besides placing signs at the sulfur mine, Luis
thought a more 'touristy' sounding name would be good... Mazatlan was well known, so this camp will be Nuevo (new) Mazatlan!
Over the next several years, we would come to 'Nuevo Mazatlan' numerous times. Since it was the only camp for many years, it was quite popular and
even crowded at Easter and Thanksgiving holidays. Lloyd Bridges (Sea Hunt) was there one year traveling in a dune buggy. We rented a travel trailer
and parked it in a cabana when we went.
The attraction was not just a beautiful beach, but fantastic surf fishing. White sea bass, croaker, corbina, corvina, and even a small (50#) totuava
were caught on that beach or a couple miles north at a large shallow bay we called 'The Lagoon'. Around 1970, that lagoon would be the site of the
next campo and renamed 'Bahia Santa Maria'.
Luis had begun planting cuttings off a large tamerisk (salt cedar) tree that grew in the arroyo, past the old well. He planted the trees in rows
making dozens of drive through camping spots. In fact, the trees grew so fast it was soon a vertual forest, it the middle of the desert! Hammocks were
fashioned from gill nets and strung between the trees.
After 1973, I had my driver's license and a Myers Manx dune buggy and started traveling to Baja without my parents. Nuevo Mazatlan was always a place
to go or stop at along the way to some other Baja adventure.
In 1974, survey teams had painted rocks white, in crosses for aerial recon. indicating the route for a future paved road south from San Felipe. Luis
was so excited, as the highway was to be only a half mile from his campo. The new road was not built until 1982 and not paved until later!
The new road brought more people, and more camps sprung up along the coast. The camps mostly catered to people wanting to build vacation homes on
leased lots. Nuevo Mazatlan had only the property where the arroyo reached the beach and not much on either side. One home was built on each side of
the arroyo, on top of the dunes. Nuevo Mazatlan was destined to remain a camping campo and not subdivided like all the other campos.
Luis had a serious drinking problem (tequila) and it was sad to discover he lost his land at some point in the early 1980's. I last saw Luis on the
streets of San Felipe in 1989. It was sad that he lost all he had worked for. I visited with him and gave him some assistance. Luis was kind of like
an uncle, he called my parents 'Brother Eduardo' and 'Sister Lynn'.
My daughter and I camped at Nuevo Mazatlan after watching the '02 San Felipe 250 race, just a few months ago. It is still a welcome desert oasis of
green, next to a big beautiful beach.
jeans - 11-9-2003 at 08:03 PM
I camped there last week. It was deserted. A campfire on an isolated stretch of beach and a steaming mug of double mocha cappuccino...life is
good.
HotSchott - 11-10-2003 at 07:10 AM
As always, you fill in the blanks between what I know and missing pieces of history.