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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
Member Is Offline
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The future face of Baja
"It's growth is inevitable" say some. Although that phrase has been told umpteen times, just what do you envision in the next 20 years?
That seems a good number to put seeing as how the average Nomad age is 53. Most will live to see the changes in those years.
What kind of development do you perceive will transpire? Do you think all the bays that are close to Hwy 1 will all have considerable development.
Do you think the strtech along BOC will be a strip of valuable exclusive homes and businesses.
Maybe you feel the coastal reaches will not succumb to the contractor rather it stay pristine and forever protected by ejido desires? Possibly
restrained by the lack of services including utilities?
These questions surely are correctly targeted at a portion of the next potential permanent inhabitant sector...i.e. you.
Because you go or live, or will eventually live or vist more often in Baja, qualifies you as participant along with myself.
A participant in many respects. We will be joined by countless others , many seeking the same rewards and lifestyle changes.
Do you see another So. Cal. emblazoned with condos, golf courses and mini-malls vying for oceanfront lots?
My hope is that the changes reflect a personal appreciation and continuity for Mexicos' culture and land and that ones' reasons and purpose for
increasing habitation simpatico.
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comitan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4177
Registered: 3-27-2004
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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Do you see another So. Cal. emblazoned with condos, golf courses and mini-malls vying for oceanfront lots? YES!!!!!
My hope is that the changes reflect a personal appreciation and continuity for Mexicos' culture and land and that ones' reasons and purpose for
increasing habitation simpatico. NO!!!!! See item 1 One word MONEY!!!!
and that isn't going to change.
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6886
Registered: 10-4-2004
Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
Member Is Offline
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Yes I am afraid we are in for some serious changes. I have watched for over 5 years now, as some of my favorite things to do and places to see have
become either inaccessible or paved. Two extremes granted but the truth.
Either they move the road for a subdivision or they pave what was once a beautiful road so one can get to the subsdivision.
Of course I live in one of the fastest growing resort areas in the world...yes I said world.
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Diver
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4729
Registered: 11-15-2004
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Yep, buy now while you may still be able to afford it.
Enjoy it now before the crowds come.
Then you can sell and move to Costa Rica or Brazil with the money when it gets too crowded in Baja !
Anyone been to Jericocoara, Brazil ?
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Eli
Super Nomad
Posts: 1471
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: L.B. Baja Sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: Some times Observing, sometimes Oblivious.
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I hope to still be alive to see a truly Multi-cultural state of conciseness. For example in a town like Los Barriles, there will be a true intregation
of the two principal cultures that now dominate the scene in seperate modes of operation.
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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
Member Is Offline
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Wow Eli, that is using some grey matter properly. You have shown awesome vision. Thank you.
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Some western U.S. states remain lovely/lonely because they are still BLM. Just an accident of history/wars/acquisition. Same thing down here -- all
the beach stuff on the 3 shores (the peninsula and the mainland across the Sea of Cortez) is Old Presidential Grant, Ejido, private agrarian or
Federal. Sometimes the legal quagmire slows progress down but Corrett's corruption, Fonatur's political power churn galactically stupid schemes that
become their own money engines that grind til everything turns to rust --- then they just move a few miles down the beach and say "this looks better,
this looks good, dig right here". Hope it stay just the way it is.
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
Member Is Offline
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Canal Transpeninsular
The keystone of the project known as Escalera Nautica, the Nautical Ladder, was the marina at Santa Rosallilita and the new road from the marina to
Mexican Highway One. The plan, for this crucial first phase of the project, was to make the third rung of the ladder going south, a safe, modern
harbor from which U.S. and other boaters could transport their boats across land to an improved marina facility in the Sea of Cortez.
FONATUR, the Mexican project developers, believed the plan, when completed, would entice many U.S. west coast boat owners to venture south to resort
destinations like Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Mazatlan. It was their hope that some larger boats would be drawn to ports in the northern part of the Sea
of Cortez, such as San Carlos and Guymas and those on the mainland such as Acapulco and Puerta Vallarta. The developers were convinced they could put
in place the necessary supply, storage, docking and repair facilities to lure boaters who formerly found the voyage south from the Pacific west coast
impossible or extremely difficult because of the dangers of severe weather, lack of fueling facilities, safe harbors for anchoring in rough seas or
vessel breakdowns.
Counting from the ladder?s top step, at the border, the first two rungs, the ones the U.S. boaters would first encounter on the long run south,
Colonet and Punta Canoas, were planned to be no more than emergency fuel supply depots. While FONATUR was pouring millions of pesos into the marina
to the south, these two dots on the map showed little change. The developers had never experienced the boat trip south, did not know that about 80%
of the time, no vessel could safely fuel at these intermediate unprotected facilities because of sea current, tide or waves. The first leg of the
trip to Bahia Tortuga, the one and only safe harbor with fuel, was still devoid of services, aids to navigation, dedicated anchorage, was 400 miles
from San Diego -- boaters, sailors, yacht owners remained unconvinced the top part of the ladder was safe.
A few curious stateside mariners made the trip. They took advantage of the many empty slips in the Santa Rosallilita marina, savored the local
lobster served at the new dockside restaurants, even bought T shirts and souvenirs at the cute little shops on the bay. In FONATURE?S luxurious
office headquarters, five bigscreen TVs sang their siren song, tapes or discs displayed the boater?s paradise awaiting the weary travelers in Bahia de
Los Angeles only a 139 kilometer magic carpet ride to the east ? the ever calm and azure waters of the Sea of Cortez lay just over the next hill.
Recreation World was watching as the first few boats made the trip across land. On the third transport, disaster struck. A rollover totaled a
Mediterranean 38 ($300,000 hull damage) and a bad launch tore up the stern and keel of a pricey antique Norwegian sailboat. When news of ?No Hull
Coverage? hit the ?net, it signaled the end of the crossings.
The awful terrorist attacks in 2001 and 2005 made worldwide changes FONATURE could not have anticipated. Lloyd?s of London, the largest of 7
reinsurors for marine hull coverage, had been gutted by the disasters in New York, Washington and San Francisco. Since conventional hull coverage had
always been both difficult to come by and very expensive for coverage in Mexican waters, it was now, without Lloyd?s, and others to take on a
percentage of the risk involved in the haul, transport and launch of these pricey toys, totally out of the question. So, no insurance, no
Transpeninsula transport. The new and improved harbor facility with all the trimmings at Bahia de Los Angeles lay waiting for the boats that never
came.
Meetings. That is the usual way to solve problems, hold meeting. Meetings there were; in Mexico City, London, Los Angeles. A Mexican engineer by
the name of Octavio Ojeda came up with the idea of the canal. He had done some planning for this particular meeting and his portfolio was brimming
with charts and maps and tables. He presented a CD program of scratchy old black and white film recording the planning of the Panama Canal. Original
plans had been for a sea-level canal -- the plan for the lock type canal won out by a slim margin of votes -- Lake Gatun, one of the world?s largest
artificial bodies of fresh water, had a great deal to do with the decision. Ojeda explained that a canal, from the Pacific to the Sea of Cortez,
using the existing harbors, but a more direct route than the existing highway, would be 57 miles long, 23 miles shorter than the Panama Canal.
First hold meetings, then conduct studies. Ojeda was instructed to hire a consulting firm to look into the feasibility of such a project. Satellites
and computers made it possible to get quick and accurate answers to questions like ?How deep and how wide should the canal be??, ?How long would it
take?? and the big one ?How much will this cost?? The big hurdle, The Fault Line, was tied to all three questions. The sand could be moved by
machines, the granite base would have to be moved by the detonation of explosives. Almost 30 miles of the projected route was granite. The engineers
had risks managers who knew that powerful U.S. groups would press the Mexican government to recognize that a long series of massive explosions could
effect the stability of the Pacific tectonic plate at the mid-peninsula fault line ? a small jolt in the south might cause ripples that could trigger
quakes in Southern California.
The hurdle was not simply a single leap over one wooden bar. The cost of excavation was directly tied to the cost of machine excavation versus the
use of explosives. Now the canal project brought together hundreds of thousands of people, in California and elsewhere, to form a cohesive group with
a single mission: Stop the Canal Project. One would be hard pressed to find a project anywhere in the world, since the beginning of time, that so
galvanized people, that made a more solid bloc of powerful organizations with disparate, long-standing, well defined goals.
The Greenpeace group now embraced the Anti Pollution folks while the Earthquake Watch doomsday fanatics and the marine ?We Are Killing the World?s
Oceans? bunch were all huggin? and kissin?. Global Warming Watch was sure the cut would unbalance Pacific water temperatures and add to the
disastrous effects of El Ni?o while major sportfishing and commercial fishing groups warned of the potential for lose of whole species of important
sport/food fish caused by the cut.
Since the most powerful opposition came from the Fault/Quake group, it was finally agreed that an international group would install, calibrate and
monitor seismic measurement devices at appropriate intervals along the North American Plate fault line which runs near the center of the Baja
California peninsula to a point just above the project?s path. The group set the parameters for maximum limits of seismic magnitude for excavation
detonations.
Mexico and FONATUR got the go-ahead on October 30, engineers and contractors were instructed to make final preparations to begin the big dig. The
canal would be 56.4 miles long, 91 meters side to side, 30 meters in depth. The project was begun on November 20, Mexico?s Dia Nacional, the day the
nation celebrates the revolution of 1910 -- a civil war between the president and a rival. There were setbacks early on ? they tried to dig right
under the existing highway while they erected bridge supports under the existing roadway of Highway One, the lone artery south, from the U.S. border
to La Paz, near the tip of the peninsula. The roadway collapsed in the early morning of February 12th. Seven people were killed, all of them
Mexicans, who drove right off the edge ? in three separate vehicles, minutes apart. The bridge warning lights had been installed too close to the
structure, went over the edge in the collapse.
Crews worked day and night for the next 102 days to Skycrane into the gap a sturdy bridge structure upon which they hurriedly paved a new section of
concrete roadway to replace the awful, washboard detour that so plagued the weary travelers. The digging and dredging continued, grinding slowly to
the east toward Bahia de Los Angeles. The project crews drilling, blasting, excavating, dredging from the east were outperforming their counterparts
to the west. No delays here. Twenty three hard miles of canal were completed from the Bay of L.A. westward on the same day only 18.6 miles were
complete in the west.
The Canal Transpeninsular was going to be a reality. Because it was drawing worldwide news coverage, Mexico and FONATUR gave the project their full
support -- only $19M (of the original cost projection for the whole Escalera Nautica plan, $350M) had gone into installing and/or improving other
Ladder Steps. When the rest of the money, the $331M, had been expended on the canal project alone, President Echeverria had no trouble at all with
the congress; an additional $210M was made available to finish The Canal.
There were several grand openings. In the first, the real one, on June 2l, 2012, most of the guests and news crews had to come in by chopper. The
water began to fill the canal from both ends at a place in the desert far from the highway. The access roads were still clogged with huge trucks,
earth-movers, dredge support equipment. A grand celebration made bigger, better news when crowds gathered for fireworks, marching bands and confetti
parades at Bahia de Los Angeles Harbor and Santa Rosallilita Marinas a few days later. Several camera crews shot the historic voyage of the first
boat to travel the canal; one crew followed the craft, shot the crossing from the access road. The second crew filmed the crossing from the boat,
capturing forever the excitement and the sound of success; champagne bottles pop, popping.
Now the record keepers, and the Mexican Congress were holding their collective breaths for The Parade of Boats. By the first day of 2013, 121 boats
paid for the crossing from the Pacific side. On the last day of the same year, a total of 983 boats had paid to cross. During the same period, a
total of 221 boats had paid to go the other way, from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific.
Some smart-alec newspeople contacted FONATUR?S former CEO, John McCarthy, now retired to a villa in Antiqua, for an interview. When asked about the
original prediction that 61,000 boats would make the trip south by the year 2014 he had a ready answer.
?You must remember that number was the prediction when the whole Escalera Nautica plan was begun. No reliable predictions could be made about new
marine visitors after the plan changes brought about by the development of the Canal Transpeninsular. When I was there, the President told me to put
all available resources into the canal project.?
One intrepid reporter from Rueters asked. ?Have you ever used the canal, taken your boat through the canal you built??
The retiree chuckled and said ?No way. Esperanza is too big. She might bump on the bottom or the sides. Besides, she?s in Aruba for repairs right
now.?
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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
Member Is Offline
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Colorful imagination.
You get the prize today Osprey. You really do "feel" the parts you write about. I can see some serious investigative work here along with the
appropriate stereotyping! Good job!
Hey....... you never know!  
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Diver
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4729
Registered: 11-15-2004
Member Is Offline
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Eli,
Who are the principal cultures in Loreto ?
Californians; midwesterners; canudians ?
It'll be interesting to see how much Mexico is left in Baja Sur when they're done. At least we know that the poor areas will stay poor; and Mexican !
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pokey
Nomad
Posts: 199
Registered: 5-20-2005
Location: ensenada
Member Is Offline
Mood: sun burned
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The only setback to baja development that I can see is the lack of water. Much of baja is ejido controlled but that doesn't matter much because
President Fox has given ejidos the right to obtain clear titles to ejido land inorder to sell it.
Either way, I see baja only going down hill from here on out. There is so much coastal land available and so many North Americans who want a piece
of it that baja will eventually resemble California. With meaningless zoning laws and endless greed the controlling factors; overdevelopment is a
sure thing.
Keep Mexico weird
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6886
Registered: 10-4-2004
Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
Member Is Offline
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The only thing that I see to stop it is a serious world wide recession. And I dont think any of us really want that.
[Edited on 9-12-2005 by bajajudy]
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4709
Registered: 9-2-2003
Member Is Offline
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La Paz
Isee La Paz growing,but slowr than other areas nearby. This city has always had a different flavor, it in the Past being a Freeport.
There is no true way to keep the Bay completely clean, there is not enough Water unless the money arrives for Desalt Plants.
i see La Paz growing but slowy and more for the Rich than the Wantabe Rich.Like those folks that can afford a $200,000 Home up above the Marina Hotel.
I think that all of the beautifull Beachs to the North will Develop completely before La Paz.
Skeet
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4709
Registered: 9-2-2003
Member Is Offline
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For Loreto the only answer can be if and when they discover enough Water to support the number of People.
I was present before 1976 when there was a 7 year Drought, when the Ranchers Hired Planes to Dust the thunder Storms with silver Nitrate to bring the
Rains. then came Hurrcaine Lisa.
The next Drought will have a lot to do with Baja Sur and its future.
Skeet
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2frogs
Junior Nomad
Posts: 59
Registered: 7-27-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: curious
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You can forget Costa Rica...it's already been discovered. We lived there!
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64490
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Good one Osprey!
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
Member Is Offline
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["A few curious stateside mariners made the trip. They took advantage of the many empty slips in the Santa Rosallilita marina, savored the local
lobster served at the new dockside restaurants, even bought T shirts and souvenirs at the cute little shops on the bay. In FONATURE?S luxurious office
headquarters, five bigscreen TVs sang their siren song, tapes or discs displayed the boater?s paradise awaiting the weary travelers in Bahia de Los
Angeles only a 139 kilometer magic carpet ride to the east ? the ever calm and azure waters of the Sea of Cortez lay just over the next hill."]
Wow, I did not know this was in place now. I need to make a trip to see this.
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bajaden
Nomad
Posts: 496
Registered: 4-7-2005
Location: Ensenada
Member Is Offline
Mood: vicarious
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I don't know about La Paz growing slowly Skeets. When I was down there a few weeks ago, a realter told me the population had doubled in the last 10
years. I love the town too and hope it never changes. For as long as I have been coming down here I have heard about this project and that project.
Most fall on their face. Baja is strewn with the rements of great ideas by Fonatur. Im no expert on any of this. I only observe. As it is today, Baja
appealing to a small amount of people. Im talking about living here. The reality of living here is much different than living anywhere in the United
States. You have to check the experiation date on anything you buy. What you can buy, except for Cabo or any other large town is limited. Just try
finding an airconditioned resturante in Mulege on a hot day. There are none. I know all this can change. American money can change a lot of things. I
only hope my grandson can enjoy the baja I did.
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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COSTA RICA
Spend a month there in the late 80's Wasn't impressed. Gulf side hot, humid and poor black. Pacific side ,hot windy and not very pretty away from the
beaches. Their fabled 70 to 80 degree climate is all in the highlands around San Jose . Too far away from the ocean. Overall we decided on Baja for
retirement. Have never regretted it.
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2frogs
Junior Nomad
Posts: 59
Registered: 7-27-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: curious
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That's good to know that Baja won out over Costa Rica. Our farm was at 4,500 and had those wonderful temps. overlooking the ocean. But, isolated and
where you have to live to get the hospitals etc. you have to put up with too much and too expensive. Still thinking Baja!
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