Todos Santos: Mexican flavors
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/27/Travel/Todos_Santos__Mexic...
The sleepy town has become a laid-back destination for tourists and a retirement haven for Americans.
By PETER MEINKE
November 27, 2005
TODOS SANTOS, Mexico - The familiar music bounces from the restaurant's stereo, with the lyrics: "Welcome to the Hotel California. Such a lovely place
. . ."
T-shirts on two teenagers at a nearby table display the words, written by Don Henley of the Eagles while he was here in the late 1960s. Colorful
bottles of "Hotel California Tequila" line the bar - it's all big business on Benito Juarez Street here in Todos Santos.
Alas, not a word of this story is true, various locals assure us, but what can they do? Urban legends have lives of their own, and this sleepy town
goes along with it, shrugging its dusty shoulders.
In fact, now there are two Hotel Californias, facing off like handsome gunslingers. Except that these two foes are suing each other and serving
excellent food.
Todos Santos, in the Baja California Sur, was established as a Spanish mission in 1723; its name means All Saints. The town is finally being
discovered, both as a laid-back and colorful tourist destination and as a retirement haven for Americans.
After more than a century as an isolated farming and fishing community, the town opened to easy access with the world in 1986, with the completion of
a highway linking La Paz to Los Cabos. Todos Santos is more or less in the middle.
In the early 1990s, a group of U.S. artists and writers recognized it as a place where they could work pleasantly and live cheaply. This year, they
held the first of what they hope will be an annual "Poets in Paradise" conference. My wife, Jeanne, and I were their guests for a week.
The town's population is roughly 6,000, with the English-speaking portion up to about 10 percent and giving Todos Santos a bohemian feel.
More than a dozen small galleries and bookstores are sprinkled among colorful cafes and storefronts crowding its streets. Stores and galleries tend to
be wide open; there seems to be little crime, if any, in Todos Santos.
Wooden fences and jackrabbits
One of our favorite activities was stopping by each day to check the progress of artist Michael Cope, who opened his gallery in 1995. He was working
on a 10- by 5-foot canvas, and we marveled as a dark storm loomed on it behind billowing white clouds.
Days later, Cope pinned down the boiling sky with tall palm trees in the foreground. We applauded.
There are basically two paved roads intersected by curving dirt lanes. The town's single traffic light is often obeyed, and about as often, not
working. There's not much traffic - yet. What there is tends to be Jeeps and small SUVs, heading along the smaller roads that wind by vine-covered
stone walls, white gates and the beautiful, handmade fences called palo d'arco. Roughly, "arches of sticks."
Hummingbirds and bright yellow-and-black orioles flutter around lush bougainvillea and exotic cacti in town. Big-eared jackrabbits zip along the
paths.
There are plenty of good places to stay in Todos Santos. We spent four days at Annie's Place, a spacious and lovely B&B about a 15-minute walk to
the center of town and a five-minute stroll to the ocean.
Besides the tightly woven palo d'arco fencing, Annie's Place has the striking thatched roof, called palapa, typical of the area.
Then we moved to the Todos Santos Inn, to be downtown. The inn has a popular wine bar and a large terrazzo patio where guests can have coffee or sit
and read in cool quiet.
Both places are comfortable, authentic and reasonably priced. The beds came with mosquito netting, though we didn't see any mosquitoes. We also didn't
see any TVs or telephones in our rooms; we liked that.
Enjoying the outdoors
All the homes we visited were designed for outdoor living. To our surprise, even in June the mornings and evenings were cool, sweater weather, and the
afternoons warm but not humid. The weather, we were told, is wonderful all year long with the exception of July and August - the rainy (and presumably
mosquito) season.
Todos Santos is an oasis in a starkly beautiful desert, on the southern tip of the Baja peninsula. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean and
on the east by the severe, pyramid-shaped mountains of the Sierra de la Laguna.
The town offers lots of choices to the action-oriented visitor: serious fishing, surfing and diving. But the beaches are, in general, dangerous to
swim at because of the currents, so it's recommended you go to one of the two "safe" beaches, Playa San Pedro or Playa Los Cerritos.
The town is also a gateway for hiking in the mountains, 14 miles to the east. Guides can be hired to take you there, or tell you how to get there.
For the less ambitious, the cafes, restaurants, shops and galleries - along with the town's somewhat rundown but fascinating museum, the Centro
Cultural Siglo XXI - are entertaining enough.
The restaurants we visited were inexpensive and delicious. We drank bottled water and beer, but ate all vegetables and salads, and had no
gastrointestinal problems. There's a lot of good will in Todos Santos. The Mexicans we met were friendly; the word is that the gringos are welcome
because they bring jobs and prosperity.
But as increasing numbers of foreigners buy land in and around Todos Santos, problems can be foreseen. Already, their is concern about water
shortages, traffic problems and rising prices. But for now, the town works beautifully.
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