BajaNomad
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Escalera Nautica
I totally hosed both threads on Escalera Nautica trying to merge them. Sorry, still learning some nuances of the software.
I was able to copy down most of the content and will post it here, but I DON'T have the pic uploaded by grover.
Here goes:
Q87:
11-5-2002
Locals More Hostile Than Grateful About Mexico's Plans for Escalera Nautica
http://www.wildcoast.net/NewsDetails.asp?NewsId=60
http://www.wildcoast.net/NewsDetails.asp?NewsId=45
http://www.wildcoast.net/NewsDetails.asp?NewsId=63
grover:
11-6-2002
"...According to Dr. Serge Dedina, an expert on coastal development and the Director of WiLDCOAST, an international conservation team, ?the project is
also technically unsound and has little chance of success.?
?There is a demonstrated lack of planning here,? said Dedina. ?One, the heavy movement of sand in the area, will require the marina to be dredged
constantly. Similar dredging operations at southern California marinas cost millions of dollars annually. In Santa Rosalillita, is not clear who will
pay for this down the road. Two, the project is also located in a heavy surf zone, subject to constant fog. And finally, no one has shown that there
is a market for a large marina..."
We used to get some incredible surf at this point in the 70s...At negative low tide you could drive on the beach and ferry surfers back to the top of
the point. It is a mile and a half from there to the fish camp. One time we were getting good quality rides two-thirds of the way to the fish camp;
about a mile. Way too far to paddle, so we took turns driving the "taxi".
The sand has moved since, and the few times I've been there lately it hasn't looked right for surfing. Most people now go to Punta Rosarito(The Wall)
or up to Alejandro's and points further north.
Point being this area gets a lot of winter swell, and sand movement. If you really want a good laugh at developer's hubris and customer gullibility,
take a look at La Salina "marina" between La Fonda and Bajamar golf resort, north of Ensenada. This stretch of beach gets absolutely monstrous levels
of surf in the winter, and they tried to put in two puny jetties and dredge a channel to allow a small harbor to operate here. It had to have been a
scam, because it's hard for me to believe that anybody that would operate a marine facility could be so ignorant about the forces of the ocean.
A particularly alarming aspect of this project for surfers is that the easiest way to build a harbor is to follow the "Dana Point" model. Find a point
of land(which is usually ideal for surfing), put a large jetty out from the tip of the point, and presto! Marina. I've read there are plans for
Canoas, Abreojos, San Juanico...all excellent surf breaks.
What puzzles me about this whole project is where they plan on obtaining the huge quantities of fresh water that tourist facilities require.
Desalinization is expensive. The fossil water used for farming in Vizcaino is non-replenishable. Baja is a dry place.
This will be the limiting factor. Sure, a few land speculators and developers will be clever enough to profit from the run-up in land values, but not
many locals will gain long-term employment. As the fishery declines further, what other industry can the displaced fishermen turn to?
And how many boaters will actually use the facilities? Most I've spoken with aren't particularly fond of going through the whole "port captain'
rigamarole, and it's hard to believe some of the proponents' projections. Time will tell.
Q87:
12-8-2002
by Susan Ferriss
Cox Mexico Correspondent
Sunday, December 8, 2002
San Jose del Cabo, Mexico --- When he was still a child, Valentin Cesena began pulling air into his lungs and diving for oysters in Mexico's Sea of
Cortez.
Since then he's made a living from the sea, reeling in fish to sell and guiding American tourists to waters rich with marlin.
But Cesena wonders whether there will be room in the future for his kind in San Jose del Cabo, the town at the tip of Mexico's Baja California
Peninsula, where he and his parents grew up.
Change hovers over the stretch of beach known as La Playita, where Cesena's fishing cooperative keeps its small fleet of motor boats, courtesy of a
government concession.
Private developers hope to turn the beach into a yacht marina, with links to new luxury hotels and a golf course, aimed at U.S. pleasure seekers.
"We've been battling to make sure our cooperative will have a place in this marina. We built our business with great sacrifice over a long time,"
Cesena, 54, said as he cleaned his catch.
The marina could be a link in a grand plan called the Nautical Route that Mexico's tourism agency is promoting.
The agency, FONATUR, for National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism, envisions at least 27 marinas strung along 4,162 miles of sparsely populated
Pacific coast and the two coasts of the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California.
The plan requires raising as much as $1.4 billion in private investment to expand 13 existing marinas and add 14 others. The goal is to lure to
Mexico's coasts more of the estimated 1.5 million pleasure boats in the American Southwest.
Officials say only about 8,000 U.S. boats currently ply the waters of the Sea of Cortez, which is about 700 miles long and 100 miles wide.
But some Mexican fishermen are wary of the promise of new tourism jobs and the economic boost officials say will come with the marinas.
Environmentalists are worried, too, that marinas will be placed in delicate, federally protected areas.
Alejandro Rodriguez, the FONATUR official in charge of raising investment for the marinas, insists this is "the first development in Mexico of a
sustainable character."
Marinas are planned in five protected areas. Hotels would be small in the more sensitive regions, with no more than 50 rooms, Rodriguez said.
"The people who will travel this route are environmentalists," he said. "They want something private and small."
Mexico's government has earmarked $210 million for infrastructure but wants to offer the marinas as privately run franchises. Rodriguez acknowledged
the recession has slowed investor interest but said the project is "going forward, definitely."
One proposed marina site that worries environmentalists is Bahia de los Angeles, near a string of islands in the northern part of the Sea of Cortez.
This area and other parts of the sea are critical habitat for endangered animals, including turtles and whale sharks.
"There is a way to do sustainable marinas. You don't do them where sea turtles and whale sharks have their feeding grounds," said Serge Dedina,
director of Wildcoast, a U.S.-based conservation group working with Mexican environmentalists. Dedina is worried that marinas will serve as "hooks for
surrounding development."
Longer than Italy, Baja California is one of Mexico's least tamed regions. Some areas, including gray whale breeding habitat, have little or no fresh
water. The peninsula's mostly desert terrain has made development of paved roads and hotels virtually impossible.
One of the main features of the Nautical Route is a highway at a narrow point 410 miles down the 1,000-mile peninsula, between Santa Rosalillita on
the Pacific and Coronado on the Gulf. The 70-mile land bridge would allow tourists to haul boats between the two ports, Rodriguez said.
Road construction began but was halted when environmental officials discovered environmental impact reports had not been completed.
The violation didn't inspire confidence that rules would be followed in the future, said Maria de las Angeles Carvajal of Conversation International
in Guaymas, Mexico, which is negotiating with FONATUR.
"We're talking about marinas in lots of places without the capacity to really enforce the law," she said. "The other danger is the selling of
franchises. How do you monitor what they are doing?"
Bajabus:
12-8-2002
The whole idea is absolutly ludicrous, between dredging and fresh water issues we will be left with the same horrifying scars FONATUR has gouged into
baja at places like Nopolo. This thing has Scam written all over it.
reefrocket:
12-8-2002
Bus I think that should have been SCAM in giant bold text.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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BajaNomad
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Havoc and Hope in Baja
http://www.surfermag.com/features/oneworld/havoc/
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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BajaNomad
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http://www.boating-industry.com/news.asp?mode=4&N_ID=36658
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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Bajabus
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it sure would be nice to see that video reffrenced in the article. If anyone hears when it will be possible to see, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your updates on this Doug!
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
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reefrocket
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I don't know if it pertains to the E.N. but it probably does. Have learned that the old abandoned Puerto Escondido(sp) [the entire project including
the bay] was sold to a private investor in 2001. I personally saw the recent survey markers in Feb. of 2002. I think things are still underway but
in undercurrents that aren't seen so as to negate protest untill it's to late. What a tragic shame.
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BajaNomad
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Nautical Ecocide Threatens the World's Aquarium (article)
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/1556969.php
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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BajaNomad
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Hey... rumor over at Surfer Mag is that it might be "Escalera NOT-ica."
Seems like they may not proceed as planned.... but it's just unofficial noise, and in Mex that can mean anything.
"Serge Dedina, of Wild Coast, an international conservation group, received verbal confirmation of this change in plans from a big time Mexican
government official during a nationally aired Mexican radio program."
http://www.surfermag.com/news/paloozesclra/
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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reefrocket
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GOOD NEWS guess they just had to finally THINK about it
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Braulio
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This sinister "industrialization of remote areas Baja" theory is a new one to me. I don't see how it can happen without access to water.
Desalination might be able to support high end tourism but I don't see a whole lot of industry happening.
I've never felt that I really knew enough about all dynamics (environmental, social, financial) of this Escalera Nautica thing to have an opinion one
way or the other . But I think some of the negatives expressed in these articles such as "foreign speculators" , tourism, and having communities of
poor created to serve the wealthy would be welcomed in areas of Sinaloa were I was working last fall. In most of the towns of Northern Sinaloa the
popution is at best stagnant, in fact in some towns it's decreasing even in the midst of high birth rates because the people are having to leave to
find work. They go to places like Cabo or Tijuana or the US. The alternative is to stay and pick tomatos.
Let's not forget that Mexico really needs more of those evil "foreign speculators" - aka investors - but hopefully regulated in such a way that
everybody wins a little. After all the industrial revolution in the US was financed by foreign capital.
Braulio
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reefrocket
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These are examples of "the foreign speculators".
Taken for amigos board
"Muertos is now called bahia de los suenos and is a private housing development. No more camping or beach access allowed."
"When you refer to Muertos, is this the area called Ensenada de los Muertos that you say is now turned into Bahia de los Suenos? No beach access? I
remember the last time we were at that spot was in 1996 and we would watch the pangas come in after a good day's fishing. It was so peaceful and wide
open then."
"yessir, that once wonderful beach where the pangas landed is no longer Bahia de los Muertos, it is now Bahia de los Suenos. Thanks to Gary of
the Giggling Marlin fame. They have taken perhaps the best wintertime launch and camping area in the world and are in the process of
screwing it up with a restaraunt, hotel, golf course, housing development, and who knows what else. We were probably the last people to actually camp
there except for some of the locals from La Paz. And we think that the caretaker probably had something to do with making sure that my boat got stolen
so that we would hasten our departure. And to add insult to injury, Las Arenas has been bought out by some wealthy investors from
California and they are working round the clock to upgrade their digs. Supposedly another golf course, and an exclusive area for use by a very select
clientele. Probably not any smelly fisherman."
Yes sir this is an opportunity for those natives - maybe they will get to be maids, greens keepers, sewer cleaners, ect.. A real
step up from being a fisherman, working for themselves.
Welcome to the NEW CALIFORNIA where you have to driv for 50 miles to find a place to launch a boat and then can only park for one day.
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Braulio
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reefrocket -
Thanks man.
Your right - there's some pretty bone-headed speculation that goes on in Baja. For example just east of Mexicali Sempra has built a gas fired
electric plant a couple miles south of the border. The gas is piped in from the US hundreds of miles away and at least for now all of the electricity
produced will go back to the US so the surfer dudes can heat their homes - the only reason the plant was built in Mexico was to circumvent US
environmental laws. People from Mexico get their electricity from a geothermal plant (Cerro Prieto) just south of town.
On the other hand you have companies like Honeywell among about a hundred others that employ people and give them medical plans and free access to
education - no it ain't a life of luxury but unless you understand a little about where these people come from you're not going to get it. A middle
manager with no college degree but maybe some university classes makes 1,500 dlls at Honeywell and that's a 5 day work week no overtime. And yeah -
someone starting out with a grade school education is making about a buck an hour.
I hear people talking about "natives' when they talk about Baja - actually most of the people who work in the menial, low paying tourist type jobs
come over from the mainland - they come because things are worse in their own home towns.
There aren't easy solutions to Mexico's economic situation - or it's struggle to balance environmental issues with all the rest. But I guess one of
the things that gripes me is people who come fto Baja from areas in the US where they've already sacrificed the environment to better themselves
economically and they want to tell Mexicans to continue to live in an underveloped state so that the americans can enjoy a beer on a pristine beach.
Mexico desperately needs investment - if people want to call it speculation - fine. It just needs to be carefully regulated.
IMHO
Thanks for the snipets from amigo's reefrocket - take care.
Braulio
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