BajaNomad

Baja ports

Osprey - 1-29-2007 at 08:25 AM

Wanted, rich people on airplanes

I spent all morning looking for tourist spending statistics for Mexico. I also took a nice walk on the beach – should have walked farther, passed on the search. The stats were all over the place. Shoulda figured. I used to be in the insurance business. Thank God I was never in the statistics part of it. I do know one “statistics joke.”

Two insurance actuaries go deer hunting together. From their moving truck they spot a nice buck in a snowy field, stop to try a long rifle shot. The first guy shoots and they see the bullet hit the snow 100 feet to the left. The other guy grabs the gun and says “you were way off, give me that thing.”

He shoots and the bullet hits 100 feet to the right. The first guy says “we got him!”

The real joke is that there are no realistic, credible figures for tourist spending in Mexico (or anywhere else) because revenue reporting is flawed or non-existent; averaging things like spending will get you in trouble fast.

Those of you who have vacationed in Mexico would be hard pressed to report to anyone how much you spent per day, per trip, etc. and those who took the money did not follow you as you checked out, left the area, to make sure they had a good total. It matters little your mode of transportation, your lodging costs or your length of stay. It also makes little sense, if you knew the exact daily expenditures, to try to average the daily expense rate of $15,000 dollars of some Saudi Sheik with the beer and cerveza chump change squeezed out by the guy who sleeps on the beach and eats almost nothing but triggerfish chowder.

Search engines peg the fly/drive pilgrim at $600 U.S. dollars to $700 U.S. dollars per day, cruise ship passengers (they say) spend between $50 and $70 each per day per port of call.

So, for the purposes of this little essay on The Sea of Cortez Project, Cruise Ships, Water Taxis, and Piers I use a more realistic and manageable paradigm:

A. A whole lot of money
B. Not so much
C. Hardly any






Baja California, for tourists traveling by water, is almost like road travel was before the paved highway. There are no real deep-water ports: Ensenada has limited dockage for cruise ships, La Paz has a very narrow, shallow harbor entrance and limited docking facilities, Cabo San Lucas has mooring only. So even though the peninsula is close to U.S. west coast harbors the big ships still struggle to put passengers ashore (less revenues from on board gambling while in port, huge moorage, pilot and water taxi fees for example).

At every port of call the cruise industry attempts to arrange, conduct or negotiate the existence of shore excursions. Some world ports have natural attractions that made them destinations in the first place; glaciers, rivers, falls, rain forests, antiquities, volcanoes to name a few. Ensenada has La Bufadora, a natural cliff-side blowhole, La Paz has the sea life and beauty of nearby islands, Loreto, I suppose, will have a whole new movie set mission village at San Javier. They are paving the road to the mission to accommodate the fleet of tour buses that will magically appear near the waterfront when the harbor is ready for the onslaught – deep dredged harbor for mooring, docking pier or deep water marina planned for what is now a special Marine Biosphere Reserve.

Shore excursions need to be close and quick, (less than five hours) attractive to young and old, a controlled, safe route and venue. Typical excursion fees amount to a large check once a month from some European or Scandinavian cruise line made out to “Crazy Cabo Eco Jeeps Corp” – let your imagination run as to where the money will be spent once the check is cashed.

To sum up, cruise ship companies and their passengers put A in the pockets of Port Captains, Government and private marina operators, water taxis and excursion operators, B in those of local vendors, C in those of townspeople.

Just a small percentage of total passengers buy the excursion packages. Most just walk around the marina areas taking in the sights and sounds, buying T-shirts and ashtrays – no food or booze because they all leave the big ships with full bellies from 24 hour binging. Thank God the tourists in the Big All Inclusive Resorts stay in the resorts; if they joined the cruise passengers in town there would be pedestrian gridlock; imagine a SRO auction where nobody bids or buys or a casino filled with rich people who are not gambling.

As the Sea of Cortez Project spends billions of dollars to attract yachtsmen from the U.S. and hundreds more cruise ships from all over the world the hidden danger is that the big dollars will not trickle down to the people and the places the project has spawned; that the bulk of the tourist dollars will slide right through the ports of call on its way to the Mexican government and foreign specialty recreation companies.







Even if the project is unsuccessful in luring tens of thousands of U.S. yacht owners, if it doubles or triples the cruise ship numbers it will all add to the Americanization of Baja California. There are already seaside hamlets where Mexicans have been forced out by people and prices.

The news today tells me that U.S. Baby Boomers are turning 60 now at the rate of 7,900 every day. Those who are already retired have average retirement income of $4,243. 91% of them own at least one home so if they live in the western U.S. they are building staggering equity – enough to come down here, crash through all the stumbling blocks, pay all the fees, suffer all the costs and have plenty left over for trips to Costco and pitchers of Margaritas made with Sauza Commemorotivo. In our search for a life in paradise we are replacing the people of the land. Soon it will be gringos buying from and selling to gringos; Pizza Huts and bagels, escalators, escrows and elevators, all business done in U.S. dollars, everybody speaking English.



There is an old adage:
“When the Gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.”

FARASHA - 1-29-2007 at 11:17 AM

Kinda scary, the thought of masses flooding Baja Harbor areas. And the HUGE Vessels - will scare off Sealife. :P

Cypress - 1-29-2007 at 12:28 PM

Change is on the way.:yes: Some folks call it progress. Have seen progress and for various reasons it's not all that it's cracked up to be.:no:

Hook - 1-29-2007 at 05:42 PM

That'a all well and good, Osprey, but I'd just like to point out that for every gringo buying in, there is a local selling out.

For every local entity that gets income A, why isn't there enough of this money spent locally by these entities on local people, who might be able to achieve income level B?

You dont seem to be judgemental about these economics, and that's good. It's just human nature; the haves displacing the have-nots.

Certainly some of the locals have become more of the "haves" since these development trends started. They might actually achieve a financial state where they could leave these areas, if it is not their cup of tea. That probably wasnt possible when most of Baja was nothing but fishing villages. They were doomed to a life of scratching out an existence with no education for their kids and little future for them.

Of course we are only discussing economic "haves". They also now "have" the ills of a more spendy society. Hard to separate the two.

I have no answer, except to say that there has got to be many elements of Mexican society who remember what their lives were like before the coming of gringo dollars........and prefer this trend. Who are we to step in and say "you're ruining everything".

Certainly much of the growth and resource overutilization could be tempered but the Mexican government just doesnt seem to be up to the task. And no one else has the authority to do it.

Crusoe - 1-29-2007 at 07:55 PM

Hey Hook.....Put this in your pipe and smoke it! I see your location as S.J.C..Is that San Juan Cap. ?? You are way off base. There use to be absolutly nothing In S.J. C..(50 yearsago when I lived there). Just meander up the coast a bit to Long Beach sometime. And take a long hard look, its coming your way.At least 75% of the high school kids there cant even spell progress. And you think this style and inundation of progerss is good in Baja???Personaly I would prefer to see poor fishermen than teenage gangs.It never has been better anywhere to watch the haves end up with more than the " have nots". Think about it.

Hook - 1-29-2007 at 08:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Crusoe
Hey Hook.....Put this in your pipe and smoke it! I see your location as S.J.C..Is that San Juan Cap. ?? You are way off base. There use to be absolutly nothing In S.J. C..(50 yearsago when I lived there). Just meander up the coast a bit to Long Beach sometime. And take a long hard look, its coming your way.At least 75% of the high school kids there cant even spell progress. And you think this style and inundation of progerss is good in Baja???Personaly I would prefer to see poor fishermen than teenage gangs.It never has been better anywhere to watch the haves end up with more than the " have nots". Think about it.


Well, hell, lets just go all the way back to the theoretical Garden of Eden and lay the blame where it belongs!

I dont pass judgement on whether it's good or bad......it just IS! And it cant be happening without the complicity of buyers and sellers.

Who cares if YOU would prefer to see poor fishermen to teenage gangs? It's not your choice. Ask the poor fishermen if HE wants to remain that way. If he does, fine. But dont begrudge the one next to him who might want out and selling his land is a means to that end.

As far as the gang member is concerned, well, that'a also a personal choice. Are you trying to tell me there weren't thuggish bullies in Mexico before the gringo arrived? Just because someone makes a really bad lifestyle choice is no reason to blame investment in Baja.

I'll await your solution to this perceived problem, instead of your simply describing the symptoms. Shall we evict all gringos from Baja? Will that do it for ya?

As I said, the government could moderate some of this but has got its hands full with the cartels and corruption.

Just back recently from the island, Crusoe??????

FARASHA - 1-30-2007 at 01:24 AM

I agree in many points with Hook, there is no way to stop it - it is HUMAN nature, and it happens not only in BAJA.
I could see it in MANY places all over the world.
Thailand, Middle/Near East,Souteast Europe,......just to name a few.
And if the Goverment doesn't care which way it is going, then who else will do!? When it comes to money, common sense seems to be disabled most of the time.
I experienced first hand how it works, if the Goverment doesn't really care! The REALLY poor hardly benefit at the beginning ( maybe the next generation), rather the middleclass. and the rich - get richer!
Has to do with access to education. If they (People and Goverment) suddenly get more money, and have no proper education - they spend it for things easy available - to copy the wealthier people/countries - and that is not always the best of choices (for the People- cars, drugs, fancy stuff. For the Goverments - Army and related Industry, ..).
It's rarely spent for increase of infrastructure - as for better education, or healthcare, or social security.

Baja will change at a faster pace, then we might think, or like! Like other underdeveloped places everywhere.
We only can hope, and try our best to IMPROVE without to make it WORSE.

[Edited on 30-1-2007 by FARASHA]