Do old men now keep track of their lives by computer? Has it come to that? I wrote a short booklet about this little village and just now had to look
up the date the book was born. Four short years ago – just thirty two pages with a dozen or so color photos in a ring binder it was a simple
thumb-nail sketch of how I saw the village and its people after living here full time for nine years.
Printer ink is expensive so I printed only a few, handed them out to friends. At a recent dinner party here in the village I spotted one of the books
on the host’s coffee table, smiled in appreciation, that they would honor me by the display. After a world-class meal of snapper, prawns and salad I
sipped some brandy, riffled through the pages of the little book. Wow, what grand changes had happened in our little town in the four short years
since I penned the thing! I was taken aback by how dated the information had become.
That was a few weeks ago – while I was contemplating bringing the thing up to date, the world, as we know it, turned topsy turvy. I feel very much
like the author of the brochure about the first Ford Model T, having to now fast-forward to showcase the newest, fastest, most economical Ford Fungus
Hybrid. What good would it do to explain, memorialize, and lionize all the T-Birds and Mustangs in between except for sheer nostalgia.
I’m a sucker for nostalgia so you’ll find some in here. I have not written a book, booklet or newsletter about Las Vegas, my former home and the huge
changes there over the last 13 years. Old friends keep reminding me “I would not recognize it” and I know that to be true. I’ll just say that when we
bugged out there were over 1,000,000 people there playing host to half that amount of visitors every few days for 12 months every year; that all the
residents of the valley were, in some way, smiling, grubby-fingered change girls to those hordes of jolly risk-takers and I couldn’t stay one more
day.
My wife and I had spent less than one hour in this little village in Mexico before we arrived here in my pickup pulling a big trailer with all our
worldly goods. We hoped the place would make a great retirement retreat for us – all we knew about the place was there were about 2,000 folks, all
hard working people whose income came from work at the local fishing resorts and from some local truck farming. Our Mexican neighbors were about 400
families driving rusty old trucks and trying hard to get by working as maids, cooks and fishing boat captains and crew.
For a time my wife and I and two other couples were the only gringos who lived here full time; there were about 30 gringo homeowners here but almost
all of them were winter time residents only. Even living on Social Security payments alone we were considered the Gringos Ricos. Then, it seemed
sudden, the boom began in earnest all along East Cape, 80 miles of shoreline north of the cape on the Sea of Cortez side. Our local Ejido, 49
families, sold our whole beach to a new hotel/marina developer for 7 million dollars.
A lot of rusty old trucks were sold, junked or retired, replaced by brand new shiny top-of-the-line beauties. Now the local Mexicans are out-building
the new gringos – lots of realty resales while many families move up the riches ladder. With their new-found wealth, the trickle down is very strange;
maids and cooks quit their jobs leaving resorts to import untrained help from Mexico. Neither gringos nor Mexicans building new homes or renovating
others are having any luck finding affordable, professional workmen so there is a noticeable general slowdown. Well to do gringos are doing their own
house cleaning and gardening.
While the little town is now a noisy engine of commercial activity with dozens of huge earth movers working like big metal gophers moving miles of
dirt this way and that the developers have paid another 10,000,000 dollars to 50 different Ejido families who own surface and sub-surface materials
needed for building the hotels and marinas. Now the new pickup truck dealers will be hard pressed to keep enough shiny behemoths in stock.
Six miles to the east another developer has purchased a huge piece of land and is slowly moving to lay the foundation of another marina, 20,000 new
homes, an airport for sizeable jets and much more. Now, as if being punished for their boldness, all these new developments face the devastating loss
of potential caused by the new Horsemen of The Apocalypse from within Mexico and from it’s faltering neighbor to the north; ruinous rise in oil
prices, collapse of the realty market, unprecedented crime and concomitant descent of both the U.S. dollar and the peso.
My perspective is changed. Fifteen years ago I bought this little house for $25,000 U.S. dollars. New marina lots are selling for $600 dollars per sq.
meter which would make my place (above the marina with a great view of the beach and the whole resort property) worth about $750,000 U.S. with all the
attendant IF’S.
This tropical life is not about digits and zeros, fortunes and pipe dreams, it is all about quality of life. When I first arrived, my Mexican
neighbors drove by in old trucks, smiled and waved with a look that said ‘look at that rich gringo living right here among us natives’. Now they drive
by in trucks valued at more than my house, still give me a smile and wave. Maybe they are thinking ‘poor old Jorge, bless his heart, still just
scraping by.’
So, in the end, it looks like my wife and I are getting more adventure than we bargained for – impossible to say what’s just around the corner. Will
the dollar, the peso hold? Will a full blown U.S. recession reach down here and shut off all the humongous projects? Will the low cost of Mexican
diesel help the long-liners and seiners empty this little sea? Will the drop in fishing tourism improve the fishery? When Mexican oil reserves become
drastically depleted will the economy collapse?
The first big project is already impacting the village in many ways; for the first time the village is having to compete with others for city
services. City water has been off more than on for weeks while the city expands the grid, upgrades for larger pipes and pumps. The town’s waste water
treatment plant was designed only for the town, was completed two years ago but is still not online probably because it needs to be improved and
enlarged to accommodate more and bigger users. Hundreds of laborers have arrived from the mainland and their needs must be met – housing, medical,
meals, recreation, etc. All kinds of improved roadwork is needed to accommodate grand and continuous parades of heavy trucks and equipment.
All the townspeople are wondering if the marina design will hold against the unknowable power of the sea and the seasonal tempests that could wipe out
in one afternoon the work of a decade of digging and rigging. They know the marina at Santa Rosalillita has failed and Puerto Los Cabo marina has
begun to have yachts run aground in the channel on the way to their moorings.
The trapdoor realities in this little village by the sea keep me alert and nerve naked at times. Maybe I’m writing more fiction pieces now because
they’re less taxing – flow off the pen with no real worries attached.
[Edited on 6-9-2008 by Osprey]jack - 6-9-2008 at 06:14 PM
The big question is, are the people of La Ribera better off now, with all this new development, or were they better off before? Sure, they now have
new trucks and money to burn, but when the trucks wear out (which doesn't take long with most Mexicans) and the money dwindles, they will be living in
the same rat race that most of us are trying to get away from. It will be interesting to see how things turn out in a couple of years.
Osprey, is your neighbor Joe?Osprey - 6-9-2008 at 07:20 PM
My neighbor is Joe but he's in the states right now. Good question. I think quality of life that I mentioned in the piece cuts across cultural and
socio-economic boundaries. A quote from Frank Lloyd Wright "Many wealthy men become janitors of their posessions."
Some people who hit the lottery just keep their jobs. Some quit their jobs, begin rich new lives. Some people think just having freedom, health and
opportunity is hitting the biggest lottery of all and need nothing else.Martyman - 6-10-2008 at 09:41 AM
Thanks Osprey;
Nice morning (thought provoking) read.Cypress - 6-10-2008 at 09:59 AM
Osprey, Thanks for provoking my thoughts also.DianaT - 6-10-2008 at 10:08 AM
Thanks---felt like reading a little of our future. My favorite quote.
Quote:
The trapdoor realities in this little village by the sea keep me alert and nerve naked at times.
DianeIflyfish - 6-11-2008 at 08:06 PM
Thought you might enjoy Greg Brown's Boomtown.
"Boomtown" by Greg Brown
Here come the artists with their intense faces,
with their need for money and quiet spaces.
They leave New York, they leave L.A..
Here they are - who knows how long they'll stay -
[chorus:]
It's a Boomtown
got another Boomtown
and it'll boom
just as long as boom has room.
Here come the tourists with their blank stares,
with their fanny packs - they are penny millionaires.
Something interesting happened here long time ago.
Now where people used to live their lives the restless
come and go.
[repeat chorus]
Nice to meet you, nice to see you
in a sheepskin coat made in Korea.
Welcome to the new age, the new century.
Welcome to a town with no real reason to be.
[repeat chorus]
The rich build sensitive houses and pass their staff around.
For the rest of us, it's trailers on the outskirts of town.
We carry them their coffee, wash their shiny cars,
hear all about how lucky we are
to be living in a ...
[repeat chorus]
The guy from California moves in and relaxes.
The natives have to move - they cannot pay the taxes.
Santa Fe has had it. Sedona has, too.
Maybe you'll be lucky - maybe your town will be the new...
[repeat chorus]
Iflyfishsloopy - 6-12-2008 at 06:55 AM
I think that was the little town my wife and I visited years ago and stopped at small store to get some soft drinks. We got into a conversation with
the owners. The man had lost his arm in a trucking accident, I believe. Do you know if they are still there? I believe it was the same place...we
drove around after that and visited them every year on our Baja South trips. Great little place......Osprey - 6-12-2008 at 07:25 AM
His name is Francisco, he's still there. The store specializes in soda pop by the case -- no where around here can you buy soda for less than his
little store. A fine man. The store is across the street from the town's barber/hairstylist, Fanny. For some reason she thinks of me as a military man
because I leave the shop always looking like I'm ready for combat. (just out of bootcamp)Paulina - 6-12-2008 at 08:00 AM
Thank you.bajalera - 6-12-2008 at 11:17 AM
What a great post!Gadget - 6-12-2008 at 03:51 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Osprey
Some people think just having freedom, health and opportunity is hitting the biggest lottery of all and need nothing else.
Amen to that Osprey, but sadly even these are under attack these days.Santiago - 6-12-2008 at 10:14 PM
Osprey: your post for some unexplicable reason reminded me of a quote attributed to Walt Disney: "If people focussed on the important things of life
there would be a shortage of fishing poles".Iflyfish - 6-12-2008 at 10:36 PM
Good one Santiago!
Iflyfishwoody with a view - 6-12-2008 at 10:42 PM
truth is stranger than fiction, which we all know this is neither!
