A magical place

A magical place




East Cape has been experiencing the typical ups and downs of winter. Last week seas were calm and Yellowtail, snapper, marlin, dorado, sierra mackerel and Giant humbolt squid were all on the score card. This week brought strong north winds not allowing many to get on the water. The score card, well, the wind is starting to back off and the bite should pick up again.

The good news is Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow so you can take it to the bank we will have an early spring. It will only be 4 or 5 more weeks before we turn the corner of winter and start to experience more consistent good fishing conditions.

Many ask how I ended up in Mexico. My first visit to Los Cabos was 1973. At that time getting to the Pamilla hotel was like an adventure out of Indiana Jones. There were no direct flights. The first leg of the trip from TJ to La Paz was no problem as there was Jet plane service. The last leg was a different story. We took an old DC3 twin prop plane to a dirt runway a few miles from the Pamilla. The people operating the little plane had the attitude of the more the merrier. We don't need no stinking seats! After they were all occupied passengers would sit on milk crates in the aisles. Some holding bundles and bags similar to the sights on old Mexican busses. It was quite a scene.

Rickety old taxis would see the plane coming and make their way to the dirt landing strip. The road was kind of paved if you call a little black slurry over dirt pavement. There was huge pot holes, roaming live stock and no shoulders. It was an adventure-some ride in a car that smoked sputtered and hardly ran dodging the cattle and trying to avoid the pot holes. On my first visit a pig was being slaughtered on the side of the road right at the entrance to the hotel. Later we discovered that pig was our dinner.

From that time I frequented Los Cabos every couple of years. The DC3, horrible road and sub standard cabs were always a part of the adventure. It was 1987 when I was invited to a private beach house on the East Cape just a few hundred yards from Spa Buena Vista (now known as Buena Vista Beach Resort). It was then I found a charm the East Cape had, and still has, like no place else I have ever been. On this trip the thought entered my mind that maybe this is where I would want to live when I grew up.

In 1990 a 1/3rd interest came available in the little one bedroom beach house where I had first stayed on the East Cape. With no hesitation I snapped it up and started making preparations to move to Buena Vista full time. I closed my real estate firm killing the goose that laid the golden egg, packed all my worldly belongings and in May of 91 was on my way to Mexico.

It is obvious by the growth I've seen that many others have been attracted to the area by the same charm I found. Several milestones have contributed to the growth. In the early days this place was more or less a fish camp where manly men came to fish.

Construction of the Los Cabos international airport (SJD) provided easier access to the area and was the first big change. In 1993 Telmex installed a phone system on the East Cape and we were able to have our first home phone. Prior to that there was only one phone in the whole town. There was a woman operating the phone we called the phone N-zi. If you ever saw Sinfelds Soup N-zi you will get the idea. Anyhow, phones provided instant communication which provided more comfort and security that attracted family visits. Then came cell phones. The installation of DSL which provided high speed internet changed the entire game.

Step by step Los Cabos has grown and the population has exploded. With it all the East Cape still has a magnetic charm and is still a magical place.


I'm the one on the right


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Mark Rayor
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