BajaNomad

Campers beach at Chivato open?

steve5555 - 8-22-2013 at 08:41 PM

I saw on a different post that Russ is not down in PC due to his accident. We have been going to PC for years and were there last summer camping.

Can anyone give me a recent-ish report on the camp ground? Is it open? Do they have any services back such as showers or the pit toilets?

Anything else different from last year(s) that I need to know??

Thanks,

steve

Russ - 8-23-2013 at 07:01 AM

I'm still re cooping NOB but I'm sure nothing has changed as far as improvements on the beach. Basic dry camping there now. But if the Hotelito is open there are showers there to use. You'll probable want to ask there as you go in though. They have been pretty accommodating in the past .

DavidE - 8-23-2013 at 10:16 AM

The homeowners overlooking the beach had one of the loudest b-tch sessions I had ever heard in Mexico back in the late eighties. They did not want the beach open to camping. Screw the ejido, the workers who cared for the beach, and the folks who wanted to camp there. Yeah, this still sticks in my craw.

[Edited on 8-23-2013 by DavidE]

msteve1014 - 8-23-2013 at 11:48 AM

The guy with the house on the far right ( as you look up from the beach) has always been very helpful when we camped there. Sharing fishing and weather info. that we did not have access to.

monoloco - 8-23-2013 at 12:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by msteve1014
The guy with the house on the far right ( as you look up from the beach) has always been very helpful when we camped there. Sharing fishing and weather info. that we did not have access to.
That guy, Ron, is a good friend of mine, who used to camp on that beach before there was any houses there. He most certainly doesn't have any problem with people camping on the beach.

Russ - 8-23-2013 at 01:32 PM

We have asked the current owners to do the improvements that would bring back beach camping to Punta Chivato. I blame the environmental agencies for blocking progress. Beach campers are a main source of real estate sales new blood, vitality, innovation and change. There are a lot of real estate opportunities here now. We're getting old. I've been informed that for me to get the necessary permits to put up a small wall to designate my boundaries it will cost me $12,000. That is on one lot in Legal Parcel. What a load of *()+* T!

[Edited on 8-23-2013 by Russ]

DavidE - 8-23-2013 at 01:40 PM

The efforts of those few knotheads that had houses on the bluff 25 years ago were enough to get the beach shut down. They didn't want to disrupt "their" pristine view even though almost all of them, back then, were greenhorn ricos. It put a dozen Mexican workers out of work.

Russ - 8-23-2013 at 02:50 PM

DavidE, I have no idea where you're getting your info? I didn't get down there until '92 but even then I never heard of any home owners in all of Chivato trying to stop camping. Camping was Punta Chivato and without it Shell beach would never have developed. Still, those coming off the beach have a special tie to the way it was.
The complaints about the camping beach Have been about the Easter crazies and that's gone now.

DavidE - 8-23-2013 at 03:19 PM

Me, the home owners. The dining room of the Hotel Punta Chivato. They spoke I listened. One of the worst was "Doctor Fox". Three other home owners chimed in. They wanted the area as their private reserve and they got it. Yeah there were some who were not so "pro active" and others who were neutral, but in the end the camping beach got closed. Remember Julian Vargas? A few large banknotes slipped into his pocket along the way to soothe the transition. When I am somewhere, people speak and I listen to the words I pretty much can assume what I hear to be fact. I'm glad things perhaps have changed, but 25 years ago that's "The Way It Was". I do not like elitists and I do not like people who come to Mexico despite the Mexicans. That beach DID NOT CLOSE ON IT'S OWN. Keep it in mind, por favor.

Pescador - 8-24-2013 at 07:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DavidE
Me, the home owners. The dining room of the Hotel Punta Chivato. They spoke I listened. One of the worst was "Doctor Fox". Three other home owners chimed in. They wanted the area as their private reserve and they got it. Yeah there were some who were not so "pro active" and others who were neutral, but in the end the camping beach got closed. Remember Julian Vargas? A few large banknotes slipped into his pocket along the way to soothe the transition. When I am somewhere, people speak and I listen to the words I pretty much can assume what I hear to be fact. I'm glad things perhaps have changed, but 25 years ago that's "The Way It Was". I do not like elitists and I do not like people who come to Mexico despite the Mexicans. That beach DID NOT CLOSE ON IT'S OWN. Keep it in mind, por favor.


Geez Dr. Doom and Gloom strikes again. I find it totally fascinating that someone who has such a strong dislike and borderline hatred for all things Mexico continues to live here. If I look at a handful of the postings, it seems the econmy is crashing, the electric rates are going to skyrocket, Can't get my meds, etc., etc., which brings up the obvious question that if it causes so much discomfort, then change in geography would seem to be the only logical solution.

Because I have a lot of friends at Punta Chivato and spend a lot of time with them, I hear almost no complaints about the camping beach. Almost everyone who now has a house there has roots to that beach. They either camped there and had such a wonderful time that they decided to move there more permanently or had friends who did.

The concession is now under the control of the Lujan family and I hear lots of comments about how wonderful it is when they started making progress with opening up the beach again.

Julian Vargas just happens to be someone I know fairly well and I am friends with one of his sons. Dad remarked the other day about how that camping beach had made him rich cause it supplied all the people who bought a lot of his land.

So I guess we pretty much hear what we want to hear. Same players just different perceptions.

DavidE - 8-24-2013 at 01:16 PM

Mexico?
Mexicans?

Pescador you need to pay attention to what you are reading. It was not Mexicans who closed the beach. Got it? It's a real simple point. This is a 25 to 30 year old point. Not a YESTERDAY point. The ejido at San Bruno managed the playa for longer than a decade. I was there to help Alvarado with the well at the rancho, and Pancho and his family understand how to operate the 3-71 Detroit well engine. I dragged the 8-D battery, one of my self starting alternators down from the states. Remember the hotel generator? Not the Stamford garbage but the old reefer car 20KW? I must have repaired it and the Stamford 10 times after getting emergency calls to drive a thousand miles to do so. So yeah, I'm pretty familiar with what went on. When those families LOST THEIR EMPLOYMENT because GRINGOS got the beach closed some of my friends got tossed. BTW I am a ciudadano (since May 2010). The INM jefe from La Paz was impressed I took the time to become a citizen.

I b-tch about the electrical rates because MY NEIGHBORS and Mexican familia cannot afford the high tarifas. I use around 80kWh a month.

Russ - 8-24-2013 at 02:11 PM

I just remember the camp beach being closed after a hurricane, sometime before John, wiped out the entire beach all the way back to the showers. After that there were no beach dunes and the soft sand was really deep preventing access to most. Then a few years later the Luhans bulldozed some access trails in and started charging a minimal fee. Which didn't last long. Since then it been mostly dry camping. That's what I remember and I'm sticking to it;)

DavidE - 8-24-2013 at 04:02 PM

I hope they can open that beach back up! The only negatives I see from 25 years ago were lack of water (now) and no protection from the NW winter wind. Somebody is going to have to put in quite a wind and solar farm for that hotel to ever be productive. CFE wanted more than 800 thousand dollars to run 200KW worth of powerlines from Palo Verde, and that was back in the eighties. Wotta hoot with the "proposed" power line and the air strip. All that went the way of the olive orchard out at the well (belly up). Made several cribbage boards out of that orchard wood.

chuckie - 8-24-2013 at 04:40 PM

I made some wood in that olive grove, back in the day...;)

Barry A. - 8-24-2013 at 04:52 PM

I too loved that beach camping at Punta Chivato. We don need no stinking fresh water, or pit toilets, just access to the good beaches that used to be available. Spent a lot of weeks there, back in the '70's and early '80's. We always camped on the furthest north cove, where there were few people, and we could be within 20 feet of the sea and launch our tin-boats..

Barry

Pescador - 8-24-2013 at 08:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DavidE
Mexico?
Mexicans?

Pescador you need to pay attention to what you are reading. It was not Mexicans who closed the beach. Got it? It's a real simple point. This is a 25 to 30 year old point. Not a YESTERDAY point. The ejido at San Bruno managed the playa for longer than a decade. I was there to help Alvarado with the well at the rancho, and Pancho and his family understand how to operate the 3-71 Detroit well engine. I dragged the 8-D battery, one of my self starting alternators down from the states. Remember the hotel generator? Not the Stamford garbage but the old reefer car 20KW? I must have repaired it and the Stamford 10 times after getting emergency calls to drive a thousand miles to do so. So yeah, I'm pretty familiar with what went on. When those families LOST THEIR EMPLOYMENT because GRINGOS got the beach closed some of my friends got tossed. BTW I am a ciudadano (since May 2010). The INM jefe from La Paz was impressed I took the time to become a citizen.

I b-tch about the electrical rates because MY NEIGHBORS and Mexican familia cannot afford the high tarifas. I use around 80kWh a month.


I never said it was about the mexicans. I am saying that if you are so unhappy in Mexico why do you keep hanging around. I remember back in your Tecate days that I always heard the same kind of thing. You have been around, have some experience, but it has somehow left you very jaded.

The camping beach is currently open, most if not all of the residents are positively disposed toward the camping beach so your comments are at lest 25 years old.

Please wake up and smell the roses before it is too late. You seem to want to bury yourself in your own negativity.

watizname - 8-25-2013 at 08:13 AM

My memories coincide with Russ'. Don't remember any problems with the homeowners on the hill. Just the best camping in all of Baja. Clean, hot showers, good fishing, and no bugs. Oh yeah, and Margaritas that were DOUBLES at the Hotel. :cool:

steve5555 - 8-25-2013 at 08:38 PM

Hey thanks for the info. I am good with dry camping and it is good to know that the Hotelito is a possibility for a shower or meal.

I was mostly checking to find out if someone had fenced the area off or if there was some other big issue.

We are gathering our equipment and getting everything sorted out. I am going on travel for a week but then the packing will ramp up smartly. My only reservation (with PC) is it sounds like the dorado fishing off the Santa Inez islands is poor compared to other years. We are definitely coming down but good fishing is one of our main interests.

We went to a place called Punta Basilia a few (4?) years ago when the PC campers beach was "closed". I probably murdered the spelling but it was a small cove just north of Loreto. It was really, really nice. Secluded, nice beach, nice water, a small handful of private homes. It was almost another full day of driving though by the time I drug my trailer down a 4WD road to the beach. Also is was so remote that we had to bring everything or go about 2 hours to Loreto.

Anyway, I am hoping the fishing report at PC picks up. Also, again, thanks for the replies.

steve

DavidE - 8-26-2013 at 01:14 PM

I tried "positivity" and got screwed too many times. Almost always by gringos. The remainder by gringofied Mexicanos. Entiendes?

Mula - 8-26-2013 at 01:37 PM

Been to San Nicolas, Steve?

Better road now - if it didn't wash out again this last week-end.

bajaboy1 - 8-26-2013 at 05:02 PM

Steve, hope the fishing picks up too. I'm planning a trip to PC in October. Haven't been there for 5 or 6 years, maybe more. Would you mind posting how your trip goes, and what you find there? It would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

steve5555 - 8-27-2013 at 06:13 AM

Will do!

mooose29 - 8-27-2013 at 11:03 PM

My family was one of those that loved camping at the beach so much we decided to build a home down on shell beach. Some of my best childhood memories were made on that beach. That was in the late 90's early 2000's. Great weather, warm water, no bugs, etc... Every time we are down I always take the time to drive up there to see if any of my friends we have made over the years are camping there.

carlosg - 8-30-2013 at 04:52 PM

The camping beach as of last year was open, great place, great local people, we even got a ride on a panga from Mulege with two local fishermen doing their daily routine: we caught a lot of cochito and cabrilla.... then a couple of days later we got hit by remnants of Cyclone Miriam, we had to pick up camp and went to Mulege and stayed at The Orchard a couple of days and then went back to PC... we befriended some local boys from PC that shared with us scallops, conch and clams right from the bay south of the light beam out in the point.... it was an awsome trip with my family (wife and boys 5&11)... this year we're going to Bahia Asuncion dopwn to Punta Abreojos to San Ignacio and the to PC and Mulege.... another great vacation....NO BAD DAYS!!!!!:cool:

[Edited on 8-31-2013 by carlosg]

bajaboy1 - 8-31-2013 at 11:47 AM

Does anyone know if they are planning to add any facilities at PC? Are they charging to stay there now or put a time limit on camping there? Is Ramon still around?

DavidE - 8-31-2013 at 12:07 PM

Before the hotel had water I stuffed a queen waterbed mattress in the bed of my pickup, filled it at the well then limped all the way to the beach. Couldn't drink the water but it was great for solar showers and dish washing duty. Washed off in the ocean then rinsed. Then re-rinsed with utility water. That water lasted a long time.

Russ - 8-31-2013 at 12:45 PM

Ramon & Pedro, his brother, are still here. I'm sure the Luhans have many plans but money & the environmentalist are pretty effective barriers for improvements.
Quote:
Originally posted by bajaboy1
Does anyone know if they are planning to add any facilities at PC? Are they charging to stay there now or put a time limit on camping there? Is Ramon still around?

steve5555 - 9-15-2013 at 06:51 PM

We stayed at the campers beach for 8 days. Ramone took away the trash and charged $5/night.

The weather was great and the fishing OK. Hotelito was closed.

I have never seen the hills so green and the PC area with so few people. It was pretty deserted. Although we usually come in July not September.

steve