Spent the day exploring the town and driving out to La Bocana (the beach just west, not any of the other La Bocanas in Baja!).
It had been 10 years since I detailed the two roads out. Then, the low or river valley road was 4WD because of deep sand and mud. The high road was
the prefered route and access for the Diamante Del Mar golf course and home developmemt.
Well, Diamante focused on their Cabo property and abandoned the El Rosario project, leaving only the concrete jet airport on the mesa. The high road
is basically abandoned and deeply rutted. After hiking in the petrified wood forest, I did drive it back to town, but used low range and A-TRAC to
make the deep rutted road passable.
The valley road is graded most of the way, and was dry. Just continue straight where the road on to Punta Baja turns left.
After breakfast with Antonio (BajaCactus) I plan on exploring copper mines and mission sites to the east.
After camping in the desert canyons SW of San Felipe, Baja Cactus Motel is a wonderful break. The winds and dust and apparently pollen from all the
desert in bloom has given me a huge allergy attack (or I got a cold?), so I needed this! Exploring San Quintin amd north, tomorrow.
BigBearRider - 3-7-2017 at 11:33 AM
Where's the runway in relation to Baja Cactus? Looking at the satellite pics and don't see it. I see what appears to be an old airport with
intersecting runways south of town.
Airport
John M - 3-7-2017 at 03:01 PM
You can see a little ways off to the west of the highway as you are about to leave the mesa and drop down to El Rosario
picture to follow in a minute or two - and it appears!
gps: 30.089621N & 115.747610W - you can see it left of the highway - El Rosario is circled in yellow.
It's clear as can be on Bing Maps - the Google map shows a 2006 date so it might not be there.
It's cool
John M
[Edited on 3-7-2017 by John M]David K - 3-8-2017 at 12:16 AM
Thanks John.
Yes, at the military check up on the mesa, look west.fishbuck - 3-8-2017 at 03:55 AM
When I was looking for the runway I found this place.
[Edited on 3-8-2017 by fishbuck]David K - 3-8-2017 at 07:28 AM
The seafood growing operation was abandoned. The waves damaged the intake pipes was what I think Ron told me was part of the problem there. The road
in was in bad shape last September. I plan to go today and see it.fishbuck - 3-8-2017 at 06:15 PM
Well? Inquiring minds what to know. What's up with the La Lobera?
And where was the Dianmante development supose to be?David K - 3-8-2017 at 08:34 PM
I just got home, very tired, but will answer the questions tomorrow.
Best border crossing exchange yet:
"What are you bringing from Mexico?"
Me: "Just one can of beer"
"That's hardly worth going! Have a nice day"
19 minute line at Tecate.Udo - 3-9-2017 at 10:02 AM
My sister has now also adopted Tecate as her favorite crossing Northbound. She says average of 11 minutes wait time.
It is my favorite southbound crossing when bringing a trailer load of stuff.David K - 3-9-2017 at 11:18 AM
Well? Inquiring minds what to know. What's up with the La Lobera?
And where was the Diamante development suppose to be?
OK, back home, resting... slowly getting organized for the massive trip report for you guys.
I did not drive into La Lobera yesterday, after all. Sorry! I was in there in September with my Baja Extreme 2016 4x4 group. It was abandoned and the
road in (only 3 miles long) was eroded where it crosses the wash and did a little four wheeling to get around that.
We then went north to meet Ron (BajaGringo, TalkBaja, etc.) who showed us his sea culture operation, put on a feast for us that was wonderful and
being my birthday, had this surprise for me... so very nice:
Ron filled in the mystery of why La Lobera failed and his project had success... has to do with the waves and sea water temperature.
OK, as for Diamante Del Mar from the mid-2000s. This is what I understand, in brief:
Kenny Jowdy (a baseball star) envisioned a Pebble Beach-like gold course and vacation home development along the coast, west of the El Rosario mesa.
He had full plans for the project made up by top golf course designers and went through the long process of getting clear title to the land. One of
the first things needed were investors! Once he obtained funding he had a concrete small jet runway built on the mesa (a pair of dirt runways were
there from 1942 as part of the defense of California from Japanese attack, built when we had radar stations around northern Baja... see the Pole Line
Road story).
Kenny had a guest project visitor center built on the site and hired two friends to meet and greet prospective investors at the airstrip, show them
the land and take them for a comfortable night at Baja Cactus before flying back to the states. Antonio (owner of Baja Cactus Motel) even got a ride
on the corporate jet from Ensenada to El Rosario). Kenny's friends (Anthony and Rob) lived at the visitor center and we got to know them... super nice
and they were on or read Baja Nomad. See them in the 2006 Rosario Festival photos. http://vivabaja.com/706/
Diamante Del Mar had invested in El Rosario, created some jobs and was going to have a big construction and service future for the town. They were
going to install a desalinization plant for the water and were near ready to begin major construction when some investors accused Kenny of
inappropriate use of funds [again, this is just what I have gathered in discussions with others].
That glitch was cleared up in court, and then some land in Cabo San Lucas became attractive. Kenny though that doing this in Cabo first, where there
already was infrastructure for such things, would help the El Rosario project be even more successful with learning the ropes in Cabo.
The 2007 congress majority change happened... then in 2008, a new governmental direction was elected... Dodd-Frank passed, forcing banks to loan home
buying money to anyone... See the Big Short for another view as to why our economy crashed. All of us in the home development/ home improvement
business suffered, as did Diamante Del Mar's dream for El Rosario.
The concrete runway remains!fishbuck - 3-9-2017 at 02:24 PM
Thanks for the update. La Lobera looks like a good little day trip next time I am visiting my place in San Quintin.
I was aware of Diamante but didn't really know what it was.
Welcome home. That was 1 heck of a trip.
