Money, growth blow into Baja
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/new...
February 19, 2006
MARK LARABEE
EL SARGENTO, Baja California Sur, Mexico -- Jim Bison cuts his board right and sprays water, then dives his kite down to power through the turn. He
skips over a few small waves and skirts the shoreline, teasing a barking terrier running along the water's edge.
Water temperature: 72 degrees. Air: 83. Date: Jan. 6.
It's no wonder Bison and his wife, Cori Bison, move their Hood River-based New Wind Kite School to Mexico every winter.
Beginning in November, the Bisons and scores of other Hood River residents and Columbia River Gorge regulars make the four- to five-day drive to a
little bay on the gulf side of Baja California Sur, or Southern Baja, where the warm winds offer die-hard windsurfers and kiteboarders a chance at a
second sailing season.
These people and their wind sports transformed Hood River from a sleepy town into a community of high-end restaurants, trendy shops and top-dollar
homes. The same affluent culture is slowly reshaping Southern Baja.
On this day, the Bisons and a group of students are on a big downwinder, cruising past miles of sandy beach that line Bahia La Ventana, or Bay of
Wind, on Southern Baja's east coast. They are getting the most out of the end-of-the-day run with the trademark north wind known to windsurfers
worldwide.
In this area, warm air rising off the desert to the south pulls cooler air from the north, creating a wind tunnel between the coastline and the
massive Isla Cerralvo 10 miles away.
"If you were the creator of the Earth, and you also invented kiteboarding, this is exactly the place you'd create to do that," Cori Bison says over
cold beers as the last of the day's kiteboarders enjoy the pink hue of a sunset ride.
After years of visiting the area for pleasure, the Bisons transplanted their school two years ago and now hope to maintain their specially tailored
lifestyle every year. This season, they'll be here until April.
"It's Hood River South," Jim Bison said. "We're all here for the same reason. Everything here revolves around the wind."
Wind hounds have been making this trek for decades, camping on unspoiled beaches while enjoying powerful afternoon breezes, belly-warming tequila and
life-affirming winter suntans. But in recent years, they have transformed the area by putting down roots. Some stay as little as a week or two each
winter; others, like the Bisons, come for months.
Changes in Mexican law have opened land ownership to foreigners. As more people have bought in and spread the word about the opportunity, land prices
and speculative purchases have risen. Because of that investment, the small towns of El Sargento and La Ventana -- on the Sea of Cortez between the
cities of La Paz and Cabo San Lucas -- are thriving economically.
Once relying primarily on fishing, the 1,000 natives of these towns now are catering to tourists, opening restaurants, food markets, hardware stores
and construction businesses. The economic changes have brought modernization, from running water and telephone lines to cultural shifts in the home.
But some who've been coming here for years are concerned that the growth also could bring water shortages, pollution and crime. And they worry that it
would ruin the rustic character of the place they consider an escape from the fast pace back home.
Desirable place
For vacationing gringos, the hustle of life in the United States is replaced by days playing in the warm water and nights enjoying $9 shrimp dinners
and 80-cent beers. Cell phones don't ring, TV is forgotten, and tourists spend time reveling in the orange glow of a 6 a.m. sunrise or savoring the
lines of a once-dusty novel.
That's why Mike McHugh and his wife, Linda, of Stevenson, Wash., drive their truck-top camper to Baja every winter. In mid-December, the couple
arrived in San Juanico, a Pacific Coast town at the end of a long dirt road, where the visitors are few, and Scorpion Bay's long point breaks are
legend among West Coast surfers.
The Friday before Christmas, Mike McHugh spent the afternoon catching waves. He marveled at the beauty and solitude, saying it's no surprise he's
found himself here the past five years. By New Year's, he was kiteboarding in Los Barrilles, south of El Sargento.
"It's a good place to slow down," said McHugh, who spends summers managing a fly-in resort in Alaska. So far, the McHughs have resisted the urge to
buy property in Mexico, although they've considered it.
Though it's happening slowly, the growing numbers of tourists and investors are changing the sleepy economy of these once-isolated Mexican towns. It's
impossible to measure the changes in the amount of money spent, but the population of El Sargento and La Ventana more than doubles during December and
January.
The early arrivals were drawn by the wind. More and more, they come for other endeavors, such as surfing, fishing or the simple fact that it is a
beautiful place to relax. The influx has brought telephone and electric lines and expanded running water service. Still, many residents -- Americans
and Mexicans -- rely on solar panels and batteries for electricity and truck-and-tank systems for water.
"Change is good," said Refugio Calderon Geraldo, 55, a native of El Sargento and father of six. "For us, there is more work. In 2006, we will be
better than in 2005."
Calderon, his family and his neighbors have profited from land sales. They are beneficiaries of the "ejido," the 1930s government land grants to
farming or fishing collectives, which took vast tracts of vacant property from the elite and handed them back to the people to hold and use as they
wanted.
Before 1992, about 70 percent of Mexico's land was held by ejidos and could not be sold, transferred or encumbered, said David Connell, a real estate
lawyer in Mexico City. Constitutional reforms in 1992 allow the agrarian collectives to convert their land into private property, spurring much-needed
growth in capital investment.
Some farmers have put the land up as collateral for loans to expand their operations. They've also sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
property to resort developers and private home builders, much of it along miles and miles of coastline, Connell said.
Before the gringos arrived, Calderon and his family were part of the fishing collective that went after dorado, tuna and marlin. He remembers a time
when fishing was in decline, and the collective couldn't afford a new boat motor.
Now, he and his family run sportfishing boats as well as gardening, construction, building material supply and home-caretaker businesses for the
tourists who've built winter homes here.
"In 20 years, it will be much bigger," he said. "The people here are very content and happy. For us, it's peaceful."
Culture
With tourism comes charity. Not only are the winter residents spending money in town, but they're also offering time, bringing school supplies and
donating clothing. A few Americans are working with local officials on improving social services for the townspeople, opening a secondhand shop to
help fund a medical clinic.
Economic changes have brought cultural changes as well. In August, Rosa Dominguez, 47, became El Sargento's first elected woman, holding the
three-year post that puts her in charge of social services, police protection and problem solving.
She said that during the past 15 years, the presence of tourists has changed attitudes about women, empowering them to take charge of everything from
family finances to children's education.
"Before, the woman was always under the thumb of the man and was always in the house," she said through a translator. "Now, women are beginning to go
out of the house and find work. And they're beginning to have their own rights in the family."
She said children are staying in school longer, and families have health insurance. She talks about her plan to remodel an old medical building for
use as a community center where children can take music and dance lessons.
"Big changes are coming," she said. "Of course, there is going to be an influx of people. But more than concerns, I have hope for the future of the
area."
Yet the potential for rapid growth worries both natives and non-natives.
On the south end of the bay, five parcels -- including more than 6 miles of beachfront -- recently sold to developers. Beginning in 2007, they plan
condominiums, a golf course and a marina, Dominguez said. In Mexico, such plans often never materialize for a variety of reasons, mostly economic or
political. Talk is that it'll be years before anything is built, if at all.
Just a few hours south, big resorts already dominate Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Both Costco and Home Depot have stores in Cabo San Lucas,
and Wal-Mart is in a familiar fight to build a store there. To the north, La Paz is adding large hotels and marinas.
Calderon, the El Sargento native, said he considers those cities to be on another planet. But he worries that extensive development will erode beach
access and drive away the peace that makes the small town attractive.
"We don't want the big hotels here," he said. "Right now, you can go to the beach whenever you want."
Lorna Waddington, 75, and her husband Chuck, 90, of Durango, Colo., have been camping and windsurfing in La Ventana since 1989. They built a house in
El Sargento seven years ago and live there for six months each winter. She worries about growth but has seen it all before.
Years ago they built a small ski lodge in the "ghost town" of Aspen, before Hollywood stars made it one of the most expensive places to ski in the
United States. They sold in 1976 and moved to tiny Durango, which is now filled with multimillion-dollar homes.
So it fits that she thinks growth -- in a place as beautiful and desirable as El Sargento -- is inevitable.
"There will be more big houses and more rich gringos," she said. "I don't love it, but what the heck. We've been through this all our lives."
[Edited on 2-20-2006 by BajaNews]
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