Phil S
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Escalera Nautica
Anyone seen any information in print, regarding whether this program has been dropped or is currently in "limbo"?
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Anonymous
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Baja tourism project off to slow start
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/01/12/yachters.p...
January 12, 2004
The town of Santa Rosalillita is slated to become one step along's Baja California's "Nautical Staircase."
SANTA ROSALILLITA, Mexico (AP) -- Along the desolate Baja California peninsula, President Vicente Fox's grand plans for a yachters' paradise have
produced only a half-finished marina of crumbling boulders and a highway that ends abruptly, giving way to sand and scrub brush.
The $1.3 billion project known as the "Nautical Staircase" was supposed to build 27 new or revamped marinas along the area's 1,000 miles of rocky
coastline, then add luxury hotels, new airports, world-class golf courses, and exclusive oceanside bistros and spas.
Held up by environmental concerns, authorities have yet to complete even one step of the staircase. And with just three years to go before Fox leaves
office, many wonder if the project will ever get off the ground.
The president flew to Baja California in 2001 to sell the plan as the "Cancun of the 21st Century." Soon after, construction crews descended on Santa
Rosalillita, a collection of faded pastel homes with one paved road and no hotels and restaurants.
They began work on a marina and a highway running across the peninsula, but construction was suspended because the government tourist agency FONATUR
failed to produce an environmental impact study.
In November, the Environmental Department approved the study. But Salvador Nito, FONATUR's projects manager, said authorities now must commission
environmental studies at each of the project's new marina sites -- a painstaking process that has yet to begin. He said his agency now hopes
construction will resume sometime this year.
"Things are moving slowly, but we are thinking of the long term," Nito said. "You don't build a great development from one day to the next. There's no
reason to hurry."
That could change. Fox is among the staircase's biggest supporters, and his administration has earmarked $210 million for the project, the rest coming
from private investment. But the president's term expires in December 2006, and he is legally barred from seeking another.
"We've seen this before. A government comes with grand plans for the peninsula until the money runs out and the project dies," said Patricia Martinez,
director of the wetland advocacy group Pro Esteros, in the port city of Ensenada. "Fox only has three years left, and that's not enough time. This
dream of his is impossible."
In the first phase, FONATUR said it would refurbish five marinas and build 11 new ones before Fox left office in 2006, but even Nito acknowledged that
has become overly optimistic.
The entire project, initially scheduled for completion in 2016, now could stretch into 2030, he said.
Fox had pushed the idea as a way to develop the coast and create jobs in communities with no electricity, drinking water, telephone service or
livelihoods other than subsistence fishing.
Much of the peninsula shuts down at sunset, in part because the only light comes from candles and flashlights. South of Ensenada and north of the
modern resort of Los Cabos at the peninsula's tip, there are only scattered fishing enclaves, surrounded by miles of desert blanketed by towering
cardon cacti and cirio trees.
The project's supporters say if anyone can tame Baja, it's FONATUR, which transformed Cancun from a forgotten spit of Caribbean coast into a
25,000-hotel-room super resort that attracts 3 million visitors a year. The agency also created sprawling Pacific tourist centers in Ixtapa and Los
Cabos.
While Santa Rosalillita waits for work to begin anew, soldiers guard its half-finished marina, 410 miles south of the U.S. border. A mass of boulders
pieced together using concrete, the open-air construction is ill-equipped to hold even one yacht.
Still,, the marina has already altered the ocean's currents, triggering erosion, according to a study commissioned by environmental groups.
Marco Antonio Maclish, a 27-year-old fisherman whose family sold FONATUR the land to build the marina, said critics are expecting too much.
"Every great mega-project has it's first phase. That rock pier is ours," he said. "This is the beginning of the second Cancun. You just can't see it
yet."
Farther down the beach, erosion has stripped away so much sand that Jose Luis Murillo's wooden home looked ready to topple into the surf.
"The Nautical Staircase was supposed to bring a better life," Murillo said. "Instead, it's destroying my home."
Another phase of the project sits unfinished outside Santa Rosalillita, where crews began building the highway that is supposed to allow yachters to
sail to the new marina, then tow their boats east across the peninsula to the Sea of Cortez on the other side.
The highway is meant to wind 20 miles from Santa Rosalillita to MEX 1, the two-lane interstate that runs north-south through all of Baja. Instead, it
ends after less than three miles, dumping passengers onto a spine-jolting cow-path of stones and potholes.
"We were here two years ago, and the highway just ended then too," said Richard Sobel, a retiree from Vancouver Island who was towing his yacht down
the peninsula and decided to see if the new highway had been completed. "Are they ever going to finish this?"
About 150 miles up the peninsula from Santa Rosalillita, Cabo Colonet is among several deserted beachheads slated to become posh resorts.
"It's a good plan, but putting it into effect is another story," said Kyle Adams-Polzin, 50, a retired electrician and avid surfer from San Diego.
"The people in Mexico City proposing these things have no idea what it's like out here. It's much more barren than it looks on a map."
Cabo Colonet's only resident, Adams-Polzin lives without electricity, running water or a telephone in a wooden house he built himself.
"This doesn't look like a tourist spot to me," he said, surveying the beach where only pounding surf and chirping crickets could be heard. "In fact,
if they ever did come here to build something, I'd probably move. I like the seclusion."
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Anonymous
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1086716...
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Anonymous
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http://www.marinamanagement.com/articles/dk-2_04.html
Marina Dock Age, January/February 2004
Escalera Nautica
One Consultant?s Take on Mexico?s Plans to Expand Nautical Tourism
by Dennis P. Kissman
I have been asked on several occasions, by a number of people, to comment on the Mexican government?s proposed ?Escalera Nautica? or Nautical Ladder.
For those of you not familiar with this plan, it calls for building 27 marinas along the Pacific Coast of Baja California and into the Sea of Cortez
to accommodate cruising boats, primarily from California.
I am familiar with the Nautical Ladder because I participated in a three-person consulting group commissioned in 2002 to update the original 1999/2000
plan at the request of the Federal Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur). Our assignment was to either confirm the conclusions of the original study and/or
correct or update them.
How it all started
For background, Fonatur was responsible for developing tourist destinations such as Cancun, Ixtapa, and Huatulco, but it has been almost 19 years
since its last major project. Escalera Nautica was to be the next big economic development scheme, but before any sound market research had been done,
minds were made up to pursue it.
Please understand that I am neither defending nor ridiculing the government?s report as has been done by others in the past. Instead, I want to point
out what can happen when data representing a portion of a project is used to justify the whole undertaking. People in the marine industry ? including
me ? who read the I999/2000 study wondered where the original group got their information. For example, the study projected that nearly every boat
over 30 feet in length registered in California would likely be cruising in Mexican waters!
Phantom ships
Here?s another example of how the original study went astray: Our group realized that the boating statistics gathered from Mexican port captains may
have included duplicate numbers for the same vessels arriving and departing. For instance, if a boat cruised 10 times between Cabo San Lucas and La
Paz during one season, each time the boat checked in at port, it was counted as a new arrival. As a result, one boat was counted as twenty new
arrivals.
Another area of concern in the original study was that the number of boats in Ensenada was used as a basis for the number of boats cruising Mexican
waters. I know from personal experience that there are a number of Southern California boaters who will venture as far south as Ensenada, but wouldn?t
think of going any farther down the coast.
The disturbing Land Bridge
Another disturbing part of the original study was the so-called ?Land Bridge.? To use the Land Bridge, a boater would have to cruise as far as 100
miles south of Ensenada, have the boat hauled out and put on a truck. The truck would drive six to eight hours across Baja Mexico to the Sea of Cortez
where the well-traveled boat would be relaunched. The study projected that 4,000 boats a year would be transported in this fashion within 10 years. If
this were to come about, I estimate it would take a fleet of 15 semi-trailer trucks working 24 hours a day for six months to move 2,000 boats overland
in the autumn and return them in the spring ? the typical cruising cycle.
We must bear in mind that the initial research into the U.S. market was sound and, if followed, would have led to different conclusions about the
project?s viability. The problem was created when politics began dictating the results of the study. The project was positioned as an economic boost
for underdeveloped areas of Mexico. Not only was it to promote nautical tourism, it was to encourage tourism in general. Unfortunately, subsequent
research focused only on pleasure boats, ignoring other components. The result was the need to inflate the data to justify moving forward. This was
compounded by the fact that no one tested the results as they compared to the actual data in Fonatur?s economic model. If this had been done by anyone
familiar with the industry, they would have recognized that there simply weren?t going to be that many boats cruising those waters!
As flawed as the study appears, the idea of promoting nautical tourism should be explored. In updating the study, our group concentrated on ways to
promote nautical tourism without politics dictating the outcome of our brainstorming. Following are some highlights of our report:
Tis the season?or not
First, we recognized that the study did not account for boating seasons, or the types of boats that are in Mexican waters during certain times of the
year. For example, in the winter there is a large contingent of cruising sailboats, while in the summer most of these boaters who do decide to stay in
Mexico remain upland or in a hurricane hole. The majority of the cruising boats return to the states or retreat to Ensenada. This decreases the demand
for marinas, yet the study made the assumption that the boating season was year round.
Further, we recognized that a large number of U.S.-registered boats in the upper Sea of Cortez are trailered there, thus requiring launch ramps and
different types of facilities not considered in the study.
Tried and true
In Mexico, there are established nautical destinations such as Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Baja, and San Carlos and Puerto Pe?asco on the
mainland, each catering to a different type of boater. We recommended that Fonatur capitalize on these existing destinations as the prime foundations
for the expansion of nautical tourism, rather than create new ones that have no existing natural attraction for boaters.
Mind the regulations
Problems everyone acknowledged, yet chose to ignore, are the difficulties and inconsistencies imposed by the Mexican port authorities. I must admit
the procedure is a little more uniform today, and the Mexican marina association has done much to inform skippers as to what is required. However,
there are still government regulations that must be followed. Our recommendation was to issue annual cruising permits as documentation when traveling
in a given area. In the couple of meetings we had with government representatives, they understood the problem but seemed not to have any solution. I
think this situation continues to exist, though I haven?t followed up on it.
Privatize!
Another recommendation not well received was that Fonatur shouldn?t compete with private developers and operators. When there is a demand for new or
expanded facilities, Fonatur should simply assist private enterprises with navigating the bureaucratic red tape to expedite development. We believe
that encouraging private investors would be a major step in the right direction. Who is in a better position to develop these facilities than someone
who understands the marine industry and is willing to invest his or her money? It?s my opinion that nautical tourism will continue to expand in Mexico
primarily with the help of private developers responding to market demands, not through government programs designed to stimulate the Mexican economy
by spending money for the sake of spending.
Plan lands in black hole
Our group submitted our findings and recommendations to Fonatur per our contract early this year, but beyond that, I have no knowledge as to what
happened to them. There was to be a peer review of our work, but that didn?t take place, nor do I believe our findings were ever made public. As far
as I know, the people in Fonatur who hired our group are no longer working there.
It?s easy to conclude that our findings and recommendations differed from the original study.
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thebajarunner
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escalara nonsense
Here is some very unofficial, anecodotal input.
We spent last week at BOLA, for the entire week there was exactly one sailboat in the harbor large enough to be in the E.N. category.
Wow!!
Maybe with the E.N. in place, who knows, two boats, maybe even three for a few days.
DUHHHHH!!!
I must be missing something.
Sad to see another graded swath across the peninsula in the name of "progress."
Baja Arriba!!
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Anonymous
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Once again Fox is counting on Americans for his countries survival. Like the man said in his study, it would take all the sail boats and power boats
in all the California marinas to achieve this pie in the sky goal.
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Hook
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Different conclusion possible
Bajrunner,
The lack of sailboats in that category probably speaks specifically to the potential "needs" of the Land Bridge portion of the EN. The lack of
sailboats is mostly because of the conditions the EN would try to alleviate.
I thing fontanur's estimates are way off base, too, but I bet a completed land bridge would increase the number of sailboats by plenty.
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Phil S
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E.N.
Anon and others. Thanks for the "current" info on E.N. Doesn't look too promising. Me thinks the "land bridge" would certainly increase public
tourists interest in seeing the eastern side of the Baja, creating jobs in motel, hotel, restaraunt, gift shops, pubs (?) bars, etc that most likely
would spring up, once finished. Yes, I know. There goes the neighborhood for those of you who have had the wonderful experience of a great "hideout"
for so many years. But progress does bring change. And change, if done "intelligently" has it's positive side, beside the negative side. However,
looking around Baja Norte & Sur over the past eleven years I've been coming down, "intelligent" doesn't appear to be used very often in some of the
areas I've visited. I'd venture to say that some thought over the years in Loreto's development has been used. Of course, there are others who say,
Loreto Bay shouldn't have ever been allowed into this area.
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