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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4709
Registered: 9-2-2003
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tehag: Several years ago there appeared a Group of Poeple from Canada; If my Memory is right they were called "Fabains"/
They paid a Million Dollars to have a Road built into the Beach with Huge Iron Gates and a Guard to keep out the Locals. they proceeded to build a
Large Cider Block Structure.
They would not allow anyone to be near or Speak to the Children, who all looked the Same, Blocd and Slim/
At one time during their stay they rented a place in town from Carmen-Owner of the Cafe Ole. They used it as a stopping over place for the Kids going
and coming by Airlines and then going up to the "Church".
They were there for at least a year and then one day left, leaving Equipt and Trucks inside the Building. --They also built a House right in the
middle of the Arroyo- May be gone after the Last Hurricane.
That sll the History I know.
Skeet
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tehag
Super Nomad
Posts: 1248
Registered: 1-8-2005
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history
Where?? The cinder block building, the gate, the road to the beach??
Thanks;
T
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Bob and jane
Nomad
Posts: 272
Registered: 3-25-2004
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Tehag,
Skeets is talking about the little bay just south of Punta Mangles, a few miles north of San Bruno. We used to stop there in our inflatable when our
sons were young. There were wonderful mangroves and an intriguing grave, sometimes sharks swimming in the shallow waters. The building went up maybe
15 years ago, give or take. We didn't beach there after that. Rumor had it that it was an orphanage, a home for "wayward" boys, a religious cult,
etc. We never really knew. We also heard that the government ran them out of there. For the last 5 or 6 years it appears to house nothing more than a
seasonal fish camp. You can see it on the reality boards in Loreto now for many millions of dollars.
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oldhippie
Banned
Posts: 742
Registered: 6-25-2006
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Mood: muted
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Those of us who wrote Sandra Dibble may have done some good.
Capt. Mike, before you start in, the Union is a conservative newspaper with a Republican slant.
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High-end tourism growth is criticized
Environmental stress seen around Gulf of California
By Sandra Dibble
STAFF WRITER
June 3, 2007
Rapidly growing tourist corridors around Mexico's Gulf of California are time bombs that strain environmental resources and threaten the region's
long-term economic potential, a newly released study concludes.
Conducted by the Mexico City-based Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, or IMCO, the privately funded study criticizes what it describes as
developers' growing tendencies to appeal to the high-end tourist market through luxury hotels and golf courses, saying these have placed increased
demands on the region's scarce water supply.
The study also is critical of the Mexican federal government's program to promote nautical tourism in the Gulf of California region through a series
of linked marinas. The Proyecto Mar de Cortés, formerly known as the Escalera Nautica, “is based on a type of tourism that is inadequate for the
regional reality,” the study says.
IMCO is a politically neutral, nonprofit think tank that focuses on issues affecting Mexico's economic competitiveness. The study was commissioned by
the Mexican Nature Conservation Fund, which supports environmental groups across Mexico, including the Gulf of California.
“The idea was to better understand what's happening in the region, and to see whether the current economic logic has an economic future,” said
Francisco Padrón Gil of the Mexican Nature Conservation Fund. “What this shows us is how this style of development is not economically competitive,
and in the long run, you're bringing in tourists who spend less and don't recognize the value of the destination.”
Although completed late last year, the study was released last month to the Red Mexicana de Periodistas Ambientales, a newly formed group of Mexican
environmental journalists.
The focus of the study is the Gulf of California region, a sparsely populated area that is rich in marine life and endemic species; 244 islands in the
gulf were designated a United Nations World Heritage Site in 2005.
Developers have increasingly focused on the tourism potential of the region, and many areas have been experiencing an unprecedented real estate boom
fueled in large part by U.S. customers. Just last week, a Spanish company, Fadesa, announced plans to build a $5.4 billion project in the small Baja
California Sur community of Loreto; its plans include 6,500 residences, 7,000 hotel rooms and four golf courses.
At its current growth rates, the region's hotel rooms will increase from 31,000 to 400,000 in the next 40 years, the IMCO study says. The growing
demand for four-and five-star hotels is causing greater environmental impact than more modest facilities, according to the study.
With rising competition for clients, room prices have been falling, which means lower wages for local employees, the study said.
The Loreto-La Paz corridor is one of seven areas in the study that have environmental importance and development pressures. Also included are other
booming tourist areas: the Tijuana-Ensenada corridor, Puerto Peñasco and Los Cabos.
Throughout the peninsula, “in terms of sustainability, the main problem is water,” said Rodrigo Gallegos, a consultant to IMCO.
The study singles out golf courses. The typical golf course uses enough water for a population of 6,000, the study said. Although many use recycled
water, in some areas where there is not enough supply, the golf courses are sustained by fresh water drawn from local aquifers.
Although desalination has been touted as the solution for the peninsula, the current technology is still too expensive, IMCO's Gallegos said.
The study says local and state governments are doing little to control the rampant growth, and it calls for rules to regulate the development.
There are alternatives to the current growth, the study says, but “people are overlooking the fact that a sustainable development can be as profitable
as a conventional one, the study says. “If nothing is done in the short-term, the region will get worse. The aquifers will be dry or saline; the
coasts will be polluted; and with less biological diversity, the ecosystems will be broken . . . the bubble will burst.”
The study echoes concerns that have been voiced for years by environmental groups in the region.
“We are heading for a collapse of monumental proportions,” said Enrique Hambleton, president of Pronatura Noroeste, and founding member of the Baja
California Sur group Niparajá. The study “is an alarming wake-up call for all of us.”
The growth in the region “is occurring without investing in adequate infrastructure,” said Richard Kiy of the San Diego-based International Community
Foundation, which funds conservation efforts on the peninsula. In the “long term, this will only lead to the Baja boom becoming more like a Baja
bust.”
Tourism development officials for the state of Baja California and the Mexican federal tourism development agency, Fonatur, did not respond to
requests for comment on the study.
“The true competitive potential of the region has not yet been fully discovered, much less developed,” the study said. “There is still time to
recover, but soon it will not be so.”
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Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716; sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com
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