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Osprey
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Some thoughts on Baja tourism
Baja Invasion
All of us Bajaphiles complain about the hordes of new vacation visitors and retirees from the north cluttering up our formerly pristine Baja
California. In my case it was Vini, Vidi, Velcro, I Came, I Saw, I Stuck Around. We should not complain. We are all Johnny Come Latelies.
New discoveries reveal that island hoppers in boats have been coming here from all over the Pacific rim for the last 40,000 years. 8,000 years ago it
was like Easter Week here. Lots of vacationers in love with the sealife found the seas full of good things to eat, the climate moderate, no time
share PC guys and gals pulling their sleeves.
I think most of these early visitors came just as the mammoths, camelids, sloths, etc. of the Ice Age were disappearing. I believe there might have
been many more deer and antelope but early spring breakers would have had a hard time roundin’ them up to make stew. It is hard to say what riches
the seas might have held way back when but if you let your imagination run it will give new meaning to the words “wide open”.
I’ve explored lots of southern Baja beaches and I can say that very few of them do not have evidence of kitchen middens, mounds of shells from
shellfish which sustained perhaps hundreds of early tribes of visitors from Hokkaido to Chili.
A couple of miles from my house there is a large, well preserved early man surface site that holds literally thousands of worked hand tools and many
kitchen middens which might be evidence of either large or extended occupation. I think these people were here 4,000 years ago (Mexican Natural
History dept. tagged them as Las Palmas Group) because the site is only 5 meters above sea level – 10,000 years ago the sea level might have been 60
or 70 meters higher. Thank God these folks were few and primitive because about that time in history the Albans pushed the walrus to the brink of
extinction in the northern seas. Only very recent visitors have had the luxury, the freedom, the permission to loot and pollute this little sea.
I contacted Mexico’s Natural History department (INAH) in La Paz several times about this important site, giving them the GPS numbers, photos of the
middens, the site, the tools. After a long silence I wrote to an archeologist friend in the states who contacted them directly and he reported back to
me that The Las Palmas group was way down on their very long list of “Things to Do”. Now, after reading the mountains of new scientific evidence
stacking up about shore hopping voyagers from all over the globe showing incursions here, I’m beginning to think that somewhere in the future, Baja
California’s antiquities may be a close second draw for world-wide tourism.
I won’t be here to see it and, of course, I could be wrong. It might not even come close to Cabo specials at Easter Week on the regular $14 dollar
margaritas = 2 for $25 bucks. Can’t beat that.
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Woooosh
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any deeper thoughts in there? 
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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BajaBlanca
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Very good thoughts Osprey, President Calderon has declared he wants Mexico to be one of 5 most visited world-wide destinations by tourists and this is
the year for investing in his dream .... I would think that archeologists all over the world might be interested in exploring Baja ....
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaBlanca
.... I would think that archeologists all over the world might be interested in exploring Baja .... |
They probably would although the higher learning institutions are so protective of everything to a point of being absurd.
Some years back, one of the Universities here, CICESE or UABC...don't recall which, came across some sophisticated siesmology equipment. Unrelated to
anything, a field trip of students from NOB came down to see things including the new equipment and the stuff throughout the city hit the fan.
"How dare those ogling Gringos come down here and look at our new tools."
It was a big deal and quietly bothered me a lot knowing as I do of the quantities of expensive lab equipment and other things the US Universities
donate to the school systems here. I've seen it.
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Woooosh
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaBlanca
Very good thoughts Osprey, President Calderon has declared he wants Mexico to be one of 5 most visited world-wide destinations by tourists and this is
the year for investing in his dream .... I would think that archeologists all over the world might be interested in exploring Baja ....
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You might want to get to Tiger Woods golf course site before a lot of the Baja artifacts are gone. I think the archaeologists tried to stop the
project but settled on getting to document them before they were bulldozed.
" the project plans to remove more than 90% of the vegetation destroying a pristine ecosystem of coastal sage scrub and more than 25 archaeological
sites in that area. "
http://quepasabaja.com/?p=583
http://www.elaw.org/node/3811
[Edited on 4-6-2011 by Woooosh]
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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mtgoat666
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaBlanca
.... I would think that archeologists all over the world might be interested in exploring Baja .... |
They probably would although the higher learning institutions are so protective of everything to a point of being absurd.
Some years back, one of the Universities here, CICESE or UABC...don't recall which, came across some sophisticated siesmology equipment. Unrelated to
anything, a field trip of students from NOB came down to see things including the new equipment and the stuff throughout the city hit the fan.
"How dare those ogling Gringos come down here and look at our new tools."
It was a big deal and quietly bothered me a lot knowing as I do of the quantities of expensive lab equipment and other things the US Universities
donate to the school systems here. I've seen it. |
sounds like a case of
Communication breakdown, it's always the same
Havin' a nervous breakdown, drive me insane
re the potential for archaeo tourism in baja -- unless elbow finds the lost civilization -- archaeo is interesting to the sensitive liberal types, but
a few middens and petroglyphs will never rival an aztec or pyramid, so archaeo tourism will stay a niche on the fringe.
the paintings in sierra de san fransisco attract a few visitors, but not that many. look at baja nomads, they like simple gut-level thrills like
motor bikes and fishing and drinking and RVs with sat TV -- most nomads wouldn't pay to see a petroglyph, and most wouldn't walk to see a petroglyph.
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Bajahowodd
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Perhaps harsh. 
May be true of a particular segment of nomads, but certainly not all.
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bajatravelergeorge
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I made my first trip from Los Angeles to Ensenada over 40 years ago and yes, I've seen that coastline become more and more populated over the years.
But that growth is nothing compared to what happened north of the border from San Diego to Santa Barbara and inland to Victorville. In over twenty
years of traveling south of Ensenada down to Santa Rosalia, that has changed very little. South of Santa Rosalia to Cabo has grown some, but in
relation to north of the border, its nothing. Baja still has ways of suprising me on every trip I take and until that changes, I'm hooked on Baja. I'm
almost glad that people up north are afraid to come down and explore Baja, except for what its doing to the real estate prices.
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Bajahowodd
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Good point. And, yeah, as I recall, my first trip to Ensenada was around 1971. And if you really want to get a feeling of how things have changed, we
drove from Saugus to Ensenada to have lunch, and were home for dinner. Traffic???
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DENNIS
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If land in Baja was available to own in those past years, the whole Peninsula would be covered with houses.
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Marc
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajahowodd
Perhaps harsh.
May be true of a particular segment of nomads, but certainly not all. |
Not me.
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grizzlyfsh95
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Only very recent visitors have had the luxury, the freedom, the permission to loot and pollute this little sea.
paleeeez
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Osprey
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Paleeez what?
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wessongroup
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That's it... Pyramids... that's what Baja needs to kick off tourism... 
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Bajatripper
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Interesting topic. I would like to know more about the "sicentific evidence" that points to Pacific Rim visitors arriving in Baja during the last
40,000 years. I know of Harumi Fujita's work on Espiritu Santo Island here in the Bay of La Paz, which supports your date for early man's activities
on that island, but she has never supported the Pacific Island myth.
The source of that myth can be traced back to the controversial works of Paul Rivet, published in the early 1900s (and which is now widely
discredited). But other than speculation based on his book, I have never come across anything else that supports such a contention.
A recently-opened Casa de la Cultura (La Paz has more than one) does an excellent job of recapping the history of the populating of the peninsula, and
the Pacific Rim myth gets no mention whatsoever.
Even so, here in La Paz, every so often a few locals rediscover the myth and sponsor celebrations using it as a theme, complete with Polynesian
dancing girls. Never mind that Rivet's visiting Pacific Islanders were from Melanesia, which means they would have looked like the people of Papua New
Guinea, who tend to be short and black and have kinky hair.
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Osprey
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Tripper, it's more than myth now. The theory is becoming more poplular since the recent discovery of sites on the Channel Island off Southern
California. Give me a day to pull up some links and I'll fill you in. Molto's DNA on Pericue near San Lucas is now subject to doubt because of the
Piñon woman find in Mexico City (12,000 BPE) and now some others that point away from all the Baja artifacts reproving the walkdown position. Lots of
heavy proof that dichlocephalic specimens here and elsewhere were seafaring coast hoppers -- several scientists now posit Proto Japanese could have
made many trips to Baja California in boats from Hokkaido and I for one believe they painted the caves 7,500 years ago and again and again over the
ages on their hunts/pilgrimages.
[Edited on 4-7-2011 by Osprey]
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Udo
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I am willing to bet that YOU make the best margaritas down south, George.
| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Baja Invasion
It might not even come close to Cabo specials at Easter Week on the regular $14 dollar margaritas = 2 for $25 bucks. Can’t beat that.
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Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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woody with a view
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
If land in Baja was available to own in those past years, the whole Peninsula would be covered with houses. |
luckily, when we "stole" calif, az, nm, tx from the mex-indio-ards they drew the line in the right spot.
heck, i could be living in central cali right now!
 
[Edited on 4-8-2011 by woody with a view]
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mcfez
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mtgoat666
the paintings in sierra de san fransisco attract a few visitors, but not that many. look at baja nomads, they like simple gut-level thrills like
motor bikes and fishing and drinking and RVs with sat TV -- most nomads wouldn't pay to see a petroglyph, and most wouldn't walk to see a petroglyph.
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Stereotyping again goat?
You haven't a clue what the Nomads like....
Old people are like the old cars, made of some tough stuff. May show a little rust, but good as gold on the inside.
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gnukid
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When we go to the rocky beach and mountains, we look around and begin to first imagine what it was like to live there, where would past cultures cook,
clean seafood, how. We put ourselves in the mindset of an indian. Then we sit still and open our eyes, trying to look at the same place for more than
30 minutes. Suddenly archeological finds are everywhere, tools, remains etc... The pieces fit together, the rocks and shells tell stories.
I have one friend Pancho who is a fisherman, he is particularly good at seeing the past cultures remains and methods as we walk. La Paz has some areas
with vast remains, we talk/argue about how many people and how long ago. I argue that even a group of two or three would leave piles of tools daily,
shells scoopers and cleaners to gather meat from scallops and clams...
Definitely time to think in terms of history, 1000, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 years ago. We imagine ourselves to be advanced and the past
civilization to be primitive, however it appears more cyclical.
[Edited on 4-8-2011 by gnukid]
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