BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR

It was a special pleasure to be on land again.The place was the Greyhound bus station in downtown Los Angeles and I was going to Tijuana, Mexico – eventually further to the state of Baja California Sur.I’d just paid off a ship in Long Beach and rather than immediately return to the UK, I asked the ship’s agent to rearrange the flight home.
You could do that in those ‘before 9/11’ days.Because the newly-elected George ‘Dubya’ Bush was yet to experience that terrorist attack of September 11; indeed it was a world of relatively hassle-free travel in and out of the USA.

So I doubt that in today’s world that the US Immigration Service would have permitted the post-dating of my flight ticket – instead I’d be homeward-bound, no jollies to another place allowed.
Why Baja? Well, that was a question some members asked me too and they reminded me that it was a dodgy place to travel alone – ‘I might never be heard of again’, they said.In turn, I could only reply that a merchant seaman usually responds to ‘dodgy places’ with curiosity.

But without being disingenuous, I was drawn in by travel columns raving about Baja California being a frontier land, a raw landscape of marine and terrestrial life, largely undeveloped, but at the same time, pioneering ecotourism there.As a bonus prices for accommodation, meals and beers, etc, reflected this – no surprise independent travellers and tourists both loved it.

In fact, tourists even drive the full 1000 mile length of Baja in air-conditioned RV’s from as far away as Canada.
Anyway, the Greyhound bus rolled down to the border town of Tijuana.The town is often referred to as ‘TJ’ and are several trips daily, mostly taking tourists and temporary Mexican migrant workers there and back.And when we arrived I was surprised that the immigration wait wasn’t too long.

From the US side that made sense insofar as they were keener to see who was coming into the States rather than who was going out.But even in TJ there was only a perfunctory visa stamp, plus a tourist card to fill out.
Even better there weren’t any dangerous-looking people near the gates.I envisaged hordes of money-changers, drug dealers, hookers and scammers; however there were only taxi drivers and luggage handlers trying to make an honest living.Maybe the reason was that this area was close to army and police posts – it wasn’t the city proper – that incidentally was a crime-ridden border community.Although today it is even more lawless as we shall soon see.
So I wanted to get out of TJ, pronto; and in a poor country of low car ownership, buses are a great way to get around –  frequency and destinations have increased over the years where it is possible to travel directly to Cabo San Lucas along Baja peninsula.

But Cabo is over 1000 miles distant. I didn’t want to get there in one hit so instead stopped over in Ensenada, a port-city which has expanded massively since the year 2000.Again, there was little sign of dangerous places and I found a small hotel next to a locals’ music venue and cantina. It was a Saturday night with no-one unduly bothered about a gringo in their midst and the band played mariachi trumpets and Spanish guitars – very melodic roots music.People were drinking tequila and the excellent local Tecate beer – no fuss at all.
Early the next day, the southbound bus pulled into the station. A massive eight-wheeler, it was a decent vehicle having functioning air-con and reclining seats, but importantly these Mexican buses provide a life-line to communities along the route.

I headed for San Felipe, historically a fishing town on the Gulf of California, but now a resort with terrific beaches and desert backdrop.But not before several families embarked with their bags – one even placing a mesh container of live chickens in the cargo hold.

Along with a few Americans, plus two Canadian backpackers, the majority were Mexicans, and one farm worker was returning from Kingsburg County, California after picking peaches.His wallet was stuffed with US greenbacks although looking very Mexican (think off-white cowboy hat and rhinestone shirt).But he spoke good English and related he’d also spent time in el norte as far as Idaho for the potato harvest.

I soon gathered that Baja California is approximately delineated into two regions: the northern Baja and Baja Sur – the north had the largest population and highest crime rates especially the border towns of TJ, Mexicali and  Cuidad Juarez.So Baja Sur starts a few hundred kms south of San Felipe.

Mexican Federal Highway 1 diverts to San Felipe through the same cacti and arroyo landscape.Suddenly, the town came into view and most travellers were awe-struck of the Gulf of California’s marine blue vista.
For this inland sea – explorer Jacques Cousteau’s description is the ‘aquarium of the world’ – is visited by 35% of the world’s whale species as well as huge numbers of sharks, seals, sea lions, turtles and stingray, plus seabird life – the Colorado river flows into the Gulf waters producing plankton and a thriving ecosystem.

Whale-watching boat trips were aplenty, but most folks in San Felipe related that sightings of California Grey whales were a daily winter occurrence – just sit on the beach, ‘they’ll soon appear’, they said.The ‘Greys’, incidentally, migrate from Alaskan regions after the ice consolidates and they are superb to see.
I couldn’t stay in San Felipe too long, but was impressed with the peacefulness and its engagement  with sustainability.

The desert hinterland is home to coyote, bobcat and weird drought-resistant plants – a resource on which some ecotourist guides make a living from.

The bus rejoined Highway 1 and we were southbound to Santa Rosalia through the same parched terrain. Having said that oases and commercial strawberry, tomato and flower farms appeared – no doubt exported to the US.Water here is scarce, but irrigation makes the desert bloom, a science from as long back as the 15th Century when Jesuit missionaries introduced spring-fed horticulture to the native Indians.These days however, intensive cropping is facilitated through borehole water, the cost of which is subsidised by central government.

Again, the road led south.And it was in Santa Rosalia  that copper was mined over a century and a half ago, but like so many commodities world prices fell and the ore wasn’t viable anymore.

So all which is left is abandoned buildings and equipment, some of which is in good condition due to the dry desert climate. The abandonment also underlined Santa Rosalia’s boom-and-bust because now essentially a truck stop it had just 1.5k population.

But there seemed little reason to stopover and most people were now travelling all the way to La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.

At first La Paz seems all lobster restaurants and margaritas, but it is still an ideal centre for local attractions including top beaches such as Playa Balandra, voted top Mexican beach by USA Today. Cabo San Lucas is the classier (and more expensive) of the two, but it was reassuring to see that tourism in both was low-impact – read no theme parks, shopping malls and few international hotels.

This push to further ecotourism is matched by the grace and humility of Baja Sur people; despite being poor as church mice, most progressed to working at some level – even kids at the bus stops were selling whale-watching tickets or hawking tacos and fresh orange juice.

This ecotourism has gathered pace with not only marine excursions, but also desert safaris which, especially at night give visitors the chance to see bobcat, coyote and grey fox.
But the town of Cabo San Lucas was very welcoming. – even the beggars had a cardboard sign which read Dios te bendiga  (God bless you).Mexicans are family-oriented and an air of tranquillity descended – at nighttime notably, with a brilliant orange sunset across the Pacific Ocean.

Although having limited Spanish, I met both locals and American visitors. All had interesting stories to tell – the Mexicans of how tourism created jobs and prosperity; the Americans recounting the places and people they’d seen.Most American visitors seemed to be of the well-heeled variety – some maybe academics; overall there seemed to be an air of optimism among locals, as if working for the Yankee tourist dollar was much better than harvesting pinto beans.

Which it probably was. Of my travel companions, I generally find Americans abroad good company – polite and conversational – and one summed up ecotourism by saying that ‘sustaining marine life ensures visitors will return, but killing the marine life for food means visitors (and money) would go elsewhere.’
Wise words indeed, and most were enthralled in the boat trips to view Grey whales off San Ignacio: the whale mothers with their calves too presenting superb photo shoots.

But of the Baja trip it’s worth mentioning that the only near-frictional moment I had was in conversation with an American guy of the Republican Party-type who informed me that the problem with Britain was its workers who (quote) were ‘lazy and preferred to draw unemployment pay instead.’Well, I was going to bite to that remark – suffice to repeat it was the only negative part of the whole stay. 

Anyway, about five days later I returned home.I boarded a return bus and managed the whole trip back to TJ in about thirty hours. It was an express connection passing smaller coastal resorts, the desert, more Winnebago RV’s, cantinas and PEMEX gas stations all the way to the border.

Clearing US immigration was straightforward, as also was the Greyhound ride to LA.Back in America I was soon hassled by a guy at the terminal who wanted to sell me ‘Mary Jane’ (marijuana), something which had never happened throughout Mexico.To avoid this I walked outside, not immediately seeing the panhandlers with one asking for a few bucks ‘for a coffee.’

Well, homeless people are everywhere in LA – it’s part of the street scene – and I gave him three bucks before he lunged at me shouting  ‘Hey! – gimme more  f***ing money, man!’I don’t play street hero, but instead slunk back into the bus station where there was an alert security guard with handgun, pepper spray and baton at which point the assailant backed off.

I reached the hotel and checked in to read the posted notice by the door jamb.It advised: Leave all valuables in the reception safe; Do NOT open your door to anyone without an employee badge and ID; If ordering room service ALWAYS  secure the safety chain first.Not a good intro, but this instructional, by the way, was in a mid-priced hotel around E 7th Street, considered to be a good part of Los Angeles.

The next day I flew back to Heathrow without meeting any of the guys on ship.But eventually I sailed with two previous shipmates: the ones who warned ‘I may never be heard of again’ (in Mexico).Of course, they wanted a story so I recounted the drama involving a low-life drug dealer; the ‘near miss’ of an attempted mugging, plus the intimidating atmosphere of an otherwise decent hotel.

Which seemed to confirm their own told-you-so prejudices. Until I mentioned that this all was within a 24-hour period – and not in Mexico, as expected.It happened in America – that’s right, one of the richest countries in the world.

A footnote: , Baja Sur has changed over two decades so much that the US State Dept is warning its own citizens about travel to Baja, especially the northern part.Because since 2007 the Mexican Drug War is the global theatre of America’s war on illegal drugs: a savage conflict between drug cartels seeking to export drugs to the US.It’s not within the scope of this article to explore the Drug War further except to say that shootings, kidnappings and carjackings have claimed 100,000 lives including innocent civilians.

Which has led to organised crime on a massive scale, so much that the US State Department advises its citizens to travel with extreme caution, i.e., avoiding night-time travel and remote areas whilst sticking to main highways (1)
Most long-distance travellers follow this advice with reports of RV’s now driving in convoy.But, at time of writing (17.08.2022), press reports state that five cities in northern Baja ‘erupted in gang violence, resulting in fires, roadblocks and police activity.’ (2)

So at the extreme end of Baja Sur, the knock-on effect is that tourists are increasingly reluctant to travel there. Overall, the saddest thing is that lives and communities are being destroyed by America’s insatiable appetite for drugs.But just as sad is that an opportunity to increase ecotourism in Baja – some of its principles being to empower poor communities, as well as promoting democratic ideals –  is being lost.
But – as is oft said, crime all depends upon our willingness to put up with it.

REFERENCES:

1) http://www.mx.usembassy.govAlert to US Govt Personnel 14.08.2022 (accessed 18.08.2022)
2) http://www.thehill.comState Dept alerts US citizens in Tijuana 13.08.2022 (accessed 18.08.2022)