That's My Story

BAJA BIG DEALS – Published August 2005 – Western Outdoor News

We were on our way to Todos Santos for a birthday party a few days ago. Unlike taking the picturesqu road towards the East Cape that snakes through the mountains, the way to Todos Santos is pretty much one continuing monotonous carpet of cactus and brush. Not having a whole lot to look at we got into a discussion about the things that made the biggest changes or impact in Baja. You get like that passing cactus after cactus and watching cara cara buzzards eating road kill. These are in no particular order, but I present these for your submission as my top 4 list.

THE TRANSPENINSULAR HIGHWAY – Any civilization rolls on it’s ability to move people and the famous highway that ribbons some 1200 miles from Tijuana through the Baja frontier down to Land’s End at Cabo San Lucas has to be right up there. It’s to Baja what the Appian Way was to the old Roman empire. If you ever get a chance, talk to one of the old Baja veterans. They’ll tell you stories of washed out arroyos; goats; busted axels; burros and gasoline These days, you can ponder whether the next pueblo will have a MacDonald’s so your kids can have a happy meal, but back in the days of Ray Cannon, Fred Hoctor and (sorry Gene) even Gene Kira, there really was an issue about whether you and your vehicle would make it back across the border. You can still see the rotted corpses of Detroit’s finest scattered along the roadway and at the bottom of sharp turns they failed to navigate.
Today, it’s still not your favorite U.S. freeway, but a double-lane-paved road now gets you just about anywhere. The Mexican Government has the “green angel” emergency vehicles zipping up and down providing assistance to any travelers in trouble and multi-level hotels now dot the adjacent landscape. I guess the latest news is that they are now going to make it a 4 lane highway from Cabo to La Paz which will certainly open things up and usher in even more development along those areas as well as the once “sleepy” East Cape. As they said in Kevin Costner’s flick “Field of Dreams”…”If you build it they will come.” Well, the floodgates opened and haven’t stopped since.

THE PANGA – What Henry Ford’s Model T did for the United States, the fiberglass skiff or “panga” must take the credit for it’s impact in Baja and the rest of Mexico. The question is where did the panga come from? Previously, skiffs were not uncommon in Mexican waters, but they tended to be hand-made wooden watercraft slender in the stem and stern. The story I’ve always heard is that the Mexican government realized it had a valuable resource with all this ocea front along the Baja coast. To that end, they requested bids from boat makers to come up with a simple design; easily moved; economically priced that just about anyone could afford. Sounds just like a your grandpa’s old Ford, doesn’t it? Well, story has it that the bid was actually won by an American named Max Shroyer who had a fiberglass company in La Paz. That’s right, the famous Mexican panga is actually an American design. However, the advent of this craft allowed just about anyone to scratch out a living. It allowed a guy to feed his family or go into business as a commercial fisherman, not to mention what it did to sportfishing in the pristine waters of the Baja and the economic impact of the sportfishing industry. Think about how many pangas you see now, not just in Baja, but all over Latin America. I have spoken with some of the older skippers and they have told me that 25 years ago, you could buy a fully outfitted panga for about $3000. That same panga now, absent a motor, would run between $7,000 and $11,000 dollars which still isn’t a bad deal given how most things have increased in 25 years.

FAST FOOD – I have seen stat sheets showing that 70 percent of Baja’s population still eats at streetside taco stands the majority of the time. However, it is amazing what happens to a community once the Golden Arches pop up or the Colonel starts smiling from his twirling red bucket. Look at Cabo San Lucas and just about every known fast-food chain on the planet is there, complete with kids meals and various versions of playland. The arrival of the fast food operation basically heralds that a place is ready to take it’s place on the map. It says it’s population is no longer rural. It’s people now are so busy, sometimes with both parents now working, it’s a whole new ballgame. Ergo, consider the pro and con issues that raises for culture, society, economics and certainly the family nucleus that has been such a bastion of Latin American culture for ages. Jose and the family aren’t sitting around the table each evening with los abuelos (grandparents) for the family supper any longer.

COSTCO and WAL-MART – Yes, those fortresses of Americana have landed or at least some form of them is here. In fact, I have heard the largest Wal-Mart on the planet is in Mexico City. A little over a year ago Costo arrived in Cabo and talk about impact! It continually pops up in conversation even here 100 miles to the north in La Paz. La Paz itself has the Mexican version of Costco called City Club and it is such a fixture now that people plan their whole weekends around visits to these stories. It has become a social event to visit Costco. People living on the fringes get laundry lists from their friends and neighbors and make Costco runs. You can now buy EVERYTHING and you can buy it in bulk! You can even buy that “hot dog combo” so popular in your own home town. While many people whine about all the growth, including me, no one seems to complain about the convenience of now being able to buy #10 cans of olives or cheese by the brick. The impact was immediate. Surrounding businesses had to drop their prices to stay competitive. Some businesses could not keep up. It’s the way of the world. However, here’s a footnote. For the same reasons Wal-Mart is having problem in the U.S., Cabo San Lucas recently denied the retail giant’s attempt to build another center in the city. I guess progress does have it’s limits.

That’s my story…
Jonathan