Best Guide: Loreto

The desert around Loreto is so pretty and seemingly benign in its desolate sort of way that it is easy to forget that not paying attention for some of its permanent residents could be a big mistake. There are some critters in and around Loreto that it definitely pays to pay attention to.

I was driving out the beach road on my way to La Picazon Restaurant a couple of weeks ago and a beautiful 3-4′ long rattlesnake slithered in front of my car. I thought I had run it over and wanting to take a closer look I backed up on the road to view it better. Fortunately, I had not run over the thing going forward or backward and by the time we got out of the car to look at it closer it was disappearing in all of its camoflaged beauty into the underbrush. Not before, however, in its arrogance, fearlessness and defiance it turned, coiled and leaped back at me who was still safely stationed in the driver’s seat of the SUV. (A habit I picked up in the Masai Mara, where getting out of your car was a lunch invitation to the local bestial residents.)

In researching the snake, I believe it was a Baja California Rattlesnake. It is known to occur throughout the arid regions of the peninsula and in the northwestern portion of its range can be found in coastal sage-scrub habitats. It is known to feed on rodents and will probably eat lizards as well. And unsuspecting tourists!

I must confess that I traipse about the land in my flip-flops virtually never thinking about the potential dangers that lurk there. As don’t others. Now, I have never heard of a direct encounter with a rattlesnake being reported by tourists or locals for that matter so it is clear that these creatures, as lethal as they are, are still more scared of us than we of them. That is, until that snake sprang out at me. It was a wake up call to be more vigilant and dress more appropriately when I am out in the desert.

For more information on the Baja California Rattlesnake click here: http://www.sdnhm.org/fieldguide/herps/crot-eny.html

For more information about all of the reptiles of Baja California, click here: http://www.sdnhm.org/research/herpetology/bajarept.html

You have probably noticed the nuanced greeting ritual of Mexican men with their friends.  It is called El Abrazo (”The Embrace”). In this muy machismo Mexican culture, men everywhere hug their friends upon greeting.  But it isn’t just a casual hug as I recently found out.  Although carried out frequently and without thought (body language of the culturte), it does follow a strict set of rules, as my friend Adrian Arriaga pointed out to me recently.

Here is the sequencing of a correct abrazo:

1.  For a foreigner, it generally will never happen merely upon meeting a person for the first time.  The gesture is done only among friends or associates. To determine when it may be appropriate to greet a person with whom you are becoming friendly with an abrazo, merely wait for your Mexican friend to make the overture.

2.  The gesture is only between men.  Men will greet women, and women will greet other woman with slight kisses to a proffered right cheek.

3.  First, upon greeting while saying “hello, how are you, fine thank you and you?” there will be a traditional firm manly-man handshake.

4.  This is followed by a hug on the left side of the body so that it is literally a “heart-to-heart” gesture.

5.  Immediately upon embracing each man will pat the other man’s back with both hands twice.

6.  The embrace is then released and is immediately followed by another manly-man handshake.

7.  The abrazo is not performed as a gesture of good-bye.  Another manly-man handshake will suffice with perhaps a few random touches to the arm or pat on the shoulder for good measure.

The real secret to the abrazo is to have good Mexican friends.  Like with friends everywhere, a genuine gesture of endearment and camaraderie flows naturally from that space or trust and respect.

�

There has been street repair work going on in Loreto for years it seems. Now the boulevard portion of Miguel Hidalgo (from the corner of Fco. I. Madero to the malecon) has been torn up. My local friends tell me the town wants people to be able to see the water looking down the street and the boulevard island not only blocked the view but made the remaining lanes to tight for curbside parking. With the removal of the boulevard, 2 lanes of traffic with parallel parking on both sides of the street will replace it. Making room for more parking. Hmmmm…….

Even with the road blockage here, I generally find it quicker (shame on my Norte Americano impatience), to head down Benita Juarez (at the traffic circle right by the baseball stadium coming into town on Uguarte) to get into town or to the water. Juarez has been repaved, is wide and seemingly carries much less traffic than Salvatierra/Hidalgo.

In the past seven weeks, the value of the Mexican peso has plummeted from 9.8 pesos per U.S. dollar to more than 13 pesos per U.S. dollar. (13.185 this morning). And this is at a time when the dollar has been going down the tube versus most other world currencies.

Stores in Loreto are not going to quickly bend to the new official rates however, so if you want to get the most for your money right now, PAY FOR EVERYTHING IN PESOS. If you pay in dollars, everyone in town will still convert at a rate of 10:1 giving the vendor a 30% additional gain on each transaction. (Of course, they are making up for a long time of losing slightly to the 10:1 exchange.)

Credit cards will also give you the true exchange rate but I get really annoyed at the pile of bank fees involved which nickel and dime you to death. ATMs will rob you too if you are not careful. For example I noticed that when I used my ATM card at either Bancomer or Banamex I was charged a fee on the Mexican side (at the ATM machine), a fee on the American side for having the privilege to use the foreign ATM machine, plus a 1% foreign transaction fee. One way to at least cut out the foreign Mexican ATM fee is to find out which Mexican bank is an affiliated bank with your U.S. bank. At Bank of America, for example, I can cut out the middle fee if I exchange my money at a Santander Bank. That’s great in Los Cabos but unfortunately, until there is a branch of Santander in Loreto, I will continue to suffer the triple fee blues. They are still a lot cheaper than the haircut (scalping, really) you get if you use real dollars, though. Bottom line: PAY IN PESOS!

I am in Loreto often on both business and pleasure and my phone bills - especially the long-distance portion back to the U.S. - got out of control. Friends here on a semi-permanent or permanent basis have suggested that Vonage is a good way to go provided you have great wi-fi connectivity. But even at the Inn at Loreto Bay, where I stay when I am in Loreto, consistent wi-fi is still an iffy proposition however.

My AT&T Blackberry with a U.S. number requires me to roam through Telcel which ends up costing $1.29 minute for long-distance. It doesn’t take long to rack up a major expense this way. At the same time there is a plan which allows you to get unlimited data downloads (i.e. email and internet) for a set price of $50/month. Managing your online activities through your phone this way is really great especially for email and also for not having to rely on wi-fi.

But for phone service itself the best way that I have found to go is to get a $50 Sony Ericsson and a 500 pesos pre-paid chip (which actually gives you 900 minutes of calling.) This is better than a phone through Telcel even though the phone-to-phone charges in Mexico are the same under either carrier. The advantage to Movistar is that because it doesn’t need Telmex transmission lines it can charge 3 cents/minute for long-distance calls to the U.S. versus about 20 cents/minute if you have a Telcel phone.

I am always pleased to see announcements that quality developments like this one are going forward in these uncertain times. Admittedly, the Villa Group has a built-in supply of satisfied customers to market to and they are fortunate to be able to go forward with a project not dependent wholly on the general market for sales activity.

In reading their blurb about the project, however, there were some glaring overstatements that should be corrected:

First, although it is true that “Loreto, (is) an hour flight from San Diego” you’d better own your plane because there aren’t any flights to Loreto from San Diego and none are planned.

Second, the Villa Group’s announcement boasts that “The property is situated in a secluded bay, where only hotel guests and owners will have access to the 3 miles of the secluded white sandy beach, located just 20 minutes from the international airport of Loreto, Baja Sur, Mexico.” This is misleading in two respects.

Everyone has beach access rights in Mexico; the beach at Ensenada Blanca is no exception and is definitely not “exclusive to hotel guests and owners” of the Villa del Palmar development. Furthermore, while Ensenada Blanca is remote it can hardly be called secluded. Located next to the small community of Ligui, there are several other property owners on the Bay which is right off the main highway. And while the bay is big and beautiful I seriously doubt the claim that the development has 3 miles of beachfront.

Furthermore, and most glaringly incorrect, is that the development is not 20 minutes from the airport. Try 45 minutes at best. Ensenada Blanca is at least 30+ miles south of the airport. I’m sure they wish it were closer but the facts are the facts.

I had the distinct pleasure a couple of weeks ago of meeting the new Mayor of Loreto, Prof. Yuan Yee Cunningham in his office in City Hall. A member of the left-wing PRD party, which controls most state and local offices in Baja California Sur, he was recently elected and will remain in office until April 2011.

I wanted to meet the Presidente (the Mayor is also called the Presidente Municipal) to understand his administration’s views of investment and development in Loreto and the degree of cooperation one could expect the municipio would extend to business interests wanting to come into Loreto. Clearly, there are major projects already underway in his jurisdiction that are supported at both the state and local levels. But my interests related to projects close to town and I wanted to brief him on those and see what kind of response I would get. It’s not a good idea to go down the wrong road in Mexico. Like anywhere, if the political forces don’t want your project it’s not going to happen.

Tolerating my limited Spanish and a translated Spanish-English conversation, the Mayor patiently took the time to understand and consider the details of my informal presentation. After a thoughtful exchange, I was pleased to know that this up-and-coming young politician was keenly aware of the need for growth and jobs in and around Loreto and he clearly welcomes well-conceived business plans. He invited us to go further on our initiatives and pledged the cooperation of his city departments to assist us regarding all land use issues. Needless to say, we are excited by the prospects a of a continued business-friendly atmosphere in Loreto under Yuan Yee’s administration.

************************************

For a brief description of the government structure in Loreto, Wikipedia provides this information:

“The city of Loreto is the seat of the Municipality of Loreto, which is governed by a democratic elected City Council (Ayuntamiento) which is integrated by the Mayor or Municipal President (Presidente Municipal), the Syndic (Síndico) and six City Councilors (Regidores), for a period of three years with no right to reelection. The Mayor is a voting member of the council, the executor of the determinations of the City Council and the person directly in charge of the public municipal administration (the City Manager figure doesn’t exist in the Mexican city government structure). The Syndic is also a voting member, and is in charge of the legal representation of the council and municipal government, as well as watching the municipal patrimony and the supervision of the public servants conduct (similar to an US Inspector General. The Syndic is elected by the Councilors but reports to the Mayor. The City Councilors analyze the municipality policies and vote the determinations of the council. In the communities, the Mayor is represented by twelve sub-delegates (subdelegados), which are designated by the City Council; the twelve sub-delegations are Agua Verde, San Javier, Ligüi, Colonia Zaragoza, San Nicolás, Tembabiche, San Juan Londó, Ensenada Blanca, Alta Gracia, El Guatamote, El Peloteado and Santa Cruz.”

There have been a lot of articles about the state of airline activity to Loreto. As you may know by now, Delta has discontinued all of it routes into Mexico out of L.A. In addition, we learned that Continental ceased operations to Loreto from Houston on July 24th. This is on top of some news that because of the loss of revenue on the Alaska – L.A. route, Alaska was cutting down the size of the aircraft to and from Loreto.

Speaking with informed sources, the situation as best as I know it appears to be as follows:

Delta was experimenting with turning L.A. into a regional hub for routes it add 2 years ago to Mexico. Because of the lack of traffic and the cost of operating smaller, more fuel (cost) inefficient aircraft, it scratched the entire experiment. It was nothing specific to Loreto. It was a cut in air service to all Mexico tourist locations.

As for Continental, “they never should have started that route anyway”, I am told, as it was “doomed to failure from the get-go”. The popular routes out of Houston are to Mexico’s Mayan Riviera and the Caribbean and not so far west to the Baja. It was a money loser for Continental.

Regarding Alaska’s service changes, we believe the pronouncements were made before the Delta and Continental routes were scratched. Now that there is no competition in the Loreto market we believe Alaska will do what it takes to operate profitably on this route including adding larger aircraft or flying more frequently and for this assurance you can count on higher ticket costs to go with it. Obviously, we all hope this happens soon as it will impact availability of seats to Loreto in the short-

The authors will use this blog to communicate with readers. We hope you like our new look!