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Mexico becoming International economic
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Since the early 1970’s, tourism has been recognized as a key component of Mexico’s international trade and is currently the country’s second largest source of foreign capital. Being a renewable resource and clean industry, tourism has been designated a top priority by the Mexican government as it has created more jobs, prompted modernization and most importantly, has attracted foreign capital.
Baja California Sur, with over 3,200 kilometers of coastline and it’s close proximity to the western United States and Canada, has been recognized and targeted by the Mexican Government as the tourism state of the future.
Fonatur (Mexico’s National Tourism Trust for Development Agency) is an arm of the government created exclusively for the promotion, development and financing of resort destinations and has been largely responsible for the most recent successful tourist developments in Mexico.
Major resort areas supported by Fonatur include Cancun and Cozumel on the East coast, Ixtapa and Huatulco on the Pacific coast and Los Cabos and Loreto on the Sea of Cortez.
Los Cabos is a prime example of the southern Baja boom. In the early 1970’s, it was little more than two fishing villages with a combined population of less than 20,000 residents.
Today, it hosts 450,000 tourists annually and boasts of over 5,000 hotel rooms, a world-class marina and six internationally acclaimed golf courses. With limited fresh water available, Los Cabos has had a cap rate on development.
Recognizing this, the Mexican government, Fonatur and private investors have turned to other areas of the peninsula for future development.
La Paz, the state capital and an important port with a population of 150,000, has been designated the future center for nautical tourism in the Sea of Cortez. There are currently 1,100 slips in four marinas with projections for 4,400 slips in the next few years. Daily flights arrive to the international airport from Tijuana, Los Angeles, Tucson with additional flights planned.
In 1996, more than 150,000 tourists visited the city primarily for yachting sailing and kayaking. A ferry crosses to Los Mochis and Mazatlan on the mainland Mexico daily. In the Loreto area, Fonatur has provided the necessary infrastructure, including an international airport and hotels, to kick-start tourist development. Projections show that within the next 10 years, this resort destination could have over 4,000 hotel rooms.
At the time of the Spanish incursion into the Baja, there were three very well defined Indian tribes living there. The Pericues, in the middle Lower Peninsula, the Guayacuras in the extreme south, and the Cochimies in the north. Estimates of population varied, however, 50,000 seems to be the most widely accepted number. There are not any known direct descendants of Guayacuras alive.
It has been established that the Cochimies came from the north, however, anthropologists have found that the other two groups were not similar to either continental or northern Indians. These two groups are, however, similar to Pacific island inhabitants, leading some experts to speculate that their ancestors came from a Pacific island center. Most were exterminated by the epidemics brought over from Europe. It is accepted that their culture was primitive and they left no permanent structures.
For many scientists, the Sea of Cortez is one of the most interesting bodies of water on earth. At 800 miles long, Baja is one of the longest peninsulas in the world, exceeded only by the Malay, Antarctic, and Kamchatka peninsulas.
True to its desert image, Baja California is one of the hottest and driest regions of the North American continent. Between El Rosario and La Paz, rainfall is extremely low, averaging between two inches and four inches a year, with occasional periods with virtually no rain for years and a time. The relatively cool waters of the California current keep air temperatures along Baja's coastal areas comfortable most of the year, but temperatures soar along the western coast of the Sea of Cortez during the summer.
When last tallied, about 3,000 species, subspecies, and varieties of native and introduced (non-native) vascular plants (the "higher" plants, having vessels or ducts carrying sap) have been recorded in Baja.
Plants in the Cape region are closely related to those of the nearest areas on the mainland, with complex communities of cacti, yuccas, and various shrubs and trees such as palo blanco and palo verde at lower elevations. Between these northern and southern areas, many familiar desert plants are found, including ocotillo, ironwood, creosote bush, mesquite, agave, and various cacti, including the infamous jumping cholla.
The southerly sweep of the California Current insures that snorkelers and fishermen find it difficult to differentiate the flora and fauna of the Pacific waters off northwestern Baja from those of Southern California, and such fauna as ling cod, abalone, and sea urchins are common. By Punta Abreojos, the underwater environment becomes distinctly tropical, although some cool-water life like abalone can be found all the way to the Cape.
Occasionally El Niño, a warm current formed in the Pacific, provides a few surprises: in the Summer of 1993, several Cortez angelfish, normally a tropical species whose presence in Baja waters is confined largely to the Cape region, were seen in the San Diego area. Mako sharks, skipjack, dolphin fish, and broadbill swordfish were hooked in the Bay Area, and a marlin was caught in Oregon.
The diversity of fish in the Cortez Sea is extreme due to its great variations in water temperature and depth, and great range of bottom topography, from great shallows with flat, silky bottoms to vertical rock walls.
Although some Baja residents claim there is a tunnel under the peninsula connecting the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific, a more likely reason for the presence of these species in the northern Sea of Cortez is that their ancestors arrived during a period when Sea of Cortez waters were cooler than today. At the southern end of the Sea of Cortez, Indo-Pacific species like Moorish idols and long nose butterfly fish can be seen, and there is even a sizable coral reef.
The most numerous large whales in Baja’s Pacific waters are the gray whales, some of which are "friendly," often approaching boats hoping to be scratched and petted. A full-time resident population of finback whales lives in the Sea of Cortez, often concentrated in the Midriff region, and others can be seen in the Pacific in winter. Finbacks are large, and at up to 80 feet they are second only to blue whales. They sometimes swim in-groups of two to 10, their spouts shooting up like geysers. On rare occasions they get together in larger groups; 27 were once seen feeding together in the Sea of Cortez.
Humpbacks, with their long white flippers and musical talents, inhabit the Sea of Cortez and waters off the Guayacuras in winter, especially the latter area. Blue whales, at 100 feet and 150 tons, the largest animals ever to live on earth, cruise off the Pacific coast. Some visit the Cortez between late winter and late spring. A "school", or better yet a "university" of 12 blues was seen a number of years ago, feeding west of Isla San Jose. Sperm whales are seen occasionally, sometimes traveling in large groups.
Seals and sea lions are common in Baja waters, although few are to be seen in locations accessible by road. California sea lions, elephant seals, and harbor seals breed and calve on the larger islands along the Pacific coast. California sea lions often entertain human divers at the islands around Guayacuras.
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