PHOTO: Worse places to be on the planet. If the phone doesn't ring it's me...

PHOTO: Greetings from La Paz. Me, Tosh and Gordie don our masks...that no one ever used anyway! So we just wear 'em for fun now!

BAJA NOTES

Originally published in Western Outdoor News the Week of June 30, 2009

I’m writing this looking out across the sunny sand and water at Muertos Bay and you can’t imagine too many other pretty places that can be much nicer. There are some coco palms in front of me and the water is that deep teal blue you see on postcards. Barely a ripple breaks the water surface and other than the folks here in the bar behind me, it’s deserted.

OK, I fib. There’s some real estate folks chatting it up with some prospective pigeons…uh clients... a few tables over. I try to tune that drivel out. If I hear that phrase “get in on the ground floor” one more time, I’m gonna go postal.

But, all-in-all, it beats scratching out on a keyboard in some cubicle. I know I’m blessed. But all is not well in paradise.

Recent bad news from Loreto. Add one more casualty to the pyre.

The 6,000 unit Loreto Bay Resort, about 20 minutes from Loreto, has suspended all operations. The mega-resort was to have included a hotel; seaside village; as well as homes, but had been struggling recently as a combination of the economy, real estate bust, bank failures as well as negative feelings about Mexico in general tied to the swine flu and drug war scares.

The hotel and golf course have been closed and fewer than 800 home units had been sold. More than 400 workers have been laid off.

The failure of the project puts current homeowners as well as those in the middle of construction in a mess and adrift. Despite months of speculation, many were not notified until the last minute that their services had been shut off. The government has asked to take over the project until new investors can be found. Folks do remain hopeful.

On the other side of the spectrum. I don’t know if something “official” has filtered to the troops and other law enforcement personnel at ground zero. But, here in La Paz as well as what I’m hearing from other areas and travelers in Baja raises an eyebrow or two.

Are the cops and soldiers getting some kinds of be “ nice-to-gringos” edict? I think it’s more than our collective imaginations. Here in La Paz, we go through check-points regularly. It’s pretty routine to go through checkpoints set up for drunks (just like the states) as well as regular random checkpoints by the military inspecting for drugs and arms.

At these checkpoints, normally, they’re pretty business-like as a matter of routine. At best.

At worst, there’s been some pretty rude encounters I’ve had over the years. Even traffic stops that I deserved (for wrong turns, seat belts, etc…I’m bad) have been pretty business-like. Just like the cops at there back home in the U.S. Just doing their jobs and nothing says they have to be friendly about it. I get that.

However, lately, guys in uniforms seem to go out-of –their-way to be nice. Even other gringos have said so. At checkpoints I get waved through with a smile. I don’t even roll my window down anymore.

I’ve been asked how my day is going. How is the fishing? Am I enjoying my stay? What??? Sometimes everyone else gets pulled over to be checked, but I don’t.

I turned down a one-way street and immediately got the red lights flashing. Oh no! Here we go. I’m gonna get hard-nosed.

On the contrary. As I watched in my rear-view mirror, the officer walked up like he was gonna nail me. I braced myself. Then he saw my California plates (that I’ve not changed yet) and I saw him break into a grin.

I rolled down my window and he smiled. Like an understanding parent, he told me it was dangerous to turn down a one-way street and to be more careful next time. He didn’t want anything happening to “visitors” to Mexico. He wished me a good day then made sure there was no traffic so I could turn around. No lecture. No Barney Fife harangue about being an idiot and now having to pay a humongous ticket. Just a big old grin.

Make my day indeed! Viva Mexico! I think they have been told to be nice to gringos. Thankful for little blessings.

That's my story!

If you ever need to reach me, I"m at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

Best fishes!

Jonathan

PHOTO 1: Can it get much better than this? Double hook-ups; sunshine; flat water with dad and son in Baja? Priceless.

PHOTO 2: For lots of us it started like this. A simple Kodak moment in the sun begins a life-changing experience with our dads and kids.

UNBROKEN CIRCLES

Originally published the Week of June 16, 2009 in Western Outdoor News



“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could barely stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished to see how much the old man had learned in 7 years.” Mark Twain

“Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.” Red Buttons

_________________

One of the great joys of working down here in Baja in the fishing industry is seeing families doing things together. Even moreso, to see the kids and parents interact, but especially for me, watching the dads and their kids or particularly, dads and their sons.

For a lot of us that have come to cherish the Baja, somewhere along the line, our dads played some role in those memories. For many of you, maybe it was dad who hauled you and the family into the old truck or station wagon down that dusty old Baja road.

You may not have even fished at first. Maybe it was just those weekend trips to Tijuana, Rosarito or San Felipe (back in the day!) that got Mexico in your blood. If it wasn’t fishing, then maybe it was a camping or surf trip to some remote beach.

You had an old green aluminum Coleman ice chest (Didn’t we ALL have one of those?). You may or may not have had that musty green canvas tent from Sears Roebuck.

You ALWAYS had a dog-eared copy of the Auto Club travel book plus the AAA map that never re-folded properly. If it was a long trip, you always had rope, a shovel and a roll of toilet paper. Bottled designer water was unheard of, but some of us carried those canvas water bags and plastic jugs of real honest-to-goodness TAP water! And it tasted just fine and no one got sick!

You surely might not have appreciated it then. . .all the things dad had to go through to get that trip underway with or without all the kids or mom. He had to think of everything.
There wasn’t a fallback plan. AM/PM mini marts were not along the way. You may have the map, but Auto Club was not going to come out so he better know how to fix a tire.

Restrooms ? That’s why you brought the toilet paper and shovel. No one grumbled. It’s just the way it was! (Try telling your kids to do that these days!). If you needed air-conditioning, you just rolled down the windows and drove faster. And choked on the Baja dust.

But, now that you’re older and know what it’s like just to get everyone to the movies or Walmart or have mustered your own outdoor trips, you have a special appreciation for what it must have taken for dad to marshall all the troops…and do it generally with a smile.

Only a saint could have listened to another verse of “Wheels On the Bus Go Round-and-Round” coming from the zoo in the seats behind him. “Are we there yet?” “You’re not the boss of me!” “Jimmy is touching me!”

With my own dad, he didn’t get me to Baja. Not initially. When I was a kid, dad got seasick! However, it was his love of fishing, camping and outdoors that got him to impart to me a love for those things as well. He did pile us into the Dodge station wagon many-a-time.

So, in a round-about-way, I’d have never found Baja had my dad not shared those qualities and experiences with me in the first place. When I got older, Baja seemed a natural calling and off-I-went.

Little did I know that I’d later make a life and career down here. And it was me that eventually introduced my dad to Baja and we’ve since shared some wonderful priceless moments together. (His seasickness got better as he got older).

So, it’s with great pleasure that I see dads and sons together. But it’s even more gratifying to see the circle go unbroken as sons grow up and take their own dads fishing and watching the role reversals.

“Dad, don’t worry, I have the tackle.”

“Where’s your jacket? You’ll need a jacket on the boat.”

“ Stop asking. I didn’t forget the beer!”

“Make sure to call mom tonite.”

“Yes, we’ll find you a bathroom. There’s always the shovel!”

“No, I will NOT pull your finger!”

My own dad is coming to visit this week. I will not mind baiting his hook or making sure he brought the sunscreen. I hope he catches more and bigger fish than me. He surely got smarter as I got older!

Happy Father’s Day to you all. Feliz Dia de Los Padres!

If you ever need to reach me, I'm down here in La Paz riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com