Living a Decade in Baja California Sur – Part Four
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Discovering La Paz as a wonderful place to call home a decade ago this January Editor Tomas Zyber takes a look at the changes and provides the tips on living in Baja California Sur. With so much to share with our readers we have broken the article up into a four part series.
<<Back to Part 3
Boating
Boating, cruising and exploring the Sea of Cortez is what brought me to Baja initially and remains the focus of my lifestyle here in Mexico. Therefore, it is a subject with which I am very familiar first hand. Since the subject could fill volumes, I’ll cover the most significant changes from my perspective.
The Cabo Marina has been expanded several times since I arrived and a cruise ship terminal has been added at the entrance to the harbor. There is also a new marina at Puerto Los Cabos in San Jose. Prices have soared in downtown Cabo from the outrageous $200 for a night to rest and tank up we spent in 2001 to the current overnight rate for the same sized boat a high as $900. The San Jose marina is somewhat cheaper but services are still coming online.
Cruising has long made La Paz a destination for the wandering boater. When I arrived in one of the last years of the true ‘pirate cruisers’ there were just three marinas and folks really just went there to restock and wash down or to leave there boat while they ventured back to the states.
There were a large number of us (younger) Dot.Com escapees who burned out on the urban rush and fled to Mexico aboard a variety of sailing vessels from questionably seaworthy to sailing yachts. Sailing parties were raucous, and not necessarily for the under 18 crowd. We played pool and crawled into the V-berth usually before the sun rose, maybe 5 or 6 nights a week. Yes, that was a decade ago, and I was that much younger. When a boat or dingy broke loose in the strong La Paz tides there was never a shortage of assistance. Most of us anchored out rather and dock up.
Today, “Cruiser’s Midnight’ is known to be 9PM, even New Years Eve parties celebrate the event in London or New York time.
Today shuffling down the street looking like a disheveled boat drunk will get you the same evil eye in La Paz it might garner in San Diego. La Paz see’s itself as the Neapolitan big sister of Baja; those who travel the street and don’t see the evil eye are fooling themselves.
Today there 6 marinas and super yacht slips and the vast majority of cruisers choose to dock up. With the change in the economy there are far fewer ‘pirate cruisers’ of the earlier years and more retirees in well kempt production boats. The cruising crowd has yet to find one ‘cruiser’s hangout’ like we had a decade ago so the only community connection is Club Cruceros, which splits it’s interests to both the landlubber and seafaring side of La Paz.
There are as said above, now 6 marinas in La Paz. The most secure marina for our hurricane season is Marina CostaBaja, and in sailing the seas half way around the world one of the best equipped, best maintained and best staffed marinas I have ever stayed at.
Marina de La Paz is the oldest marina in the city and is a favorite of cruisers for it’s proximity to town and the atmosphere. The Schroyers who have owned own marina de La Paz since the 80’s are an 
integral part of the cruising community. That smaller marina has added facilities such as a meeting room and the clubhouse of Club Cruceros to their property to make it the cruiser’s central. The employees at all the marinas are outstanding.
There are now two additional marinas that will begin construction soon (allegedly) in the Ensenada de La Paz. One in what has become known as the ‘Virtual Marina’ over the years, for the various stops and starts at construction and another on the Magote side for the Paraiso del Mar development on the Magote.
With the advent of secure and plentiful slips in La Paz a new subspecies of cruiser has developed, the ‘Commuter Cruiser’ or one that stores the boat here in La Paz and returns regularly to explore the Sea.
Fishing
Fishing is still excellent in the southern Sea of Cortez, particularly in the mid to late summer months. Catches vary from year to year but commercial fishing from La Paz is today very limited. Surrounding communities still scrape a meager exisitance from the Sea but most fishing is done by larger vessels. There is not a fisherman I have spoken too that would compare today’s catch to that of just a decade ago.
Fishing Tournements have become Baja fixtures as well. A variety of events are held every year including the famous Bisbee Tournements in Cabo and East Cape as well as popular new comer the La Paz Gold Cup.
Communities are being urged to pursue tourism and sport fishing as a more profitable and environmental way to earn a living from the Sea by former commercial fishermen. A fishing trip to the Sea where you reel in a 300 pound marlin is an unforgetable adventure. Partuclularly if the fish is released for another sportsman to enjoy the thrill.
A good thing from an environmental standpoint is shrimpers no longer cruise the local islands. I personally love jumbo shrimp, but the harvesting techniques are so destructive to the seabed it has been banned on this side of the Sea of Cortez for several years.
Boating to the Islands of the Sea of Cortez is still the reason I live here. I remember the first morning I awoke in one of the secluded bays near La Paz, the sun breaking over a cactus near the water’s edge and not a sign of humanity in sight. You can still occasionally wake to find yourself solo in the world, but it will usually be in the heat of summer and not in one of the popular anchorages. Gawd bless’em all, but it is rare not to endure the drone of a super yacht’s generator through the night for their air conditioning and ice in any anchorage, any more. I miss the silence.
More regulation to boating is on the way. In Loreto, what use to be prime free anchorage grounds are now required moorings for a fee. The free anchorage is deep and limited in space today. Moorings for small vessels are now required at the sea lion colony of Los Islotes. Park rangers now patrol the islands and there is a daily use fee for non-residents. Dogs are no longer permitted on any of the islands of the Sea of Cortez, a fact my Labrador bemoans every trip to the islands. Jet-skis and those vessels in the ‘personal watercraft’ category are not permitted within 1km of any of the islands. (sailors cheer here)
Changes have been proposed to the free anchorage rules in the Ensenada de La Paz. It has been in the wind for some time that the free anchorage will be assigned to Little Pichilingue or deep into the west end (undesirable) of the ensenada, about 8 miles north or south of down town, depending on the choice. I suspect this change will take place when the two new downtown marinas come online and don’t want free anchorage competing or those semi-abandon vessels drifting into their marinas.
Boating in the Sea is still one of the fabulous offerings of the region. The efforts being made are for that of conservation with the increasing number of boaters making use of the region. If you wish even a glimpse of the Sea that which Steinbeck wrote, you need to get underway soon.
The People
I thought it right to end this series with something about my hosts here in Baja. I have been here in La Paz for 10 years now. My business takes me to both the Mexican cultural side of La Paz and the North American side. The number of Mexicans that speak English in Cabo is such that nearly everyone you interact with will speak English. In La Paz the number of English speakers has risen, particularly in the last couple of years as many ‘illegal’s’ return to work in the tourist business here.
With the influx of gringos in the past few years, ‘commuter cruisers’ and Mexicans speaking English, the percentage of espanol speaking North Americans has dropped. Few gringos who have lived here for years know the difference between “farm-a C a” and ‘farm-MA-C a’, and it isn’t a difference of ‘tomAtO’ and ‘taMAto’!
The people are one of the reasons I live here in Baja. I grew up rural and my career took me to the big cities of New York, Los Angeles and Miami. The people here are open, friendly and will greet you on the street. The guys at the parking garage I use downtown all know my name. 
In ten years I have been berated for being a gringo just three times. Considering the majority of my time in Mexico was during the Bush administration, that is amazing.
The first time was early on, during the high growth years. A young lady who was heir to a famous restaurant here in La Paz was distressed her family had sold the business to a gringo. This Carnaval intoxicated young lady railed on about the gringo invasion for about 15 minutes to me before resigning to the lady’s room.
The second by an older lady besmirching my North American heritage, angered by my dog barking at her as she chased the dog with a stick.
In the third I was subjected to purposefully overhearing a ‘speech’. An opinion leader was spouting to his minions about the treachery of selling Mexican land to gringos. I shocked him by replying in decent Spanish that it depended on who they sold their land to. “There are good gringos and bad, like Mexicans. Gringos who want to be part of your community and ones who want to create a community of their own.” And that was the end of the loud conversation.
Be certain that with some service businesses and some retail businesses 'gringo pricing' is still very real. At major businesses the practice is a thing of the past. Gingos still sometimes get hooked by change schemes at Pemex.
Ten Year Wrap-up
All in all, that is pretty hospitable of the Baja folks, the way I've been treated. Considering the size of our invasion, how it has directly changed their lives and the cold welcome immigrants get in the United States.
I think one of the keys to successful living in Baja is to learn the language. I started by learning 5 words a day. Subtitles on DVD’s are a great tool, as are tapes, classes and making Mexican friends. You are in their country, have the courtesy to learn the language, is my philosophy. You're never too old to learn.
After ten years in Mexico many things have changed, from tangible things to the perceptions I have of life and living here in Baja California Sur. But without exception or reservation I say that the past ten years have been some of the least stressful and most enjoyable of my life. My decision to move to Baja California Sur a decade ago was a positive one. Viva La Paz.
Thanks for reading!
Tomas