Title
A New Season on the Pacific Coast by Bill Herrera
Boy, I can’t believe it’s Fall all ready… it seems that last time I
wrote a few lines to bring you folks up to date with the Pacific Coast
of Baja California Sur it was just a few weeks ago… can you believe
that was the beginning of Summer…? Time really flies… even here in
Paradise!
You’re probably wondering what Paradise am I referring too…? Well, my Paradise is this stretch on the Pacific Coast from Cabo San Lucas to Todos Santos (see red line on map). In this stretch of magical land, approximately an hour drive, you will encounter what makes Baja famous: gorgeous vistas as you drive through winding gentle hills as the arid desert slowly disappears into the mighty blue Pacific.
Once you leave Cabo San Lucas heading North on Route 19, as you leave
all the traffic behind, you travel for approximately 15 minutes and
you’ll come to a small community called Migriño. As a matter of fact
at Kilometer 100 there’s a big bridge with the same name, you can exit
at either side of the bridge and go West.
Once there you’ll see a wide beach that goes for miles in both
directions, it’s pretty desolate except for a few ATV out in the
distance (3 ATV rental shops close by). This is an excellent beach for
whale watching since they get pretty close to the shore and they even
smile at you when you take their picture. Ok ok, I’m exaggerating a
bit about the smiles, but take my word seriously this is no swimable
beach !! As a matter of fact there’s only a few swimable beaches on
the whole Pacific, one of the most well known is Los Cerritos Surfing
Beach, please be careful if you want to play with mother nature.
As we leave Migriño heading North we now enter what I call “no man’s land”. I called it that name because there is no civilization on either side of the road. Just the peaceful views of the ocean at a distance and the magic of the desert with it’s bountiful collection of cacti, elephant trees and spots of Damina plants here and there. After traveling for approximately 25 minutes we re-enter civilization and a small town by the name of Elias Calles, which a foresee to be a place full of luxury resorts within the next 5 years. Right now this humble community of approximately 500 souls has no electricity, but there are well founded rumors that within a year all that will change.
As we continue traveling North we go over a hill, as we descend be
ready for a spectacular view of Los Cerritos Bay (approximately 7
miles long). Nearby we can see the gated community of Rancho Nuevo’s
with many opulent houses on the beach front, and out in the distance
we see a glimpse of Los Cerritos at the other end of the bay. This 7
mile stretch of land will also see a major transformation within the
next few years. I foresee many private developments, from gated
communities with luxurious homes and large parcels of land for your
horses, to boutique hotels to cater the affluent in search of peace
and quiet.
It takes approximately 15 minutes from Elias Calles to Los Cerritos, and this is the area where you see most of the construction on new homes on the beach front. Los Cerritos has a new beach club, restrooms, with promises of public showers, changing rooms, and possible condominiums and hotel in the not too distant future. Los Cerritos is subdivided into over 2000 lots, most of them over 21,500sqft, many with new roads, starting at $20,000, and some have views out of a magazine !! Most of these lots have gone up in value by over 35% in less than a year, sales are brisk and the choice lots are selling fast or are going up in price on a monthly basis.
Right next door to Los Cerritos we find Pescadero (with the 1st
Pemex gas station after leaving Cabo San Lucas), which was a small and
quaint fishermen’s village up to recently, now it is growing leaps and
bounds. It has infrastructure in place, many organic manicured farms,
the coolest weather in all of Baja Sur during summer, and even a
baseball stadium, with multiple new construction of American style
houses!!! I have been living and running my office here for the past
18 months and I’m very surprise on its growth, I’m expecting to see
traffic lights any day now…
Approximately 7 minute drive north from beautiful Pescadero we arrive in Todos Santos. This place is magic… no wonder the Federal government recently named it Pueblo Magico (Magic Town). It will be a disrespect to describe this town, its people, the history and its future in a few short lines. So if you bear with me, the next article I write will be devoted to Todos Santos, the North End, Las Playitas, Meliton Albañez and the new road that will connect to La Paz in half the time.