Baja Experience

I have for some time been trying to write about the Baja experience.
It is difficult for a simple reason . It is a mixed feeling.
On one hand it has been grate and we have met lot of nice people. On the other hand we can feel the changes that are coming and will not give the coming generations the same opportunity to stay on the beaches like we have done.

What is though worse is that the Mexicans them self's are loosing control over the beaches and in some instances the fishermen can not get to sea from locations they have been using for a long time.

At Ligui and Danzante this is the case. The Eco hotels that are there, are in trouble and the fishermen had to get to authorities one day to be able to get to their boats. They had been fenced off! The same is happening else where.

this image is shot at the beach of Ligüi

What is happening is in a way like what happened in USA centuries ago when the Indians there where chased out.
I am still in such a shock from visiting Cherokee that I have not been able to write about it.
It was for me (who always played the Indian when little) a huge shock. Learning about how friendly and well organized civilization the Indians had. They where probably among the first socialist there existed. An their friendship was ruined by greed and greed alone. We europeans tend to think it was those Americans, but we should remember that the only Americans at that time where the Indians. It was us the europeans that where invading the country. Even the Vikings decided to leave the country as they could not communicate with the Indians.

Here in Baja we are getting to similar situation, but now money is the weapon of choice. On both sides of La Paz the beaches are being bought. In some cases it could be fine, but the reality of things is that the land gets fenced off and no one can access the beaches even though they are entitled to by law. Further more it gets to expensive for the mexicans (mostly Indians here) to live in the area or town they have been living in for ever. They have to move out. What awaits them is nothing ,because if they move into the mountains there is nothing there and lot of the work on all the resorts and hotels is taken over by Big companies from the mainland that bring their own workforce.

This is why a hotel like Danzante in Ligui is so well liked by the people. Not only is it so designed that it blends into the nature but all its service an groceries come from the community. It was build by people for the love of the nature not the love of money or solitude.
Stationed at the shoreline of UNESCO's world heritage site by Sea of cortes, it is strange that some one can buy the beach, threaten the owners and fence off the beach so the locals can't go there any more.

I find it strange that rich people do move to an other country and then fence them-self off from the communities they just moved into. They totally miss the kindness and niceties of the local people. The strangest thing I heard about is the man who bought a property on a hill overlooking the ocean and a beach. It was beside an Arroyo (river bed) and riverbeds are public domain and free entrance for anybody. This man had the nerves to go to the town council and complain about people staying at the beach. Some 500 meters from his house!
How does he dare to move to an other country and then demand that the locals move away and change their habits. How arrogant can you bee. If you need solitude buy an island an live there alone. Maybe he was just pissed of about having spent quarter of a million on his house and then people from every where Canada, USA, Germany, Iceland came and staid at the beach for free.

According to Dali Lama (I have been reading his book on compassion) the biggest need now is the need for compassion. We need understanding of each others cultures. We need to stop being afraid of what is around the corner. And we need to allow other nations to show us how grate they are. In the world of mass communication we need to stop spending the time on babbling bullshit and use all this communication equipment to TALK to each other. More important we need to LiISTEN. Listen to others and respect their view on the world. It can be totally different from ours and not much to our liking, but every one is entitled to his opinion.
We need media that speaks the truth, dares to go against the authorities and gives us the news as they are. Todays news are a laughing stock. They are entertainment not journalism.

If we where to go by all the advise we got in USA we would have turned back at the border and never entered Mexico. Then if we would have entered Mexico we would only have stayed in FENCED OFF PARKS.

Thank god we did not listen to any of those advises. We have met with a lot of people from all over the world and the impression we have from the locals is fantastic. Nice smiling honest people, that are ready to help with any thing needed. The big negative thing is us are the lack of spanish. If we just could speak more spanish I think life would be even more beautiful

If you have the chance to visit Baja, do so and do it soon with open mind.
Its a different world her. Different beauty. One that should be embraced as is, not torn down and fenced off by some ugly resorts.

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