I Want To Be In Baja

San Felipe, Baja - One of the Baja resorts to have suffered a 75% drop in tourism revenue this year.

If anyone still has concerns over traveling to Mexico in general, or Baja in particular, I would direct you to read a new report published this week called  Baja California, Mexico: Impact of U.S. Media, an Analysis by Scott Hanning and Jeffrey Werner, Emerson Strategic Communication Group. Baja, which relies heavily on tourism dollars from U.S. visitors, has suffered a decline of 75% in their revenue this year - a subject we have visited many times. The analysis makes clear that fear of drug cartel violence, and later of  the H1N1 flu virus, has kept huge numbers of visitors away.  What is also made clear is that these fears were wholly unjustified and unnecessarily overblown by the U.S. media.

“One critical fact remains clear, however: there is no evidence or history of tourists being harmed by cartel-related violence. Further, the threat of so-called “spillover” violence into the border states that spawned a great deal of coverage in the pre-April period has failed to materialize.  Nor has Mexico become the failed state so vigorously predicted earlier in the year.  None of these facts are actively reported to the American public.”

If the reports of drug cartel violence are still a concern for you, please read this report. I would also venture to suggest that you might like to think about what other stories in the press might be exaggerated - and why.  The fear of North Korean missiles reaching Hawaii is the latest one that springs to mind. There are factions within this country that have a vested interest in keeping people  fearful - don’t buy into their lies. It is you who ends up being the loser if you do.

After all the nonsense that has been written lately about the dangers of visiting Mexico - “a potentially failed state”, and all the other nonsense that has appeared in the mainstream press lately, it is nice to see a more measured story for a change!  Thank you ABC News’ Maria Finn for her story entitled  Safe Travels in Sensational Mexico - Remember: ‘It’s Not a Theme Park, It’s a Sovereign Country With Laws.’  And thank you to the El Dorado Ranch Yahoo Group member who bought this story to my attention.

No-one can help but be aware of the recent news over the escalating violence between the powerful Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government - violence that is now spilling over into various towns in the United States.  However, I couldn’t believe my ears the other day when the TV news reported that the Pentagon feared that Mexico could quickly become a “failed state”.  What a load of absolute rubbish! Calderon’s reaction was rightly indignant when it appeared in a story in theweek.com - 

“Look who’s talking, said Mexico City’s Excelsior in an editorial. It takes two to make a cross-border crisis. Almost all of the drug gang violence is concentrated in cities along the U.S. border. In the words of President Felipe Calderón: “A good housecleaning is also needed on the other side of the border. To bring in the drugs, the cartels require corrupt U.S., not Mexican, authorities.” Plus, let’s not forget that the weapons the cartels use to kill Mexicans are smuggled in from America — even U.S. officials admit that”.

No-one is arguing that that the problem is not a bad one, but I see it as a strong Mexican government tackling a situation that badly needs tackling.  It will inevitably lead to more violence in the short term, but if the power of the drug cartels is not curtailed then no-one will be safe, which ever side of the border you live on.

It is certainly true that this year’s Spring Breakers are being steared away from their usual Mexican haunts because of the drug violence, but it is mainly a border problem, not one that is affecting all of Mexico. In a story in the Los Angeles Times it reported that “Summer Winter Action Tours (SWAT) has been sending students to Mexico for the last 12 years and, in a website post, insists that “San Felipe is one of the safest destinations in all of Baja California and Mexico.”

The Pentagon and the press would serve the situation better with a bit of perspective and a call to action from the US side of the border to help Calderon, instead of this irresponsible and groundless fear-mongering.

If you are interested in moving permanently to Mexico, whether to retire there or just relocate, whether that be to El Dorado Ranch in Baja or to any other part of Mexico, you may want to find out whether or not is worth actually becoming a Mexican citizen. Is it a good idea? What are the differences in living in Mexico as citizen of the country or on an immigrant visa? For those that would like to find an answer to these questions you can do no better than to download the latest newsletter from buildinginbaja.com - http://www.buildinginbaja.com/BuildingInBaja-Issue03.pdf

On page 18 you will find an article called “Is that legal? - Mexican Naturalization” by Lic. Jaques-Edouard Beaulne, attorney at Law, which will give you all the ‘ins and outs’ of becoming a Mexican citizen and what the requirements are. The two main criteria you will need to meet are, firstly, you must have accumulated a minimum of 5 years legal residence there and, secondly, you need to be able to speak enough Spanish to hold a conversation and to have learned the basic history of the country to a grade 4 or 5 level.

There are many reasons why one would want to become a naturalized citizen of the country, especially if you plan to conduct business there or want to ensure real property ownership rights in areas not covered by a Fideicomiso (as El Dorado Ranch is). Anyway, if you ever wanted to find out whether to become a full citizen when you move to Mexico, this article is a great place to start.

 
One good source of information about Baja is the Baja Times. This is an English Language Newspaper for Baja and has been going since 1978, both as a print newspaper, and now also online. It is published on a twice monthly basis and produces some 300,000 a year. It is also a free paper and is focused both on visiting tourists as well as foreign-born residents, having a high proportion of English-speaking journalists and contibutors. 

I had a good look through the online version - www.bajatimes.com - and found a lot of very useful and interesting articles in there. It has sections on pretty much anything you would want to know about the Baja region including Health, Politics, Border and Immigration matters, Events, Maps and so on. It also has individual sections pertaining to each of the main towns - Rosarito, Puerto Nuevo, Ensenada, San Felipe, Tijuana, and Tecate.
For those thinking of buying real estate and retiring to Baja, it is worth having a look at the current column called ‘ASK KC AT THE BEACH’ - ”Want to know more about Baja? Retirement, Living, Volunteering, What to do, Where to go, How to meet people?”, he asks. There are several interesting pieces offered by retirees there. You can see the column at:
 http://www.bajatimes.com/columnsDetail.asp?sid=1392

All in all, a very useful source of Baja information! Check it out.

It is not only Americans who have been attracted by the good weather and great lifestyle to the Baja Peninsula - apparently the Canadians have discovered it as well! Although they have long vacationed there to escape the worst excesses of their winter weather - quite understandably, unless you are a big skiing fan - more and more are moving there permanently or buying vacation homes there.

In 2007, over a third of all new foreign homeowners buying property in Mexico were Canadian.

The experience of one Canadian quoted in a recent PRWeb press release gives an idea of the kind of reasons that draw many Canadians to the area -   

“Lyndie Meissner, originally from Ft. Francis, Ontario, said it’s the sense of freedom found only in Mexico that prompted her to buy a home there.

“You can drive up and down the warm coast to enjoy the water with no worries of traffic jams,” said Meissner. “It’s like going back in time to the Wild West. I lived in Dana Point, Calif., in the 1970s, before any homes were there and we camped on the beach. Now, Baja California is the only place left on the West Coast with that lifestyle.” 

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/7/prweb1140754.htm

And for those that do set up home in Baja you could well find that your neighbours too are ex-pats from either America or Canada.

What with the warm weather, endless sandy beaches, and gas at only $2.60 a gallon, who can blame them - I’m off to Baja this weekend to look at some property myself! I’ll let you know what I find out.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk along a white sandy beach for miles?  This is something you can experience at El Dorado Ranch on the Baja.  Just 120 miles south of the US border is some of the most beautiful beach you’ll even encounter and with a tide that goes out 3/4 of a mile, there’s enough room to walk around for days without ever walking in the same place!

Hi Everyone,

This is the new blog and primary online presence for Nancy Tossell. She is blogging as an owner and enthusiast for the residential community complex called ‘El Dorado Ranch’ at San Filipe, Baja, Mexico.

The blog has been set up for her by us, the dudes, of “dude, blog your business“, and both us will be contributing to what we aim to be the premier online site for those looking to buy a retirement home in Baja, or buy a holiday home in Baja, or even just to vacation in Baja.

We want to provide in-depth information both about the El Dorado Ranch Project itself, and all the wonderful sites and things to do in Baja, Mexico as well.

This is also very much an interactive experience. We want to encourage you to make comments, ask questions, voice concerns, anything you might possibly want to know about living the life in Baja, Mexico. Just use the comments section at the bottom of each post and we shall post the best, along with a reply, for the benefit of all visitors to the blog. We look forward to hearing from you!