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Loreto Baja - A New Place for Expatriots?
by Bob Banner

"Some places will probably be more hospitable than others following the crash. One wouldn’t want to be in a region where massive energy inputs are required for heating or cooling. Neither would one wish to be in a region in which everyone is armed to the teeth, or one that is teeming with people." — Richard Heinberg, from Powerdown

I drive around this small city of Loreto in Baja (700 miles south of San Diego) and see cars, old cars, beat-up cars, but cars nevertheless. Not many bikes. People going through stop signs, slowing down for the many speed bumps in the downtown area, policemen giving a ticket to gringos who parked at a red zone. Why not more bicycles? Because it’s cool to drive? Gas is $2 a gallon.

Schoolgirls wearing uniforms walk down the side streets. I see a group crowding around a girl with a cell phone all abuzz with conversation that I don’t understand. Small stores supplying citizens with TVs, cell phones, water heaters, plumbing tools, paints, clothes. Restaurants and an internet cafe. Prices are typical to what one would find in California. The only really drastically reduced price I experienced was the hour rental in an internet cafe: 20 pesos, about $2 an hour to use a computer.

I see gringos shopping and hanging out in gringo areas, while some explore, walking through the residential areas. Most houses are cement block with tin roof, hot in summer and cold in winter. When asked why they build homes like this rather than the traditional wood/adobe with palapa-thatched roofs, the answer is almost universal. They want to be modern. All the houses are connected to the electrical and water systems. Individual meters are attached to the homes for both. A few solar panels could be seen as I walked around.

There is no recycling anywhere in Loreto except for aluminum cans. Most everything else gets collected and then burned outside the city, but, as one friend told me, they repair many appliances like washing machines, stoves, refrigerators. These do not end up on the landfill as often as in the United States.

I see government workers sweeping the sandy streets every morning while some business owners hose their sidewalks to keep the sand at bay.

I didn’t see a big gap between wealthy and poor. I see mostly people working, getting by, listening to music at night in the town square, greeting each other, laughing in the streets. The residential areas are mixed zones where someone would be repairing cars, a little farther down a small restaurant would appear with chairs and tables on the sidewalk. Further down you’d spot a small lumber mill cutting wood for local carpenters doing remodeling. The only SUVs I saw were driven by gringos. Sky TV had plenty of satellite dishes atop roofs, allowing Mexican news, sport shows, and soap operas into homes.

Small food marts would be scattered throughout Loreto with fruits, veggies, canned and packaged goods, and toilet paper — all the normal condiments of civilized society.

Gas attendants wore uniforms and sophisticated name tags. Pemex oil company is run by the government and the price is $2 a gallon. At times I’d see eight employees waiting on the ongoing rush of customers. No self-service gas stations in Loreto.

Development is slow since most people pay as they go. One year 2 feet of concrete bricks are layered on a new addition to a house, for example. The next year perhaps another 2-3 ft. of bricks go higher. The government and banks keep it that way, but word has it that credit cards are coming, which may change all that.

Thirty miles south of Loreto is an eco-retreat. I spent 10 days in a gentle cove nestled into sand dunes on the beach. An arroyo lives behind the dunes and connects to the high mountains of the Sierra de la Giganta range.

Few people live along the cove and nearby stretch of beach. Residents of the small village catch and sell fish as well as remodel and build homes for a few gringos who have settled in the area, and continually renovate their own homes.

Ensenada Blanca is a most pristine area. One can see clearly to the bottom of the sea at about 12 feet. Pelicans, cormorants, frigates, sandpipers, seagulls, boobies and many others make their daily appearances in the cove. Bill Paff and Denise Jones, once residents of San Luis Obispo have almost become Mexican citizens and have been able to purchase 5 acres of this most scenic cove of Baja, on the Sea of Cortez side.

With solar energy, propane refrigeration, compost toilets, showers rigged up to a low-impact water heater, and a water storage tank to gravity-feed water into the cantina and showers allow for an ambiance of soft living on the earth.

With casitas made from simple foamboard and adobe with thatched palapas for roofing, along with two yurts, one for housing and the other for a community room for meditation, massage, yoga, dancing and/or workshops; plus a large bodega for storage and worker quarters makes for a spacious eco-retreat center alive with excellent weather, dark skies, and diverse animal life. In a few days (of writing this report) the turtle down in the sand dunes about 50 ft. from my casita will hatch her 100+ baby turtles who will jostle toward the sea at the break of dawn. Villagers and gringos on a local environmental team are working to make a safe journey for the baby turtles. To view photos of the turtles as well as the exquisite cove go to www.el-Santuario.com. El Santuario also provides kayaking, horse rides, and nature hikes, as well as superb dinners at the cantina for guests. If you need some on-the-spot or long-term therapy, Bill Paff is readily available. He and Denise have made contact with many of the locals here, providing them with their own unique skills of veterinarian assistance, counseling, as well as hiring locals for the many jobs that an eco-retreat requires. Interns often come to help out with various projects. A woman from Holland who responded to an ad in HopeDance is now helping the village’s school create a garden and may embark on a bigger project to grow more vegetables for the ongoing retreatants and the village throughout the season.

Because of the Bush Coup II, Bill and I have been talking about possible plans in case of an influx of Americans immigrating to Baja for four years or more.

To catch up on needed sleep, to eat local food, to hang out during the warm 75 degree nights watching the brilliant array of shooting stars and the various constellations was absolutely wonderful. Kayaking to nearby beaches with turtles floating to the surface, watching a school about 50 fish jump out of the water for about 15 ft. right in front of the kayak, and simply hanging out on the beach soaking up some needed rays of sunshine were what I needed.

One day a temporary expatriate who visits a Buddhist temple in Thailand for months on end (while working in the States a few months to earn enough to live the rest of the time elsewhere) also lives in a thatched cottage on the beach in the fishing village. He took us out for a boat ride to a nearby marina where a number of gringos live on their moored sailboats. They get together occasionally to do community shopping as well as staying in touch by way of a shortwave radio network.

Writing articles and reading books (about the end of oil) and reflecting on the ongoing changes of HopeDance occupy my mind as well.

If you are ever in need of a slice of paradise to remind you of a life beyond the madness of America’s moralistic yet fascist empire or perhaps are contemplating leaving the madness behind, check out Ensenada Blanca in Baja.

Bob Banner still resides in the US, pumping out a publication every other month and washing windows.

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