The November/December 2008 issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine has an interesting, and lengthy, feature article on Baja, that focuses on the development now taking place.
“For good or ill, the development of nature-rich Baja California marches inexorably on. Traveler takes a look at the forces bearing down on this Mexican treasure.”
The author, James Conaway, interviews locals, developers and others as he makes his way from the southern tip of Baja in Cabo San Lucas (“Sun, fun, beauty, fame, oblivion, squalor”), then 318 miles north to Loreto, and finally 7 hours towards the US border to the biosphere reserve called Bahía de Los ángeles.
The author contrasts Cabo with Loreto several times, but also implies that Loreto could be headed that same direction (the population of Loreto is forecast to grow from 15,000 to 120,000 people).
Pedregral, the new high end resort of Cabo is also mentioned.
“What’s to become of Baja is an increasingly loud debate in both Mexico and the United States.”
Conaway spends time with Peter Clark, the director of sustainability for Loreto Bay Company, discussing desalination, adobe bricks, and the vision for the development.
The article does not make judgments although it does raise questions of the practical limitations of sustainability (ironically, at one point while driving the terrain of Cabo in an SUV while gazing at “stone palaces”) and also the environmental impacts of urbanization across the Baja.
Link to Article from National Geographic Traveler: ‘Is Baja on the Block?’
[Thanks John!]