I've been surfing Rosarito Beach in Northern Baja Mexico since the early 1980's. It's only 20 miles south of San Diego. Back then the main street was dirt and there were more horses on it than cars. I had a '66 VW Transporter (Mr. Bus) I had driven to San Diego after the snow melted in Colorado. Mr. Bus loved Baja. Even then Rosarito was a spring break haven and "Papas and Beer" was a well known mega-club on the sand. We'd get chased off private surf spots by the police-have a few beers, and everything was good. One friend of a friend had a place at K38 we could crash at (38 kilometers from the US border) and anyone who knows surfing- knows that place is just pure funnnn. Home of the fish taco too. Really. They park commissary trucks outfitted as mobile taco shops alongside the free road, put out an awning and a roadside sign- and they were good to go. Amazing fried fish tacos and local lobster burritos. You were always scared the first time you ate at one of these places- when you find a good one you always stick with it. After a long surf session you were fried from the sun and dog tired and this food really hit the spot every time- and still does for me. Within 10 miles I have the origin of both the Caesar Salad and Fish Taco. Take that San Fran foodies.
Here we are today-some 30 years later, with a family house in Rosarito Beach. Crazy world huh? The house is on the same sandy beach we used to surf. Papas and Beer is just a little ways down the same beach. We have six labs (One chocolate, two white, three black) and four Kestrel falcons for the time being (just released one last week). We really love living here. Yeah- there are things you go through down here you just wouldn't put up with in the USA. Bu that's part of the adventure. Yeah- the country is run by narcos and drug money. Everything bad you hear is probably true, and you need to keep your head up all the time- but we'll never regret building the house here in Baja instead of in Argentina or Costa Rica even. Not that we didn't think about it.
A recent survey said 70% of Americans who live in Mexico give back to their local community. We're no different- but in hindsight I should have chosen a path with less resistance. We really weren't expecting any resistance when we took on the cause of protecting the beach out front. They have no zoning or coastal commission yet to regulate what happens along the coast. Many people get booted off land they thought they owned. Many others wake one day to see a building going up in front of them on the sand. That's pretty much what happened to us- the condo project location didn't even make sense- which made matters worse. It wasn't a smart project- far from it. So we decided to draw a line in the sand- before it got directly in front of us.
Protecting the beach became our cause and crusade. As we saw more beach land being gobbled, we wondered out loud what happens when nothing is left to walk on and how do you save some to use as, well- a "beach". The beach is one of those things people take for granted until they run into a barbed-wire fence one day. People will say "Oh yeah- that's federal zone you can't build on that", but when you point out anew condo tower- they just shrug. This is Mexico. Anything can be done if you have the connections and money.
It turns out there is a legal way to protect a piece of beach from development. Once the high-tide line moves inland with beach erosion- more and more beach becomes "Federal Maritime Zone". They measure it every couple years. When land is taken over by the Federal Zone it changes from private to public ownership and no previous land titles are valid- you have to get a Federal land title called a land Concession. These are only issued by Mexico City, they are good for 15 years, and every year you pay for it. There are different types of concessions with priorities for each type. Here we had a huge advantage. If you are a Mexican citizen (Alonzo) holding clear title to land impacted directly by the ocean (our house getting hit by wave water)- you are #1 in priority if you apply for the Concession in front of your property- ahead of any developers and speculators. Very few Mexicans have the money to do the surveys and hire the architects to apply for the concession. Our neighbors aren't all Mexican either, but we all wanted to protect the beach- so we pooled our money and applied for more and more beach area to protect. The federal agency who issues the land titles is called PROFEPA. IN 2006 they certified the beach for "recreational use with priority given to conservation" so that helped applications get approved and we have the titles in Alonzo's name.
So you get the titles protecting the beach and that should be the end of the story. But this is Mexico and some people see a building on every inch of beach if it means money for them. Oceanfront real estate is big money and not much else is selling these days. We never once approached this as an "American trying to save the beach for Mexicans" thing, we just wanted to keep the beach clean, safe accessible and free for everyone. The Rosaritenses (as the people of Rosarito are called) work hard when they can find jobs- but the tourism is way down and Baja is double the cost of living as mainland Mexico. Times are hard so the beach should be easy and free for them. Everyone is entitled to spend a day with their family for free and What is Rosarito Beach without the Beach? Right.
Well, things didn't go as planned, at least not yet anyways. We're dealing with professional squatters, illegal condo towers, and some simple violence. It all got a little messy, so we decided to document the struggle to protect the beach in a YouTube video. We did two videos with English subtitles and are still working on the final Spanish version. The narration on the short version is just a reading of the text boxes. The longer video is "private" because we don't want to embarrass the Rosarito Police or judicial system- we just want a solution.
I hope you enjoy the videos. Go to YouTube user: BajaLabs
No comments:
Post a Comment