Newport to Cabo race

Light rain this morning with cloudy skies...a welcome change from the heat we have been having. Newport to Cabo race had its first finshers this morning with Stark Raving Mad being the first for line honors (5:12am) and Horizon and Allure closley behind. Many more to come but without much wind it may take some of them most of the day to arrive. With about 40 boats registered it has been one of the larger fleets fro this race in past years. For more infomation on the progress and to track any of the boats yet to arrive go here Congradulations to those that have finshed and to those yet to arrive!

Spring Break and travel warnings

Once again the US government is using fear to keep people from traveling to Mexico. They have now once again trageted Spring Break travelers. Yes there are some dangers as there are anywhere but we feel as many do that it is really blown out of poportion. Cabo San Lucas is gearing up for one of its most populated spring breaks in years. Hotel reservations and travel planners report numbers up significantly over last year. This may be due in part to the very favorable exchange rate of close to 15:1 on the Mexican peso. More than 25,000 visitors come to Cabo each week by air alone. Another 15-25 thousand visit Los Cabos by cruise ship per week, in the peak of the season. With that volume of visitor traffic there are bound to be some incidents. In the last 6 months these were some of the most noteworthy: Last fall two Americans were arrested and one died while in the custody of Cabo San Lucas police. Reports failed to mention that the two were being held for felony assault. The investigation continues as to whether there was any wrong doing by the officers. Earlier this spring, two Canadians were wounded by two Mexican assailants in a Los Cabos Strip Bar. Although the assailants may have been 'connected' the dispute appeared to be over either drugs or one of the strippers. No one was arrested. A recent press report sited that more Americans were arrested by Tijuana police than in any other foreign destination city. Of course! Tijuana was the #1 foreign city visited by Americans, simply because of the ease of it. More than 60 million persons crossed the border into Baja California last year. That is more than 1500 times more than the number who visited London. In 2007 352 people were murdered in greater Tijuana. However, compared to US cities of about the same population, Tijuana falls in the 'also ran' category with 17.5 murders per 100,000 people. This compares to a safer San Diego, on the other side of the line with 5 murdered per 100K. However, a great number of US cities have higher murder rates; like Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas and the winner (loser) New Orleans with more than 3 times the murder rate of Tijuana. Yet there is no travel warning for these cities? 30 of the murders in the region involved government anti-drug officials and police. These numbers and gruesome methods horrify Americans - but this is a war. Most of these were new federal officials sent to clean things up. There were others who's allegiance to which side was in question. Like in the rest of Mexico, kidnapping Baja California increased last year. Less than 20US residents were abducted in the border area last year. Again, looking at the huge numbers of happy Baja visitors, that is half the number of people struck by lightening in the US last year! Kidnappings for cash of foreigners is rare, as they have no idea what you are worth on face value. Two real estate representatives that were rescued by Mexican authorities were abducted by a very amateurish crew that failed to remove the license plates from the abduction vehicle, resulting in the arrest and rescue. These kidnappings are not the work of 'trained paramilitary groups' as some press reports would have you believe. Some of the kidnappings of US citizens involved those in the employ of a Mexican company. It is the employer that is often the actual financial target of the kidnappers. Several others of the missing US persons were tied to potential drug/gang activity. The violence against US border agents makes prompt and colorful headlines in the US press. Rather, this should have been anticipated, when you squeeze a profitable business like the drug cartels which are, supported by American dollars, the bad guys are likely to push back. In looking at the statistics, there was no evidence that ANY innocent US citizen had been randomly killed in drug violence. What is being done... Make no mistake, the government of Mexico is well aware of the importance of US investment and tourist dollars in the development of Baja. Within days of the tragic events of November, the federal government began moving as many as 7000 troops to the region to combat the drug violence and corruption. Nearly half a million dollars was allocated to fund anti crime work in December 2007 alone.