|
The
Baja Peninsula itself was a legendary land thought to be an
island until sailors sent by Hernán Cortez, the conqueror
of the Aztecs, landed there in the 1500s and heard tales of
Amazon women who ruled over their men and amassed fortunes
in pearls and gold. More likely, historians tell us, Indians,
whose history has largely been lost, inhabited Baja.
By
the 17th century, Baja was well known to seafaring men. During
the brisk trade between Manila and Europe, the famed Manila
galleons carried silks, pearls and spices to be exchanged
for Mexican silver, from Luzon in the Philippines to Acapulco.
Their cargoes were carried overland to Mexico's east coast
port of Veracruz an loaded on ships bound for Europe. After
months at sea, their first sight of land and a fresh water
estuary at the mouth of a river in San Jose were powerful
lures to sailing ships bound for Acapulco after months at
sea, and they stopped there for provisions from the local
ranchers before sailing on -in spite of the English pirate
ships lying in wait for them in coves and caves along the
coast.
Alarmed
by the growing number of sea battles and pillaging along the
coast, the Spanish conquistadors who governed Mexico at the
time, established a fort in San Jose, and sent the Spanish
padre, Nicholas Tamaral, to establish a mission there. But
the mission was burned and the Padre killed by the local Pericu
Indians, who resisted the Padre's attempts to force them to
cover their polygamous ways. The fate of Padre Tamaral is
graphically depicted in a mural in the present church in San
Jose, which was built on the same spot as the old mission,
in 1940. Later during the Mexican- American War, US marines
occupied the town is named for the victorious Mexican naval
officer José Antonio Mijares, who defeated them.
San
Jose went on to become a respectable commercial center in
the 1800s, doing a brisk trade with passing ships. Some of
the one and two-story homes from the last two centuries are
still owned by the original families. Several are beguiling
settings for San Jose's small restaurants and shops.
Cabo
San Lucas, on the other hand, had an impudent upstart, which
could account for its casual makeup, Medano Beach was just
a wild stretch of sand until the early 1900s when a few fishermen
put up their palapas beside a fresh water lagoon near the
present Club Cascadas Resort. In 1919, Cabo's marine-rich
waters attracted a fish cannery to San Lucas Bay. The now
long abandoned cannery at the entrance to the inner harbor
was at one time the third largest packer of tuna in the world.
Little puestos, or stands, served as restaurants and there
were a few dirt-floor cantinas.
Now
enter the big game fishermen from the States. After World
War II, a handful of sportsmen pilots discovered the 500-pound
marlin in the Sea of Cortez and lit the fuse under one of
the biggest tourist explosions in history. They flew down
with their pals to hunt dove in the scrub-covered hills and
wrestle fighting fish out of the sea. The simple fishing and
hunting lodges they built for their buddies along the Baja
coast were the forefathers of the grand resort in the 1950s,
and then, in the 60s, came the Cabo San Lucas and the Hacienda.
Twin Dolphin, Solmar and Finisterra date from the 70s. These
early hostelries were small, but some had their own airstrips.
Word soon got out that Los Cabos -more than 1,000 miles from
Hollywood- was the ultimate celebrity hideout, and before
long the gleaming yachts of the rich and famous were mingling
with the peeling fishing boats in the bay. The area invited
celebrities such as Taylor and Burton, Sophia Loren and Carlos
Ponti, Lucy and Desi, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Bing Crosby
and John Wayne.
The
Transpeninsular Highway from the Mexican border south of San
Diego opened in the early 70s, bringing a handful of Southern
California surfers with their boards strapped to their trucks.
They were followed by a parade of snowbird campers and RVs.
But it was only after the Mexican government agency, Fonatur,
which invests in tourist development, put its weight behind
a much needed resort infrastructure, that the present, airport
opened in 1984 and the big building developers moved in.
Stunning
developments in the past ten years have included the opening
of seven new championship golf courses designed by such masters
as Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones, II and The Dye Corporation.
These courses have made Los Cabos the golf capital of Latin
America. Additionally, Los Cabos boasts more than 40 hotels,
including many luxury resorts on the corridor alone. Time-share
resorts and condos run from the hills clear down to the beach
and there are at least 3,000 new private homes and 60 major
restaurants -not counting taco stands.
Complimenting
the new golf courses and hotels in the corridor, and further
additions along San Jose's beachfront, new hotels are creeping
up the Pacific coast towards the artists' colony of Todos
Santos. With a population fast approaching 100,000 (more than
doubling in the past six years), the history of Los Cabos
may have just begun.
|
