Southwest Goes South to Mexico

According to an article on Jaunted.com this week, Southwest Airlines is teaming up with Volaris, a discount Mexican carrier, to send passengers to Mexico. "Starting on November 12 you can visit Southwest’s website to book tickets through a codeshare agreement to places like Cancun, Mexico City, and Guadalajara.", the article states. Great news from my perspective, as you can link up from Guadalajara or Mexico City to any sunny beach destination in Mexico such as Los Cabos, La Paz, and Puerto Vallarta, among others. Southwest/Volaris will also fly you directly to Cancun. This option will allow US passengers to fly down via the new Southwest/Volaris partnership, maybe get to know the downtown Zocalo and historic districts in Mexico City or Guadalajara (highly recommended), and then take advantage of the spectacular rates being offered by all of Mexico's new breed of discount airlines, such as Volaris. If anybody happens to fly down via the new Southwest/Volaris partnership, be sure to post comments on your flight experience here!

Passing the Torch - Viva La Baja! Blog Has Been Sold

I am happy to report Viva La Baja! Blog is now owned by Sergio Igartua - Los Cabos resident & owner of Grupo Igartua.

Our family now resides in South America and I am immersed in a new online venture - South America Living - Web-full of info for folks wanting to travel or live in the countries Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru & Uruguay. Online soon at www.southamericaliving.com.

An introductory hello from Sergio:

"My name is Sergio Igartua and I’ve been in advertising and marketing for more than 15 years. My career has taken me from the U.S. to Costa Rica, and finally to Mexico where I currently reside.

During those years I’ve had the opportunity to provide creative services to diverse markets such as the U.S. Hispanic market, the Costa Rican and Mexican political arenas and, most recently, the Mexican hospitality market.

I own and operate Grupo Igartua, a travel marketing agency in Los Cabos, Mexico, where I’ve been living for the past 4 years."

Viva La Baja! was a fun project. Highlights of the past few years include: interacting with a lot of cool expats & locals I never would have met or known; learning about environmental issues on the Peninsula and the amazing folks who have worked for years to fight degradation of Baja waters, land & wildlife; writing articles for publications such as MexConnect, Our Mexico & my personal favorite... Sea Watch Mexico - who are doing some incredible work putting an end to illegal fishing & restoring the reefs of the Bay of La Paz with the Observatorio Ciudadano's program. A video about the program can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVqclsGGAZg.

I´m confident Sergio will put all the hard work & information to good use and wish him the best with his future endeavors.

Viva La Baja! & all its inhabitants, Molly

Mexican Fisheries Planning to "Exploit" Resources in Northern Baja

Look-out Northern Baja, Conapesca and CIBNOR are heading your way and have plans to "exploit" your resources by encouraging the harvest of tonns of fish. This is a follow-up post on the Million Dollar Plan. For background information look-over the three previous posts:

1. Baja Fish - How Would You Spend a Million Dollars?
2. The Million Dollar Plan - Who´s in Charge?
3. Update on the Million Dollar Plan

I contacted CIBNOR months ago via email and received an initial reply from a researcher but when I asked for additional information on how they planned to sustainably "exploit" resources in Northern Baja as was posted on their website in regards to Programa Nacional Rector and their assessment that tonns of 'pelagic' fish species are availble to be harvested in Northern Baja waters my contact ended.

One species of pelagic fish - fish that live in what is called the pelagic zone of coastal and ocean (offshore) waters - are Bluefin Tuna whos numbers are severly depleted and near extinction. Atlantic Bluefin Tuna are being considered by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES)for a formal ban on all International Trade due to its endangered status.

This Oct, 2009 article in Scientific American explains the issue in greater detail: "Is the Bluefin Tuna an endangered species".

I wanted to know how they would be harvested as well? Using Drift Gillnets that destroy all ocean creatures in its path, including endangered Baleen whales that annually migrate through Baja waters, that Conapesca vowed to ban in 2008 yet never did?

In addition, the original documents I had reviewed in English are now gone from the website and replaced with false PR statements about the organization claiming: "For the Federal Mexican Government, the CONAPESCA is a strategic tool for taking care of our natural resources and to avoid the overexplotation of marine species."

A carefully orchestrated public 'face' to hide the actions that are going on behind the scenes and that are in the works regarding Programa Rector Nacional and the plans to give the go ahead for commercial fisherman to harvest - they use the word 'exploit' - tonns of fish from Northern Baja waters, including endangered Bluefin Tuna.

They claim not only do these large amounts of fisheries resources exist, but that they can be sustainably taken from Baja waters without negative repercussions. Look-out Northern Baja - CIBNOR and Conapesca are on their way.

Molly, author of Viva La Baja! Relocation & Real Estate Guide