My San Felipe Is Your San Felipe

San Felipe, should I even try to explain this place? Only a few years ago a sleepy fishing village with excellent Sports Fishing and a sustainable Shrimping industry. Today; dreams of becoming the next Cabo San Lucas as The Golf Scene & Golf Course Resorts, Custom Homes & High Rise Condos begin to dot landscapes & beaches. Silver Jewelry...tasteless Tee Shirts. Sport Fishing is still great. An occasional hot day...an occasional cool day. Better than average sewage systems keep the Shrimp industry sustainable. Old guys with white ponytails, dark tans & huaraches sandals....Shakers & Movers investing millions of development money in pristine beach front property. Off Road Racing, Regular Carnivals & Circuses...Lions, & Tigers, & Bears..Oh My! Fire Works, Mariachi Bands, Fish Tacos, Cerveza, & Tequila....Click here for more on San Felipe

Early October, The Weather Couldn't Be Nicer.

Early October, The Weather Couldn't Be Nicer.
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Yesterday Berthy and I made some pleasant use of the mild weather and took a drive south to La Hacienda. Looking back on San Felipe the blue of the water against the colors of our little beach town, the scene was tranquil and inspiring. San Felipe is a beautiful place.

On our way back into town we stopped at the Marina So Berthy could get fish for her restaurant, The Back Street Patio Grill. Speaking Spanish Berthy has the advantage in getting the freshest fish from the fish vendors on the dock. When she indicated she was looking for restaurant quantities of fish we were quickly ushered to the side of the dock. The tide was out so the Panga fishing boat was some 20 feet below and under the dock. The fishermen proudly displayed their catch of Corbina, Sierra and Blue Shrimp...Still in the nets. It doesn't get any fresher than that.

I went back to the truck to russel up a couple of bags and sent them down to the boat to be filled. After a few minutes loading the bags with fish & shrimp one of the fisherman struggled to climb up the pier clutching both the pier and the bags heavily laden with fish to get up to us were an exchange of pesos for fish would complete our transaction. We rushed our catch to the restaurant and iced them down.

If your in town this evening why don't you plan on stopping into The Back Street Bar to have dinner at The Back Street Patio Grill. Their should be lots of activity in town with the racers and the Snow Birds slowly arriving.

Al is offering a free shot of his infamous...I mean Famous Home Made Tequila...Snarlin Cholla with ever dinner...and the fish is fresh!

Click here for Dinner menu at Chef Berthy's Back Street Patio Grill

Clean Up San Felipe...On My Recycleable Soap Box Today

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My first visit to San Felipe was only 5 years ago. Since I have now lived here full time for nearly 4 years, I obviously found attributes to San Felipe that made it possible for me to leave Carmel California for San Felipe. But on day one of my first visit to San Felipe I was appalled by the trash. In fact when I was told that there was a dump in San Felipe and that it was free I had to see it. I offered a friend to take some crap they had laying around to the dump to see what it was all about. For reference I ran a small business in Monterey Ca and routinely had to get rid of packaging materials and used beds that I would take away when I delivered a new bed. It cost me $40.00 to get rid of a king size bed in Monterey. Evey vehicle going into the dump was weighted and you paid accordingly. So I was just amazed that the dump in San Felipe was free and yet it was obvious that it wasn't being used to it's potential. People weren't making it all the way to the dump!


We have winds in San Felipe, and the dump itself is a source of blowing garbage. But after living in town for a few years I have seen a bigger problem that is tied into other problems. Some are cultural, some are financial, and we gringo's need not condemn but to educate and help find a solution to the problems. San Felipe has an other problem that needs to be and is being addressed by a small dedicated group of animal lovers, and that is the uncared for/street dog population.

Non existent laws for the containment of garbage. 55 gallon drums without lids as the predominant trash collection device...black plastic bags stacked against the drums when there is excess garbage. Loose dogs & street dogs,... doing as dogs will do, looking for food. San Felipe's love affair with plastic bags, garbage collectors who take little pride in their work, cars trucks and wind spreading the resulting loose garbage everywhere.

I see the problem as being intertwined. While the animal advocacy groups are doing their best to educate, spay and neuter, street dogs continue to produce more street dogs who find food in garbage, tipping over lidless cans and tearing open bags. Trash collectors, who's job description is veg at best and the winds create an endless cycle of blowing trash & street dogs. The perfect perpetual motion machine.

I have several ideas that can be put in motion that could Educate, (remember our commercials when we were younger, of an American Indian with the tears in his eyes over a trash filled pond)?, create new job opportunities and employment in San Felipe, make a huge impact in reducing the uncontrolled garbage in San Felipe and generating revenue for the animal advocates so they can continue to successfully deal with the dog population in the humane manor their charters dictate.

I will be clarifying these ideas and submitting them as proposals in the very near future. However as a first step I submit the idea; that the San Felipe trash collection process must be held responsible for their lax attitude to trash collection. Even if "they", through lack of resources, education, laws, and street dogs, are not responsible for the improper containment of garbage, They are assigned to collect what is offered up... if they are going to collect it take all of it ...Please.

This morning I helping the garbage collection guys pickup stuff,... up the street from me...to make sure it was all picked up. At their next stop I watched and photographed as they picked up some but left nearly a quarter can of garbage on the street. I cleaned it up in about 3 minutes with a rake and a scoop. I don't think it is to much to ask that the San Felipe Garbage Collection Service arm their employees with a rake, a scoop and a new job description. Pick up the damn garbage!

Some good news about safety in Mexico...

News Report Video. Describes how Spring Break Festivities in Cancun are going on without Drug War incidence.

Paranoia

Oakland California...4 Cops Shot 3 Dead...

Whoops Thought this was going to be an article about how unsafe Mexico was

Mexican tourism official: Travel alerts a ploy to keep dollars in U.S.

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — The two travel alerts sent out by the U.S. State Department warning travelers about an increase in crime in border cities in Baja California and Sonora are really negative advertising to prevent American citizens from crossing to Mexico and spending their dollars there, said David Rojas Rojas, general director of the Mexicali COTUCO, the Comite de Turismo y Convenciones, the Convention and Visitor Bureau, known by its acronym in Spanish COTUCO.

Rojas, who promotes tourism in Los Algodones, Mexicali and San Felipe, said it was obvious that the economic crisis in the U.S. is the reasoning behind curtailing American tourism in order to prevent dollars being spent in Mexico.

“We are not minimizing the violence that exists in our country but we are doing well,” Rojas said pointing out that there is violence in the U.S. as well.
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Weather, Or Not

You heard it here first...Hell is freezing over! Looking over the forecast for Hell, Michigan it appears that it will remain frozen over for quite some time with average daily temperatures below freezing. That's why we don't live there right? Here in San Felipe, after yesterdays early morning low of 43 degrees & 90 % humidity, by my "comfort monitor weather device" and with just enough breeze to make it nippley, I thought I had woken up in hell....during the off season of course. In San Felipe this morning there is virtually no wind and the temperature which was 50F when I started writing has sung to 56F and from the looks of the atmosphere...crystal clear and bright, every detail of the mountains is visible and the water is classic deep blue, it is going to continue to warm through out the day. As the new San Felipe weather czar I proclaim this a glorious day to do something you enjoy outside. If your taste in weather runs to the cooler, you can always go to hell!