The Road to Todos Santos
Late December 2006
I’ve been in Mexico- Cabo San Lucas, which is a little resort town at the very tip of Baja California- for less than three days now. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon at the international airport 30 miles away and spent the first afternoon/evening grocery shopping, cooking dinner, and swimming in the heated pool.
On our first evening I went to speak with Miguel, the manager here at the small condo complex we are staying in, about the use of the barbecue by the pool, finding a detailed map, and the drinking water supply. His English is impeccable with only a slight Spanish accent. I wanted to ask him where he learned to speak my language so well, when I, a relatively privileged college instructor from America, knows only one language, English.
But the last thing I want to do is embarrass Miguel, and instead, I ask him for his guidance, his expertise about the area. Where should we eat? What sights should we take in while we are here? What should we avoid? And when he ticked off a list of restaurants, the beach, and small towns we should see, I scribbled furiously on the mental notepad inside my head and vowed to myself to visit as many as we could fit into our 9 days in Miguel’s country.
Wednesday, we drove the curvy but beautiful road north to Todos Santos, a destitute artisan’s village that sits on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Miguel suggested that we make the 45 mile drive to get a feel of the “real Mexico� and when I saw the look in his eyes when he said “real Mexico�, I wondered, is he sad, like I am, that in the last 15 years or so, that his little village of Cabo San Lucas has been transformed into a mini resort town, bringing Costco, Home Depot, more people, and awaking thousands of his countrymen and women to the economic disparity between Mexico and America and Canada? Although he is kind and generous to his guests, there is sadness to the set of Miguel’s eyes, lips, and brow.
But Todos Santos is everything Miguel promised and more; the main street is lined with shops- some small and seemingly carved out of the side of the building, with dirt/sand floors and children selling beaded necklaces, obsidian carved animals, and woolen shawls. Other stores, only steps away, house men in suits standing on professionally tiled floors selling sterling silver bracelets and mother of pearl earrings. In each, there are thousands of trinkets, blankets, hammered tin mirrors, sconces, and blown glass, but there is no rhyme or reason to the pricing of items other than the type of floor the shop could afford. In those with dirt floors, small marble chess sets sell for twenty dollars or two hundred pesos; in the tiled shops, the same chess set sells for twenty-six dollars.
I find out quickly that the price marked is not necessarily the price I will pay; when we show interest in two different items in one store, the shop owner takes twenty percent off the price, if we purchase both. My husband translates the drop in price to me and I smile, nod, “Gracias,� and we move to the next little shop in the side of the building.
We spend a few hours in Todos Santos, the little village by the ocean, and make our way into almost every shop along its main street, plus the town’s museum, which is really several rooms filled with black and white photos of the town’s notable residents and buildings. But in the entryway, since Christmas is very close now, a large nativity stands at attention. And outside, two angels, 12-feet tall with burgundy wings that light up at night, watch over the museum and its contents.
We enjoy 80-degree weather, the few tourists who sit at tables on the sidewalk drinking ice-cold Mexican beer, and the music drifting from the local hotel that anchors the main street. It is named, “Hotel California�, but has no connection to the song made famous by the Eagles. Todos Santos is a quiet little town, a gem along the ocean and a welcome relief from the bright lights of downtown Cabo.
Todos Santos is beautiful, but it is the drive to and from that makes the village worth visiting. Forty-five miles of nearly untouched coastal range spans from just north of Cabo San Lucas to Todos Santos, protecting the most pristine stretch of white sand I have ever seen.
Along the way, we marvel at the isolation, the poverty, but there is something comforting in knowing that the big-box stores and fast food restaurants that dot America are nowhere near this small stretch of the world. I am relieved to see that somehow, the road to Todos Santos has escaped, thus far, unscathed.
I have made the acquaintance of one of the more permanent residents of our condo complex and the morning after our trip to Todos Santos, tell him of our adventure visiting the village. He sighs heavily and fixes the table we sit at with a look of resignation.
“Yes, its beautiful, but not for long,� he says. “They’re building a 4-lane road, don’t you know, from La Paz.�
My geography is poor in America, and even worse in Baja California, so his sadness does not register until he says, “it’ll go right through Todos Santos.� And then, I understand. The new road will connect the resort towns of La Paz in the north on the Sea of Cortez, and the growing resort town of Cabo San Lucas in the south on the Pacific. Todos Santos will be the halfway point, the stopping point. “In ten years, you won’t recognize it,� my friend says.
Instead of being remote, protected, somewhat difficult to reach, the tiny village of Todos Santos, what the manager Miguel said was the “real Mexico�, will be gone, and with it, another chunk of Mexican identity and culture. It will be another Cabo, which is rumored to be getting its first Wal Mart this year.
I let the gravity of what he has told me set in, overwhelmed with the magnitude of the prospect. And I admit, I didn’t know what to say. But my friend, who has been here much longer than I, sums it up perfectly in his sarcastic manner, “Progress, huh?�
“Progress,� I say, but my mind wanders to the little village perched on a bluff on the Pacific, and I remember the giant angels with glowing wings, and I wonder, what is progress? And I realize, I don’t know.
Comments
I WAS ABLE TO VISIT TODOS SANTAS IN 1995 AND LOVED IT, ESPECIALLY COMPARED TO CABO SAN LUCAS, WHICH IS NOTHING BUT A TOURIST TRAP.
Posted by: GEORGE SCHROFF | January 1, 2007 07:39 AM
We've driven all over South Baja from La Paz to Cabo, both routes. I use to enjoy my trips to Cabo but now it's way too expensive...$12.00 for a drink! Costco is there, also. Progress is ruining this and other portions of Mexico slowly but surely.
Posted by: Dana Vincent | January 2, 2007 05:44 AM
What a wonderful recap of the first few days of your trip. I can’t wait to read more of your adventures. As usual, you paint a vivid picture of what you have seen.
Lisa
Posted by: Lisa | January 2, 2007 07:07 PM
Marianne, I appreciate all your true feelings of Mexico and it's reality. I am Mexican-American and have lived in the US all my life, but have traveled to the undiscovered areas of Mexico. And I love it. I wish Americans could see what I have seen and understand that parts of Mexico are full of poverty, not because the people aren't hard workers, it's that here is no money.
Posted by: Pablo | January 23, 2007 04:47 PM