Los Barriles - The Gringo Paradise

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
You are not reading my post correctly :)

Like folks who live and deal with tourists in Ski Resorts, Camping areas, and other recreational areas in the USA, we down here, see the good, the bad, and even worse than that breed of North American tourists.

So, call me heavily-exposed to RV tourists :) I help out in a large store in a very remote area. At home I have a business that deals with cruising sailboat owners and crew.

When I read about "Gringoized This" and "Americanized That" it makes me wonder. We whom live down here accept the fact that things are-as-they-are. McDonalds, Home Depot, and other north-of-the-border familiar sights exits solely because Mexicans want them here.

Mexico exists everywhere in any degree of modernity or primitiveness as a person could wish. Fifteen miles away from cell phone towers and WiFi are ranchos and fish camps that exist the same way as they did in the 1930's. But to expect to find a beach camp PARQUE de TRAYLORS with hookups right out of the 1970's is near impossible.

So PLEASE accept my original and this followup as a statement not in context to any others in this thread but perhaps a blunt learning tool. Many lurkers read these threads, keep that in mind :)

Outside of Cabo and possibly Todos Santos Los Barriles is the most heavily AmeriCanadian-ized place I have seen in the Baja. Even San Felipe, Hundreds of miles closer to the border and receiving many more tourists from the north is much much more Mexican in character than this place.

Now please keep in mind that I am not taking sides one way or the other. I am simply writing about what I see and experience and I try to give a real feeling for the place that is accurate and not of the guidebook cheer-leading variety.

I am not saying that Mexico should not embrace that which it finds desirable whether that be Wal Mart or Mc Donalds. In fact It really doesnt bother me. It is the way the world works.

But what IS different about Los Barriles is how they think of themselves. To be honest there are more American brands in Chapitos Super Mercado here than there are in ALL of the Wal Mart in La Paz. ie Wal Mart is more truly Mexican than the Mexican owned grocery in LB.

This is the conundrum that I wanted to pull back the curtain on a little bit. Secondly LB is far different than any of the books or websites lead you to believe. That is another reason I wrote my piece.

It's a nice and beautiful place, but it's not as advertised. That copy is long out of date.

And really that is my goal to bring up to date some places that are seemingly very popular and write about them from my personal perspective.