|
Welcome to Los Cabos
Adventure, relaxation, pampering and fun, all wrapped up into one destination. Los Cabos offers all that and more. Enticing dining, sophisticated shopping and world-class resorts will make your vacation unforgettable. It’s TIME2CABO.
Time Travel: Sleepy coastal town becomes world-class resort destination
By T.D. Griffith
Three centuries removed from the era of Spanish rule, visitors to Los Cabos still discover enduring reminders of an age long past. Antique domes, towering porticos, colorful tiles and massive stone façades shade skilled artisans and enthusiastic vendors as they have for hundreds of years, and colonial architecture is evident around every corner. Located on the southernmost tip of Baja California Sur and inhabited for more than 11,000 years, Los Cabos attracts visitors with its laid-back lifestyle and stunning beaches. Each day they walk in the footsteps of native Indians, Spanish explorers and conquistadors, plundering pirates and a million faceless Jesuit missionaries, fishermen and pearl divers who tried to tame this beautiful land.
Take a chronological ride through the history of Los Cabos, a trek as colorful as any on the North American continent.
1533
Los Cabos is accidentally “discovered” by Spanish explorer Hernan Cortés, when he sails into a tranquil bay with his three galleons. Cortés names the bay Santa Cruz.
1587
Sir Thomas Cavendish, a fortune-hunting English privateer, captures the “invincible” 600-ton Spanish galleon, Santa Ana, off the coast of Baja California Sur.
1730
In an effort to stabilize the region and provide fortifications, the town of San José del Cabo is founded on the tip of Baja California Sur. Jesuits establish the town’s first mission.
1734
After Jesuit missionary Nicholas Tamaral punishes a Pericú shaman for polygamy, native Pericú rebels, kill Tamaral and burn down the mission.
1735-1736
In response, the Spanish government funds construction of a massive fortress to repel indigenous attacks and protect the fledgling settlement.
1821
Following Mexico’s War of Independence, the region known as Los Cabos is handed over to Mexican nationals.
1847
When U.S. Marines occupy the port of Los Cabos during the Mexican-American War, Mexican Naval Lt. José Antonio Mijares leads the military in repelling the invaders. The victory spurs city leaders to name the town’s main square Plaza Mijares for the naval officer, who was killed in the battle.
1917
An American company establishes a floating platform to catch and process tuna in the waters off Los Cabos. The company, later called Compañia de Productos Marinos, is credited with helping the region find a firm financial footing.
1928
Los Cabos becomes the seat of the municipality.
1930
The first vacationers arrive in Los Cabos by private plane and long-range yacht. Only dirt roads link the sedate coastal villages of San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.
1950
Hollywood actors, seeking privacy and a new playground, discover “the capes.” Los Cabos attracts stars such as Bing Crosby, Ava Gardner, Desi Arnaz and John Wayne, who pitch in their pennies to build an exclusive resort.
1973
The Mexican government supports major infrastructure improvements for Los Cabos, including the Carretera Transpeninsular, leading to large-scale resorts, golf courses and private attractions.
1974
Baja California Sur becomes Mexico’s 30th state.
1977
Hughes Airwest begins international commercial jet flights to Los Cabos.
1985-1990
Los Cabos witnesses the populations of San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas triple as foreign visitors flock to the area, development booms and mainland Mexicans relocate to the region.
1986
San José del Cabo International Airport opens to air traffic, prompting a steadily increasing flow of vacationers and sport fishermen.
1998
U.S. title insurance companies begin offering title insurance for Trust Deed ownership of Mexican properties. Twenty years later, U.S. expats account for 70 to 80 percent of Los Cabos’ inhabitants.
2002
U.S. President George W. Bush joins world leaders and Fortune 500 executives at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference in Cabo San Lucas.
2007
The Baja Brewing Co., the state of Baja California Sur’s first brewery, is opened by three Colorado men in the historic Art District of San José. A second location soon follows in Cabo San Lucas.
2010
Mexico celebrates its bicentennial of independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution with nationwide festivities. Los Cabos marks the observance by opening the first phase of its $40 million Cultural Pavilion of the Republic.
2011
Los Cabos solidifies its standing as Mexico’s premier vacation destination with the opening of Cabo Riviera Marina & Golf Resort, Grand Solmar Land’s End Resort & Spa and Quivira Los Cabos.
Modern-Day Fame
The early days of the 20th century were decidedly quiet at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula, setting the stage for its destiny as a tourism hot spot. In the 1930s, a few adventurous vacationers began discovering what the region had to offer. It wasn’t easy to get here; travelers had to arrive by private plane or boat, and dirt roads linked the peaceful town of San José del Cabo with the even sleepier Cabo San Lucas, on the western cape.
Word started to spread about the region’s pristine beauty, excellent fishing and laid-back ambience. By the middle of the century, movie stars searching for the next big thing began arriving. Actors including Bing Crosby, John Wayne and Ava Gardner helped put the region — which would come to be known as Los Cabos (“The Capes”) — firmly on the world’s tourism map.
The beautiful thing about Los Cabos is that it hasn’t lost this uncrowded, peaceful feeling. Even as luxury hotels, paved roads and the international airport have made visiting Los Cabos a more comfortable experience, it’s still possible to savor the relaxed ambience of its quiet past — while swimming along unspoiled stretches of sand or strolling down the streets of San José del Cabo, where historic homes now house shops and galleries, just steps from the lovely historic church. Indeed, Los Cabos is a destination that excels at blending historic, small-town charm with modern-day luxuries, all set against a stunning natural landscape of sea, ocean and desert.
Land of Fame and Fortune
By Ken Rivadeneira
Los Cabos is well-known today as a luxury tourist destination, having some of the world's most highly regarded resorts and attracting a distinguished clientele that ranges from the Hollywood elite to captains of industry. Screen legends Bing Crosby and John Wayne turned this area from a sleepy fishing region into a world-class playground for the privileged. However, Crosby and Wayne were not the original VIPs of Los Cabos. Long before film and music stars made their way here for fun in the sun, this part of Baja California had already been a favorite among some big names in the world stage.
Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, privateers, corsairs and adventurers were the celebrities of their day — and everyone wanted to know what they were doing, what they were up to and where they were going. For a time, Los Cabos was the place to be. Maybe not so much for fun in the sun, although it's hard to believe that these soldiers of fortune wouldn't have appreciated the majestic views of El Arco at Land's End; but something did call them here — the treasure bounty that awaited.
The biggest name to come across here was the superstar of the Elizabethan Age, Sir Francis Drake himself. He sailed here on his famous Golden Hind in 1578 and visited San José del Cabo as he worked his way up the California coast. He even took a little time to plunder a couple of Spanish settlements, although he failed at striking it big and eventually moved on to greener pastures farther north.
Why was Los Cabos such a rich destination? The estuary of the Río San José was an important freshwater stop for galleons sailing along the Manila-Acapulco route. Depending on whether they were coming from or going to the Philippines, these massive Spanish vessels were heavily laden with valuable Asian spices, porcelain, ivory and lacquerware; from Mexico, the spoils were the massive amounts of silver mined from the mountains of Taxco.
Drake might not have had the greatest luck in Los Cabos, but another famous English privateer scored the jackpot of a lifetime right here off the coast of San Lucas. Sir Thomas Cavendish — another megastar of his day and fellow world circumnavigator of Drake — managed to capture one of these enormous Manila galleons on Nov. 14, 1587. The ransacking of the 700-ton Santa Ana was a major coup; in addition to silk, damask, pearls, satin, musk and wine, the vessel was saddled with more than 122,000 pesos in gold. At the time, this was the largest Spanish treasure to fall into English hands, and it made Cavendish an instant hero.
However, pirate booty was not the only treasure to be found in these waters. Among the prizes to be found in the Sea of Cortés, even to this day, are pearls. In 1594, Sebastián Vizcaíno, a Spanish soldier and diplomat, arrived at Bahía de La Paz to exploit the pearl beds there, famous for yielding unique black and pink pearls, and founded the colony of La Paz. Although pearls were found and the finding was reasonably profitable, the pearl industry was not enough to support an entire settlement and La Paz was abandoned. Still, Vizcaíno would remain in the area off-and-on for years to come, first as general of the Manila galleons and then as mayor of Acapulco.
After the English duo of Drake and Cavendish, Dutch privateer Joris van Spilbergen was the next big infamous troller to arrive in the Baja looking for some swag. Spilbergen managed to raid a few settlements, but overall did not succeed in hitting the mother lode, especially because he and his men were repelled by none other than Sebastián Vizcaíno. Nevertheless, Spilbergen would go on to make a name for himself as he, like Drake and Cavendish before him, also circumnavigated the globe.
Many more legendary names continued to come to Los Cabos, and it can be said that the region's still a magnet for people of that stripe. But just as the meaning of swag has changed from pirate booty to luxury gift bags, so has the vein of stardom. Whereas the celebrities of old captured galleons to obtain fame and fortune, our current visiting stars capture the hearts of people through film, music and art. But nothing and no one can capture hearts like the spectacular allure of Los Cabos.
Cabo History 1700s-Present
By Marlene Goldman
Missionaries, rather than conquistadors, introduced European civilization to San José del Cabo. The missionaries set up camp in 1730 to focus their efforts on the Pericú Indians of the region. But all was not peaceful between the missionaries and native inhabitants.
From 1734 to 1737, the Pericú and some Guaycura in the La Paz region and further south lashed out in rebellion against the missionaries, with four missions in particular as targets — San José at Cabo San Lucas, Nuestra Señora del Pilar at La Paz, Santa Rosa at Todos Santos and Santiago de las Coras.
There was one eyewitness, Father Sigismundo Taraval, a missionary at Todos Santos, at the time of the rebellion. As the story goes, the catalyst for the rebellion came when Father Nicolás Tamaral refused to let one of the wives of a Pericú shaman named Chicori return to him after her baptism. This strike against polygamy, which the native population practiced, set the stage for a violent uprising. Those killed included two soldiers, Father Lorenzo Carranco of Santiago and Tamaral of Cabo San Lucas. The Indians also burned the Santiago and San José del Cabo missions in 1734, and nearly captured the Manila galleon calling at Cabo San Lucas Mission in 1735. Taraval, meanwhile, fled to the mission at Los Dolores.
Tamaral's gory death by beheading is forever memorialized in a tile mural that hovers above the San José del Cabo Plaza's main cathedral.
However, European diseases such as measles and smallpox took their toll on the Indians, as did the uprisings against the Spanish. These two factors ultimately decimated the Guaycura and Pericú populations, and by 1767 the native Indians had virtually disappeared. By the end of the missionary period in 1767, the Indian population of the region plummeted by 80 percent to less than 8,000. Survivors were moved to missions farther north while the Spanish continued to use San José del Cabo as a vital military outpost until the mid-19th century, when Mexican nationals gained control of the presidio.
San José del Cabo gained importance once again when marines from the U.S. frigate Portsmouth occupied the city briefly during the Mexican-American War, which lasted from 1846 to 1848. The city's plaza, Plaza Mijares, is named after Mexican naval officer José Antonio Mijares, who led the Mexicans to victory after an intense battle.
The region lost its importance in the early 20th century as mining closed down and sugarcane cultivation — which had brought prosperity to the Los Cabos area in the 1920s and 1930s — slowly dried up. Los Cabos sat quietly for many years.
In that time, the area that is now Cabo San Lucas was nothing but a few farmhouses, cattle and a fish cannery. The 20-mile dirt road connecting the two towns was empty as well. By the 1930s, the town's population was only 400.
But military planes flying over the area in World War II caught sight of large schools of fish, and once the war ended, the area began to attract sportfishermen to its shores, eventually earning the name Marlin Alley. At that time there were still no roads to Los Cabos — only private planes and wealthy yachtsmen had access to the sublime beauty of the area.
As more people began to explore the area, the word of its attractions seeped out. Not only were there big fish to be caught, but Los Cabos was also a breeding ground for gray whales, a nesting area for giant turtles and a sanctuary for more than 800 species of marine life.
These ecological riches, plus the 3,000-mile coastline surrounding both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortés — which, if straightened, would span from Tijuana to Juneau, Alaska — have helped turn former backwater Los Cabos into a mecca for mass tourism.
|
