Without reservations or prior experience, I tried unsuccessfully to find a peaceful, cheap hotel or hacienda along the northern Baja coast Friday night for a solitary getaway, thinking the Spring Break crowds had come and gone. Now, with all this fretting and foo-ing over the "Mexican invasion" from south to north, you hear little in comparison of what might be described as a reverse "invasion" from north to south. New developments, hotels, condos, homes are everywhere along the coast that I recall as once being treacherous and desolate when we'd take the frequent drive south from Tijuana to Ensenada to visit relatives. Along the way I picked up The Gringo Gazette, a newspaper serving Baja's new immigrant gringo population. The current Gazette leads with a story about disappointing returns on tourism dollars during Spring Break:
Many business people believe that the number one reason for tourists not coming to Rosarito is excessive police presence and harassment. [...] Other reasons for low tourist turnout are border traffic, military checkpoints, and the confusing new passport regulations.
Military checkpoints are the latest addition to the Baja scenery. But that hasn't put a damper in The Gringo Gazette's business; the inside of the paper is packed with real estate-related ads targeting Americans. The two invasions sort of cancel each other out, right?