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BAJA CALIFORNIA

Baja California's Wild West
by David Brackney

BAJA WIKI

There's a new way to see Baja and no better time than now.

Dave Brackney's love affair with Mexico dates back to the summer of 1982, when he stepped onto a second-class bus in Mexicali and rode 36 hours through stifling desert heat and tropical downpours to Guadalajara. He spent two months traveling around the country that summer and has scheming for ways to head back there ever since.

Returning from Mexico, and armed with a journalism degree from Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, he spent the balance of the '80s toiling at a string of underpaying, less-than-fulfilling newspaper jobs in Southern California.

After assorted travels south of the border which he assumed would purge the Mexico bug from his systemÕin late 1989 he gave up and followed his heart to Mexico City. He spent the next 6 1/2 years in that crazy metropolis, employed as an editor and reporter at the now-defunct Mexico City News and Mexico City Times newspapers.

Since returning to the U.S. in 1996, David has been a travel writer with the Automobile Club of Southern California in Costa Mesa, CA, which he sincerely hopes does not go the way of his two previous employers. Davod is the author and primary photographer of the Club's Baja California Guidebook -- quite the gig since it means someone else pays his way to explore the remote nooks and crannies of Mexico's Wild, Wild West.

INDEX

Baja California's Fast Facts
- Just the facts guide to regional politics, geography, size, climate and population.

The Island Peninsula
- Cross the border from Alta California, and yes, you are in Mexico, distinctly foreign in language, culture, housing, food, etc. But on closer review, there's plenty that sets Baja Californianos apart from mainland cousins.

Gringos in Baja
- Gringos may always argue about where the "real Baja" begins, just as they come here for all sorts of reasons. There's no way to list them all, but we can list some of the main subgroups coming to Baja.

Baja California's Environmental Past, Present and Future
- Pundits have declared for many years that Baja sits at some sort of crossroads, toward unbridled growth and development, or conservation and preservation.

Baja California Lodging
- Where to stay and why