February 23, 2009

LATIN AMERICA | MEXICO | LORETO

Mission Loreto

By Judy D'Mello

The transformation of Baja California's most beguiling small town.

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In the 1950’s, John Steinbeck described Loreto — a beguiling little village on the coast of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula — as being, “asleep in the sunshine.” Today, developers are touting it as Mexico’s next real-estate hotspot, while the government has already poured $200 million into infrastructure improvements. Recognizing Loreto’s laid-back, fishing-town vibe (population: 14,000), developers claim that they won’t repeat the mistakes of hyper-populated Cabo San Lucas (230 miles south). The goal, they say, is to build an Eco-Cabo, at one with the cactus-studded mountain vistas and the Sea of Cortez, so alive with life that Jacques Cousteau once dubbed it “the world’s aquarium.”

One example of thoughtful gentrification is La Mision Hotel on Loreto’s picturesque malecon (seafront promenade). Built in 1967, the former motel has just re-emerged, following an $11-million redo, as a chic 71-room boutique hotel and the only five-star digs in town. Traditional brick and adobe hallways lead to elegant rooms with local woods and fabrics plus flat screen TVs and iPod docks — all very Mexican charm meets Architectural Digest. And the boho-chic feel (hand-painted murals throughout and a chalkboard sign on the sidewalk that reads, “Vacancy”) takes nothing away from the bourgeois pleasures: an outdoor hot tub and swimming pool, plus a full-service spa opening this month.

However, around Loreto’s periphery, where hotel-cum-second home complexes are sprouting, one senses the arrival of gringolandia (Los Angeles to Loreto is a 90-minute flight on Alaska Airlines). The Villages of Loreto Bay is a jumble of villas built around narrow flagstone streets and trickling fountains, and with easy access to all amenities at neighboring resort, The Inn On Loreto Bay. Nearby, a sprawling 200-plus-condo complex, complete with a movie theater, beachside spa grotto and kids’ lazy river float is underway courtesy of JW Marriot Residences.

If all goes according to plan, some 6,000 homes will come to the area in the next decade, all with monumentally ambitious eco-goals. As goes the line from The Eagles song, Hotel California (mythically-related to Baja California Sur), “This could be Heaven or this could be Hell.”