The San Felipe Blog

Yes, it has been awhile. San Felipe, in many ways, is still the same, yet in many ways it is very, very different.

The economy has taken its toll on this sleepy little drinking village with a fishing problem, but many residents still enjoy all the regular benefits of San Felipe living.

On the other hand, property values have plummeted and events which used to attract droves of persons now attract handfuls.

Why? Besides the economy, there’s the exaggerations by the U.S media. San Felipe has always been, and for some time to come will be, one of the safest places to vacation or to live. I reside in Los Angeles, and I can tell you I feel more safe in San Felipe than any given day driving around the southland.

If you’re interested in affordable investment properties, now is the time! Many persons are looking to get out of their properties so badly, you can just take over payments. Not all of those deals are great, but there are some real gems to be found right now in San Felipe.

I’m looking myself at the possibility of buying soon…

It’s been awhile since I”ve been to San Felipe. I can tell you that what I hear from the locals is that there is NOT the violence and other mayhem experienced in the border towns and up and down the west coast of baja.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again Thanksgiving Weekend!

The part-timers are returning more and more. By the middle of October, most of the solar homes will be occupied.

While the weather cools off, the nightlife heats up in San Felipe. It’s always better this time of year through the holidays.

It’s time for another visit!

I’ve spent the past couple of Easters in my favorite baja town, and it looks like I’ll be making it three in a row this year.

What I like about Easter in San Felipe is the large number of Mexicans which flood the Malecon. It’s nice to see the citizens of baja california enjoying the wonderful fishing village I’ve grown to love.

It’s a little strange when the riot police for crowd control are lined up, but I’ve never seen them actually have to do anything. They’re pretty much prevention managers.

Of course, the bummer is there are fewer people you can talk to on the Malecon, because many of the Mexicans easter weekend do not speak English (or don’t care to speak to you casually and don’t let you know they speak English ).

I’ll probably be unable to convince my friends to make the trip to the Malecon this year, because they know it’s so crowded and with very few Americans to hook up with (which probably isn’t true, there are just so many more Mexicans it is hard to find the Americans!).

So if you like crowds, head down to the Malecon Easter weekend. If not, chill out in one of the campos outside of town!

For the time being, the construction of the excellent condos in La Ventana del Mar has been halted. Workers were laid off, and there’s nothing going on.

Rumors abound when something like this happens, and I’m sure it doesn’t do much to bolster confidence in those who may already be a little gun shy about property in Mexico.

I’ve heard everything from Pat Butler is going bankrupt to it’s just a dispute over interest rates. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

From what I can tell, all the bank notes came due and interest rates are higher. So the cash flow isn’t there until the refinancing goes through. Who knows what would happen if they can’t get something worked out within the budget…

Well, there was no tournament, so I didn’t have to make a decision about whether to play or not. Evidently, they’re going to be doing tournaments on a monthly basis this year. You’d think they’d have the common sense to put it on a holiday weekend

I’ve been stateside a little longer than expected, so I haven’t had much to see about the sleepy little drinking village with a fishing problem lately.

I’m looking forward to spending some time in the sun, playing some water volleyball at el dorado ranch, and hanging out with friends old and new.

President’s Day weekend offers a nice excuse to get away for a little excursion, and if you haven’t yet made plans, consider San Felipe!

I’ll take some pictures for the blog and have some restaurant reviews ready to go. A property deal I’ve been looking at could get finalized pretty soon, and then my time in San Felipe will greatly increase.

For those of you who are in town this weekend and have access to the El Dorado pool, a holiday weekend always means a volleyball tournament. I’m working on getting confirmation, but unless Jorge has drastically changed the pattern there will be a v-ball tourny starting at noon on Saturday with sign-ups at 11 am. You usually have to get there pretty close to sign-up time, but this isn’t as big a holiday as some of the others. And the last tournanment I played in, there weren’t as many people as expected. Perhaps others are getting fed up with the stupid points system that’s been around way too long. Although I love water volleyball, I’ll probably sit the tournament out and let others enjoy playing a tournament where you can lose all your games and still get a trophy (a plaque, that is)

By searching on the web, you can find some decent vacation rentals in San Felipe. Here’s a website that’s crawling it’s way up in the rankings: San Felipe Property Services

San Felipe Vacation Rentals

They also do long-term rentals and have several homes available.

If you need cleaning services, they are good for that, too.

And, of course, they do all-around Property Management in San Felipe.

Since I’m usually out somewhere in El Dorado Ranch somewhere, I haven’t tried the breakfast at this restaurant. But you have to love the sign as you enter San Felipe:

“Only Breakfast – Beer, Mixt Drinks”

Ahhh, San Felipe. That sleepy little drinking village with a fishing problem.

Playing volleyball across US-Mexico fence: “Mark Frauenfelder:
Joshua Bearman wrote a story for LA Weekly about a game of ‘border volleyball,’ in which players on either side of a two-story fence separating the US and Mexico hit a ball back and forth.

All this activity finally brings down the hammer of the border patrol, and a jeep shows up to separate us. The officer is friendly but firm. He’s just come on shift and has no idea we’ve been playing volleyball over the fence for the past hour.

‘Really?’

He tells us that a daredevil launched himself across the border in a cannon a while back, but that ours was, in fact, the first-ever game of international border volleyball.

‘And it worked over that tall fence?’

‘Yup,’ we say. ‘We’re up for one more round if you want to play.’

‘No, man,’ the officer says. ‘I’m on duty.’

Link

“

(Via Boing Boing.)

Now that’s a creative use of the border fence!