| Home | | | Getting Here | | | About San Felipe | | | Weather | | | News | | | Photo Gallery | | | Fishing | | | Business Guide | | | Contact Us | | | Articles/Stories |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
| |
Regional News Topics, the San Felipe Economy and more..... ...by Tony Colleraine .... contact |
|||||||||||||
Wednesday 1 September Mexicana, Mexico's oldest and largest airline company, declared bankruptcy on August 3rd. and terminated all of its operations last weekend. Its loss leaves Mexicali in the lurch for convenient service to the rest of the country. AeroMexico has announced that it will take over some of the routes of the failed airline and will have limited service from Mexicali to Mexico City and Guadalajara starting on 6th. September, and to Monterrey in early October. In the meantime, the powerhouse hub for flights out of Baja is to be found in Tijuana. Even San Diego is envious of Tijuana's international routes - particularly to China. A private consortium is proposing to build a passenger terminal with secure car parking on the US side of the border near the Otay Mesa port of entry, just opposite the Tijuana Rodriguez airport, and build a pedestrian bridge across the border for ticketed passengers to walk to the TIJ terminal. This will open up a whole new world of possible travel to Mexico, Latin America and Asia for San Diego area residents. It could even revive the possibility of a cheap shuttle service to San Felipe in the future. An entirely Mexican-based airline which did not have to negotiate international transit and landing rights would likely be able to undercut any foreign fare structure for flights to places like San Felipe and other Baja destinations. The battle over the Mexican government's proposed new dollar cash deposit limits is reaching a frenzy as the 13th September start date approaches. Because of the impracticality of having every purchase made in pesos right from the start of the program, a feature has been included to allow a limit of $40 dollars cash per customer that can be accepted by shops and other businesses in border cities or tourist destinations. The Association of Banks of Mexico (ABM) and the National Association of Supermarkets and Department Stores (ANTAD) have come out fighting against this proposal. They say that stores need to be allowed to accept up to $100 in cash for a purchase and that guests staying in hotels be able to spend $300 cash per day or $1500 per month during their residence in the hotel. The government proposal also mandates the installation of Point of Sale (POS) terminals in small shops and other businesses that would enable a customer to pay by credit/debit card without an added fee and the merchant would get a break on the processing charge. Imagine the problems that will arise as thousands of small businesses wrestle to get transactions approved, corrected and voided using the current telecommunications systems with no "customer service" infrastructure. Imagine the possibilities for fraud as skimming devices get attached to these POS terminals. Just this week one of the largest banks in Mexicali found that many transactions at its ATM machines were having account numbers skimmed and customers PIN numbers stolen. (Aside note: look very carefully at any ATM machine that you use to see if the card reader looks OK, with no attached gadgets, and check if any cameras are pointing at the keypad in such a way that your PIN could be observed!). In most countries in the world, credit and debit cards now also include a small computer chip with stored information to significantly reduce these fraud problems. Unfortunately, US Banks do not endorse this technology, preferring to take the losses and charge them off against their taxes. If Mexico is going to do this right, they need to use POS and ATM machines which use this "smartcard" technology, which is going to cause another big disconnect with their American customers. (I have had personal experience of being unable to use my credit cards at restaurants in Europe because I do not have the chip.) Big questions also arise as to who would determine the dollar exchange rate and commission, and whether it would favor the customer, the shopkeeper, the US bank or the government. Inevitably, this whole business also means that shopkeepers will "more explicitly" have to start charging tax on their sales as the government will now have much more accurate records of money flow, tips paid and the taxes that are due. The simple life that we came to Mexico to enjoy is ebbing away! Sunday 29 August It seems inevitable that the new Mexican money-laundering laws will go into effect on 13 September unless a miracle happens. These laws forbid businesses from depositing more than $7000 dollars in cash/month, and individuals more than $4000/month in a Mexican bank. The likely result is that large cash-flow businesses like gasoline stations, hotels and restaurants will reluctantly have to decline dollars for purchases if they are to obey the law. This means that they will have to accept credit cards or take cash in pesos only. (Note that very few small businesses in San Felipe will accept credit cards.) Banks are being told to increase the number of tellers for visitors who need to exchange their dollars for pesos and lots more ATM machines will have to be installed in shops and public areas so that Americans and other foreigners can withdraw money in pesos for each day of their vacation. In turn, the increased use of credit and debit cards is likely to give rise to more scams to steal both money, cards and PINs from unsuspecting tourists. These new restrictions are going to be a severe handicap to encouraging tourism to Mexico. Even trying to explain the situation to the tourist who, for years, has been able to cross the border and spend dollars in Mexico is going to be a nightmare. The past week has seen northern Baja endure the hottest and most humid weather of the year. San Felipe, being right on the edge of the sea, has only been seeing heat indexes in the 110 F to 115 F range, but Mexicali has reported five deaths and truly incredible temperatures.
By Thursday temperatures had soared to 51 C ( 123F) as seen on the electronic sign in downtown Mexicali, and the only relief was brought by thunderstorms in the late afternoon. There is now a break in the monsoonal flow of air up the Gulf of California and we can look forward to a period of more stable and pleasant weather now that the hurricane (Frank) that was heading towards Baja has dissipated. Wednesday 25 August Yesterday (Tuesday) there was another ho-hum 4.2 magnitude earthquake just before 3 p.m. in the Mexicali valley about 30 km south of the city and just to the west of the San Felipe road. Buildings shook in Mexicali but there were no reports of injuries or damage. Most people were more preoccupied with the sweltering 115 F temperatures. The event went essentially unnoticed in San Felipe. New scientific studies of the San Andreas Fault, however, are sobering. Excavations down into the fault in the Carrizo Plain south of Parkfield show that the fault has been far more active than previously thought. We had believed that major quakes on the San Andreas occurred every 200-400 years but now the evidence suggests that, up to 1857, a major earthquake occurred near Los Angeles about every 88 years. Since the area was so sparsely populated at that time, there is very little recorded evidence of the intensity of the shock though it is now estimated to have been a magnitude 7.9 event. Los Angeles population at that time was about 4000 people. Obviously we missed the "expected" quake in 1945 and, on this basis, we are well overdue for another major event. The thinking now is that the southern section of the San Andreas down through San Bernadino could slip at any time and generate an 8.1 magnitude quake. It would undoubtedly be felt for hundreds of miles around. Katherine has now put up a new website for the Shrimp Festival this November 5-7. It will answer all your questions and can be found here..>> Hurricane Frank is now moving west-northwest along the Mexican Pacific coast south of Baja. It is possible that the remnants of the storm could influence San Felipe weather in about a week.
Don't forget to look for the International Space Station in the sky to the northwest of San Felipe tonight at 7:57 p.m. It will be directly over Mexicali some 30 seconds later as it moves to the northeast. Lets all wave to the crew this time!
Monday 23 August The International Space Station was right on time as it flew over San Felipe this evening. Carole Kingaby tells me that she went out on her patio at Club de Pesca to see it pass right overhead and waved at the crew. She did not see if they waved back. Last Saturday in the late afternoon a little chubasco blew through San Felipe and left us with a trace of rain around 6 p.m. I received the following snapshot from Peter Munser at El Dorado who was on his patio that afternoon and saw this waterspout go by.
It is now the start of the cotton harvest in the Mexicali valley and you will likely see big trucks crammed with the fluffy white boles on the roads around Mexicali. These trucks look very top heavy because of the enormous volume of the packed cotton but they rarely topple over except on sharp corners. Stay alert if you get behind one, sometimes it is like being in a snowstorm if the wind blows hard. Very high temperatures are forecast for the next few days. The deserts of the lower Colorado Valley through Mexicali and down to San Felipe could reach 120 F on Tuesday with high humidities. Stay in the air conditioning as much as possible and drink lots of purified water. Friday 20 August Next week there will be a couple of excellent opportunities to see the International Space Station pass almost directly over San Felipe. On Monday 23rd. at 8:39 p.m. you will see a brilliant object directly overhead moving from the southwest to northeast in about 1 minute. It should be a wonderful topic during coctails on the patio.
A second opportunity to see the same satellite path, just a little further to the north, will occur on Wednesday 25th. at approximately 7:57 p.m. President Calderon is sending an initiative to Congress on 1st. September to severely restrict money laundering for the drug cartels. It is proposed to ban all cash transactions in excess of 100,000 pesos (about $8000 dollars). The Finance Secretariat will become the chief enforcer of tracking businesses, income, sales of vehicles, homes, yachts, jewelry and any other source of revenue, and financing for organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. Banking transactions with a paper trail will continue to be permitted without limits. Expect lots of new paperwork and collection of taxes when you sell your house. Thursday 19 August Late August through mid-September is the season of pomegranetes in central Mexico. It is also the time that the people of Puebla make their famous dish, "chiles en nogada" that combines poblano chiles, stuffed with meat, fruit and spices, topped with a walnut-based sauce and sprinkled with the brilliant red pomegranete seeds. Green herbs, such as parsely or cilantro are frequently added as a garnish. The red, white and green colors also represent the colors of the Mexican flag and make the dish a popular festive offering for the period around the celebration of Independence day on 16th. September. Carlos at the Nauti Taco restaurant opposite Bancomer is preparing this dish for a special feast on Sunday 22nd. August. Give him a call on his cellphone at (686) 212-0158 for details and to make a reservation. This is a special treat and very rare opportunity to get in San Felipe.
previous months news - July-August 2010 - Profeco and property title issues with delinquent developers, July 4th, summer heat, cheap housing, money regulations, road repairs in earthquake territory, the new legal system, future cable television service, new SENTRI lanes, International Space Station sightings, more earthquake news, chiles en nogada in San Felipe.
©1997-2010 sanfelipe.com.mx |
||||||||||||||||
