Cabo San Lucas
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22°53′23″N 109°54′56″W / 22.88972°N 109.91556°W
Cabo San Lucas | |
|---|---|
 View into Cabos Harbor | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Nickname: Cabos | |
| Country |  Mexico |
| State | Baja California Sur |
| Government 1 | |
| • Type | 1 |
| • 1 | 1 |
| Elevation | 70 ft (20 m) |
| Population (2012) | |
| • City | 70,000 |
| • Urban | 70,000 |
| Time zone | UTC−7 (MST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−6 (MDT) |
Cabo San Lucas (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaβo san ˈlukas], Cape Saint Luke), commonly called Cabo, is a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,463.[1][full citation needed][non-primary source needed] It is the third-largest city in Baja California Sur after La Paz and San José del Cabo (although it is only slightly less populous than San José del Cabo). It has experienced very rapid growth and development, often with adverse environmental impact.
Cabo San Lucas together with San José Del Cabo is known as Los Cabos.
Cabo is known for its sandy beaches, world-class scuba diving locations, balnearios, the distinctive sea arch El Arco de Cabo San Lucas, and abundant marine life. The Los Cabos Corridor has become a heavily-trafficked holiday destination with numerous resorts and timeshares along the coast between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.
History
Archaeological excavations have shown evidence of continual human habitation in the area for at least ten thousand years.[2] When the first Europeans arrived, they encountered nomadic groups of Pericú surviving on a subsistence diet based on hunting and the gathering of seeds, roots, and shellfish. They lived a neolithic lifestyle, without wood.
According to Hatsutaro's[who?] narrative contained in the book Kaigai Ibun (as written by David Waldner), when he arrived at Cabo San Lucas in May 1842 there were only two houses and about twenty inhabitants. However, American authors such as Henry Edwards and J. Ross Browne claim that Cabo San Lucas's founder was an Englishman named Thomas "Old Tom" Ritchie. J. Ross Browne says Ritchie arrived there about 1828, while Edwards says that he died in October 1874.
A fishing village began growing in the area when in 1917 an American company built a floating platform to catch tuna and ten years later founded Compañía de Productos Marinos S.A. The plant lasted several years in operation. Experts in the area say that this tuna plant was the beginning of development at Cabo San Lucas.
Development
The warmth of the waters at Cabo San Lucas, the beauty of its beaches, the abundance of sport fish, and nearby surfing motivated a great number of both foreign and Mexican vacationers to spend their vacations in large-scale tourist developments there, starting in 1974 when the Mexican government created the infrastructure to turn Cabo San Lucas into a major center for tourism in Mexico. Upon completion of the Transpeninsular Highway, tourist developments in Los Cabos often proceeded relatively unchecked. However, the rapid loss of vast stretches of desert and marine habitat has made the development of Cabo San Lucas controversial.[by whom?]
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Until fairly recently[when?], Mexico's unique and fragile environmental treasures were on their own and subjected to the predation of developers acting in concert with government agencies interested only in low-end tourist bonanzas. There is, however, a growing collection of activists and attorneys now involved in preserving many of Baja's desert habitats, marine mammals, and pristine stretches of coastline. A number of agencies including The Gulf of California Conservation Fund and The Center for Environmental Law in La Paz are challenging the despoliation of wetlands and other ecosystems from Los Cabos to Ensenada. In the face of a growing international public demand for corporate-driven ecological stewardship, higher-end resorts in the Los Cabos area are increasingly sensitive to their environmental impact and are taking initial steps to institute sustainable practices like reducing water usage and non-recyclable trash output.
Tourism
Cabo San Lucas has become an important vacation and spa destination, with a great variety of sites of interest and timeshares that have been built on the coast between San Lucas and San José del Cabo. The distinctive El Arco de Cabo San Lucas is a local landmark.
Cabo San Lucas has the largest marlin tournament in the world.
In the winter, pods of whales can be observed in the ocean. They bear their calves in the warm waters there after completing their six-thousand-mile migration from Alaska and Siberia.
Getting There
Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo are served by Los Cabos International Airport. The town is also a popular port of call for many cruise ships. Cabo San Lucas has a small international airfield, which handles air traffic for general aviation flights and air taxi service.
Nightlife and Activities
In 1990 rock musician Sammy Hagar of Van Halen opened a nightclub and restaurant, the Cabo Wabo Cantina, with the three other members of Van Halen. In the mid-nineties he bought out his bandmates and assumed complete ownership of the club. He is known to play live at the club at least once a year with his band, the Wabos, on his birthday, October 13, and shows often include many famous guests and friends from the music industry. Other clubs in Cabo include Pink Kitty Nightclub, Mandala, El Squid Roe, No Worrys Bar & Grill, Giggling Marlin, Nowhere Bar, Tiki Bar, the Usual Suspects and the Jungle Bar. Tourists may also ride horses through the desert and parasail on the beach. The English language newspaper for Cabo San Lucas, the biweekly Gringo Gazette, has news on tourist activities in Cabo San Lucas, San Jose, Todos Santos, La Paz, and the East Cape Baja.[3]
The Corridor
Cabo San Lucas's raucous party atmosphere and San José’s laid-back colonial style are bridged by a golf course- and resort-studded Tourist Corridor that stretches between the twin towns in twenty miles of pristine beaches and craggy coves. Also known as the corredor del oro (Golden Corridor), the Corridor is where most tourists go and where newcomers settle down in retirement homes. Now the majority of inhabitants (70-80%) in the community[where?] originate from the United States.[citation needed]
Exclusive hotels and gated residential communities, attracting a wide clientele of the rich and famous, are found here. Many of these properties have become havens to Hollywood stars, Fortune 500 CEOs, and even the US President during the 2002 Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC). High-end resorts in the Corridor include the One&Only Palmilla, Esperanza, and Las Ventanas.
Chileno Beach, located in the Chileno Bay, is one of the most frequented beaches in the Corridor. Its nearby coral reefs attract tropical fish and snorkelers to the area.
Migration within Mexico
The continued economic growth within Los Cabos has picked up within the past ten years[when?], thanks to national and international hotel chains establishing themselves in the Corridor. People from all parts of Mexico have emigrated to the area in the hope of better opportunity, which has resulted in steady growth in the neighborhoods in the northwest and west of Cabo San Lucas.[citation needed]
Climate
| Climate data for Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 24 (76) |
23 (74) |
25 (77) |
27 (81) |
30 (86) |
32 (89) |
34 (94) |
36 (96) |
35 (95) |
32 (90) |
28 (83) |
25 (77) |
29 (85) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 12 (54) |
13 (55) |
13 (56) |
14 (58) |
16 (61) |
19 (66) |
23 (73) |
24 (75) |
24 (75) |
20 (68) |
17 (63) |
14 (58) |
17 (64) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 5.1 (0.2) |
28 (1.1) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
5.1 (0.2) |
10 (0.4) |
30 (1.2) |
36 (1.4) |
15 (0.6) |
13 (0.5) |
28 (1.1) |
170.2 (6.7) |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 68 | 65 | 62 | 60 | 61 | 65 | 68 | 70 | 69 | 69 | 71 | 67 | 66 |
| Source: Weatherbase [4] | |||||||||||||
Cabo San Lucas has a tropical arid climate.
During summer, Cabo San Lucas is cooler than San José del Cabo by about 3°F to 5°F. Sometimes during the summer, when winds blow from the Pacific Ocean instead of the Gulf of California, the differences in temperatures between San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are higher.
Cabo San Lucas is less rainy than San José del Cabo, although hurricanes can bring heavy rain for long periods. Because of the position of the city and orography, the local summer thunderstorms do not get near enough to bring rain to the town.
Average yearly rainfall: 9.63 inches or 244.7mm.
See also
- Baja California Sur
- Los Cabos International Airport
- Cabo San Lucas International Airport
- Gulf of California
- Sebastián Vizcaíno
- Baja California Peninsula
- Mexican Federal Highway 1
- Mexican Federal Highway 19
References
- ^ 2010 census tables: INEGI
- ^ Interview with Harumi Fujita
- ^ http://www.world-newspapers.com/mexico.html
- ^ "Weatherbase: Weather for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico". Weatherbase. 2011. Retrieved on November 22, 2011.
External links
- All About Cabo Learn all about Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico.
- Visit Los Cabos [Cabo San Lucas Oficial Travel Site
- Template:Dmoz
- Cabo's Beaches
- iCabo.com Cabo San Lucas Information and Directory
 State of Baja California Sur | ||
|---|---|---|
La Paz (capital) | ||
| Topics |  | |
| Municipalities and municipal seats | ||
