Der Baja Travelers:

Thanks for conveying your concern. The story presents a very unrealistic perspective of the danger to visitors to this area. If you read it closely, you'll see that it refers to a handful of crimes that occurred in Baja over a several-month period, none of them in Rosarito. The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana had less than 200 complaints of any sort in all of 2007 from the millions of U.S. citizens who visited Baja that year. Even if some incidents were unreported, which is likely, it still is a very low number, lower than many if not most places in the U.S. Overall tourism to Baja in 2007 was down less than 3 percent. Security concerns figure in the decline, but it also can be attributed to a slow U.S. economy and high gas prices. The Rosarito Beach Hotel was at full occupancy on New Year's weekend. All this is not to say that Baja officials are unconcerned with the crimes that have occurred. People who come here are our guests and we want them to have a safe and pleasant visit. Being a crime victim is a horrible thing, and it is more unsettling when it happens in a foreign country. We fully realize this. Rosarito's new Mayor Hugo Torres, who also owns the Rosarito Beach Hotel, has made improving safety and procedures for visitors to report incidents a top priority. Baja state officials also are taking similar actions. In the near future, we will be doing a series of media conferences and releases to correct the misleading impression that the story you mentioned and a few others have created. Also, please contact me personally if you need further information. As well as being a city spokesman, I also am one of about 14,000 U.S. citizens living in Rosarito

Weather  in Baja California

Surface Chart / Satellite IR

11AM MT 01/04/08 Hello Readers - Please excuse our dust, we are in process of remodeling the BajaInsider. Today Baja will get a break from the north winds as a High establishes itself west of central Baja (blue arrow) and it's counter-clockwise rotation is bringing moisture from the Pineapple Express over Baja Sur. Baja California will get some afternoon clouds as a cold front (magenta arrow) sweeps into SoCal and will bring winter temps tomorrow. This is part of a very strong winter storm in the PacNW that is nearly as deep as a Cat2 Hurricane, High pressure is bring pushed east from the 4 Corners (yellow arrow) and will give us a several day break from the winds in the Sea of Cortez.

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Weather  in Baja California

Surface Chart / Satellite IR

012PM MT 01/02/08 Another windy day in the Sea of Cortez as a very strong 1051Mb High (red arrow) slowly moves east. That deep Low (magenta arrow)  is drifting north along the NW Pac coast and seas on the Pacific side may subside in a few days. In our region, the Navy Sat image is still down, a High (blue arrow) will move onto our map today and bring clear skies, dry air and less wind for the next several days. We can expect a return to the north winds late this weekend or early next week as another strong High will move close to the SoCal coast.

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