10 Things You May Not Know About Los Cabos and Baja California Sur

Los Cabos has many levels. Most visitors see only the surface level: a land of year-round sunshine, with gorgeous golden sand beaches, luxurious tropical accommodations, boisterous nightlife, and destination amenities like big-game sportfishing, pampering spas, and championship-level golf courses.

But beyond this surface Los Cabos are many deeper levels, full of fascinating hidden histories and replete with remarkable lore.

With that in mind, here are 1o things you may not know about Los Cabos – the municipality that’s home to cape cities Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo – and the state of Baja California Sur.

Fishing was big in Los Cabos long before the age of tourism…

The first inhabitants of Los Cabos were the Pericu, a tribe of hunter gatherers whose territory extended beyond the boundaries of the present day Los Cabos municipality, and included offshore islands like Espiritu Santo, Cerralvo and San Jose.

Much of the culture and language of the Pericues has been lost to history, but thanks to descriptions from European sailors and missionaries, we know something of their way of life; including their prodigious talents as fishermen. Captain Woodes Rogers, an English privateer who later became Governor of the Bahamas, described their methods glowingly in his 1712 book, A Cruising Voyage Round the World.

“They subsisted chiefly on fish while we were here…We saw no nets or hooks, but wooden instruments with which they strike the fish very dexterously, and dive to admiration. Some of our sailors told me they saw one of them dive with his instrument, and while he was underwater put up his striker with a fish on the point of it, which was taken off by another that watched him on a bark log. The reader may believe of this what he pleases, but I give it the more credit because I myself threw some rusty knives overboard on purpose to try those divers, who seldom missed catching a knife before it could sink three or four fathoms; which I took to be an extraordinary proof of their agility.”

The Arch at Land’s End is old…really, really, really old…

Geological estimates for the oldest granitic monuments at Land’s End suggest a mind blowing antiquity. According to The Atlas of Coastal Ecosystems in the Western Gulf of California, the Cretaceous Period granite that forms El Arco is equivalent in age to that found at subsurface volcanic sites at Las Tres Virgenes in the municipality of Mulege:  approximately 84 million years old.

San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are not the original names of the cape cities…

 Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo were not always referred to thusly. The Pericues referred to the former as Yenekamu, the latter as Añuiti. Until Francisco de Bolaños named Cabo San Lucas on October 18, 1541, it was listed on Spanish maps as “Ballenas” (Whales).

In 1602, when Sebastian Vizcaino undertook an exploratory voyage of the California coast on behalf of King Felipe III of Spain, he stopped in San Jose on June 11, dubbing in San Bernabe in accordance with the Catholic calendar. San Bernabe it would remain for over 100 years, until a Jesuit mission was founded there in 1730.

According to historian Pablo L. Martinez, who grew up in nearby Santa Anita: “The name of San Jose was given after Jose de la Puente, benefactor of colonization (the Marques de Villapuente, to give his official title, funded a large percentage of the Jesuit missions in Baja); and that of del Cabo was added to distinguish it from Comondu, which was also San Jose.”

Baja California Sur is the youngest state in Mexico…

Mexico has 31 states and a federal district. Baja California Sur was, along with Quintana Roo, the last to achieve statehood, being elevated from territory status on October 8, 1974. Baja California, by contrast, was officially given statehood in 1952.

Baja California Sur has more coastline than any Mexican state…

Mexico has approximately 9,330 kilometers of coastline, and a rather staggering percentage of it surrounds the Baja California peninsula. Baja California Sur owns 2,131 kilometers, Baja California 1,493 kilometers. Together, they account for 38% of the nation’s coastline. That adds up to a lot of beautiful beaches.

 The Sea of Cortez is the world’s youngest sea…

What we now call Baja California was born amid cooling magma in the distant mists of the Mesozoic Era, between 135 and 225 million years ago. For millions of years afterward, plate tectonics, continental drift, subduction and other forces acted upon the coastline, finally resulting in a peninsular break from the Mexican mainland.

This fracture occurred from the top down–at the terminus of the Colorado River–beginning about 12 million years ago. As recently as five million years ago, present day Los Cabos was still connected to the continental massif, at what is now the state of Jalisco.

The mouth of the Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortez, finally opened three million years ago; and approximately 1.8 million years ago, in the early stages of the Pleistocene Epoch, the peninsula achieved what we consider its present position…although it continues to move away from the mainland at a stately pace of about six centimeters per year.

La Paz is the oldest community on the peninsula…

Each year on May 3, La Paz honors its foundation, remembering the day conquistador Hernan Cortes came ashore in 1535. This year, Baja California Sur’s capital city marked its 483rd birthday, and as always, celebrated with a Foundation Festival featuring food, drink, live entertainment, and of course a traditional reenactment of the landing of the Spaniards.

Loreto was the first capital of the Californias…

From 1697, when the Jesuits founded the first permanent peninsular community at Loreto (the indigenous inhabitants were hunter gatherers), Loreto was the capital of California. Loreto didn’t give up this privilege until 1777, when the capital was moved to Monterey in Alta California. Loreto remained the capital of Baja until 1829, when a particularly damaging hurricane caused the seat of government to briefly be moved to San Antonio. La Paz became the peninsular capital in 1830, and has remained so for Baja California Sur until the present day.

San Antonio is the longest continually occupied secular community in the Californias…

The Jesuits, Franciscans and Dominicans founded many missions in Las Californias, but the oldest continually occupied secular community is at San Antonio, a small town near El Triunfo, about 40 miles south of La Paz. San Antonio was founded in 1756 by Simon Rodriguez, as a community for mine workers at the newly formed Santa Gertrudis mine.

The final skirmish of the Mexican-American War took place near Todos Santos…

Although omitted almost entirely from books on the subject, Baja California was a hotbed of resistance during the Mexican-American War, and several pitched battles and sieges occurred on the peninsula. The war effectively ended when General Winfield Scott and his troops captured Mexico City in September 1847; but Bajacalifornio patriots under Capt. Manuel Pineda and wartime jefe politico Mauricio Castro continued to fight for their country. The final skirmish took place just north of Todos Santos on March 30, 1848, three weeks after the U.S. Congress had ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

 For more information about events, activities and villa rentals in Los Cabos, call us TOLL FREE at 1-888-655-4548, visit www.LosCabosVillas.com, or email us at Info@LosCabosVillas.com .

Photo courtesy of Shane Smith.

Upcoming Event Calendar

July

Stars and Stripes Golf & Fishing Tournament – June 28 – July 1

28th Annual Feria de la Pitahaya in Miraflores – July 13 – 15

East Cape Dorado Shootout Fishing Tournament – Jul. 21

12th Annual Mango Festival in Todos Santos – July 15, 22, 27 – 31

Los Cabos Open of Tennis – July 30 – Aug. 4

Bisbee’s East Cape Offshore Fishing Tournament – Jul. 31 – Aug. 4

August

Los Cabos Open of Tennis – July 30 – Aug. 4

Bisbee’s East Cape Offshore Fishing Tournament – Jul. 31 – Aug. 4

East Cape Gold Cup Wahoo Jackpot Fishing Tournament – Aug. 25

September

Día de la Independencia (Independence Day) – Sep. 16

October

Sammy Hagar Birthday Bashes at Cabo Wabo Cantina – Oct. 9, 11, 13

Los Cabos Billfish Tournament – Oct. 14 – 18

Bisbee’s Los Cabos Offshore Fishing Tournament – Oct. 18 – 21

Bisbee’s Black & Blue Fishing Tournament – Oct. 23 – 27

25th Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally – Oct. 28 – Nov. 10

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) – Oct. 31 – Nov. 2

November

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) – Oct. 31 – Nov. 2

Art Walk in San Jose del Cabo – Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29

Life Luxe Jazz Experience at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica – Nov. 1 – 4

IRONMAN 70.3 Latin American Tri Club Championship – Nov. 4

Adidas Golf Invitational at Cabo del Sol – Nov. 6 – 11

WON Tuna Jackpot – Nov. 7 – 10

SCORE Baja 1000 – Nov. 14 – 18

Día de la Revolución (Revolution Day) – Nov. 20

Día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving) – Nov. 22

December

Art Walk in San Jose del Cabo – Dec. 6, 13, 20, 27

Virgin of Guadalupe Feast Day – Dec. 12

Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) – Dec. 24

Navidad (Christmas) – Dec. 25

Nochevieja (New Year’s Eve) – Dec. 31

January 2019

Día de los Tres Reyes Magos – Jan. 6

Los Cabos Pro-Am at Cabo del Sol – Jan. 14 – 18

February

Día del Amor y la Amistad (Valentine’s Day) – Feb. 14

 March

Cabo Collegiate at Querencia – March 3 – 5