The Escalera Nautica Land Bridge to Boating in the Sea of Cortez

La Escalera Nautica, a 1.9 billion dollar project, is another one of Mexico's attempts to develop tourism in Mexico. Existing ports to be used for this project include Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Guaymas and Mazatlan. Ports that will be expanded include San Carlos, Loreto, Mulege, Santa Rosalia, Puerto Peñsaco and Topolobampo. Existing ports to be used for the project include Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Guaymas and Mazatlan. Ports that will be expanded include San Carlos, Loreto, Mulege, Santa Rosalia, Puerto Peñsaco and Topolobampo. Ports to be built from scratch include Cabo Colonet, Puerto Canoa, Santa Rosalillita, Bahia de Tortuga, Punta Abreojos, San Juanico, Bahia de Los Angeles and Bahia San Luis Gonzaga on the Baja Peninsula, and Bahia Kino in the state of Sonora, as well as Altata in the state of Sinaloa.

The plan is to provide safe harbors throughout Baja and Mainland Mexico spaced roughly a day’s cruising distance apart. The cornerstone of the plan is a seventy mile land bridge that will allow visiting trailer boats and larger yachts (up to 55 feet in length) to be transported from the west coast of Baja to the more user friendly Sea of Cortez on the eastern side of the Baja peninsula.

This is where Santa Rosalillita comes in. Talk about winning the Mexican Lottery, this tiny remote village in its new role as Gateway to the “land bridge”, has suddenly been transformed into a much larger bustling community. Architects, Engineers, construction workers descended like frigates on a bait school. New homes, administrative buildings and shop buildings have all been built to accommodate workers and the anticipated hoards of boats that are expected.

Even the narrow two lane Mexico 1 that tourists traveling by car and RV’s have become accustomed to is being renovated to facilitate the heavy equipment that will be used to transport boats between the two bodies of water. Large turnouts to allow trucks and trailers to pull off to the side of the road have been added along the highway and the road leading to Bahia de Los Angeles from Punta Prieta. After many years of driving up and down the highway, it’s quite a shock to find shoulders of any kind.

While the merits of the Mexican Government’s ambitious plans continue to be debated, it is clear that the government is serious about injecting a tremendous amount of money and effort into the project which will have a profound effect on the region, residents and visitors for a long time to come.

This Escalera Nautica update was brought to us by Gary Graham of Baja on the Fly. A well know fly fishing guru, Gary has provided us this timely article for those interested in boating in the Sea of Cortez.

If you are interested in one of Gary's Fly Fishing Excursions please visit the Baja on the Fly site by click here.