Los Cabos () is a municipality located at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, in the state of Baja California Sur. It encompasses the two towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo (the municipal seat) linked by the thirty-two-km Resort Corridor
The area was remote and rural until the latter 20th century, when the Mexican government began to develop Cabo San Lucas for tourism, which then spread east to the municipal seat. The main draw is the climate and geography, where desert meets the sea, along with sport fishing, resorts and golf. This tourism is by far the main economic activity with over two million visitors per year. Over 1 million visit from the United States.
Although San José del Cabo is the seat of government for the municipality of Los Cabos, it is smaller than Cabo San Lucas. San José's growth is now rivaling that of the more famous resort area.
This growth has been regulated to outside of the town centre, especially to the south where the beaches are, leaving the historic town centre quiet and relatively unchanged. There are still cobblestone streets, adobe houses, jacaranda trees and a central square in front of a church that dates from the 18th century, where people gather in the evening when it is cooler.
A number of the large houses in the center date from the 19th century, and most of these have been converted into restaurants, art galleries and shops selling everything from fine handcrafts, silver, local gemstones and souvenirs. The art scene in the town is well-developed because of tourism and people with vacation homes. These shops carry high end paintings and sculptures from traditional Mexican, Mexican contemporary and international artisans and artists.
During the high season from October to May, these galleries stay open late into the night.
The main example of colonial architecture is the town's parish church. It was part of the Estero de las Palmas de San José del Cabo Mission, founded in 1730. The facade is marked with a tile mural depicting the martyrdom of founder Nicolás Tamaral, killed by the local Pericu people.
The municipality
Overview
thumb|250px|[[List of Mexican autopistas|Autopista San José del Cabo–Cabo San Lucas]]
San Jose del Cabo is the seat and the government for the communities found in a 3,451.51 km<sup>2</sup> area, located in the extreme south of the state of Baja California Sur. It is connected to the capital of La Paz via the Transpeninsular Highway.
The municipality borders that of La Paz to the north, with the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California surrounding it in the other directions. The municipal government consists of a municipal president, a syndic and fourteen representatives called regidors. Outside of the two main cities, other important communities include Colonia del Sol, Las Veredas, Colonia Los Congrejos, San José Viego and La Ribera. Visitors can get by in Cabo San Lucas purely in English and use U.S. dollars. and San Jose del Cabo also has a notable expatriate population, mostly retirees who have economic influence. The gastronomy of the region is based on seafood, which includes clams, marlin, snails, tuna and shark. A locally produced liquor is Damiana, sweet and flavored with a local herb, said to be an aphrodisiac. There are 313 schools from the primary to high school level. 9.3 years of schooling for those over 15. There are two vocational schools and twelve centers for adult education. There are no schools specifically targeting an indigenous population. The basement rock underlying Los Cabos formed even earlier, approximately 115 million years ago.
The municipality has an average altitude of forty meters above sea level. There are three main terrain types, mountain terrain, semi flat areas and flat areas. The mountains consist of the Sierra de la Laguna and the Sierra de San Lázaro, both formed of volcanic rock, covering about fifteen percent of the total territory with peaks between 400 and 1000 meters. The semi flat areas are located between the coast and the mountain ranges, mostly of sedimentary rock and account for sixty percent of the territory. The flat areas are along the coast, beaches and alluvial plains, which account for twenty five percent of the territory.
{|class="wikitable"
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|77 °F
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|81 °F
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thumb|Beach at San Jose del Cabo
As it is on the edge of the desert that covers most of the Baja California peninsula, it is one of the sunniest locations in the world, with an average of 320 days of sunshine per year. This pooling of brackish water has created an oasis in the surrounding Sarcocaule desert. The Río San José flows largely underground for from its origin in the Sierra de la Laguna (Laguna Mountains), although its Miramonte River tributary adds almost an additional . Its tributaries flow down the eastern side of the sierra and include Santa Rosa, Santa Lázaro, San Miguel, San Ignacio (at La Palma), Caduaño, Miraflores and San Bernard.
The river used to flow above ground until the beginning of the 20th century due to anthropogenic causes. For more than 250 years the Río San José has furnished drinking and irrigation water for the town of San Jose del Cabo, beginning as a source of fresh water for Spanish galleons traveling back from the Philippines. Over the sand bar from the estuary is a bay referred to by early Spanish explorers, including Sebastian Vizcaino, as the Bahía de San Bernabé or Bay of San Bernabé, and now as the Bay of San José del Cabo.
The estuary is home to both native and migratory birds and aquatic species, 250 species of tropical birds alone.
Vegetation varies mostly by altitude and soil type and how much moisture the area receives. However, almost all species are those adapted to desert and semi-desert zones.
As of March 1, 2021, the municipality reported 7,796 recoveries, 209 active cases, and 404 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.
References
External links
- Ayuntamiento de Los Cabos Official municipal government website.