Fear of crime keeps Baja resort empty

It's a warm Saturday night in January as we head out for a stroll along the main drag of Rosarito Beach in Baja California Norte.

Most of the cafés are closed or empty, and nightclubs are shut down. Few stores are open, even though it's a holiday weekend in the United States, 20 miles to the north.

Baja has always been one of my favorite vacation spots, whether for an adventure trip to one of the stunning natural destinations or a quick lobster dinner near the border.

Great food, beautiful scenery, nice people, excellent beer, cheap shopping: It's a place to have a lot of fun without spending a lot of money.

And it should be cheaper than ever, with the exchange rate about 15 pesos to the dollar.

But now the Americans, who make up these resorts' main source of visitors, have largely vanished, scared away by drug cartel violence and crooked cops. The U.S. State Department has put a "travel alert" on the area, warning visitors to take extra precautions. The poor state of the economy doesn't help, either.

When my friend Rose Marie told me that she had to make a quick business trip, I decided to throw some clothes in a bag and come along. I'm a former cops reporter, and Rose Marie once rode around Uganda on the back of a motorbike. We figured we could handle Rosarito.

We tossed my 10-year-old daughter, Sandy, in the jump seat of Rose Marie's pickup and headed out Saturday morning of Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

Two hours later, we crossed the border into Mexico easily and headed south. The day was stunningly warm and sunny, and the air was unusually clear.

We took the toll road to Rosarito, transacted my friend's business, and then decided to check out a couple of hotels. I figured that the lodgings would be hurting financially so they might be offering some "incentive pricing" that would make a spur-of-the-moment overnight worthwhile.

First, we stopped at Los Pelicanos, a modest hotel on the north end of town that I've always liked. Last time it was about $50 a night. They wanted $68 a night, just for a regular room, with no ocean view. Ouch! No thanks; we passed.