A nearly empty Papas and Beer, a beachside bar, in Rosarito, Mexico, Jan. 11, 2019. The town, south of Tijuana, is usually bustling with throngs of partying young Americans, but it has seen a steep falloff in tourism. Local residents blame the turmoil at the U.S.-Mexico border and the migrant caravan.
Empty tables at Club Bombay on the beach in Rosarito, Mexico, Jan. 10, 2019
It’s not just the migrant caravans. There’s also great concern about the drug cartels and lawlessness in Mexico....Hey Mexico pay for a WALL, and all of THIS WILL GO AWAY, and start stopping the caravans!
On a forlorn beach, a long line of riderless horses shuffled along, their wrangler unable to spot a single sightseer who might want to hop on.
The vendors selling fruit and candy, or touting massages and tattoos, had relinquished their efforts to find customers and instead sprawled on the sand.
Inside the landmark Rosarito Beach Hotel, only the backdrop sound of the ocean waves interrupted the silence.
The tourist town of Rosarito, Mexico, usually bustling with throngs of young Americans partying at crowded dance clubs, was desolate. While winter is not peak season, residents say business has never been this bad.
“This is not normal, it’s all empty!” said Luis Pacheco, a waiter at Papas and Beer, a popular beachside bar.
“This used to be full of people,” he said, pointing at the rows of colourful wooden chairs on the sand, devoid of sunbathers.
Those who depend on American visitors for their livelihood attribute the steep falloff in tourism here to the recent turmoil at the border in the neighbouring city of Tijuana, 16 miles north, where a migrant caravan from Central America arrived in November and hundreds remain gathered in overcrowded shelters.
“It has been isolated incidents that have created a distorted, negative image of the border, and we are all suffering from it,” said Ricardo Argiles, chief executive of the company that owns the Rosarito Beach Hotel, which has welcomed Hollywood luminaries like Orson Welles, Spencer Tracy and Rita Hayworth in its long history.....but that was a long time ago in another era, and it will never return as long as the drug cartels control most of Northern Mexico!
To reach Rosarito, most visitors journey by car along roads with stunning vistas of sapphire-blue ocean waters and rugged cliffs.
(Excerpt) Read more at indianexpress.com ..
