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Baja Norte

Articles, Rosarito

The Rosarito Mariachi Fest Is Here

And it’s all about “Coco”!

 

If it’s October, it must be Mariachi time in Rosarito. The 9th Annual Mariachi and Folklorico Festival will return to the Rosarito Beach Hotel October 3rd – 6th. Three days of intense talleres (workshops) in singing, dancing, and Mariachi instruments precede the Grand Concerto event on Saturday, October 6.

As always, 100% of the net proceeds will benefit the Rosarito Club de Ninos y Ninas (Boys and Girls Club). This year, the funds will go towards additional construction and Club operations of the facility, located in Colonia Lucio Blanco. If you haven’t been up there yet to see the Club, please do so! Visitors are always welcome to tour the place and see what goes on…and maybe offer to be a volunteer.

If you are brave enough, sign up for the workshops. The cost for three days, October 3 – 5, is only $60 and open to people (even non-Mexicans) of all ages! Choose between singing, folkloric dancing, or Mariachi band. And you don’t have to bring your own instrument!

Tickets are available for the popular Cocktails with the Stars (5:30, October 4), featuring appetizers from local eateries and some really great wine. And don’t forget to have your photo taken with the stars of the Mariachi.

Prior to “Cocktails” is the annual inauguration of Mariachi greats into the Mariachi Hall of Fame, located in the Rosarito Beach Hotel, right next to Chaubert’s Restaurant and the Quixote Room. And this event is free!

Friday night is the Student Showcase Concert where students will perform musical numbers learned in the workshops. Get some really good mariachi performances for a mere $15. And keep your eyes and ears open for “Playing and Singing for Food” activities at several Rosarito eateries during the week.

Saturday is a full day, starting at 10am, with Competitions featuring Mariachi groups and Folkloric dancers from all over Mexico for a mere $5! Prepare to see some great acts, including (hopefully) ladies that dance with full (unopened) bottles of beer on their cabesas. You will have plenty of time to get home and clean up for the Grand Concert at 7 pm.

Doors for Saturday night’s Grand Concert open at 6 pm. This year, Mariachi Fest celebrates the 2017 Disney-Pixar film “CoCo,” a film about a boy who has dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol.

And this year it IS all about “CoCo.” Workshop teachers for the week all worked on the animated movie, which won the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Achievement in Music Written for a Motion Picture.

Tickets for Saturday evening’s performance range from General Admission ($25) to  Diamond (better seating at $65), and VIP (reserved table seating, $100.) Headlining is Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan and the Mariachi Divas.  Other celebrities participating Saturday night include Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar, Musical arrangers of “CoCo,” and winner of multiple Grammy Awards, and many other performers.

Los Angeles’ Ballet Folklorico, who performed the Oscar-winning Best Song of the Year at the Oscars, will perform, as will Trio Ellas, who is very popular at Mariachi Fest.

Never before seen will be the world premiere of Impresario Edward March’s “MagiConcert Virtual Orchestra,” performing on the big screen and stage concurrently.

Tickets are still available for all of these Mariachi Fest events, by visiting www.Clubrosarito.org, or contacting Rosy Torres at RosyMTorres@hotmail.com. For special Rosarito Beach Hotel packages, go to www.RosaritoBeachHotel.com, or (US): 1-800-ROSARITO or (MX) 01-800-265-2322. ,

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 Breaking News, Tijuana

12 People Injured In Volaris Flight To Tijuana

Flight 423 from Volaris travelling from Guadalajara to Tijuana this Wednesday, suffered major “turbulence” scaring the bejesus out of the 165 passengers and 5 crew members in there.

Sandra Sanchez, one of the passengers in the flight stated: “This definitely felt more than regular turbulence, it felt more like an impact that lasted for around 2 seconds. After that we still had to fly for more than an hour to get to Tijuana. I’m definitely thankful that we’re alive”.

Volaris stated that the plane “Experimented a clear air turbulence during it’s flight”.

Clear air turbulence (CAT) are dangerous as they happen in clear skies and cannot be detected with conventional radar equipment, although they can cause severe damage to the aircraft and injuries to passengers and crew.

Many videos of the aftermath are circulating online, in one of them a passenger is seen laying on the corridor while others shout for a doctor on board.

Several people were hurt, with 12 of them requiring medical attention in Tijuana hospitals.

At the time of writing 2 crew members were still recovering from their injuries, while the other passengers where all discharged from local hospitals.

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 Breaking News, Rosarito

Rosarito Business Leaders Support The Citizens Council For Public Security in Baja

Just last week, prominent business leaders from Rosarito met with Juan Manual Hernandez, president of the Citizens Council For Public Security in Baja (CCSPBC), a citizens led association focused on overseeing authorities in charge of public security.

HUgo Torres Chabert (center), president of the Tourism Developers Association and owner of the Rosarito Beach Hotel with Juan Manuel Hernández Niebla (right), president of the Citizens Council for Public Security in Baja California.

During the meeting, Juan Hernandez shared data for crimes committed this year, which amounts to 1,987 from January to August, and although the number has been going down steadily, he noted that it is still a very high crime rate.

Hernandez stated that they had procured funding from the state public security office in order to poll citizens regarding the official complaints made in government office, so they can compare it with official data.

He also said that now, with social media being so popular, violence is very perceptive. With almost every crime getting a lot of exposure when it’s shared constantly.

Regarding the C5i (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Collaboration, and Intelligence) center, he said that they were still against it as it’s a project that will indebt the state highly without any certainty that it will work.

The C5i for Baja project has been highly controversial, as several citizens groups have said that investment should be done in other parts of public security before investing in this. A better. More efficient court system, better trained police or more equipment for them should be prioritized over the C5i, they have said, as it’s common problem that criminals go free as soon as they are captured for procedural “mistakes”.

The project will cost the state around 43 million USD, to be paid in 10 years, to a private company, which infuriated citizens even more as it is now seemed as another one of the governor’s “businesses”.

Genaro de la Torre, president of the citizens council for public security for Tijuana, stated last year that going ahead with the C5i would be like “giving a baby a bike, first he needs to learn to crawl”.

 

With information from UniRadioInforma.com

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 Breaking News, Ensenada

There Is Hope For Ensenada

After much speculation about Ensenada being left out of the newly defined border zone that will cut taxes to half, the new Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) stated that he will review the situation.

Jorge Cortes, head of the coordinated businesses council in Ensenada (CCEE), Mario Zepeda, president of the Baja California Citizens Council and federal congressman Armando Reyes, talked at different times with AMLO regarding placing Ensenada into the tax-reduced zone and they all agreed that he was open about the idea but said that he had to review the matter thoroughly.

Although this seems like a win for Ensenada, who wants to be part of the tax-reduced area, no commitment was made by AMLO to include Ensenada in the border zone, which is comprised of every city that is within 19 miles from the border.

One of them did say that AMLO was analyzing the possibility of including Ensenada in the Border Zone  in a second stage of the process.

Jorge Cortes, from CCEE, said that he delivered a letter signed by all the business councils in Ensenada that will be directly affected by the change if it goes through on December 1st, the day he gets starts his term.

Jacobo Zepeda stated that he delivered another letter to AMLO and about 4,000 signatures of concerned citizens.

 

With information from elvigia.net

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 Breaking News, Ensenada

24 Beaches Being Cleaned This Weekend, And You Can Help!

More than 50 non-profits, schools, businesses & authorities from the state and city levels are working together to clean 24 local beaches as part of the International Coastal Cleanup Movement started by Ocean Conservancy more than 30 years ago.

This is the first time that an alliance is formed with different organizations in order to cover more beaches and pickup the biggest amount of trash possible and create awareness in the community about keeping our beaches and oceans clean.

Each organization will be in charge of cleaning squads that will start the cleanup on Saturday, October 22 and Sunday, October 23 in several beaches around Ensenada and all the way to Baja Sur.

All the trash collected from the cleanup will be organized by type (Ex. cigarette butts, plastic bottles, cans, etc), weight and all the information will be put in a database which will allow authorities and non-profits to know what kind of trash is more often found in particular places. With this information campaigns can be made to address specific trash problems in certain areas.

The results from the ocean cleanups all around the world will be published in Ocean Conservancy’s website www.oceanconservancy.org and will also be available at the next Expo Environment, organized by the local Environmental Protection Office, in a booth that will show visitors the quantity of trash collected and exhibit the most weird objects found in the beach.

You can help by attending any of these cleanups, they start at 8:00AM and end at 1:00PM. Volunteers should bring a hat, comfortable closed shoes, sunscreen, water (in a reusable container), fruit and gloves. They are stressing out to not bring any water in disposable plastic bottles.

The locations available are:

Saturday, September 22, 2018- Ensenada and Baja Sur

  1. San Miguel
  2. Stacks
  3. Tres Emes
  4. El Mosquito
  5. Playa Hermosa
  6. Conalep
  7. Pacifica
  8. La Mision
  9. Villa Jesus Maria
  10. Bahia de Los Angeles
  11. Isla de Cedros
  12. Guerrero Negro
  13. Laguna San Ignacio

Sunday, September 23, 2018 – San Quintin

  1. Arroyo Santo Domingo
  2. Playa San Ramón
  3. Laguna Figueroa
  4. Chapala
  5. Playa Santa María
  6. La Chorera
  7. Humedal El Arco
  8. Punta Azufre
  9. Punta Mazo and Monte Ceniza Natural Reserves

We have no news of organized efforts being made in Rosarito and Tijuana but you can always show up at your local beach and do your part to help out, better yet take some friends over and help even more!

Fore more information visit the Facebook event “Limpieza Internacional Costera“.

 

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 Breaking News, Rosarito

New Campaign To Prevent Car Break-Ins In Rosarito

The Rosarito Tourism and Conventions Commitee (COTUCO) has launched a new campaign to prevent car break-ins from downtown Rosarito all the way to Popotla.

Car break-ins have been a problem for years all along the free road, with most of the victims being tourists that forget that it’s not safe to leave your valuable belongings at sight inside your car.

Edgar Orozco, head of COTUCO, said that the campaign consists of several signs that are being installed along the Benito Juarez and Popotla Boulevards, informing people to double check their cars before leaving them unattended.

The tourism police said they would pitch in by doing more patrolling around the area. Incredibly enough the chief of tourism police stated that “It’s important for business owners to remind their patrons to not leave their valuable stuff in their cars because opportunity makes the thief”.

No, Mr. Chief of Tourism Police, opportunity doesn’t make the thief. Lack of well-paying job opportunities, drugs and a deficient police department make the thief. On his defense it’s a popular Mexican saying, and he is right, don’t leave your stuff at plain sight in the car, that’s a recipe for disaster and more often than not it’s more expensive to repair the window than what they take.

Written from information from Ecos de Rosarito

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 Articles, Cuisine, Ensenada

Ensenada’s Restaurant Scene: Il Massimo Cucina Italiana

This week we visited Ensenada’s newest authentic Italian food establishment; it’s a small, fresh and well-lit restaurant called Il Massimo Cucina Italiana, brought to us by owner and chef Massimo Zaretti, born in Rome, Italy, and raised there until his family migrated to California when he was 13 years old.

This is his first restaurant, although he is no stranger to the restaurant business, he grew into the restaurant business as his father was a successful restauranteur until his retirement, and Massimo himself has amassed more than 20 years’ experience working in such prestigious restaurants around the world as the St. Regis in Thailand, the Grand Hyatt in Singapore, the Hilton in Tokyo, The Wolfgang Puck Catering in Vegas and many more.

His cuisine evokes the freshness of the Mediterranean Sea, which is reflected all-around in the classy setting he offers his clients, an ambiance embellished with bright colors and pictures of Italian seas and Rome.

As we entered the restaurant, Massimo opened the door and greeted us, checking in with us and other clients during our dinner.

The wine list offers a small but reasonably priced selection of local wines from our valleys, which Massimo says will be expanding as he gets to know more of the local wines. You can always bring your own bottle of wine by paying a service fee of $8 USD or buy one bottle from his list and he will waive that extra fee for the one you brought.

My wife and I started our dinner with a couple of delicious mini-Caprese appetizers, freshly made pesto and bread that was brought to us, on the house, while we waited for our real appetizers: Tentacolo di Polpo which are octopus tentacles marinated and lightly fried in olive oil, accompanied with fried leek slices. I have tried variations of this appetizer in different places around Baja and I will have to say that these were the best, crispy on the outside and tender and flavorful on the inside.

Since we liked the mini-Caprese we decided to go for a full-size one which traded the halved cherry tomatoes for slices of locally grown heirloom tomatoes and basil, fresh mozzarella and a drizzle of Pesto, very refreshing.

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For main dishes we decided to go with the pasta, choosing the Cannelloni al Forno, which are made-from-scratch cannelloni filled with a mixture of ricotta, spinach and béchamel sauce covered in an incredibly delicious marinara sauce with cheese; you can’t go wrong with these!

We finalized our meal with a Panna Cotta de Rosa, which melts in the mouth leaving a delicious rose aftertaste, and Massimo’s own Tiramisu made with Nutella and banana slices instead of the usual coffee and cocoa flavors.

At the end of your meal, the staff will serve you one of the house’s aperitifs, which depending on what is planned for the day, could be limoncello, arancello or chocolate liquor.

The recently opened Il Massimo is going straight to the top of my authentic Italian restaurant’s list. Not only does this place offers great food at very reasonable prices (entrees go from $9 to $13 USD), but they offer great service, something that is not always easy to find around here.

Il Massimo is open Tuesday to Sunday from 1 PM to 10 PM and is located in Boulevard Costero #987 right next to Subway. Reservations can be made by calling (646) 977-7089. Parking space is available alongside the restaurant.

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