Baja California Sur successfully rode out Hurricane Genevieve, which skimmed the Baja Peninsula earlier this week as a category 1 storm and did not make landfall.
Damage from the storm was mostly limited to landslides and flooding as 305 millimeters of rain fell in some places. The Marina and beaches in Cabo San Lucas were left riddled with garbage as flooding in the streets swept trash into the sea. Beaches in Los Cabos remain closed.
Some 80,000 homes were without power in the aftermath of the storm, and many neighborhoods are still without power and water.
New cemetery for Loreto
Officials in Loreto have agreed to start work on an urgently needed new cemetery, El Sudcaliforniano reports.
“We have always been aware that having a new cemetery is a priority for our municipality, being one of the actions most demanded by citizens,” said Mayor Arely Arce Peralta. “For this reason, today I feel happy to be able to start with this long-awaited project that will solve the enormous problem we have lived with for years.”
Work has begun on clearing the property which will have 1,747 burial plots, a crematorium, administrative offices, a chapel and restrooms.
New hotel for Todos Santos
Todos Santos is getting a new hotel. The luxury chain Habitas announced plans to build an 80-room hotel on 24 coastal acres on the Pacific Ocean, Forbes reports.
The hotel will be built using parts created in a factory on a 3D printer, which are then assembled onsite as in Lego. Once the parts arrive in Todos Santos, construction should take just four months. The hotel will offer a spa, organic garden and farm to table restaurant, and guests can indulge in activities such as diving, hiking, mountain biking, fishing, surfing and sound meditation.
Hear no evil
A man in La Paz had part of his ear cut off last night, but says he was so drunk he can’t remember who did it, BCS Noticias reports.
The man told police he remembers drinking alcohol in the Miramar neighborhood with someone from work, but he is unable to recall who that person was. He does remember being struck in the head and seeing the resulting blood. Paramedics transported the 55-year-old to the hospital to receive stitches.
Film festival goes virtual
The Los Cabos International Film Festival will be a virtual event this year, organizers say.
The festival, in its ninth year, will be featured online from November 11 through 15, Proceso reports.
Executive director Alejandra Paulín says “we are going to move forward, we are proposing all possible schemes” as the festival looks to reinvent itself in difficult times.
“We already saw it as complicated at the budget level, but obviously the whole situation of the pandemic worries us. We found ourselves chatting with other types of sponsors, different from the ones we were used to working with,” Paulín says.
The Los Cabos Tourism Trust, which traditionally provides a large chunk of the festival’s budget and had pledged to do the same this year back n November, withdrew funding in May.
Organizers are working to make the festival as inspiring as possible but on a fraction of their normal budget.
Last year, director Martin Scorcese’s film The Irishmen premiered at the festival and its star, Robert DeNiro, was in attendance.
Organizers say they hope “to return to the majestic sea and desert landscape of Los Cabos in 2021.”
Bar none
Authorities warn that bars and nightclubs that attempt to skirt coronavirus restrictions by pretending to be restaurants will face serious sanctions.
Bars and clubs are prohibited from opening at this stage of the pandemic, but restaurants may operate at 30% capacity.
Authorities say bars in La Paz, Comondú and Los Cabos have opened, but ask customers to order some kind of food or snack with their drinks in an attempt to disguise their operations as family businesses, Metropolimx reports.
Health Minister Víctor George Flores says their disregard for coronavirus restrictions can cause massive concentrations of people which could endanger public health.
According to data provided by the State Commission for the Protection of Sanitary Risks (COEPRIS), 158 bars and nightclubs have had their licenses suspended since March 23 for feigning to be restaurants.
TikTok priest
A young priest from La Paz has taken the scriptures to TikTok, recording a series of short videos that show a lighter side of Catholicism.
Often clad in jeans and bright orange tennis shoes for his appearances, Father Javi’s videos have reached nearly 40,000 followers and have been liked 320,000 times worldwide.
Father Javi dances and jokes in his videos: in one, he poses to rap music, in another he lip-syncs a monologue from the film Titanic. But he also tells short stories related to his faith, and how to respond to different situations in a godly manner.
One of his most viewed videos shows Father Javi entering a church and lurching up the aisle like a zombie after not confessing or taking communion for five months due to the coronavirus. Michael Jackson’s song Thriller plays in the background.
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