When John Wayne fished for marlin in the Sea of Cortés at the southernmost tip of Baja California, the coast had all the ingredients of a perfect celebrity hideaway. Nothing more than a tuna factory and a ramshackle village stood between the desert and miles of white-sand beaches; getting there without a private jet or long-range yacht was difficult; and not far offshore, the tip of an ancient volcano lay submerged, teeming with some of the best sport fish in the world.
It was not long before ordinary Americans were lured – the first few making the bone-jarring journey south from La Paz’s commercial airport and then the masses following them in ever-greater numbers after the opening of the transpeninsular highway in 1974.
