MND Local: News and notes around the Baja California peninsula, from Tijuana to Los Cabos

There has been a spate of absorbing quality precocious to drawback up connected for the 20 cardinal oregon truthful visitors annually to destinations astir the Baja California peninsula — from infrastructure projects to culinary announcements, and adjacent an award-winning literate enactment acceptable among Baja’s Spanish missions. 

Let’s commencement successful Los Cabos, the municipality that’s present location to 44% of the full colonisation of Baja California Sur. 

Los Cabos’ cities, Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, volition get downtown makeovers

Plaza Mijares and the historical downtown halfway of San José del Cabo volition besides spot remodeling and renovations. (Chris Sands)

The cardinal downtown areas of some Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo volition payment from a 120 cardinal peso makeover, it was precocious announced by Los Cabos’ Mayor Christian Agúndez Gómez. The municipality beautification enactment connected these areas is acceptable to statesman aboriginal successful 2025 and is expected to beryllium completed by aboriginal 2026.

The backing for the task comes courtesy of Fideicomiso de Turismo de Los Cabos (Fiturca, oregon the Los Cabos Tourism Board), which is administered done a 4% edifice tax. The expected changes are expected to beryllium extended and should see the renovation of nationalist squares and plazas, gathering façades, and improved landscaping, sidewalks and lighting. 

The result, if each goes well, volition beryllium a important upgrade to the wide municipality representation of the 2 cape cities, and it’s decidedly needed based connected declining income figures successful these areas successful caller years, with Cabo San Lucas’ traditionally party-hearty nightlife manufacture particularly hard hit. These losses tin so beryllium attributed to respective factors, including declining intoxicant income among Gen Z and much travelers choosing all-inclusive properties wherever determination is small crushed to task retired for nutrient oregon frolic. But a atrocious municipality image, peculiarly successful Cabo San Lucas, has decidedly played a part. 

No architectural illustrations person yet been released for the makeover, which is to beryllium overseen by the Urban Development Department, with input from country concern owners. So, to spot the fruits of this latest successful a agelong enactment of infrastructure improvements locally, you’ll person to travel and sojourn successful 2026. 

Tacos cognize nary borders, arsenic a famed Tijuana taquería expands with caller locations successful the San Diego area

At the different extremity of the peninsula, 1 of Tijuana’s astir celebrated taquerías — 1 recognized by the Michelin Guide — has precocious opened 2 caller locations crossed the borderline successful the San Diego area. Such cross-border hopping is, of course, not uncommon successful the CaliBaja Mega Region that sees a whopping US $70 cardinal annually successful shared trade, with 200,000 regular borderline crossings. But astatine a clip erstwhile the borderline is specified a contentious, politicized issue, it’s ever bully to spot radical uniting connected an contented we tin each hold on: namely, that tacos are delicious and merit to beryllium shared. 

Baja California is justly celebrated for pioneering the modern food taco. However, Tacos El Franc, which began arsenic a thoroughfare cart successful 1974 and has since expanded to ceramic and mortar locations successful Tijuana and, arsenic of 2025, successful San Diego, specializes successful carne asada and marinated adobada. A Tijuana instauration for much than 50 years, Tacos El Franc has seen its estimation dispersed acold and wide successful caller years, acknowledgment to its recommended presumption from the Michelin Guide and its featured relation connected the fashionable Netflix series, “Las Crónicas del Taco (“The Taco Chronicles”).

Celebrated Tijuana taquería Tacos El Franc has precocious opened 2 caller locations successful the San Diego area. (Tacos El Franc)

Originally founded by Javier Valadez and inactive owned successful Tijuana by the Valadez family, U.S. enlargement plans for Tacos El Franc person been undertaken successful concern with Roberto Kelly and Salvador Lombroso. The archetypal caller determination premiered to acclaim successful National City’s Westfield Plaza Bonita successful June of this year, with the 2nd opening its doors successful San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter connected Oct. 8. 

The enlargement was a agelong clip coming

The caller locations correspond the culmination of a 20-year odyssey for Kelly. “The crushed wherefore I pushed for the enlargement is that I ne'er tasted thing adjacent close,” Kelly told the San Diego Business Journal. “The prime of the nutrient and wide sensation were highly antithetic from what radical get connected this broadside of the border. I powerfully judge that radical successful the U.S. should person entree to the aforesaid prime of nutrient and taste.”

Or they could conscionable thrust implicit and effort the archetypal tacos connected Blvd. Sánchez Taboada successful Tijuana — although, dissimilar astatine the U.S. locations, determination won’t beryllium immoderate beef tallow fries featuring a assortment of proteins connected the menu.

The Baja California peninsula’s Spanish Missions are the taxable of a caller award-winning literate work

The much than 2 twelve Spanish missions built connected the Baja California peninsula by successive waves of Jesuit, Franciscan and Dominican missionaries betwixt the 17th and 19th centuries were foundational to determination past and culture, and, arsenic a consequence, person inspired immoderate fantabulous guidebooks and accounts; a information touched upon successful a recent interview with writer David Kier. 

As of September 2025, they’ve besides provided the backdrop for immoderate award-winning caller fiction, including “A Desert Between Two Seas,” a caller of linked stories written by writer Amy Muia, which was precocious published by the University of Georgia Press. “Though the stories span landscapes, villages, characters and decades, the bosom of the caller is Baja California itself,” Muia notes. “A stark onshore of cactus and creosote, of russet canyons and splintered wastes of stone — wherever radical surviving successful the shadiness of ruined missions question redemption connected an inhospitable peninsula forsaken adjacent by its priests.”

Muia did her probe well. The publication reflects not lone her knowing of the assemblage civilization and customs of the time, but besides her decade-plus of survey and exploration astatine ngo sites astir the peninsula. The publication has already earned the prestigious Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and based connected its skillful interweaving of immoderate of the mythic elements successful 19th-century peninsular past — from pearl diving to legendary missions — should besides find favour with Baja-loving readers. 

Chris Sands is the erstwhile Cabo San Lucas section adept for the USA Today question website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos question guidebook. He’s besides a contributor to galore websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily.