by Bryan Jáuregui | Adventure, Culture, Travel Industry
by Todos Santos Eco Adventures
Entrepreneurial Surfer Mario Becerril is the focus of this second installment in our series The Saints of Todos Santos, a fun look at some of the Todos Santos residents who really put the magic into our Pueblo Magico.
Sometimes mother really does know best. Mario’s mother moved the family from Mexico City to La Paz when Mario was 12 years old, and she quickly prioritized her educational goals for Mario in their new ecotourism-centered home town on the ocean. “My mother insisted that I learn to speak English and that I learn how to swim.” Luckily for folks who come to Todos Santos for surf instruction, he learned to do both extremely well! Mario is now widely considered the best surf instructor in the area and has built up a successful surfing school that is unmatched in terms of equipment, instructor talent, student success and – let’s face it – sheer fun. But it took some hard work to get here.
Mario Surfing at Los Cerritos. Photo by Kaia Thomson
Mario went to a high school in La Paz that specializes in preparing kids for a career in Baja California Sur tourism. As part of their coursework students are required to participate in all the main tourist activities in the area, including sport fishing, kayaking, scuba diving, sailing and so forth. So at the age of 16 Mario came to Los Cerritos Beach in Todos Santos to learn how to surf, the same beach where he teaches his own surf students these days. “After I caught that first wave at Los Cerritos I was completely hooked. For the rest of high school and all of college I came to Todos Santos every single weekend I could to surf. The incredible joy of surfing, the magic of Todos Santos, all combined to make Todos Santos the only real place for me to live once I graduated from college.”
Once he completed his degree in foreign business at the University of BCS in La Paz, Mario headed straight to Los Cerritos and hasn’t looked back since. He started working as a surf instructor for a small surf business at the beach, and soon realized that he had a natural gift for transmitting knowledge. His goal became to make the sheer exuberance of surfing accessible to everyone, so over the next 3 years he developed Mario’s Infallible Surfing Technique (MIST), the teaching tool that he uses at Todos Santos Eco Adventures’ Baja Surf Camp for Women. He’s serious about this. “If you don’t get up on the board during your first surf lesson I’ll give you your money back. We have a 3-step technique for people who come to us with better balance and strength, and a 4-step technique for those who need a little more work in these areas. But they all get up – and have fun doing it.” Mario notes that Los Cerritos is a particularly perfect beach for learning how to surf. “It doesn’t really matter what the weather is like or how big the surf is. The Cerritos magic is that we can always find a safe area for beginners to learn. The smooth and sandy bottom is a big plus as well.” And unlike some well-known surf spots there is no pollution in the ocean at Todos Santos.
Imparting Mario’s Infallible Surfing Technique
To get the money he needed to build up his own surfing school Mario taught surfing 7 days a week at the beach and tended bar 6 nights a week in town. He even built his first 10 surf boards himself. Now, 12 years after moving to Todos Santos fulltime, Mario simply is surfing in Todos Santos. Even the big surf outfits out of Cabo and elsewhere on the Cape admit that Mario’s got the best equipment around, as well as the best-trained, most effective instructors. “We have such a great group of instructors. They are all Mexicans and they’re all from around this area. And of course they are all masters of the Infallible Technique!
Surfer Mario at Mario’s Bar
In addition to his surfing school Mario also runs Mario’s Bar at The Hotelito on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. His mother now lives in Todos Santos too!
© Copyright Sergio and Bryan Jauregui, Casa Payaso S de RL de CV, 2011
by Bryan Jáuregui | Culture, Food
by Todos Santos Eco Adventures
This piece on Chef Dany is the first in our series The Saints of Todos Santos, which focuses on those residents of Todos Santos (All Saints) who help give the town its most magical, mystical and memorable qualities – and whom you’d be most likely to meet on one of your adventures with us.
Chef Dany Lamote moved to Todos Santos from Canada, where he had been very much involved in the slow food movement, a practitioner of “think global, eat local”. When he was operating the Latin-fusion restaurant Mescalero in Calgary, this philosophy put such eclectic fare as elk burritos and salmon ceviche on the menu. Now that he is living between two oceans here in Todos Santos, Dany’s eat-local focus brings out fabulous seafood dishes, complemented by a wonderful variety of fruit. “Here in Todos Santos we have fresh, tree-ripened star fruit, tree-ripened mangos and lichees, and vine-ripened passion fruit. There simply is no equivalent in Canada. These fresh-off-the-plant fruits are great for making salsas for the fish, and of course we also use them to make drinks, margaritas and desserts.”
Chef Dany at Santo Vino
Dany moved to Todos Santos in 2002 as the Executive Chef of the Hotel California, a job which he still holds. He also has his own restaurant now – Santo Vino – which is dedicated to showcasing food and drink produced in Baja. “Baja’s wine country in Valle de Guadalupe is in full swing now, it is very dynamic. Most of the people making wine in Baja are very small producers, and we showcase a lot of these wines here at Santo Vino.” Having Dany pair Baja wines with his Baja dishes is one of the great joys of a meal at Santo Vino. Dany also features Baja-brewed beer!
In the cooking classes that he runs as part of Todos Santos Eco Adventures’ Cooking Adventures Week in Todos Santos, Dany focuses on sharing what he has learned through almost a decade of deep immersion in Mexican food culture. “When people come to my cooking class in Todos Santos I try to give them the opportunity to work with ingredients they’ve never used before – or maybe never even heard of before. I want them to leave with the satisfaction that they’ve gained a much deeper understanding of the culture than they ever could have gained from eating in restaurants only.”
Dany is a graduate of the CERIA Culinary Institute in Brussels, Belgium. He immigrated to Canada in 1979 where he eventually settled in Calgary. He was a partner in many successful restaurants and an inventive influence in the movement that put Calgary on the international culinary stage during the 1988 Winter Olympics. After moving to Todos Santos in 2002 Dany published the colorful The Hotel California Tequila Cookbook which reflects his love of discovering a beautiful new place to live.
© Copyright Sergio and Bryan Jauregui, Casa Payaso S de RL de CV, 2011
by Bryan Jáuregui | Culture
As most of you know, the name of our home town – Todos Santos – means “All Saints”. Most of you also know that Todos Santos has been designated as one of 36 Pueblo Magicos
, or Magic Villages in Mexico. So what is it that draws all these spiritual, mystical and magical designations to the place? Well of course there is the incredible juxtaposition of the desert and ocean, the inspiring rise of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains, the lush fields of strawberries, chiles, palms and mango trees, that wondrous air quality of a true desert oasis. All of these make Todos Santos a truly amazing place.
But more than that it is most likely the people who are drawn to these elements that really give the town its most magical, ethereal qualities. In years past we had the builders and traders like Tobasco Wang who built the Hotel California, Antonio Cota who built the hacienda that became the Todos Santos Inn, Don Pepe Santana who owned a sugar mill and lived in the building that is now the Cafe Santa Fe, and Ramon Wong, who built two stores and a cantina in town and married the daughter of a revolutionary hero. All these people came to Todos Santos to pursue their dreams and revel in the natural beauty.
Today the Saints of Todos Santos are both descendents of the town’s early settlers, and those who’ve followed since the artist Charles Stewart moved to Todos Santos in the early 1980s. Todos Santos is now home to a vast array of talented Mexicans and expatriots who enrich the town with their skills as chefs, artists, farmers, fishermen, photographers, craftsmen, writers, poets, surfers, architects, naturalists, teachers, environmentalists, storekeepers, adventurers, massage therapists, spiritual leaders, yoga practitioners…and more! We’ll be creating profiles of some of these “saints” of Todos Santos – those who help give the town its most special qualities – and whom you’d be most likely to meet on one of your adventures with us. Stay tuned to meet the Saints of Todos Santos!
by Bryan Jáuregui | Culture, Food
In addition to the segment on Doña Ramona, Chef Rick Bayless filmed several other key parts of our Todos Santos Cooking Adventures Week for his TV show Mexico-One Plate at a Time, and this video blog captures several of those elements including:
- Chef Dany and a meal at Santo Vino
- Kayle’s organic farm, Basilfields
- Juan’s Tortilleria California Star
- And of course commentary from TOSEA’s owner Sergio Jauregui!
Photos of some of our guests participating in our Todos Santos Cooking Adventures Week with Chef Dany are posted below the video.
Chef Dany, Christie and Avocado Milkshakes!
Chef Dany, Margaritas and Cooking Class
by Bryan Jáuregui | Culture, Food
“Award-winning chef-restaurateur, cookbook author, and television personality Rick Bayless has done more than any other culinary star to introduce Americans to authentic Mexican cuisine and to change the image of Mexican food in America.”
And so starts the introduction to Rick Bayless on his website, and we are so pleased to announce that his search for authentic Mexican cuisine has brought Rick Bayless to Todos Santos Eco Adventures. Rick and his film crew were recently in Todos Santos for several days, filming key parts of our Todos Santos Cooking Adventures Week that we offer in conjunction with Chef Dany of the Hotel California / Santo Vino. Attached here is a video blog that features one of the great parts of our Cooking Adventures Week, a cooking class with potter Doña Ramona in the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains. Once you get past the first bit on the Baja Brewing Company (great beer by they way!) you’ll get to the piece that features Rick and TOSEA owner Sergio Jáuregui in Doña Ramona’s kitchen, discussing her cooking techniques and enjoying the great meal she serves up for them. Below the video link are photos of two of our Cooking Adventures Week guests, Dale and Christie, cooking in Doña Ramona’s kitchen earlier this year.
Dale Making Machaca with Doña Ramona
Christie Cooking with Doña Ramona
by Bryan Jáuregui | Culture
Straight from the Cafè Brown Cooking Research Center! Made with the Last Mangoes of the Season:
Pork in Mango-Jalapeño Sauce
- 1 kilo of fresh mango, peeled and pitted
- 1.5 kilos of pork leg or shoulder diced in cubes
- 3 to 6 jalapeños (determine according to your “hotness” tolerance)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 medium cloves of garlic or one large one
- Salt
- Black pepper
Place in a blender the mango “meat”, half the onion, the garlic, 2 jalapeños, salt and pepper. Add a little water then hit PUREE or equivalent on your blender.
Dice the other half of the onion and the remaining jalapeño peppers (make sure the center and seeds have been removed or prepare to perm your hair) then saute them in a pan with olive oil until the onion becomes clear. Add the mango sauce and salt/pepper to taste. If you like, add a glass of beer to the pan – and have one for yourself while you’re at it.
While the mango sauce is simmering, in another pan cook the pork meat in olive oil until is is golden outside. Once the mango sauce and the pork are both ready, pour the mango sauce over the pork. Allow them time to meet, share experiences, hopefully fall in love. This should take roughly 13 minutes over a low fire (in human terms this is the equivalent of one night or 3 years, depending on the country and the culture). Goes great with rice. Remember, the main ingredient always is LOVE . Bon apetit!!!
Iker Algorri, Cafè Brown Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mèxico.
