Reviews of One Hell of a Ride - The Life and Times of Lou Federico

It isn't every Baja book whose cover photo shows the author at age four and a half riding the fender of his father's new Packard in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But that's Lou Federico, a living Baja legend, who has just published his memoirs, One Hell of a Ride: The Life and Times of Lou Federico. There probably isn't one Baja aficionado in a hundred who can say why Federico, now 79, is so important in the history of the peninsula, but suffice it to say he's the man who built Hotel Punta Chivato, the legendary remote resort south of Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico, in 1966 and, before that, Mulegé's Hotel Rancho Loma Linda in 1961.

To appreciate these accomplishments, you need to keep in mind that the Transpeninsular Highway was not completed until 1974; the brown-ochre decorative stone used at Punta Chivato was ferried by barge from the hills behind Mulegé. Ultimately, Federico lost his financial interests in both properties through the most blatant Mexican estafos (land title frauds) you'd ever want to read about, and he names names and pulls no punches in describing the characters involved in Mulegé, at Punta Chivato, and during a hair-raising coerced trip to Mexico City, escorted by gun-toting government thugs.

For anyone interested in the mysteries of Baja's Golden Age, this book comes as a revelation. I read the best parts two or three times, savoring Federico's first-person knowledge and brutal frankness. This is one hombre that minces no words.

All the requisite celebrities are there, of course, Duke Wayne in his declining years, Jayne Mansfield in a sad, sad travesty of a wedding ceremony, and Erle Stanley Gardner arriving with not one, but two, helicopters just to name a few. And there are the important but mostly forgotten Mexicans Chi Chi and Quirino Mesa, and their sister, Chayo, who speared giant snook in the Mulegé River with Ray Cannon; the faithful, double-duty hooker-maids who offered their bodies in an effort to save the hotel. —GENE KIRA

Your book was just great and a wonderful insight into the creation of Punta Chivato. Went out to Punta Chivato a year ago and I was very impressed. You and your workers did a magnificent job and I plan to return someday. Again, thank you for your story and I hope someday you write another book for all of us to enjoy the adventures of your life in Baja, or wherever your journeys take you. —TERRY BOLD

One hell of a read. I ran across this book in Mulege, Mexico. It is a fantasic book, full of adventure. Lou Federico is an amazing man. This book tells of his life. He has traveled to many places, suffered many heartbreaks, enjoyed great fun and adventures. I could really relate to this book because I also enjoy Mexico. Lou tells of Mexico in the 50's and 60's and it is amazing. He is a very innovative man who enjoys a challenge. He has some spectacular stories to tell and I am waiting for his next book. —McVEG "D."

Your book is incredible reading. Wow! Love reading that stuff about what you pioneers went through. Thanks for one hell of a ride. —JONATHAN ROLDAN

I'm kind of a history buff and love that "History Channel" stuff and can lose myself for hours in the history section of any bookstore. Combine it with some history of Baja and you might as well just leave a light on for me because I'll be home late. Stuff like Gene Kira's "Unforgettable Sea of Cortez" about Ray Cannon or John Steinbeck's "Log of the Sea of Cortez" are among so many gems in my library.

I came across just such a book recently that was mailed to me and thought I'd share some of it with you. With the holidays coming up, it makes good fast light reading, not to mention a pretty cool stocking stuffer for you Baja buffs. I actually let the book sit for a few weeks on my desk before picking it up out of bredom. I basically didn't put it down until I finished it two days later.

I mean how could I not check out a book that starts out "Can you imagine a novel with General Douglas McArthur, John Wayne, Miss San Francisco, Jayne Mansfield, corrupt Mexican officials, and a fast-food mogul who rules over parties from Mexico to Hawaii with a toilet plunger"? Not quite John Grisham, but they say truth is better than fiction.

In the annals of Baja, you find all the giants who carved the place out've sand, dirt, and rock. You get the Van Wormer Family who started the East Cape Hotels with a few outboard motors, the Don Johnson family of Mulege, and the Bud Parrs of Baja who shaped the Cabo San Lucas corridor and you're talking empire builders. Even the Fred Hoctors and Ray Cannons of the Baja were as instrumental in their writings and as powerful as the jackhammer and bulldozer in those early "golden years" of Baja of the 40s to 60s.

Well, one guy I had never even heard about is Lou Federico and he tells a fascinating tale in his own book, "One Hell of a Ride" (Adventure Publishing, Folsom, CA, 2004). These days, we run businesses in Baja and watch venture after venture pop up...Internet cafes...pizza operations...parasailing...hair-styling salons...Starbucks...and complain about slow phone service or that the CostCo is too far away! Turn back the time machine 40 years and it was a far different wilder unforgiving Baja. No apologies. No refunds and (gasp!) no air-conditioning. (Yes, some of you current Baja travelers might gasp to know there was a time that air-conditioning was nonexistent.)

In case the name escapes you, Lou Federico is the feisty Italian guy and WWII vet who built the Club Aero Mulege, then went on to hand-build the famous Punta Chivato Resort. There were no skycranes to lift girders. No roads. No Aero California to complain about. No ready-made concrete or cinder blocks waiting on pallets. Heck, I complain when the ice machine doesn't have enough ice! Ever done even a simple backyard job like putting in a brick walkway for your wife and taking 3 weeks just to visit Home Depot? This guy tied boats together with cable to haul in gear. He moved a mountain and dug into bare rock for his foundation basically with hand picks. They looked for water by using a divining rod and digging 30-foot deep pits with buckets and finally hauling in water from 6 miles away using some ingenious engineering under the hot Baja sun.

"We used tons of rock...from a mountain behind the pueblo of Mulege. It had a crew there full-time, hauling the artistic rock 12 miles round trip to the mouth of the Mulege River. It was then loaded by hand onto two LCVPs. One would tow the other.... The rock was then taken 10 miles up to the Chivato beachhead and loaded by hand onto a flatbed and driven to the jobsite. This went on for months," he writes.

But the best part of the book are his humorous anecdotes, for this was the Baja we can only imagine. The best part of any story are the people. He talks about plane crashes and banditos and ugly hookers; fishing with Ray Cannon and seeing feeding frenzies in the Sea of Cortez in all directions and how Ray loved to catch needlefish. There are funny stories about bribes and corrupt Mexican officials and his own rather scalliwag business partners; decadently fun parties; days when there were actually fish in the Mulege River; battles with the local ejidos over land, and secret beaches loaded with clams, mussels, and scallops as well as snippets and memories of celebrities and luminaries away from the limelight. ("Fred Astaire was also a guest, and he would dance down the hallway every morning on his way to the dining room.") And you can hear John Wayne's gravelly voice when he admonished Federico after a successful fishing trip, "My friends call me Duke, so drop the mister."

Señor Federico is still alive and doing well in Folsom, California, these days and even answers his emails. He's had one helluva ride that few of us will ever see again in the Baja.

That's my story.... —JONATHAN ROLDAN

The history of the Hotel Punta Chivato and the area - must reading for anyone living at PC or who has ever visited PC. As told by the one who knows - One Hell of a Ride: The Life and Times of Lou Federico. DORADO

Got the book yesterday. Halfway through. What a great book - great photos - great little stories. BOMBERO, B.C.S., Mexico

The book was pretty good but I wish Lou had spent more time describing the building of both the Hotel Loma Linda and Hotel Punta Chivato. I wish he was more detailed also about the Hotel Serenidad. More time/date chronology would have been great. Good to see Saul Davis and Nancy and Don "Spike" Johnson's appearance in the book and roles they played in the history of Mulege during the past 40-plus years. Well, maybe as Lou says, the story continues.... MAXWELL, Lewistown, Idaho