ENSENADA.- While transportation companies are reporting close to 2 million pesos (153,000 U.S. dollars) in loses after part of the scenic-road to Ensenada collapsed last year, street vendors on the city's First Street are reaping the rewards from it, offering souvenirs to tourist. What kind of souvenirs?

The saying goes that "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade", merchants in the tourist area of the city decided to take advantage of the incident and make frame photographs that range in price from $50 to $120 pesos ($3 to $9.5 dllrs).

Ensenada.net is reporting that the sinkhole has become one of the preferred topics among tourist, who are curious and ask for details about the highway's destruction and buy a sort of image collage to take home with them.

Mauricio Sánchez Woodworth, director of Capufe (Federal Roads and Bridges), recently said that the stretch of highway affected by the collapse will not be rebuilt until the third quarter of the year, at the latest.

Some estimates place the amount of daily losses generated by the difficulties in cargo transport from the port to the rest of the state since the collapse, at around 5.6 million dollars. Moreover, the hotel sector reports a 15% to 20% drop in occupancy despite the efforts by the Motel and Hotel Association to fight the crisis.

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Elizabeth.rosales@sandiegored.com

jose.sanchez@sandiegored.com