Baja California

A MEMORABLE PLACE Visit to a war-torn land James F. Adomanis SPECIAL TO THE SUN Looking out the window of the Croatia Airlines plane as it circled the Dalmatian coast gave me the impression that I was going back in time, namely to the Middle Ages. Seeing the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Sea was awe-inspiring. I am fortunate to be involved in an international civic education network called Civitas, which means community, and have visited many memorable places as a result.

As the tropical sun blazed overhead, Curtis Roelle stood surrounded by his cameras and telescopes in the cactus garden near a Mexican beach and watched the cone-shaped shadow of the moon sweep toward him at more than a mile a second.Tonight at 8 p.m., Mr. Roelle, 33, will show a series of slides he snapped of the spectacular total solar eclipse July 11, making him the first amateur astronomer to give a talk at the monthly open house staged by the Space Telescope Science Institute.The droll and seemingly unflappable computer engineer, who lives in Westminster, admits being a bit awe-struck, but he nevertheless took a series of crisp pictures of the event, the longest total eclipse expected until 2132.

IT WILL never make lists of the biggest news stories of the 20th century, but I'd still vote for a piece in the San Diego Union from the mid-1970s that began: "Is the California gray whale reaching detente with humans? There is increasing evidence that it is." Melville's Moby-Dick (a sperm whale) notwithstanding, it was the gray that for centuries was known as the "devilfish," the most dangerous quarry among marine mammals, with the wrecked ships to prove it. Of course, during most of that time, commercial whalers relentlessly hunted the gray whale almost to oblivion.

MEXICO CITY -- With cries of "Kill the auditor" and "Down with fiscal terrorism," Mexico is in the midst of a major tax revolt embroiling thousands of businesses, from huge U.S. corporations to mom-and-pop grocery stores.Next month, the National Confederation of Chambers of Commerce is holding a taxpayers convention in Guadalajara to rail against some of the government fiscal policies that went into effect on the first of the year.U.S.-border business executives now are having second thoughts about Mexico as a place to invest.

San Diego. -- Think of Upper and Lower (Baja) California as the two shanks of your arm. Where they meet at the elbow there should be a nice round olecranon bone and lots of soft material to allow smooth movement between the two.Right now, at the U.S.-Mexico border, it's just two bits of hard bone butting painfully up against each other.It is, of course, la frontera that is the problem, with its boundary fence perpetuating vast differences of language, economy and culture. It dictates an abrupt end of one civilization and the sudden beginning of another and creates a siege mentality on both sides.

WASHINGTON -- Strawberries imported from Mexico and processed in California have caused 153 cases of hepatitis A infection among schoolchildren and teachers in Michigan, federal health officials said yesterday.Thousands more children in five other states, Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa and Tennessee, may also be at risk, and they are being advised to get gamma globulin shots to help prevent the viral liver ailment, which generally causes a mild illness, the health officials said at a news conference.

Alone in his kayak, miles from shore, Steph Dutton watched the changing seascape as he paddled and fought his way 1,600 miles from British Columbia to Mexico's Baja California.Oregon was wild, dangerous and exhilarating, and Northern California offered frequent sightings of whales, dolphins and sun fish. But ocean waters off Southern California offered more trash than signs of life."Party balloons, cigarette wrappers and beer bottles. I picked them up every day and dumped them out of my kayak at night," recalled Mr. Dutton, a Granite Falls, Wash.

After the deaths of two beaked whales near the southern tip of Baja California, environmental advocates are demanding that federally funded researchers attempting to map an underwater rift in the Earth's crust with powerful air guns suspend their work. Five vacationing marine scientists who had chartered a sailboat in the Gulf of California late last month happened on the two stranded whales on the shore of Isla San Jose. Local fishermen told the group that the whales were alive when they beached themselves Sept.

MEXICO CITY -- With nearly 8 percent of the vote counted, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party appears to have won a massive 60 percent of the vote in Sunday's state and congressional elections, according to official figures released yesterday.However, the PRI victory has produced widespread charges of fraud and fueled suspicions that could hurt the image of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.The midterm elections apparently produced a higher voter turnout than the 1988 presidential election, in which 50 percent of the eligible voters went to the polls.

Barbara Allen's fantasy is to fly in a hot-air balloon over Provence, France. Scuba diving and kayaking are her husband's favorite pastimes. And they've recently embarked on a business venture that could allow them to do both. About a year ago, the Allens launched PrimeVenture Journeys, a travel agency that specializes in adventure vacations for people 40 and older, booking trips with days of hiking and canoeing and nights of fancy dinners and relaxation. "Our trips are not for people that just want to lay on the beach," said Barbara Allen, who grew up in Arizona, camping and fishing through her childhood.