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Best Places To Eat in Fruitvale

This East Oakland neighborhood was once called 'Brays' and 'Fruit Vale' thanks to the cherry and apricot orchards which could be found in the neighborhood before what we now know as Fruitvale became incorporated in 1909. 

Now, 110 years later, you can still find an abundance of fruits and vegetables, thanks to the many markets around the neighborhood which spans from 29th Avenue to 42nd Avenue, and all along Foothill and International Boulevard, and of course, Fruitvale Avenue. You can visit places like Mi Ranchito, Mi Rancho, and Los Mexicanos, to name a few. You can also visit the Farmer's Market which takes place every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday at the Fruitvale Transit Village steps away from Fruitvale BART. While at the market, you will be able to find a variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables from local producers. Other vendors sell folk art and ready-to-eat food.  

        View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Angelica Chacon Poage (@lightlytraveling)

Fruitvale is a neighborhood where mostly Mexican and Central American immigrants reside. In recent years, a surge of immigrants from Guatemala now call Fruitvale home. While primarily a Latinx neighborhood, there's also a Southeast Asian population.

Nieves Cinco de Mayo   is one of the original residents of the Public Market opening back in 2007. Owner, Luis Abundis and his crew, will delight your taste buds with his artisanal carafe ice creams with unsuspected flavors like corn and rompope. In recent years, mangonadas have become a favorite, and on hot days the line to get one can span out the door. 

Walk out of the Public Market and onto International Boulevard (which long-time residents still affectionately call East 14th), and you can immediately feel like you have traveled to Mexico City and Cabo San Lucas. El Huarache Azteca brings the flavors of authentic dishes from Mexico City, with delicious plates like huaraches and gorditas, or the quesadillas de flor de calabaza and huitlacoche, both made with handmade tortillas. Be sure to try the huarache with tinga de pollo. 

Also part of authentic cuisine from Mexico City, there's La Torta Loca , a tiny locale that shares the space with a laundromat. While there, make sure to try a torta Hawaiana which comes with grilled pineapple and ham. 

Not far from El Huarache Azteca and La Torta Loca, but still on International Boulevard, located in the remnants of what once was a car dealership, a truck called Aguachiles El Tamarindo   is gathering cult-following thanks to its aguachile and tacos de Marlin. Recently, Aguachiles El Tamarindo earned a spot in the San Francisco Chronicle's Best Bay Area Food Trucks .  

        View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Aguachiles El Tamarindo (@aguachiles_el_tamarindo)

Aguachiles isn't the only establishment where you can find mariscos, another favorite among Fruitvale residents is Mariscos La Costa where the ceviche and shrimp cocktail often draws the largest crowds. 

If you want to take another international trip out of Mexico and into Central America, look no further than Los Cocos Salvadoran Restaurant which has been a staple in Fruitvale since 1985 when the restaurant first opened its doors. The menu is two pages long, but that doesn't deter hungry-goers. Most are there for the coveted pupusas and their many fillings which include: pork rinds, spinach, beans, and loroco (a vine with edible flowers). If you visit Los Cocos, make sure to try the Salvadoran agua de horchata.   

        View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Los Cocos Restaurant (@loscocos510)

Another Central American country making its way into Fruitvale is Guatemala, the recent surge in Guatemalan immigrants moving to Oakland called for the opening of more restaurants aimed at representing this growing community. In Fruitvale, you can find restaurants like Rinconcito Chapin where you can try caldo de gallina. For those with a sweet tooth, there's Chapinlandia Bakery where you can buy traditional Guatemalan baked goods.   

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If you want to try Mexican baked goods, Peña's Bakery is the place to go. The family-owned establishment has two locations in the neighborhood: one on International Boulevard, and the other on Foothill Boulevard. The Peña family migrated from Guadalajara Mexico in the '70s and began their life and business in Oakland. The bakeries opened within a year in 1997 and 1998. 

Still, on Foothill Boulevard, you can find El Tio Juan Taco Truck (which was also included in the San Francisco Chronicle's Best Bay Area Food Trucks.) The ice cream and food truck combo is an old-school 1950's Loard's Ice Cream truck. There is no fuss when it comes to the menu and the excellent service. Make sure to try the spicy chicken burrito, and while you wait for your food, admire the colorful metal arc that reads Fruitvale. 

The culinary scene in Fruitvale reflects the hard work of immigrants who left their homes behind in search of the American Dream and found it here in Oakland, in the heart of Fruitvale .

Azucena Rasilla

Azucena is an Oakland journalist covering the Bay Area arts and culture scene and its intersection with immigration, politics and social justice. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @chroniclesofazu

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This year, there was another reason for the organizers to celebrate. The festival, which honors the Day of the Dead with live music, food, and arts and crafts vendors, had moved back to its original larger location, occupying International from Fruitvale to 42nd avenues. From 2010 until last year, the festival was held in a smaller area, within Fruitvale Village on East 12th Street between Fruitvale and 37th avenues. At this year’s festival, there were over 350 volunteers, 209 vendors, and 26 altars put together by members of the community.

For Chris Iglesias, CEO of the nonprofit Unity Council, the large festival represents what Fruitvale is and has always been: a thriving community. Fruitvale “has been a long-standing community with deep roots,” he noted. “It has built a strong identity that’s tied to all different types of [immigrant] communities.”

As I strolled through the festival (I’ve attended it yearly since I was a kid), it was clear to me why it is so successful. A walk along International Boulevard feels as if you’ve traveled to your parents’ country.

Year-round, it’s a home away from home. On one corner, you’ll find the paletero quickly grabbing people’s attention as he rings the bell attached to his popsicle cart (especially on a hot summer day). Walk a block, and you will find another vendor selling fresh fruit, and those mouthwatering chicharrones con salsa .

And besides all of the food vendors, bustling on the day of the festival, there are countless restaurants to choose from — all equally as hectic as the vendors, but so worth it. How can you choose between a torta from La Torta Loca or some tacos from Taqueria 16 de Septiembre? As I walked through Fruitvale Village admiring the altars and taking photos, my mind wandered off, and all I wanted was a churro filled with caramel.

The Town has many vibrant neighborhoods and commercial districts, but Fruitvale, in many ways, is quintessentially Oakland. It’s diverse, welcoming, family-oriented, community-minded — and too often overlooked. It’s long been a place that immigrants, many of whom arrive with nothing and have nowhere else to go, have found a new home and thrived.

And everything you might want or need is here. Camping gear? Bonanza’s got it. Craving ceviche? Next door is La Costa to satiate your octopus craving. Need new tires, or perhaps a smog check? Drop off your car at Lopez Tires and Services, and while they work on your vehicle, walk over to Guadalajara and grab a burrito. If you need a caffeine fix instead, walk past the restaurant and you’ll find yourself at Red Bay Coffee.

The endless options do not end on International Boulevard or San Leandro Street. Want to try out Mexican pastries? Stop by Peña’s Bakery on 34th Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. If you need to buy groceries, cross the street and step into Mi Ranchito Market. Need toiletries? Check out the Walgreens at the corner of Coolidge Avenue and Foothill — a favorite chain among the residents of the neighborhood.

If you need your shoes repaired, drive or walk over to Fruitvale Shoe Repair, located on Fruitvale Avenue, less than a block from International. Like many of the 390 businesses in the neighborhood, Fruitvale Shoe Repair is owned and operated by a Salvadoran family.

Head up closer to I-580, and you can get your taxes done by Jose Dorado at Dorado Tax and Bookkeeping Service. Drop off your paperwork and walk over to Galeria Beso Maya, the only gallery in Fruitvale, run by owner and founder, Yadira Cazares.

Although Fruitvale, like much of Oakland, continues to face intense gentrification pressures, the neighborhood’s powerful sense of community is held together by the hundreds of small businesses there — some of which have been rooted in the district for over half a century.

One of the most well-known and longest-running businesses in Fruitvale is Bonanza, a dual store on International at 36th Avenue that sells hardware in the larger portion of the store, and camping, construction, and military goods in the smaller portion. It’s been a staple in the neighborhood for over 53 years. Helen Slape, the 87-year-old matriarch of Bonanza who is at the store daily, recalls what Fruitvale was like when she and her husband first opened their business.

“First [the space where the hardware store is located] was a Safeway many, many years ago. The little emblem is still on the roof,” Slape recalled. “They had moved, and before we moved in, I believe it was a furniture store.”

When Slape opened the store, Fruitvale was largely inhabited by Italian, German, Portuguese, and Irish families. Then Chicanos moved into the neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s as the Chicano Movement spread nationwide. “When we first moved here, this wasn’t a Hispanic community,” Slape added. “I was the only Hispanic, along with the fellow across the street” (where Mexican restaurant El Farolito is located).

Being one of the longest-standing business owners in the area, Slape has seen a multitude of changes in the past five decades. During our recent conversation, she talked effusively about many of her regular customers who started as apprentices for someone else and how she got to see their transformation: becoming owners of their own companies. It is the kind of family-like atmosphere that people feel when they shop at Bonanza — and feel about Fruitvale.

Many might not know that Slape’s hardware store also used to have a separate warehouse on 37th Avenue and International. “We used to bring in the 40-by-20-foot container — that was before Home Depot, Lowe’s, and all of those,” Slape recalled. Eventually, they had to forego the warehouse because of competition from larger chain hardware stores.

The secret to staying in business all these years despite competition and changes in the neighborhood? “Hard work. That’s it,” Slape said. “We used to stay here from seven o’clock in the morning, and at ten o’ clock, we were still here. We were here six days a week.”

As Fruitvale evolves, Slape worries about the future of long-standing businesses like hers, and how the continuous redevelopment of the area could affect them. One of her biggest concerns is the construction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The light rail on wheels is a new bus service that will run along a 9.5-mile corridor between downtown Oakland and San Leandro BART, along International and a stretch of East 12th. This new system is scheduled to begin service in December 2019 and aims to alleviate traffic congestion, while providing more reliable public transportation in the East Bay.

Slape, however, is worried that the construction phase will disrupt business and that the lack of parking will deter patrons from coming to the area.

Once BRT is completed, residents in Deep East Oakland will have a faster access to Fruitvale and to businesses all along the BRT corridor.

Yet despite her fears about BRT construction, Slape remains hopeful about Fruitvale and proud of what she has achieved all these years with her business. “You know what the secret is, too?” she asked. “We sell service. And we treat people with respect.”

New immigrant communities that have found a home in Fruitvale and have opened business there include the Mam community, an indigenous Mayan group based in the inlands of Southern Mexico and Guatemala. As of 2012, 37,663 people of Guatemalan descent resided in the San Francisco Bay Area region, according to a report by the Oakland-based research institute PolicyLink.

“First thing I see in the morning when I come into work are strollers, mothers, fathers, grandmothers bringing their kids to our head start programs,” said Iglesias, of how family-oriented Fruitvale is. “It’s a sea of humanity.”

Fruitvale is also a one-stop shop, a neighborhood where you can find everything you need, and that’s what makes it an appealing place to work and live. Fruitvale “is still a place where folks can educate their kids, find services for their families, find retail, food,” Iglesias noted. “This is what makes this place special.”

Fruitvale’s family-oriented vibe has helped Enriqueta Soriano with her two businesses, both on International Boulevard, roughly a block from each other. Express readers might be familiar with the Soriano family — we published a story on their Tacos Los Michoacanos food truck in our fall 2017 Taste issue. In it, Soriano’s son, Enrique described why it was important to carry on his parent’s legacy with the food truck as Fruitvale grapples with gentrification.

Soriano has owned and operated El Palacio de Novias y Quinceañeras in the same space since 2000. It’s a well-established business in the neighborhood, and it specializes in wedding, bridesmaids, baptisms, and quinceañera dresses and services.

Soriano immigrated to the United States in 1985 and built her business, first by doing cleaning jobs and then selling clothes at the Coliseum flea market before opening a small shop on 31st Avenue. Eventually, she had enough capital to open the space that the store now occupies at 34th Avenue and International.

“I have customers who have gotten their wedding dresses here, and when they have kids, they come and get the outfits for their kids’ baptisms,” a proud Soriano said in Spanish, while showing off the massive inventory in her store. “They are like family, and it shows how if you provide good customer service, they all come back.”

But Soriano is also concerned that with Oakland becoming a prime location to live and work, more longtime residents of Fruitvale will get priced out. “That is one of the changes I’ve seen,” she said, “a lot of people are moving out. I still remain hopeful that people will be able to stay.”

Like Iglesias, Soriano described Fruitvale as a community with a strong identity. “I feel like I’m in Mexico,” she said, describing what it’s like to roam the neighborhood. “If I’m craving Mexican food, there’s plenty of restaurants, fresh fruit, delicious ice cream. You feel like you are walking around the country you are from.”

In Fruitvale, nobody does ice cream better than Luis Abundis, who owns and operates Nieves Cinco de Mayo at the Public Market in Fruitvale Village. Abundis is one of the original tenants who opened in 2007 when the development was still under construction. His artisanal carafe ice creams cause furor, especially on summer days when people line out the door to buy a mangonada.

Soriano said she will continue running El Palacio now that she has officially passed the baton to her kids to run Tacos Los Michoacanos. “Once I’m ready to retire, I hope that my daughter, who knows the business very well, carries on with the store,” she said.

Although Fruitvale has a large Latinx community, other ethnic groups still call the neighborhood home. If you have driven on Foothill Boulevard, chances are you have passed Mi Ranchito Market — located directly across from Peña’s Bakery, another long-standing and community-loved establishment. The name Mi Ranchito Market might indicate that it’s owned by someone of Latinx descent, an immigrant perhaps, which is partly true. Mi Ranchito is owned by Mohammed Alomari, an immigrant from Yemen.

“Whenever I talk to him [Alomari], I always ask, where are you from? And when he responds, ‘Yemen,’ I always say, ‘Man, what part of Mexico is that?'” Iglesias said of the welcoming embrace Alomari has received from his immigrant comrades.

“I’ve always been fascinated with his business,” Iglesias said. “When you walk in there, most of the staff is Latino, and there’s products from everywhere.”

Many of the Facebook posts are “throwbacks” — old photos of his family, as well as historical archives with detailed captions for followers of the page to get a glimpse of what Oakland used to be. While he doesn’t live in Oakland anymore, he continues to have deep ties with his hometown. “We moved [to Richmond] during the crack epidemic, and gang-banging era,” Rivera recalled. “My mom wanted us to get out so we wouldn’t get caught up.”

Despite living in Richmond, Rivera often finds himself back home — not only because he works in Fruitvale, but because he feels it’s important to remain rooted in The Town.

Recently, Rivera posted a sepia-toned photo of the Brown Brothers Shoes, which used to be located near the corner of 34th Avenue and Farnam Street. “Many people who grew up in the Fruitvale remember this place. It was the go-to place for Stacy Adams [shoes],” Rivera wrote on the caption.

“My primo Jaime Guzman worked there,” read one comment.

The idea behind the page stems from Rivera’s desire to learn more about Oakland’s history. He calls himself “a natural history buff.” As a teenager, he became interested in the Chicano Movement, but in the books and articles he was reading, he wasn’t able to find much information about the movement in Oakland. “Oakland and the Bay Area were almost never mentioned,” he said. “Growing up, I remember hearing about the Chicano movement and how Cesar Chavez used to come to Fruitvale.”

Some might not be aware that Oakland was key to Chavez and his movement, a place to kick off his community organizing. One scroll through Oakland Wiki’s Cesar Chavez page, and you can find many political connections that bounded Chavez to Oakland, like endorsing Ron Dellums in 1970 during his first run for U.S. House of Representatives. Rivera is one of the writers of the history-related pages on Oakland Wiki.

“I started researching books about Oakland, and again, it’s like we didn’t exist,” he said. “I refused to believe that we were this immigrant group that just came here from the border yesterday.”

With his page, and the historical knowledge that he has acquired through his years of research, Rivera wants to educate others on what was in Oakland before — while not taking away from the contributions of the Irish, Portuguese, and German immigrants who lived in Fruitvale before Latinx. “A lot of the businesses now owned by Latinos were sold by Portuguese,” Rivera noted.

My conversation with Rivera revealed not only his vast knowledge, but also the importance of having people like him telling the stories of The Town. As he told me about the Fruitvale he remembers, I couldn’t help but think: Can the Fruitvale community continue to fight against displacement?

Can it continue to be the self-sufficient and vibrant hub that new immigrants call home?

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Surprise! Boston 25 is taking a Halloween Zip Trip to Salem

Boston 25 News is heading to Salem on Friday, Oct. 20, for a special Halloween edition in the Witch City.

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U.S. reissues Level 2 travel warning for Germany. Here’s what you need to know before your next trip

• Updated: May. 04, 2024, 10:10 a.m. |
• Published: May. 04, 2024, 10:00 a.m.

The U.S. State Department has reissued a Level 2 travel advisory for Germany due to fears of terrorism. AP

• Katherine Rodriguez | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The U.S. State Department has reissued a Level 2 travel advisory for Germany due to fears of terrorism.

The State Department issued the advisory on Wednesday, ranking the travel advisory on a scale of two out of four. This means that those traveling to an area must “exercise increased caution.”

“Terrorists may attack with little or no warning,” the State Department noted.

The agency added that terrorists could target tourism and transportation hubs, as well as shopping destinations, hotels, clubs, restaurants, local government facilities and major events.

The State Department noted on its website that for those who do decide to travel to Germany, travelers should pay attention to their surroundings , follow the instructions of local authorities, be aware of the latest breaking news in the area and adjust your plans, if necessary. The organization also urges travelers to Germany to create a contingency plan for emergency situations as well as sign up for the  Smart Traveler Enrollment Program  ( STEP ) to receive alerts and make it easier for the State Department to locate you in case of an emergency.

The U.S. Department of State has issued several travel warnings this year with those most recently centered around the Caribbean.

One was a Level 4 “do not travel” warning against traveling to the country of Haiti due to kidnappings and gang violence.

Another warning from the State Department cautioned travelers to “reconsider travel” to the country of Jamaica after 65 people were murdered in one month.

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Thieves apparently killed 3 surfers to steal their truck, Mexican authorities say

• Published: May. 05, 2024, 9:42 p.m.

A demonstrator holding a bodyboard written in Spanish " They just wanted to surf and they were executed" protests the disappearance of foreign surfers in Ensenada, Mexico, Sunday, May 5, 2024. Mexican authorities said Friday that three bodies were recovered in an area of Baja California near where two Australians and an American went missing last weekend during an apparent camping and surfing trip. (AP Photo/Karen Castaneda) AP

• The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Thieves apparently killed two Australians and an American on a surfing trip to Mexico in order to steal their truck because they wanted the tires, authorities said Sunday.

Baja California state prosecutors released grisly details of the slayings, but have not yet officially confirmed the identification of the bodies. They said family members of the victims are viewing the bodies to see if they can be identified by sight.

The corpses were decomposing after the thieves dumped them into a remote well about 50 feet (15 meters) deep, some 4 miles (6 kilometers) from where the foreigners were killed. If relatives can’t identify the bodies, further tests will be conducted. The well also contained a fourth cadaver that had been there much longer.

“The probability that it’s them is very high,” said chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez, noting the corpses still appeared to be identifiable by sight. “If they say that they are not completely certain that it is their relative, we would then have to carry out genetic testing.”

The three men were on a camping and surfing trip along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada, posting idyllic photos on social media of waves and isolated beaches, before they went missing last weekend.

But Andrade Ramírez described what likely would have been moments of terror that ended the trip for brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad.

She theorized the killers drove by and saw the foreigners’ pickup truck and tents and wanted to steal their tires. But “when (the foreigners) came up and caught them, surely, they resisted.”

In this image made from video, Mexican security forces frisk men at a checkpoint in Ensenada, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Mexican authorities said Thursday they have found tents and questioned a few people in the case of two Australians and an American who went missing over the weekend in the Pacific coast state of Baja California. (AP Photo) AP

She said that’s when the killers would have shot the tourists.

The thieves then allegedly went to what she called “a site that is extremely hard to get to” and allegedly dumped the bodies into a well they apparently were familiar with. She said investigators were not ruling out the possibility the same suspects also dumped the first, earlier body in the well as part of previous crimes.

“They may have been looking for trucks in this area,” Andrade Ramírez said.

The thieves allegedly covered the well with boards. “It was literally almost impossible to find it,” Andrade Ramírez said, and it took two hours to winch the bodies out of the well.

The site where the bodies were discovered near the township of Santo Tomás was near the remote seaside area where the missing men’s tents and truck were found Thursday along the coast. From their last photo posts, the trip looked perfect. But even experienced local expats are questioning whether it is safe to camp along the largely deserted coast anymore.

The moderator of the local Talk Baja internet forum, who has lived in the area for almost two decades, wrote in an editorial Saturday that “the reality is, the dangers of traveling to and camping in remote areas are outweighing the benefits anymore.”

But in a way, adventure was key to the victims’ lifestyle.

Callum Robinson’s Instagram account contained the following slogan: “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.”

At the news conference, Andrade Ramírez was questioned by one reporter who expressed approval that such a massive and rapid search was mounted for the foreigners, but asked why, when local people disappear in the area, little is often done for weeks, months, or years.

“Do you have to be a foreigner in Baja California in order for there to be an investigation if something happens to you?’ asked the reporter, who did not identify herself by name. “Every investigation is different,” Andrade Ramírez replied.

As if to underscore that point, dozens of mourners, surfers and demonstrators gathered in a main plaza in Ensenada, the nearest city, to voice their anger and sadness at the deaths.

“Ensenada is a mass grave,” read one placard carried by protesters. “Australia, we are with you,” one man scrawled on one of the half-dozen surf boards at the demonstration.

A woman held up a sign that read “They only wanted to surf — we demand safe beaches.”

Gabriela Acosta, a surfer, attended the protest “to show love, solidarity and respect for the three lives that were lost.” Acosta said that surfers in Baja are aware of the dangers.

“We are women and we would sometimes like to surf alone,” Acosta said. “But we never do that, because of the situation. We always have to go accompanied.”

Locals march to protest the disappearance of foreign surfers in Ensenada, Mexico, Sunday, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Castaneda) AP

“I think that what happened to them is just an example of the lack of safety in this state,” she said.

Baja California prosecutors had said they were questioning three people in the case, two of them because they were caught with methamphetamines. Prosecutors said the two were being held pending drug charges but continue to be suspects in the case.

A third man was arrested on charges of a crime equivalent to kidnapping, but that was before the bodies were found. It was unclear if he might face more charges.

The third suspect was believed to have directly participated in the killings. In keeping with Mexican law, prosecutors identified him by his first name, Jesús Gerardo, alias “el Kekas,” a slang word that means “quesadillas,” or cheese tortillas. Andrade Ramírez said he had a criminal record, and that more people may have been involved.

Last week, the mother of the missing Australians, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page, appealing for help in finding her sons. Robinson said Callum and Jake had not been heard from since April 27. They had booked accommodation in the city of Rosarito, not far from Ensenada.

Robinson said Callum was diabetic. She also mentioned that the American who was with them was named Jack Carter Rhoad, but the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately confirm that. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of a U.S. citizen missing in Baja, but gave no further details.

In 2015, two Australian surfers , Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez — from the Baja peninsula. Authorities said they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.

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Bodies of missing surfers found in well in Mexico

• Published: May. 06, 2024, 2:58 a.m.

Locals march Sunday to protest the disappearance of foreign surfers in Ensenada, Mexico. (Karen Castaneda, Associated Press) AP

• Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Relatives have identified three bodies found in a well as those of two Australian surfers and one American who went missing last weekend, Mexican authorities said Sunday.

Baja California state prosecutors said the relatives had viewed the corpses recovered from a remote well about 50 feet (15 meters) deep and recognized them as their loved ones.

Thieves apparently killed the three, who were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Baja peninsula, to steal their truck because they wanted the tires. They then allegedly got rid of the bodies by dumping them in a well near the coast.

The well was located some four miles from where the foreigners were killed and also contained a fourth cadaver that had been there much longer.

Three suspects are being held in connection with the case, which locals said was solved far more quickly than the disappearances of thousands of Mexicans.

The three men were on a camping and surfing trip along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada, posting idyllic photos on social media of waves and isolated beaches before they went missing last weekend.

Chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez described what likely would have been moments of terror that ended the trip for brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad.

She theorized the killers drove by and saw the foreigners’ pickup truck and tents and wanted to steal their tires. But “when (the foreigners) came up and caught them, surely, they resisted.”

She said that’s when the killers would have shot the tourists.

The thieves then allegedly went to what she called “a site that is extremely hard to get to” and allegedly dumped the bodies into a well they apparently were familiar with. She said investigators were not ruling out the possibility the same suspects also dumped the first, earlier body in the well as part of previous crimes.

“They may have been looking for trucks in this area,” Andrade Ramírez said.

The thieves allegedly covered the well with boards. “It was literally almost impossible to find it,” Andrade Ramírez said, and it took two hours to winch the bodies out of the well.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers expressed sympathy for the Robinson family. “I think the whole country’s heart goes out to all of their loved ones. It has been an absolutely horrendous, absolutely horrific ordeal and our thoughts are with all of them today,” he said at a news conference Monday in the capital, Canberra.

The site where the bodies were discovered near the township of Santo Tomás was near the remote seaside area where the missing men’s tents and truck were found Thursday along the coast. From their last photo posts, the trip looked perfect. But even experienced local expatriates are questioning whether it is safe to camp along the largely deserted coast anymore.

The moderator of the local Talk Baja internet forum, who has lived in the area for almost two decades, wrote in an editorial Saturday that “the reality is, the dangers of traveling to and camping in remote areas are outweighing the benefits anymore.”

But in a way, adventure was key to the victims’ lifestyle.

Callum Robinson’s Instagram account contained the following slogan: “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.”

At the news conference, Andrade Ramírez was questioned by one reporter who expressed approval that such a massive and rapid search was mounted for the foreigners, but asked why, when local people disappear in the area, little is often done for weeks, months, or years.

“Do you have to be a foreigner in Baja California in order for there to be an investigation if something happens to you?′ asked the reporter, who did not identify herself by name. “Every investigation is different,” Andrade Ramírez replied.

As if to underscore that point, dozens of mourners, surfers and demonstrators gathered in a main plaza in Ensenada, the nearest city, to voice their anger and sadness at the deaths.

“Ensenada is a mass grave,” read one placard carried by protesters. “Australia, we are with you,” one man scrawled on one of the half-dozen surf boards at the demonstration.

A woman held up a sign that read “They only wanted to surf — we demand safe beaches.”

Gabriela Acosta, a surfer, attended the protest “to show love, solidarity and respect for the three lives that were lost.” Acosta said that surfers in Baja are aware of the dangers.

“We are women and we would sometimes like to surf alone,” Acosta said. “But we never do that, because of the situation. We always have to go accompanied.”

“I think that what happened to them is just an example of the lack of safety in this state,” she said.

Surfers later performed a “paddle-out” ceremony where they formed a circle on their boards in the ocean.

Baja California prosecutors had said they were questioning three people in the killings, two of them because they were caught with methamphetamines. Prosecutors said the two were being held pending drug charges but continue to be suspects in the killings.

A third man was arrested on charges of a crime equivalent to kidnapping, but that was before the bodies were found. It was unclear if he might face more charges.

The third suspect was believed to have directly participated in the killings. In keeping with Mexican law, prosecutors identified him by his first name, Jesús Gerardo, alias “el Kekas,” a slang word that means “quesadillas,” or cheese tortillas. Andrade Ramírez said he had a criminal record, and that more people may have been involved.

Last week, the mother of the missing Australians, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page, appealing for help in finding her sons. Robinson said Callum and Jake had not been heard from since April 27. They had booked accommodation in the city of Rosarito, not far from Ensenada.

Robinson said Callum was diabetic. She also mentioned that the American who was with them was named Jack Carter Rhoad, but the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately confirm that. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of a U.S. citizen missing in Baja, but gave no further details.

In 2015, two Australian surfers , Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez — from the Baja peninsula. Authorities said they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.

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