All of our stairs and outdoor spaces in the new townhouse in Pueblo Campestre Phase 2 are made with cantera tile Cafe 2 from Aculco in Central Mexico. I was interested in cantera as I have seen it used in a lot of construction in Los Cabos so I decided to meet with th owner of the company, DiCantera – Disenos en Cantera that supplies all of the cantera tile to Pueblo Campestre.

César Navarro Gutiérrez, the owner is an engineer and architect and is partnered with his wife, who is also an architect. The company has been in Cabo San Lucas fo 15 years. César, who was working for one of the top carpentry shops in Cabo, decided when the business became available to buy it. Following the rule in carpentry to “Measure Twice and Cut Once,” César takes the design process very seriously. While the company may supply stone tile from all over Mexico, an important part of the business is actually manufacturing specialty products for construction and businesses in Los Cabos. From pillars to door frames to fountains and statement pieces for development, DiCantera works with developers, contractors and homeowners to create statement pieces for their projects. The company creates renderings and detailed design drawings, for their clients to approve before they are sent to be manufactured at the factory in central Mexico. All of the pieces are hand-made by craftsmen from templates that they create from these design drawings. As window and door frames, sculptured cornices and other construction items must fit exactly, this is why so much attention is paid to the design and approval process in advance of manufacturing.

A visit to their work yard on the frontage road just before Highway 19 from Todos Santos meets Highway one (just north of Cabo Stone on the corner) clearly demonstrates the range of not only stone, sourced from around Mexico but of the designs that the company has created. Often, the contractor is unable to take delivery of all of the stone or manufactured designs at one time and so they are stored in this yard. Walking around the yard shows piles of tile and stone of different kinds as well as manufactured items – pillars, water down spouts, planters, fountains, bowls, sculptures (e.g., dolphins and a tiger), sculptured corner pieces, tables, vessel sinks and much more. One bowl was made from the stone surrounding cenotes in the Yucatan and shows all of the embedded fossils of shells in the stone. Another stone from Oaxaca has a brown/tan coloring. The yard contains not only finished stone tiles but rough stone that is used for the outside of buildings.