Google Street View

In 2009, Google collected street view images in San Felipe (and elsewhere in Mexico), these photographs are now online.

Examples include the end of Chetumal facing the sea in downtown San Felipe, the main entrance to El Dorado and the lighthouse. For each of these Google street view images, wait for the map or satellite photo to finish loading, it'll then jump to the street view.

The Google street view vehicle was limited to surfaced streets, so many of the back streets in San Felipe and the Ejido are missing, as well as virtually all gated communities such as El Dorado. However, coverage is available for the entire 120 mile drive to to the border (except for the actual border crossings), including the military checkpoint.

South of San Felipe street view photos are available on the paved roads only as far as Punta Estrella.

To find a specific view in San Felipe, follow this Google map link, pan/zoom around till you find the right spot, grab the little yellow person on the top left of the map, and without letting go drag it onto the map. The roads that become outlined in blue have street view images. Drag the person to the right place and let go. You can then rotate and zoom your view.

Google Satellite Photos

As well as street view, Google also has aerial images of the San Felipe area, at varying resolution. An example is of the Playa de Oro commercial center.

These images were taken around five years ago, so for many areas including El Dorado do not show the most recent developments.

Bing

Bing (from Microsoft) has some more up to date satellite images, possibly from late 2008 or early 2009. Here are the pool and condos at El Dorado (some still under construction) and a similar area on the much older Google image (where the RV parrk still exists and there is just a single show condo building by the beach).

Here's downtown San Felipe on Bing. Both Bing and Google mis-align the street labels slightly, probably caused by a mismatch in the datums (geographic reference systems) between the mapping and the images.

Yahoo

Yahoo does have some basic satellite images, but nothing really usable for the San Felipe area, here's an example of the best they can do for El Dorado Ranch.

Blue Roadrunner

Finally, Randy at Blue Roadrunner took some great aerial shots of San Felipe, the desert, and the mountains, from a light plane in March 2010. The start of the sequence includes San Felipe and the Ejido, then the desert and mountains, finally back along the beach including the El Dorado condos.