# The resort with no air conditioning > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The resort with no air conditioning," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-resort-with-no-air-conditioning/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The Baja California resort where John Kiriakou spent a month filming in 2025, built in the 1960s as a commune by long-haired left-wing Angelenos funded by Thomas Hart Benton's daughter, a dozen buildings on the southernmost tip of the peninsula, no air conditioning, and nothing whatsoever to do unless you dive.* - **Where:** The southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula - **Built by:** A group of hippies from Los Angeles, as a commune, starting in the 1960s - **Funded by:** The daughter of the artist Thomas Hart Benton - **Among them:** An architect and a builder - **Size:** About a dozen buildings - **Business model:** Renting rooms to scuba divers - **The complaint:** No air conditioning - **Local hazard sign:** Beware of rockfish, they sting through your flippers **The resort with no air conditioning** is the property on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula where [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) stayed for a month in the autumn of 2025 while filming [his first acting role](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-acting-career). He returned to the DeProgram studio on 22 October 2025 and was asked how he had survived it. ## The design flaw His first words on the subject were a question rather than an answer. *"Who moves into the southernmost tip of the Baja peninsula and builds a resort with no air conditioning?"*[1] He conceded the setting immediately. *"It's very beautiful. It truly is. It's very beautiful. Palm trees everywhere. Those big saguaro cactuses with the arms, they're everywhere."* The waters offshore, he noted, are where Cousteau did most of his diving, and were christened by him the world's aquarium, *"which everybody's very proud of down there."*[1] ## Who built it The explanation for the missing air conditioning turned out to be the building's history. *"This resort in Baja, it was built by a group of hippies as a commune."*[2] The leader, in Kiriakou's account, was an heiress. *"The sort of head of the hippies was the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton, the famous artist from the early to mid twentieth century."* Four of the original members were still living there when the film crew arrived, and left shortly afterward, *"so the whole place was ours."*[3][4] They rejected one label to his face. *"The guy said: you know, we weren't a cult. People accused us of being a cult. We're just a bunch of like-minded, left-wing, long-haired, freaky people from Los Angeles."*[4] They were also, he stresses, competent. *"But they were also very skilled. One of them was an architect. One of them was a builder. And so Thomas Hart Benton's daughter had plenty of money. They built this gorgeous resort. It's got about a dozen different buildings."*[4][5] ## The business, and the water What kept it going was a single clientele. *"They just ended up living in it most of the time and renting out rooms to scuba divers otherwise. The thing is, there's literally nothing to do there unless you're a scuba diver."*[5] Even the diving came with warnings. *"And then, even if you are a scuba diver, there are signs around like: beware of rockfish. They will sting you through your flippers."* Kiriakou's summary of the local marine odds, offered against the host's description of Baja as a place divers go to see whale sharks: *"you might see either nothing at all, you won't even see an angelfish, or you'll see a whale shark."*[6][7] ## See also - [Kiriakou's acting career](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-acting-career) - [The Tarantula On The Mini Fridge](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-tarantula-on-the-mini-fridge) - [The Fox That Ate The Scraps](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-fox-that-ate-the-scraps) - [Jeff Fahey](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jeff-fahey) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 01:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=94s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 10:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=627s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 11:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=689s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 11:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=719s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 12:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=751s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 6. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 13:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=782s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 7. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 13:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=814s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-resort-with-no-air-conditioning/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt