Wednesday, 12/23/98
Day 5: Desert, San Ignacio & Mulege
We woke up at 5:00 this morning and were on the road by 6:00 as it was still dark and cold when we left. The sun came up around 6:45 and we were now in desert country as there was clear sky and many cacti along the side of the road. Forty miles south of El Rosario is a turn off on the right for a gravel road to the ruins of Mission San Fernando. After three miles of gravel you will see a small house on the left side of the gravel road and a fence leading to the ruins on the right side. There are parts of the wall still up and a row of old graves sites next to the ruins. This mission was founded in 1769 by Junipero Serra before he went to California to set up more missions. This mission did not last long as many natives died during an epidemic and it was officially closed in 1818. We turned around and went back to the main road.
About nine miles further south there is another gravel road that goes left to the El Marmol ruins. This is a sight that used to mine onyx, used for table tops and other items. Families used to live here and they would export onyx by ship to the US. There are still ruins of a school and a jail in the vicinity and also many large pieces of rock where they chiseled away at the onyx. Kids were attending the school in this picture back in the 50's and there used to be houses in this area that have since been knocked down. We drove around here for a little while as we found a small cemetery with two rows of graves, about two dozen total. There are also many abandoned cars and if you look to the east you can see a hole in the hill which is where I assume they were mining for the onyx. It was eerie being here as it was very quiet with many old rusty cans in this desert area.
We drove back to the highway and continued south. A couple times we stopped to take pictures of plants, paintings on rock and automobiles left in the desert. There are also many different kinds of cactus that start appearing in the desert. There was a shrine on the side of the road with a painting of the Virgin Mary. Below it was a small enclosed area so a candle could remain burning. There were at least five candles burning when we were there. We saw many shrines like this one on the side of the road. There was a car that had been flipped upside down and left to rust in the middle of the desert and it makes you wonder how it got there and if it was part of the Baja 500. The desert is interesting in that it is so quiet and desolate but yet leaves so much past and ruins for curiosity. There would be many places where you would see remains of buildings, rusting cans or automobiles and even some cactus that had been cut open for water. It makes somebody wonder what caused those circumstances and what ultimately happened.
We drove past Catavina which had a Pemex station but it was either closed or out of gas. The desert is all we would see for the next five hours and 300 miles with only occasional passing of a semi-truck. We finally reached the border between north and south Baja (Norte and Sur Baja) at about 11:30. They did ask for our tourist cards and 10 pesos to cross over into south Baja and also stopped us for a fruit inspection. We told them we had a rotten banana but they didn't seem to care as they sprayed the bottom of the truck and let us go thru. We next drove into the the town of Guerrero Negro where we waited in a long line to fill up for gas. The gas station attendant did say that they are open 24 hours a day which made me feel better for our return trip next week. I would always recommend having an extra 5-10 gallon can of gas when going thru this stretch. You never know if one of the stations will be closed or out of gas. We drove around the town of Guerrero Negro which had one main street and several smaller paved ones with lots of hotels. There is a company here that manufactures salt and hires a majority of the population here. The town seems much more modern than most towns in Baja. The area reminded us of some of the smaller communities in California.
It was starting to warm up as we left Guerrero Negro and we continued on thru the desert. It must of been in the 80's now and it can get as hot as 120 in the summer. We arrived at San Ignacio around 1:30 which is located in a forest of palm trees. The road goes to the right and you drive for a couple miles before reaching the village. We drove past a river, campsites, rows of date palm trees and houses as we arrive close to town square. There is a little park in the middle of town and then this is surrounded by little stores and also the Mission. We walked to the Mission Church which is still in use although they are doing repairs on it while we were there. A little boy came up to us and tried to sell us some dates when we were in the church. We found a store selling books and craft and bought a Chinese checker set that was made out of the onyx from the mine we had been at this morning. It was only $15 dollars and a good buy.
San Ignacio is a good place to stop and rest, especially after driving thru the desert all day and you come to this oasis community. We walked down one of the business streets next and ate lunch at Rene's outside on a covered areas. The food was good, Cindy and I ate burritos & tacos and the kids had the soup of the day that they liked. We left after being here for a couple hours and planned on stopping here again on our way back. We continued south and came down a very steep grade and had a view of the Sea of Cortez as we entered Santa Rosalia. We first passed thru the industrial area on the way to town. This used to be a mining area and it also has a ferry going to Guaymas of mainland Mexico. There are two long strips of businesses as you drive thru town and it also has two large churches. One of the churches was made of iron in France by the man who had built the Eifel tower. It was prefabbed and then brought over after the ???? fair. We walked around town for over an hour window shopping and getting the kids some ice cream.
Mulege would be where we spend tonight. There are many palm trees as you enter town. This is a small compact town with three major streets. There seemed to be many hotels here as we stayed at the Hotel Hacienda for $25. It had a swimming pool and bar that was near the pool. There were also tables and wooden rocking chairs outside. We walked around town and finally ordered pizza at Donna Moe's to take back and eat at the courtyard. We won't order from there again as we ordered a large combo pizza and they only put on two toppings. It also took 40 minutes to make but I'm sure that is normal. The drinks at the bar in the courtyard were cheap, between one and two dollars. We put the kids to bed and sat outside for another hour. We finally went to bed around 9:00 but it was still pretty noisy as there was a soccer game on a basketball court going on next to the hotel. The room also had a queen and twin bed as Cindy and I squeezed into the twin while the kids shared the queen. This would happen four times during the trip.
We drove 450 miles today and 2200 total