Back to San Ignacio

Monday, 22 March – Playa Santispac, Bahia Concepcion to San Ignacio

1. The deck at Posada de las Flores resort in Punta Chavito.

2. Boo, how would you like to stay in this room?

3. The Hotel Frances in Santa Rosalia is a great
example of French colonial architecture.

4. Another example of the French colonial architecture in Santa Rosalia.

5. Mr. Eiffel's prize winning church now resides in Santa Rosalia.

6. The church is surprisingly modular.

7. Beth, forget the Airstream. Forget the sailboat. Ray thinks retiring
to an old rail car in Santa Rosalia would be really cool. Please wire money.

8. Las Tres Virgenes volcanoes with recent lava flow.

We bought tamales and fritas from a woman vending on the beach today. We had decided not to cook breakfast to get an early jump on the day. As Ray says everything happens for a reason.

Learned some new Spanish today “Tenemos una llanta ponchada. (We have a punctured tire)”. The word for nail ion Spanish is “clavo”. We egressed from the beach after pumping up the tire. We drove carefully back to Mulege and filled up at the Pemex station. We got a recommendation on a llantera (tire shop) and negotiated the repair. It cost 40 pesos (about $3.50 US).

We headed north and drove the 15 miles out to Punta Chivato to check the Posada del las Flores resort. We had seen the sister hotels in La Paz and Loreto. The views from the hotel veranda were stunning. The hotel had no guests for tonight. This would be a great place to decompress. I hope they have enough business to stay open as I would like to take Boo here. Best view was outside room 750.

We left the hotel and retraced our route out to Hwy 1. We made the a stop in Santa Rosalia, a small port town that had a copper mining business until 1954 when the mine closed. A French mining company had a 99 year lease on the concession. The town has a very distinct French colonial architecture. The lumber for the wooden structures is all from Tacoma, Washington carried on the ships returning after unloading smelted copper at Tacoma for refining. There appears to be some French blood in the populations as you see people with freckles, curly hair, and hair colors other than black.

Santa Rosalia also is home of the Eiffel church. Eiffel designed and built a prototype modular church that was to be fabricated and sent to French tropical colonies. The church is entirely made of steel. The church was displayed at the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris at which Eiffel won a first prize for the church and the famed Eiffel tower. After, the fair however, the church was dismantled and put in storage. The director of the mine found the church and had it sent to Santa Rosalia where it was reassembled and christened. Here it sits today.

After eating lunch, we continued north stopping at Las Tres Virgenes to look at the volcanoes. We chatted with Jesus of the Ejido A.V. Bonafil about there “Eco-Tours”. They had a small camp several kilometers off Hwy 1. It looked from the pictures on the wall, they ran hunting tours for Bighorn Sheep. The volcanoes were very interesting with recent flows from the south side. The power company runs a geothermal power plant further up from the camp.

Leaving the ejido, we drove another 30 minutes to San Ignacio. After camping for 3 days, we decided to stay at the San Ignacio Springs B&B with Gary and Terry (we here for one night on our trip south). We needed to do some laundry. We got into San Ignacio with about 3 hours of day light. After starting laudry, I wandered about town. I watched the children practice baseball and t-ball. I was happy to see young girls playing. I then sat in the plaza, read maps and Spanish books, and soaked up the feel of San Ignacio.

Dinner at the San Ignacio Springs B&B was fantastic. Without doubt the best meal that we have had on the trip since we stayed here last. Fresh tuna, scallops (lime cooked), great vegetables (which we have been lacking), and finally, apple pie.

Back into the bush tomorrow.