Reaching the Bottom of Baja

Sunday, 14 March – La Paz to Cabo San Lucas (lat 22 53.988; long 109 53.696)

1. The road to the mines behind El Triunfo.

2. American trucks are the rage at El Triunfo.

3. Joel likes it. Emily, do you want to borrow my truck?

4. The 35-meter-high smokestack of the smelting works was designed
by Gustav Eiffel, renowned engineer and designer of the Eiffel Tower,
still stands on this site.

5. The church in El Triunfo.

6. A cobblestone side street in El Triunfo

7. A cobblestone street in El Triunfo in front of town hall.

8. A picture of Ray to make Beth feel good.

9. South of Santiago, we cross into the tropics.

10. Home for the night in Cabo San Lucas.
One of the few places that still takes campers.

11. The beaches of Cabo San Lucas are beautiful but no longer pristine.

Grand hotels and night clubs line the beach.

12. Looking down the beach at Cabo San Lucas under overcast skys.
This is the bottom of Baja.

13. On the cape at Cabo San Lucas is a sign:
"No Se Vende" - "Not for Sale"

After three nights at the Casabuena B&B, we left our new home with some regrets and promises to return on the rebound from our quick tour of the cape to the south. It is an overcast day, which is our first since leaving Arizona. Because of the weather, we abandon on plans to return to Tecolote and get a boat to the islands off Bahia de la Paz.

Heading down Hwy 1, we stopped in El Triunfo and walked around the old mine. There was a gold and silver boom in El Triunfo beginning in 1862. The boom brought over 10,000 people to the area making it the largest settlement in Baja at the time. Many who participated in the California gold rush of 1849 found themselves in El Triunfo. Interestingly, the 35-meter-high smokestack of the smelting works was designed by Gustav Eiffel, renowned engineer and designer of the Eiffel Tower. There was a strong French influence to the town. The web has some interesting histories on this town and I encourage follow-up.

El Triunfo is now a quaint town with cobblestone streets and neat, well kept buildings and church. It makes a pleasant stroll. The California license plates that occasion the cars parked in town suggests outside forces are at work here. However, the town does not appear to be overrun by Anglo influences.

We made a quick stop in Los Barriles and drove the main street. We looked at the beach and searched half-heartedly for the road running north to the beaches of Bahia de los Muertos without success (We were not going in that direction anyway). Los Barriles is overrun by Anglo influences and interests and was a foreshadow of what we were to find at the bottom of the peninsula.

Further south, we got off Hwy 1 and drove into Santiago to get some lunch. There was a nice 4 lane divided road w/ curbs and street lamps leading into town – disproportionate for the size of the town. The town was charming with a nicely maintained plaza. There were several tiendas on the plaza but we did not see anything that looked like a restaurant. We patronized the local tienda for some drinks and fruit.

We crossed the tropic of cancer just south of Santiago.

We took the toll road around the airport at San Jose del Cabo. We tried to take in the plaza at San Jose del Cabo but it is Sunday, there was a street fair, the this quarter of town was packed with residents having fun. However, this all made navigating in the Tacoma fairly difficult so we gave up on San Jose, found our way back to Hwy 1, and pointed the truck toward Cabo San Lucas.

I will not spend any energy describing San Jose del Cabo or Cabo San Lucas further other than to say it totally popped my Baja bubble.

We had an overpriced dinner in town and ran out of daylight. Instead of pushing on toward Todos Santos, we found a place among the big hotels that allows camping. It looks like it is also for sale.