Loreto (8)

29 January - 2 February, 2007
Loreto, Baha California Sur, Mexico
- population: 11,800
Rivera Del Mar Campground

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from Santispac down the coast of the Sea of Cortez to Loreto, 71 miles. We stayed here five nights. This has been our favorite town with easy walking access from the RV park.

The park was a little cramped with all of us in residence but Scout was satisfied. Adjacent to the park was a very nice restaurant with WiFi in which we had several meals during our stay. And we had another group dinner, filet minion as I recall, at another very nice restaurant. Here, next to Barbara, is pictured Gary and Nancy Goerz who have just started full-timing in the past year. They are members of "Escapees" headquartered in Livingston, TX which is now their mailing forwarding address.

Another afternoon activity was learning the right way to drink tequila: lick a dash of salt on your hand, down a jigger of tequila straight, then immediately suck on a lime. The instructors were Gaylord (retired contractor) and Yvonne (ex-secretary and Makah Indian from Neah Bay, WA.)

The Loreto waterfront is exceptional. A resort hotel fronting on the ocean. The divided road along the malacon or paved waterfront walk. The malacon with cruse ship anchored out. The town has an international airport but doesn’t attract many tour ships because it doesn’t have a landing pier. It was just announced by the Federal government in Mexico City that they will build one. Tourist hotels are already under construction and it is hoped that the local atmosphere won‘t be destroyed.


Loreto has a reputation for fishing; here fisherman await their guide. Some try fishing just off the dock (the splash is from a couple dive-bombing pelicans).

The town’s residential areas are quiet and laid-back.

Loreto is the site of the first mission in Alta (US state of California) and Baja California, begun in 1697. It was the origin of all mission built through out the Baja and the state of California. The mission has been restored as a tourist attraction.

Adjacent is a very attractive tree-arched shopping mall that contributes to the laid-back atmosphere of the town.

A modern elementary school. Free public education was decreed in about 1910; we saw lots of children in school uniforms. Across the street was an interesting house under construction. Thatched roofs are common and we had many a restaurant meal under them. This is how they are built.

Barbara and Charlie both agreed this is a town that they would like to return to.

Next stop: Ciudad Constitucion

… Humphrey, for Charlie and Barbara

Santispac (7)

27-28 January 2007
Santispac, Baha California Sur, Mexico
- population: 3 (?)
Playa Santispac

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from Santa Rosalia down Mexico 1 along the Sea of Cortez to Playa Santispac, 48 miles. We stayed here two nights. This was our most favorite RV park.

Playa Santispac is a remote cove just off Mexico 1 with a nice beach -- a place to kick back and relax as Barbara and Scout are doing.

This was Scout’s introduction to the ocean, in fact deep water at all. She took to it with some initial reticence -- she won’t be a water dog.

Yes we felt pretty insignificant; we were the shortest rig in the group and the only one with solar panels and no noisy generators.

We were only 12 miles south of Mulege (pronounced MUL-a-hey) so a trip to town with Teri and Al for lunch and a telephone report to Elizabeth was on the itinerary.

The bar restaurant was on the central square and caters to Americans and Canadians who winter here; in fact Jerry Barber, our Wagon Master, has a twin brother, Rick, who has lived here for a number of years. The TV was a US satellite CNN news show.

Gerry, or his identical twin brother, can’t tell which, picking over the remains of the buffet line which featured different types of clams, some deliciously baked with herbs and bacon in the shell.

Desert was roasted slugs; here Barbara is roasting hers with, left to right, Marilyn Turner (Connecticut), Nila Bailey (Colorado), Barbara and Nancy Goerz (full timing out of Texas). Charlie attests that cooked right the slugs have a good crust and hold a lot of juicy stuff!

Here Barbara started her seashell collection now causing a list to the RV. She learned the trick of preserving them from Ethel Cinders. I think that this will only be a brief diversion from her primary interest in collecting of rocks.

Early morning of our reluctant departure -- sun rising from the East across the Sea of Cortez.

This may be the last year for dry camping on the Santispac beach because the entire Playa has been sold for several million dollars US to developers with rumored plans for a resort. The temporary structures on the beach around the point, built by people who have wintered here for years, were being torn down during our stay.

Next: Loreto

… Humphrey, for Charlie and Barbara

Santa Rosalia (6)

26 January 2007
Santa Rosalia, Baha California Sur, Mexico
- population: 1200 (?)
Loa Palmas RV Park

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

[map] Humphrey again. This email covers the drive down to Santa Rosalia back on the Sea of Cortez, 48 miles. We stayed here one night.





Given the exhausting 48 mile drive and the one night stand, this is the only picture, taken by Barbara, of Santa Rosalia. A famous church in the region is a pre-fabricated church designed and built in France by Gustav Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) and shipped to the site and assembled in 1897.

Why, because the town has a French origin. In the 1880’s a French company, one of the Rothschild’s empire, acquired copper mining rights and built the town of Santa Rosalia around a foundry. They abandoned mining in 1956 and left vacant foundry building and unknown pollution. The tour books and the local people appreciate what the French contributed and don’t berate the company for not cleaning up its mess as would be the case in the US.

Charlie suggests that this might be a spot to summarize the Baja history, geography and population from the Lonely Planet ‘Baja and Los Cabos‘ tour guide:

HISTORY:
8,000 BC Indians first inhabit the peninsula
Significant petroglyphs at amazing heights in caves
(pictures later)

1500 AD
Estimated 48,000 Indians on the peninsula
3 major linguistic groups subdivided in tribes: upper, middle and lower peninsula, some warlike, some practicing pologamy.
‘Rancheria’ settlements, few families to 200 people.
Hunter-gather subsistence living.
Generally naked, sleeping in open, caves or simple
dwelling.
Remote from the Maya and Aztec cultures on mainland.
None survived European colonization.

1532-39
Cortez in 4 expeditions explores peninsula for gold, none found .

1565
For 250 years English and Dutch preyed on Spanish
galleons returning from Philippines.
A Spanish restocking port was created at La Paz.

1687
First Spanish settlement at Loreto, Jesuit mission,
hub for 23 missions built over next 70 years through
out the Baja.

1767
Spanish expel Jesuits from Mexico, Franciscans take over.

1773
Dominicans take over northern missions.

1821
Mexican independence from Spain.

1832
Mission system abolished, turned into local churches.

1846-48
Mexican-American War over Texas boundary.
US troops landed on peninsula and took Mulege, La Pas and San Jose del Cabo.
Mexico seeds California and American Southwest to US.

1853
US offers to buy Baha as part of Gadsden Purchase, denied.

1884-1911
President Diaz encouraged foreign investment in country; parts of northern Baja developed including Ensenada.

1910-20
Mexican Revolution (civil war), Baja on fringe.

1920-33
US prohibition makes Tijuana, Ensenada and Mexicali mecca for booze, gambling and sex; crime followed.

1934-40
President Cardenas instituted reforms including banning casino gambling and cracked down on crime.
Built Sonora-Mexicali railroad to reduce Baja isolation from mainland Mexico.

1945-52
President Aleman built hydroelectric stations, irrigation projects and expanded road system.
Northern half of peninsula becomes state of Baja California.

1948
Bing Crosby, John Wayne, others develop private resort south of La Paz.

1967
First hotel development in Cabo San Lucas

1973
Mexico 1, Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas highway paving completed.
Southern half of peninsula becomes state of Baja California Sur.

1986
International airport opened at San Jose del Cabo, 20 miles from Cabo San Lucas.

2001
President Vicente Fox initiates Baja tourist development program to rival Cancun; great progress is evident.

2000 POPULATION:
Baja California state (upper): 2,911,000
...94% live in Tijuana, Ensenada and Mexicali
Baja California Sur state (lower): 424,000
...La Paz: 196,000
...Los Cabos (San Jose-San Lucas): 150,000
...Loreto: 11,800

2006 GEOGRAPHY:
...Area (size of Illinois): 55,000 sq mi
...Length of peninsula: 775 miles
...Coastline: 3000 + miles
...Highest peak: (Picacho del Diablo) 10,154 feet
...Mexico 1 highway (Tijuana-San Lucas) 1147 miles

2006 ECONOMY :
...GDP per capita US$ 6,260

Next stop: Santispac

… Humphrey, for Charlie and Barbara

San Ignacio (5)

24 - 25 January 2007
San Ignacio, Baha California Sur, Mexico
---population: 4000
Rice and Beans Oasis Park

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey here again. This email covers the drive back over the mountains toward Guerrero Negro and the Baja California - Baja California Sur province boundary check point, then back into the mountains toward Santa Rosalia, 212 miles. San Ignacio is about half-way between Guerrero Negro and Santa Rosalia. We stayed here two nights. Again this is posted three weeks later.

-

The RV park is a little small for our crowd but we’ve learned to fit. The park overlooks a palm oasis. At the distant end of the park in the picture is a good restaurant which hosted one of our group dinners. In the picture Claudia is “coordinating” with her husband Jerry.

The town is known for the De Kadakaaran Mission San Ignacio founded in 1728, finished in 1786. It was the Jesuit priest who founded the mission who also planted the area’s date palms; date bread is now a local specialty.

We didn’t catch the name of the iconic priest wielding the broom, it may be a Franciscan priest replacing the Jesuits when they were thrown out of Mexico; the church was finished by the Franciscans.

-

-

The mission fronts on a very attractive, shaded city park in which is found a public telephone that Barbara used to report to our daughter Elizabeth.

Adjacent to the square boys played video games, a video store offered rentals.

A street café owner watched TV awaiting customers, and a sidewalk beauty parlor operated in the shade of a tree.

And of course the ubiquitous internet cafe and the even more common curb-side mobile Coca-Cola stand that seems to be permanently imbedded in the concrete pavement. This is symbolic of Coke‘s presence in Mexico -- remember President Vincente Fox was previously president of Coca-Cola Mexico.

The town had a relaxed Mexican feeling with unusual backyard pets.


We had a very pleasant lunch with Al and Teri in a restaurant which looked out over a pond with a resident egret.

Next: Santa Rosalia

… Humphrey, for Charlie and Barbara