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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Tam and I awoke to a stunning desert scene glorifying mountains sporting a crown of sunshine. We had not a worry in the world. There was no tsunami, no terrorists, and not even a Baja race to spoil the peace of the moment.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Tam had been deep in a property negotiation back in Florida....and me, well, I don't have anything going on, ever.....but none of that meant a thing here on the San Borja trail. My deepest concern had to do with the GEs startup procedure....or not. This morning GE did not disappoint.
We wandered around taking pictures of the local inhabitants trying to capture the moment. It was hopeless....
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
When the sun finally broke through the morning mist, Tam was already enjoying her morning coffee. Almost 'Queen of Sheba' like, don't you think?
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Our neighbors of the area....
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
There was one neighbor with a heartbeat.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
....a little closer...
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
We soon left for the last leg to the San Borja Mission. I just loved the old van. Unless we were in soft sand or starting on a pretty steep hill, I would take off in 2nd, leaving granny for the heavy lifting, and at 5mph I'd shift to 3rd, and 4th at 15mph, that still left 5th gear. That damn thing would lug along at 1500rpm, and could climb hills at under 2000rpm all while emitting a low soothing rumble from the exhaust.
Here's the road. Hear the Rattles? (Click for Vid)
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Soon we were at the mission. The mission was started in 1762. Originally it was adobe, and here is what was left of that phase of the San Borja walls.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Later they quarried the blocks for the current mission building from the mountain in the background. This building came along later.
I have trouble imagining how the Missionaries forced and taught the Indians of the area to build the mission. The block work is nearly perfect.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Inside
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
out back
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
This spiral stair case goes to the roof. The column is part of each individual step, and the steps go into holes in the wall. I have built spiral stair cases at a Fab shop that I ran. They are tricky to design. Again, I marvel at them being able to pull this staircase off at that time.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
A conical view port built into the outside wall of the staircase ....nice touch.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
From the top of the mission you get a good idea of the San Borja compound. There wasn't always, but now there's overnight camping along with a small hot springs which our German tour group took advantage of. The rest of the buildings are used by the inhabitants of San Borja. There are also machineries, mostly winches, left over from the gold mine that was operated there. Someone told us that gold mining is no longer permitted in Baja. That may mean that you need to get a permit to do it.....which is hard or impossible to get.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Of course Tam made a new friend....he had a curious eye.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
They had a little cemetery out back. I wonder how far back the dates went.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
We actually made intruduction with the German tour group. They had made arrangement with that Van and a driver/guide in La Paz who drove from the states to meet them. They were doing a 3 week camping tour of Baja. They'd fly home out of San Diego. There are some very creative travelers out there, folks.
So along about 11am we left for Hwy 1 some 25 miles away. This sign directs a traveler right to LA Bay or left to Nuevo Rosalito on Hwy 1.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Once we got to HWY 1 and turned north, we had a good 250 miles of pavement to drive to get to Coyote's Cal's Hostel for the night. Hwy 1 is a narrow 2 lane with no shoulders. Often the edge of the pavement is a 8 to 10" sharp drop off to a 30 degree shoulder. The big rigs have one dual off in the corners and that cause the edge of the pavement to crumble away making the road even narrower.
Here's a video of me passing a Semi. It was tight enough for me but imagine being an opposing Big rig passing eash other in the corners. (click for vid)
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
Many stories of lost mirrors by motorhomes when dualing with semis exist....and worse.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
There are several twistie sections where the semis stop to see if there is a truck coming at them before they proceed.
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| From Baja travel, Mar 2011 |
We made the pavement drone to CoyoteCals.com by dark that Sunday. We had the place to ourselves as all the weekend business had left to engage their weekly lives back in the states. As I thought about it, I was a bit sad for them.
Tomorrow we'd make our way to the pine tree area of Laguna Hansen.....
hey pete ... your neighbors look like a buncha pricks! LOL -- sorry, had to!
ReplyDeletegreat pics. looks like you had perfect weather for the trip.
Yeah, that's about right, Ed. They can be brutal if you're not careful. :)
ReplyDelete