The good news is that noone got violently ill after last nights supper!
We even had 75% of a good trip today. I could not believe some of the scenery we were seeing! In the final part of Baja North we were climbing up some pretty tall mountains in the fog and by the time we got to the top- we were above the clouds! The desert flora was amazing too! Boojum trees were amongst the strangest things we've ever seen. It was on a very narrow road with few pull offs to take good pics, so we plan on doing that on the way back.
We also saw forests of Cardon Cactus which kind of remind me of Saguaros that you see in Arizona, but a bit different. There were several places where both grew together and some places where they grow together with a plethora of other cactus and succulunts in what can only be described as a lush desert!
We crossed into Baja Sur at about noon and went into Guerrero Negro for lunch. We settled on a little gordita place ( stuffed maiz pocket) and had a good meal there. We were thankful to get into baja sur with little problem, because we didn't have all our visa's with us. We prayed that it would go well and immigration didn't even come out to ask us any questions!
We stopped at a place in Baja Sur called San Ignacio-- A friend had recommended that we drop in- I'm glad we did! It was an amazing little oasis in the middle of the desert! After a very long time in coastal scrubbrush and then driving through desert, we run into this natural oasis where the jesuits had planted date palm trees in the 1700's when they first arrived. An entire little town had grown up around it and the downtown looked like an old Mexican town with a town square ( with HUGE old trees that covered the entire park).
We walked into the church ( built in the 1780's) and were amazed at the old spanish architecture... I had been told about how the Catholic church treats saints here and I was able to see it firsthand. The people will buy gold jewlelry of the body part that they want healed- and then hang it on the statue of the saint as they ask the saint to heal them. There was a statue of a saint, or at least early priest from there that they are hoping will become a saint- with gold jewlry on him as well as money tucked into his robes. They are hoping that but offering money or gold that the saint will more fervently pray for their needs.
From there we drove a little further into a town called Santa Rosalia, along the mar de Cortez. It was an amazing drive from where we were down to sea level down a steep, winding road. The Sea of Cortez there was an incredibly deep blue colour that we don't see on the pacific side of the peninsula. There were whitecaps out on the water and little waves like we see on the great lakes in Canada. Santa Rosalia is famous for it's French architecture that was built in the 1800's when a french company ran the town. The centerpiece is a church that was built buy gustav Eiffel, who also built the Eiffel tower, and was displayed at the world fair in the mid to late 1800's. The town had an entirely different feel to it than any other town we'd been in. The buildings were almost all made from wood with high peaked roofs and balconies-- kinda like pictures I've seen of New Orleans. The roads were very narrow and what I imagine some places in eurpoe would look like with a few taco and BBQ chicken stands thrown in!
We were planning on stopping in Mulege but when we got there, the motel I had booked did not live up to expectations. It looked more like a trailer park for those folks whose trailers aren't fancy enough for the regular red-neck trailer parks... we decided to check out some others and got lost in Mulege and still could not find a decent hotel- so we decided to come here to Loreto.
it was 100km about 1/3 of it in the dark- some of that behind a transport truck ( a cow pusher, I called it) in some of the windiest roads we've seen! It was a little stressful, but we made it here safe and sound.
We finally found a motel for the night after quite a while searching. The cost started out at 1400 pesos ($115) for the night. when i almost left they knocked it down to $95. I said I'd go discuss it with my wife when another lady came up to me offering the place for $50, I just had to agree to go to a sales meeting about a timeshare property they have about 25 minutes south of here. Again, I discussed it with my wife (and used the free hotel wifi to check out other hotel prices and reviews and decided we had the time to do this and we wouldn't get a better deal anywhere else. They sweetened the deal to $44 and gave us a nice room with a kitchen. It has worked out well so far, and the kids have the ok from us to "let loose" at the meeting tomorrow if it goes beyond the 90 minutes they said it would!
We'll let you know how that goes!
Tomorrow we get to la Paz, Lord willing. Caleb has come down with a fever and is not feeling very well at all. He is getting his sleep at night and resting in the car and we all hope and pray he gets better quickly.
hasta manana,
After that w
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