Day Ten: Sunday, March 25: San Ignacio to Bahia Concepcion/Playa Santispac

Headed to the west coast today – to the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) and the famous beaches along Bahia Concepcion. Leaving San Ignacio, we passed an omen of Semana Santa - a carnival on a truckbed headed for the beaches! We also started seeing some new terrain as we passed the recent volcanism of the Tres Virgenes volcanoes. Where these blocky lava flows crossed the road, large “Palo Blanco” trees grew on them along with a slightly different assemblage of desert plants. After going through this interesting area, we came to the infamous “Cuesta del Infierno,” literally, the Grade from Hell! I thought that was a nickname, but no, there are official Government Highway signs with that name! It descended through neat country, like a cross between the Badlands, the Painted Desert, and the Grand Canyon. The grade was definitely steep – thank goodness we (and by “we” I mean Devin) installed the supplemental tow braking system – we turned up the gain on the Jeep’s brakes so it could help hold us back as we descended to the coast, and got little glimpses of the shining blue Sea of Cortez when we didn’t have our eyes glued to the edge of the cliff – ha. At the bottom, the highway goes right along the coast, and pelicans and other seabirds accompanied us as we drove south.
Old mining equipment and buildings line the highway north of the old mining town of Santa Rosalía, and one guidebook made a comment that Santa Rosalía hadn’t “cleaned up after itself” very well – egad! I hope they don’t! The old mining buildings and equipment were interesting and historical! Sort of like the kind of ruin we love to come across rusting out in the desert in California, that is protected in National Parks like Joshua Tree and Death Valley. There is a mining museum in town, which we didn’t take the time to visit this time, but would like to someday.

We came to the town of Santa Rosalía, and decided to stop along the beachfront and unhook the Jeep so we could explore a bit. There is a church there said to be designed by Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, and a famous French bakery. The guidebooks didn’t seem to think much of this town, but we really liked it! I think a lot of people come to Baja with preconceptions about what they want to find – idyllic beaches on blue water with palm trees – Hollywood’s cliché of Paradise. Santa Rosalía is a town that was founded by a French copper mining company, and built out of wood – a rare commodity in Baja California. Most buildings down here are made of adobe brick or stone or cement, but the mining company had lumber shipped from the Pacific Northwest to build its little “company town.” I like to think of Santa Rosalía as the “French Quarter” of Baja – all the buildings are two storey and have balconies, most with bougainvillea or other vines decorating them, all painted in bright Mexican colors, and the town is very much alive and vibrant, and not just from a tourist economy. There were many stores and people filled the sidewalks. We wanted to visit the Boleo Panaderia, the French bakery that has been there since the 1800’s. We found delicious treats there and will stop again on the way back north!

As we were re-connecting the Jeep for towing, a car drove by and all I heard, as the driver’s neck snapped around to look, was “…con quarto puertas!” (with four doors). A few minutes later he drove back in the opposite direction and gave the Jeep a good look and us a big smile and thumbs up! It’s fun to have a car that gets noticed – certainly has never happened to me before!

We continued our drive south, passing through Mulegé over the river lined with palms, and down to Playa Santispac, our destination for the night. Okay, so maybe there IS a paradise that looks like you might imagine down here! This beach is off of Bahia Concepcion, and off a small bay (Bahia Coyote) off of that large bay. It’s a sheltered cove, with a wide arc of sandy beach and shallow emerald green waters out to deeper blue depths with islands topped with cactus and circled by pelicans, frigatebirds, and turkey vultures! A few sailboats were anchored out in the bay, clouds reflected in the calm water – what a place!

As we pulled in, no one was at the “oficina” where you paid $7 a night to camp on (and I mean ON) this lovely beach, and a carload of Mexicans leaving told us to just camp and they would find us and collect our fees later. So we found a secluded spot on the beach and angled the RV for maximum views out our windows, put out the awning and slide-out, and started in right away doing some serious relaxing!!

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