Looking past the church grounds to San Ignacio
We had passed into Baja Sur, half way down the Baja peninsula. It had been quite the adventure at the half way mark. We needed some time to chill after all the stress. The plan had been to camp not far from Guerrero Negro so that we could meet up with some of our group that had been staying at a campground, then head back into town for one last resupply before heading further south. But the semi-fixed sand dunes we were camped around had more charm than expected. Plus we were all on our own out here, at least until our camp was invaded. Read on to find out about all that!
We had decided camp near town at a meetup spot with our friends who had not been able to make it into the previous salt mine camp. It was one of those situations where the road was fine but for one sharp turn at the end that the longest RV in our group would have had difficulty navigating. Perhaps with a lot of back and forth the corner might have been negotiated, but then you would be swinging off the road into soft ground, with a canal right beside you to the left which you could slide into for an extra stressful situation. There was an alternate way in that was good other than the entrance being a bit too humpy for our longest rig. We thought we could dig out the entrance so they could come in that way, but then with all the late day visitors we decided our previous site wasn’t worth a longer visit.
Camp from the second closest sand dunes
We hightailed it through town and onto Highway 1, proceeding down the road only a few minutes to some boondocking spots listed on iOverlander as being among sand dunes. Indeed there were sand dunes near where we decided to park, but we decided that the flat firm places were safer to be on rather than near the sand dunes and their soft uneven roads. It was only a five minute walk to the nearest sand dune anyways.
Group of Yucca on the sand hill
I fell in love with the desert the first time I was there but I realise it isn’t for everyone. Right at our camp was kinda boring. It was flat scrubby desert with scattered small shrubs – pretty standard stuff in the desert. But what looks like low hills in the distance are actually semi-fixed sand dunes close by. These are mostly covered with vegetation, but still can get sand blowing off them, slowly eroding one side and adding to the other. The erosion is slow enough that plants colonise the hills. The humps are like islands in a sea of flat scrub, with different plants growing on the islands, like Yucca. It’s a classic example of a niche in ecology. The sand dunes have a different environment from the surrounding flat lands. Plants and animals find these islands of environment matching their requirements, colonizing only the sandy hills in this case.
I wandered around this dune three miles out of camp admiring the views
One morning, I took off into the desert for a long walk. I was headed to the first dune on the right, and then straight on until I had seen what I sought out. It was a bit of a mini – walkabout for me. The desert is great for visiting with one’s self without all the noise of the world distracting you from the important things. The long vistas into the distance encourage long thoughts, sometimes thoughts you had been avoiding. I came back having shattered some lies I had been telling myself. It wasn’t a pleasant contemplation – the long walks almost never are. But once I had cleared the cobwebs I could see a path to follow. We find meaning where we can, right?
Longs roads for long thoughts
I return to camp to find a dispute in progress. I’m not going to get into details, other than to note that in travelling with a group it takes a while before you are sure you are really compatible together. A week of camping in easy USA spots doesn’t cut it. Sometimes you only find out what’s what once you are out there dealing with the inevitable challenges you will get. At that point you either meld together or fly apart from whatever incompatibilities have cropped up. The realization had come that it was time to part ways. While I was sad about this, it was probably for the best so that everyone could get what they wanted out of this adventure in Baja.
Ice plant says the googles
So that is two paragraphs of vague happenings, time to return to more concrete travel sights. We camped among the dunes for several days, relaxing out on our own with only the distant highway rumble to disturb the calm. Several more walks to the various dunes revealed new surprises – the plant life on the dunes had much more variety than the flat desert we were on.
Old and new tracks
But one unwelcome surprise happened on the flats where we were camping. I was chatting in the afternoon with That RV Over There when I see a van coming towards our camp from the main road. They stop at the junction where I was camped, parking at first way too close to Cindy and Edie. They start to maneuver around again, heading towards me. I wave and point at the left turn they are about to pass at the junction, hoping they take the hint and head down to the great camping spot by the dunes. But no, they pull into a little spot that is right in the middle of our group. I head over to say hi, with the idea that I’ll tell them about the great spot up against the sand hill, giving them the hint that perhaps camping among a bunch of strangers isn’t welcome in our group. The young couple gave brief consideration to my great spot advice, but decide that they are going to stay parked right in the middle of us. They are only there for one night, heading out early the next day for a whale watching tour. There are spots all over the place back here people – spread out and don’t plunk yourself in the middle of our group, even if we are spread out a bit.
Parked right in front of the church
Unfortunately that lack of boondocking etiquette broke the spell of the area. We might have stayed another day, but not after the inconsiderate young’uns ruined the vibe of our spot. We decided to head for San Ignacio to try some stealth camping, for one night only right in front of San Ignacio church! The church faces the town square, which has parking just big enough for smaller rigs to pull into. Now that some of our group had departed for a campground, we could all sneak into the square with our smaller rigs. You can see where some of the conflict was with our group, it wasn’t a deal killer on it’s own, but it added to the sum total stress within the group.
An impromptu lunch at the town square
We hung around for a while checking out the vibe. Had things looked dicey, we would have headed to a campground, or some boondocking out of town. But the kids were playing in the square, patrons were at the restaurants, people were strolling about enjoying the nice evening at the square. Most importantly, there were no signs saying you couldn’t park overnight, and no police came to shoo us away as it got dark. It’s not like we freeloaded on the area. First thing when we got there, we had a late lunch on the one corner of the square. There was souvenir shopping and breakfast out too around that corner. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt if the vendors see you spending money before you park for the night.
San Ignacio with the gardens in foreground
While the town has a lot of old world charm, the main feature here is San Ignacio church, which was started in 1760. This isn’t even that old for Mexico, churches go back more than 100 years before this one. Baja was an outlying arm of the Spanish empire in North America, it got colonized later than most of the mainland of Mexico. It’s an impressive building, but small by European standards. It still has some nice ornate details and will impress anyone that is used to “historic” buildings by western USA standards.
Wide angle up shot on the stairs
Sleep overnight was fitful. I think the town was busier than usual owing to it being Ash Wednesday when we arrived. Vehicles, dogs, and people were about until late into the night. But I managed some semblance of sleep and was up with the dawn light. Since I wasn’t sleeping anymore, I took the opportunity to grab my DSLR and walk across the street to the church, hoping to catch some glorious early morning sun on the building. Alas, it was not to be – the clouds hid the sun and left every picture looking dull.
Back seat view
The door to the church were opened so I decided to make an early pilgrimage inside. It would be great to get some good interior shots while the place was empty. Other than a priest who came through and said Bonias Dias, I had the whole place to myself. I could have wished for better light, but you work with what you got. I was happy to have the DSLR out with it’s extra light gathering capabilities, plus my 16-35mm zoom wide angle. The tight spaces make wide angles pay.
Front dome
I sat at one of the pews for a while, contemplating what those who believe in a god might feel sitting here in the beauty that man hath wrought. They would say the hand of god guided them to build it. I would say their belief in god inspired them to build it thus. The agnostic in me shrugs, noting this church is but one of thousands of physical interpretations of god’s house of worship. Which is correct is irrelevant when the questioning if there is a god. But the Gregorian hymn music being piped through the building was very meditative – the soul resonates to the sounds reverberating in the church, leaving one with the feeling of something greater than the sum of the parts being present here.
Last breakfast at Isabels
We got together for one last breakfast together before we went our separate ways for the rest of the trip. One unexpected thing down here was the lack of english speaking servers, even at tourist spots and major stops. I wasn’t expecting everyone to speak english, but what I have seen at least to down here is service in english is the exception by far. Expect to have to deal in spanish at least until you get to the very touristy south bit of Baja.
But it was sad saying goodbye to some of our band of merry travelers. We’d had a lot of good times together despite our differences so parting was not easy. But those that left went on to have other adventures that we would not necessarily have had together. I know that we were now open to some adventures in our slimmed down group that would not have been possible previously. See you next time to see what we got up to!
