Baja Mexico November 2013
Mission San Francisco de Borja rises up in the middle of the desert. The first mission was built in the 1700s by the indigeonous people directed by the Catholic church. The site was chosen because of a warm spring and a couple of other cold springs in the area. They constructed irrigation and grew grapes, date palms, citrus, corn and many other crops that are still grown today. We did a tour with the family who watches over the mission who is of Christian faith but ironically not able to go into the mission because they are not Catholic. They are decendents from the original indigeouns people who built the second mission. They prepared a homecooked meal of tortillas, rice and beans that was fantastic.
By the time we left the mission, we knew it was going to be dark before we got back to Punta Buffeo. On the road to the highway, we encountered some locals...a herd of cows on the road. Another reason you don't want to be driving at night down here. We passed through a little town and found some kids riding bikes in the streets. We gave them a bag of Halloween candy from my kids and the children were very happy. Aired up our tires before hitting pavement and finally rolled into Gordon's place around 8pm and went to bed.
We broke one of the cardinal rules of being in Mexico - Don't drive at night! Mex1 is very narrow with absolutely no shoulder. Big rigs are rolling down the freeway and have no wiggle room. You must slow down when passing them to be sure neither vehicle ends up rolling down the hill. Of course there are no lights on the road and the signs are limited at best when it comes to tight turns and dips. In fact, USAToday ranked Mex1 as one of the 12 Dangerous Roads in the World! Check that off my bucket list...
Baja 2013 - Page 7
Baja 2013 - Page 7