REPORT FROM BAJA CALIFORNIA.
Por. Walter Bishop. |
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From
the city of Durango our home base to the port of La
Paz Capital of the State of Baja California Sur, you
have more or less 500 miles plus 8 hrs of ferry leaving
from Topolobampo in the State of Sinaloa, all this finally
translates into three days of getting
there time. This
considerabl
e amount of time and a few border like inspections
by the authorities make you think, even if you do not
want to, that you have arrived to another country.
Distance was undoubtedly the reason because of which
Fernando Jordan called the peninsula of Baja California
" The Other Mexico " but he also names it "he Magic
Country" and this was the Baja California that we were
looking for. Part of this magic we found in the Magdalena
Bay and its gray whales.
This
bay is one of the best natural protected areas in the
pacific ocean, and it is the place where some of the
25,000 gray whales Eschrichtius robustus, which now
swim in the pacific, choose as their winter home to
have the young and mate. It is also here where Excursiones
Pantera does its whale watching excursions.
Sensational,
is probably the best word to describe the experience
we have lived every year we have been here to see the
whales, and this year was not the exception. At the
begannig of the season, We saw whales jumping, playing,
in child labor, mating (pretty impressive) Later on
we saw them with their young curiously wanting to see
us, and the best at the end we were able to have voluntary
contact with them, giving us the feeling of hope that
all is not wrong with the environment, and that maybe
one day man will learn to live in peace with the other
species of the planet.
Here
I would like to thank the hospitable and kind inhabitants
of the port of San Carlos on the shores of the bay,
where we do our over night stay, at hotel Alcatras with
Doña Maru welcoming us. This is a typical Baja California
small fishing village. I would also recommend the tacos
stand in front of the police station and the hot dogs
on one of the corners of the plaza.
Once
the Whale season was over, we continued our traveling
through this beautiful land and with in an itinerary
of 12 days with a group of French men ( the youngest
was 72 years old) and we went on the visit the incredible
Cave Paintings in the San Francisco mountains, near
by San Ignacio. To get here we are talking about a mayor
effort, for we are speaking of around 400 miles of the
narrow Hwy 1 and it is really not my intention of weighing
you down with the details of our troubles through these
parts, so I will just continue with this story from
the dirt road that takes you from the paved Hwy 1 to
the ranch of San Francisco with in the mountains of
the same name.
These
beautiful mountains are a system of rugged canyons and
mesas where one or several groups of ancient and millenary
inhabitants, that of course were no the ones the Jesuit
missionaries met when they arrived about 1698, using
their artistic intuition, painted in several places
these magnificent murals that we now call cave paintings,
to leave as witnesses of the existence in this land.
The paintings are so beautiful that they have been
declared patrimony of humanity and are compared with
the cave art of Europe and Australia, which was the
reason for choosing them for our visit and they really
outdid our expectations that we had of them.
So
back at our arrival to the little San Francisco which
was definitely exciting for the view that we had from
the sierra and the Cirios which are very mysterious
cacti had already set the climate of the expedition
and as always the confusion of our arrival turn into
total chaos as we tried to load the burros with the
supplies for the camping and the decision of how many
mules we would need to ride down into the canyon. Anyway
it was an apparent organized mess and we finally came
out with 10 loaded burros and 11 saddle mules which
included the three mules of the local guides. So around
two in the afternoon heat, 12 souls and 21 support animals
started down the trail.
As
we passed the tiny ranch of Guadalupe where our guides
lived, one of the burros fell over, breaking the glass
of the Coleman lamp we had, a concerned inhabitant of
the ranch let us borrow one making me promise I would
return it intact, as it was his father property. We
continued down the trail through a big mesa which in
a short time brought us the edge of the canyon where
the " O' lala" or O how beautiful in French was the
appropriate exclamation.
We
began a difficult
descent which over a few hours led
us to the ranch of Santa Teresa. Next day we continued
until we arrived at a camp site by the creek, where
we set up our camp where we would stay for two nights.
That same afternoon we visited the La Soledad Cave,
which brought another round of "O' lalas " with the
particularity that some of the paintings are some what
abstract sort of like a checker board. We returned to
camp and after a goat over coals dinner, we went to
sleep dead tired.
Very
early in the morning I cooked a continental bre
akfast
for the French and a fried kidneys and goats heart with
onions for the guides . More less at about ten in the
morning we left to which would be a great day and to
what we had come for, from so far away. After maybe
an hour of trekking up the side of the San Pablo Canyon
in real broken terrain we visited the Las Flechas Cave
and what a sight. I am not going to say anything about
the walkways the INAH installed at the side of the cave,
for they would get mad at me, but the mural that these
unknown people painted on the rock wall is truly amazing.
Enormous figures of ochre deer with great antlers, and
ghost like human forms stuck with arrows on several
sides decorate the impressive massive layer of volcanic
agglomerates.
In
the distance and on the other side of the San Pablo
Canyon you can see the Cave La Pintada and again we
had to go down one side, cross and up the other fighting
the terrain all the way. This cave can be considered
the prefect example of Baja California Cave Paintings
for the way it describes the phenomenon. The cave is
about 3 or 400 feet but is only about 100feet that is
covered with 40 extraordinary figures of human forms,
deer and wild
sheep in very well conserved state, that
really get your attention. There is also a very big
whale and a great number of jackrabbits and birds decorating
the rest of the cave.
After
watching in awe for some while, we went down again on
the side of the canyon to a truly beautiful pool of
water in the creek at the bottom, where a very important
detail about all this had escaped my attention , perhaps
because of the paintings. So after taking a splash in
this really clear water, I sat there naked on the rocks
and started thinking
about the beauty of the canyon
itself, and the reason that made these people paint
the fabulous murals here, was so clear even more so
than the water. The San Pablo Canyon is an impressive
natural cathedral of unchallenged beauty, with its sections
of volcanic walls, the running creek down at the bottom
with water coming from springs that come right out of
the rock, and the palm trees and cactus that adorn this
setting, is a tender caress of mother nature for anyone
that passes through this land better know for its rugged
dryness than for its cool kindness. A frame of paradise
to express a life of penitence.
For
dinner we had a sort of goats barbecue cacerol style,
next morning we woke up very early and suprisingly by
nine o'clock we were on our way out of the canyon. Six
hours later we were back at Guadalupe. For Manuel Arce,
his son and Rogelio Leree our most sincere thanks for
all their help, they know that we are hooked and waiting
for next year, so we can visit them again and this time
go the Arroyo del Parral and its Cave of the Serpent.
The trip did not end here and it took us on to the
Cave of Palmarito down by Santa Marta (great), the gray
whales of the Lagoon of San Ignacio the fr
iendliest
of Baja, and the enchanted land of San Isidro, La Purisima
and Comondu for which I will make a special section
later, but as an advance the country side looks as if
a dinosaur could jump at you at any time from the side
of the road. Our regards to Mr. and Mrs. Mason, Mr.
and Mrs. Verrier, Mr. Amory, Mr. Navarre, and also to
our nationals Hiram, Walter Jr., Manuel Arce , his son,
and Rogelio Leree. Thank you Walter.
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