Pic-of-the-Month for May 2022

Hola Amigos,

Yes, it is the last day of May, and even though I thought about writing this earlier in the month, it didn't get done until today.  We have had a busy month, and we even took time for a very exciting Baja adventure!

We have talked a long time about visiting the missions in the mountains of Baja, but never took the time to do it.  Well, we finally did it at the beginning of May.  We asked our friends Debi and Sandy Stoll to go with us, and they readily agreed.  We all traveled in our Ford 4x4 truck (a pretty comfortable ride).   

We traveled to Loreto the first night.  Now, these things take fine tuned planning.... we remembered that the Hotel Oasis in Loreto has a wonderful clam/oyster buffet on Saturday nights, so we decided to spend our first night in Loreto.  It's just less than 300 miles from our house, so it was a nice day's trip and we didn't have to leave too early, either.  We had breakfast in La Paz on our way, and discovered that EVERYBODY was out for breakfast due to the Mother's Day weekend.  It did take a while to get served and out of La Paz!  

The next day, we drove up the newly paved road from Loreto to Mission San Javier.  That's the one pictured above.  It's in pretty good shape for being started in 1699!  We toured the museum, and checked out the inside of the building.  They had a beautiful rose garden out front, too.  More pictures of the mission and our trip are in our May 2022 album.  

From there, we went on further northwest to the Comondu area, on the west side of the Gigantes Mountains!  It was only 42 kilometers.  It took us about 4 hours (that's 6 miles an hour!!!)  It was a very rough, very unimproved road.  I'm sure there have been races across this road, and maybe with the suspension and shocks those cars have, it would have been tolerable at a higher speed.  Not in our stiff truck!  Fortunately, we made it through to the west end at San Jose del Comondu with all our tires intact, and stayed two nights at a sweet little hotel in San Miguel de Comondu.  I can't imagine people traversing this rocky, steep, dry area on horseback or with burros, let along wagons.  Pretty amazing countryside; starkly beautiful.  

 That road pictured is to the west, where we'd been.  We figured our destination was just over this hill.  Well, maybe that hill or the 4th hill beyond!  It wasn't far, it just took forever! 

We were very pleased with our little hotel in the little town of San Miguel.  As far as we know, it's the only hotel in quite a large area.  They had a little restaurant attached and the food was basic, but good.  We even had internet!  And AC and a television (which we didn't use).  The good thing about our room is that it had a little kitchen with a fridge, which was real nice to have since we'd brought some snacks and drinks that needed to be kept cool.  

 

We did several walks around the little town, and I practiced my Spanish with some of the people we met.  They were very friendly.  This area is a huge oasis, and they export a large amount of palm leaves.  There is water flowing most of the year through here in a little river.  

We met these two sisters with their families at the hotel restaurant one night.  They are both in their 90's, and were born here in this community.  They live near Ensenada now, and were back visiting their old homes and families especially for Mother's Day.  They were great!  (I got to practice yet more Spanish!!)   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, we traveled to La Purisima, another very large oasis in the center of Baja.  While there isn't a Mission here there is some beautiful landscape, including a hill called El Pilon.  There is a lot of water there.  It's very beautiful, too.  We decided not to go the 42 kilometers there on the dirt road, since we were told it was equal to the one we traveled on from San Javier to Comondu!  No thanks!  We took a paved road south west, then north to La Purisima.  Lots of potholes in this road, so we had to be cautious.  

The big letters spell out "La Purisima, but we were thinking it should spell Purkey!  We hope you can see that Harriet is pouring Ben a glass of wine!  

The next day, we headed back south to our home, and decided to spend the night in La Paz at our favorite Hotel, Catedral. 

Here, Ben is in the open air lobby of the hotel, sharing some wine with the 4 of us before dinner at a nice restaurant a few blocks away.  

The rest of the month has been busy with getting things done before we leave for the summer.  We've been trying to find house sitters for the summer, and we are now on our 3rd candidates!!  The first two couples did let us know right away that they couldn't do it, so I'm hoping this is a good fit.  (He's actually our washing machine repairman friend from Canada, and his wife).  We're thinking this will work out perfectly for us, because if my washing machine quits again, he knows exactly how to fix it!!  Likewise with any other appliance!  

We will be leaving here June 25th, and it will take our normal 6 days to travel the 2000 miles to mid-Oregon.  If you have any desire to visit with us this summer, or maybe go on a camping trip somewhere in the wilderness with us, drop us a note so we can put you on our schedule.   Our daughter and family will be coming to Oregon this summer, so we'll be busy when they're here, late July through mid August.  

Again, our May 2022 photo album has a bunch of other pics.  

Until next month....or maybe July, or who knows when!

Your friends in Baja,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey