Mileage: 74,930

Camping Petates San Ignacio, BCS Mexico

Happy birthday John!!

Our journey today took us across the Vizcaino Desert. The desert is dotted with dotalillo, a kind of yucca, and giant cordones.

The road was initially straight and smooth but very narrow. There were tense moments and terse words as tractor trailers coming from the south, passed us. The best strategy was to hold your breath, pullover as far as possible, slow down, and hope for the best. More than once, the trucks and busses were too close!

Maybe we should have taken the parallel dirt road…no tractor trailers here!

The trip today to San Ignacio was only 90 miles but it was intense. We encountered an area of very dense fog in combination with the narrowness of the road and the tractor trailers, we also had cyclists, pedestrians, and cows that appeared in the fog!

I did see a bobcat along the road today!

We have quickly learned that just because a campground is advertised as having full hookups…it doesn’t always mean that the power supply is adequate or usable. Our fresh water is full and our sanitation tanks are empty and this allows us to dry camp or boondock…especially since we have buddies to camp with.

We pulled out earlier than the Costellos today but with the understanding that we would choose the campground and they would join us. We stayed at Camping Petate under the date palms and along the Laguna San Ignacio. It was very pretty!

After lunch we went to see the town of San Ignacio. It is a clean and quaint place with a town square surrounded by small shops. We bought a kilo of dates and some date cake.

We walked into the mission church of San Ignacio. The mission was started in 1716 by Spanish missionaries. They built a small chapel of leaves and poles. Because of death, drought, floods, typhus, malaria, and other disease, the construction of the stone church was delayed until 1760. It took 26 years for the building to be completed. The building is constructed of hand cut lava stone and the walls are 4 feet thick. The stone work is magnificent.

Millstones used to grind wheat and turned by burros.

This afternoon we decided to explore the road south of town…Where were we going? What is there? How long would it take? What’s the road like? We did not have answers to these questions and for us…that is what makes it exploring…not really knowing where we will end up or what we will find. We refuse to be limited by fears or anxieties and instead are limited by the amount of fuel we have and how much daylight is left.

We drove across the desert and into the marshy area of the peninsula. We traveled across sand and gravel roads along the shore. The view was beautiful…such a pleasant afternoon. We got the Jeep dirty again…a sure sign of a successful adventure!

As we drove back into town, we saw Carol and Brian having an afternoon beverage on a restaurant patio. We stopped to join them and passed a pleasant hour. It was after 5 when they decided to be on their way. We decided to stay for dinner. We had delicious garlic shrimp and vino tinto.