January 24, 2015 - Vizcaino to Santispak RV Park

Today has been a bittersweet kind of day for us as we made our journey. One of our dear friends back home passed away two weeks ago and his memorial service is today. We loved sharing our travel stories with him and he was an avid follower of our blog. He always said he thought we were on a type of pilgrimage when we traveled, and who knows, maybe we are. We will miss his thoughtful questions and insightful observations. RIP, JHP, our dear friend.

When we pulled into the RV park last night we came in through the hotel entrance which was not a good choice. The driveway was very steep and we scraped bottom on our scooter ramp. This morning, they opened a gate at the south end of the property so we could make an easy exit to the street. Our scooter (and we) were much happier!

It has been a cloudy, windy, and chilly day today! Heading south from Guerrero Negro, the km markers are counting down, so we left Vizcaino at Km E-144. Near Km E-67, we were able to see the 6,547-foot high Volcan las Tres Virgenes (Three Virgins Volcano).
It was known to erupt in 1746 and emitted smoke in 1857. Around Km E-42, we stopped and were able to see some of the lava flow up close, and the elephant trees growing from the rock.

At Km E-0, we arrived at the town of Santa Rosalia, which is an industrial town with very little vegetation. The surrounding hills bear the scars of more than a century of copper and manganese mining. The old smelter is closed, but it appears that the town has reopened a new facility just to the north of town where they are apparently reprocessing the numerous mine tailings. We parked at the Ferry Terminal lot because the streets in town are narrow and would have been difficult to drive the RV through, and walked into tour the town.

Santa Rosalia was built by the French and as a result, almost all of its buildings are made of imported lumber, rather than masonry. Many of them have broad verandas and are packed closely together.

A few blocks into the town stands the metal church which was designed by Gustave Eiffel (builder of the Eiffel Tower in Paris). It was constructed of prefabricated galvanized iron because it was originally destined for a humid African country where resistance to termites was needed. How it ended up in Mexico is something we don’t know!


We climbed the hill to the Mesa Frances to see the Museo el Boleo which appeared to be closed for some time. It had originally been the mining company office. Down the center of the broad street was an array of mining railroad equipment. At the Frances Hotel, we could look up the hill and see a brick tunnel leading from the smelter to the smokestack high above the town.
We also had a view out to the harbor where the breakwater walls, constructed from blocks made from the slag left over from the smelting process protect the marina.

Back in town we grabbed a couple of fish tacos for lunch, then stopped at the French Bakery, El Boleo, which was established in 1901. We got some pastries that we will have for dessert tonight.


The whole tour of the town, including lunch took us just over an hour. Maybe if the weather had been warmer and sunnier we would have explored a little more. We continued south and checked out a couple RV parks we might stop at on the return trip before deciding to stay at Playa Santispac, on the Bahia Coyote, about 13 miles south of Muleje at Km F-114. There are several RVs parked here along the beach, but it is a pretty quiet spot. Cost – $100 pesos per night (about $7 USD). There are two beach restaurants here, also. The sun is trying to peak through the clouds, so we hope we get a nice sunset.

There are also lots of boats anchored in the bay and we have seen a few people out fishing and kayaking. We are hoping for a sunny day tomorrow so we can just hang out and relax.



GPS location – 26.76582N, 111.88623W