Unfortunately, age, ailing knees, and busy schedule have kept me from going down to visit my good friends in Baja. I haven't updated this page since 2003. So you must add 6 years to the ages I listed, probably a whole lot more kids, but reading it over, not much has changed at El Sauce, or Santa Marta. There is talk of paving more of the road to La Sierra de San Francisco, the town on the mesa from which the trips leave for La Pintada and the other most famous caves, but it is still very possible to take the dirt road in from Bonfil to Santa Marta and visit caves from there. It's a safe drive once you get south of El Rosario..... read between the lines...
In 1984, I first ventured to Baja California to view the famous "Cave Paintings". Turns out there are zillions of um!! But I went to the Sierra de San Francisco, about half way down the peninsula, 624 miles from San Diego, 825 miles from my driveway. There I discovered beautiful rugged mountain canyons, palm oases, painted caves, and a most wonderful group of people. These folk are descendants of the Spanish gentry who helped the Padres construct and run the missions. They call themselves "Californios".
The first of the missions was put up in Loreto in 1699. Then the Jesuits made some 25 more in Baja, mostly of carved stone blocks. The Dominicans made several more of adobe before they were asked to leave. Then the Franciscans, led by Fr. Junipero Serra took over and by that time had come north to Bahia de San Diego and made 23 more missions, ending up in Monterey and Sonoma.
These industrious mountain people today have no running water, no electricity, no nothing- almost, except each other and the skills taught them by their fathers over the many generations. They wear home-made shoes of tanned goat hides, they braid rawhide ropes of cow hide, their saddles are the many-layered works of art you'll see in Spanish Museums- but very much alive and well in Baja, and they breed and use sturdy mules for mountain travel. Very few have cars, all have several mules. They make their houses of native fan palm - trunks make the supports, the walls and roofs are thatched with palm fronds. It's the 18th century at its best!
I've been going back to the little village of Santa Marta, north of San Ignacio , since 1985. This wonderful lagoon is always a welcome sight after driving through 200 miles of Vizcaino Desert!
I live with the family of Chuy Arce-Ojeda at Rancho El Sauce in the middle of the Valle de Santa Marta. Tivo, the oldest son (now 40), is my trusted friend and guide. There are 8 kids ( plus me) in "our" family; now 7 of them are married and there are 4 + 3 + 2 +2 +2 grandchildren as well. It's been fun watching the family grow up (and older) for the past 18 years! They treat me as one of their own. It's an incredible experience!
Painted caves. Who did them? Unknown. Why? Definitely unknown. How? Some of them have paintings 150 feet up under an overhang. Scaffolding? With what wood? Dunno. The paint is made of iron oxides, blood, charcoal, other interesting things. Dates are just imerging - most are 1000 to 4000 years BP (before present). The drawings are usually larger than life size (called "Great Mural Art"), of people, deer, sheep, birds, etc. The anthropomorphs of the Sierra de San Francisco are always bi-colored, red and black, and always have their hands raised like they are being held up. Sometimes the bicolor is vertical, sometimes horizontal (like having red body, black pants). Easy to tell females, they have boobs emerging from their armpits. Over the past many years, I have visited over 50 of these rock art sites in my travels with Tivo. There are 3 other mountain ranges with Great Mural Art as well, and the style is slightly different in each. In the Sierra de Guadalupe to the south, near Mulege, the people's arms are at their sides or straight out, not raised. Bodies can have stripes and spots. Interesting.
In 1990, I took a group of people with me to explore the many caves, and it occurred to one of the men that this would be an ideal place to use solar power. He and I worked up a scheme, bought parts, and went back Christmas of 1990 and installed 3 solar panels, batteries, charge controllers, and   at the ranch. WOW!! What a concept. Flick a switch, and a light works! We kept the design simple - no inverters, just 12 volt. Didn't want them running out to buy a TV (and I haven't told them that there are DC TV's). The "ranch" is many palm-thatched buildings - but now they all have lights. For lights, I use car tail lamp bulbs and solder a piece of extension cord wire to it. Then run regular romex or equivalent. At first I was using toggle switches and plastic dessert bowls for switches, but now I've replaced most of those with regular switches in blue WalMart plastic switch boxes. Just like downtown. Car lamp bulbs are only the equivalent of 25 watts, but when you put a tart-tin over it for a reflector, it's quite adequate to light up the small rooms. I put 3 lights in the kitchen area. "Oh darn," said mama, "now I can see what I'm cooking!" Before this, they had only dangerous kerosene lamps. Now they have light. What a concept.
And, since the water supply is way down a tiny trail into the arroyo, about 40 feet below the ranch, I also installed a DC water pump and hose system. But the spring water from the arroyo moves every time there is a flash flood, so I taught them how to do siphons, and sometimes they have the siphon system as much as a quarter to half mile upstream, down to a 33 gallon trash barrel water tank, and then pump it up to the mesa where the ranch is. Pretty close to having running water... Except the pump keeps clogging up or the electricity doesn't make it pump well, or something, so they mostly still bring water to the mesa 2 bucket-loads at a time. Running water - only if the bucket person runs...
So now the married kids have ranchos of their own, and kids of their own. Women move to the man's house - and Tivo has built himself a wonderful rancho 5 hrs away from El Sauce by mule for LaFita and Jesus and Luz del Carmen and Jose. His ranch has a good solar panel and running water from a line which goes 2 km up the wash; Armando built his house within the El Sauce compound. Maria Auralia cooks on a stove outside, but their neat little block house has a large bedroom for them and the 3 kids and a dining area. He has a government solar system; Patricio has built his family a block house just up the way. Concha cooks outside and their neat little house has a bedroom and a dining area. However, the water is way, way down in the arroyo. They could use a water pump!; Lucinda lives with her husband and 2 kids in Rancho San Carlos, 6 hs. away by truck. Rosa lives with her husband and 4 girls down the way a bit at Rancho Santa Marta. She and the kids visit regularly every Sunday. And Ponchito is gathering blocks to build himself a house at the ranch for his new wife.. Esmeralda is now 22 and lives at in Guerrero Negro with her husband and baby, Only Fausto is home. He helps out a lot by gathering firewood each day, and by taking care of mules and burros.
The families in these mountains raise goats - they sell goat cheese and billy goats for meat, hides for shoes and bridles; and cattle - for meat and hides for their saddles. They must buy groceries as they can grow only a few vegetables during the summer. However, everyone manages somehow - no one in the valley is hungry. If they need a bigger house, they just build one. If they need anything, they make it, (or do without.) But, again, their strength lies in family and friends - they talk with each other (as there is no TV). They communicate by Ham radio to the other ranchos. Life is hard, but good.
Anyway, all this has been so popular that EVERY ranch wants this, so each year I go down and install another system in another ranch. Have 10 of um wired now. Sometimes they pay me a bit, but mostly not. It's my charity cause. However, the government, during the last election year, made a very good deal available to those who had $50 (US)- a 1.5 amp panel, charge controller, and deep cycle 12v battery and 3 lights. Most ranchos who did not already have my system were able to scrape up $50. But the lights burned out after a year, so I'm replacing them with my tail lights - which are burning brightly still, and the batteries are tired and need replacing.
I also collect clothing from any of my friends who were headed for the Thrift Shop and take those down to the ranches. They love that - each ranch has a treadle sewing machine, and if things are torn or don't fit, they make them work. These people are the most wonderful, industrious, clever people of the 19th century!! I've learned so much from them!! And I love to ride the hills on my mule, Poche. He's well trained, does anything I ask of him, and we ride and ride, sometimes 12 hours at a time, sometimes returning home by starlight, to visit friends all over the mountains. We wear spurs which have jingles bobs which hit the large rowls. Makes music as we jog along. Especially pretty at night. And mama always has a wonderful dinner waiting for us....
Wanta go?
I can help you plan a trip to the mountains, as long as you speak some
Spanish. They speak NO English. You might be invited to eat with a
family - that's worth the whole week's trip in itself! What entertainment,
and delicious food. Not like any other you've had - lots of goat
and fresh vegetables, tortillas, beans, etc. It's GREAT, but high
in cholesterol. Oh well...
Cost depends on how much stuff you have and how long
you stay. Guides are paid about $11/day + about the same for their mule; your mule
is also about $11/day. And then there are the burros who carry all the camping stuff - you
could have 4-6 burros, depending on how much stuff. And with a party of say 5 folks, 6 burros,
you would have 4 guides and you bring their food as well. BUT - it's worth the effort!!
Also wise to either carry all your water or bring a good water filter. In any case, you'll
need water jugs because some times you don't get as far as you thought you would and
wind up camping just anywhere- and you'll need water! . It's a 1400 mile round trip from San Diego
without diversions.
For information, or to volunteer your labor in return for a whole lot of appreciation and love and an experience you will never forget, just send me e-mail!!
Some neat Baja links I've found:
Mexico on-line, commercial
info
Baja Travel, commercial
Most useful
info maintained by math professor who travels the peninsula at
least 4x per year.
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This page created 2/14/97, revised 11/11/02 and 5/09.
