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Day 5, Feb. 27, 2001

San Ignacio Lagoon to San Ignacio (42.9 miles dirt; 1 hour)
San Ignacio to Santa Rosalia (48.2 miles; 1.5 hours)

We returned to the La Pinta in San Ignacio just as it looked about to rain. It had already been a full day and a half since I'd had a shower, so even though it was hard to leave the whales I was sort of glad to get back to the hotel. The thought of using a sun shower on a sunless day gave me chills to the bone. All three of us said we were going to take hour-long hot showers at the La Pinta. It seemed so luxurious, this room with no phone, a broken heater/air conditioner on the wall, and stark fluorescent lights in the bathroom. It had electricity and plenty of hot water 24/7.

We ate lunch, and took pictures of the pretty chapel in back of the La Pinta. It's a very religious place for a hotel. Perhaps people get married here, or hold other religious ceremonies. I wonder if it competes with the Mission. Well, I can only muse because I didn't ask anybody.

After lunch we drove to Santa Rosalia, which is across the Peninsula on the Sea of Cortez. It was the only city along Highway 1 in Baja that Dad hadn't been to. I also wanted to see it. Dad had read that it was an industrial-looking city, and not that attractive, because of its mining past. Along the waterfront the old warehouse buildings still stand, but they still have a charm because of their age. Right off the side of the road into town you could see into old mine shafts that didn't appear to be blocked off.

Once we pulled into the town, however, I had a real sense of deja vu. It looked so much like this port city called Roseau in Dominica, a small but beautiful island in the Caribbean. I found out later that this town, like Roseau in Dominica, was founded by the French, and that explains the quaint and picturesque construction. I love Baja architecture, but this city has a tropical flair that definitely seems different. In fact, many of the people in Santa Rosalia have the surname Roseau. So I am going to have to do some research on this Roseau chap!

Santa Rosalia has preserved much of its past, including an old locomotive on display at the entrance to the town. I wish I'd had time to see more or learn more, but it was a city I'd definitely like to return to. The locals we talked to were very friendly. We visited a church built entirely of steel by Eiffel himself. Dad says it arrived in Santa Rosalia by some kind of mistake. The historic St. Francis Hotel sounds great, though we didn't see it. We did find an ATM that seemed to work sporadically (as long as a teller was restocking it with cash in between customers), and that was a huge help. We hadn't anticipated how much more expensive everything would be. Prices have definitely gone up on the peninsula, but we all agreed that it's a good thing. Tourists can afford it, even though it's not the bargain it used to be. But the people who come to the places we have been will be coming because they love it, not because it's a dirt cheap alternative to Hawaii.

We returned to San Ignacio with yet another lovely day under our belts. We ate a dinner of fresh fish, tortilla chips, rice, beans and salad. Jesse bought an entire fish dinner for a poor female dog with rotweiler markings who had a broken leg. We had seen her before her accident, and now she was sleeping in the entryway to the hotel, but looking like she might not make it. You just can't let yourself think too much about the dogs here. They seem so expendable. Jess paid the hotel clerk $20 in pesos and she promised to keep feeding the dog every day after we left, until the money ran out. I wonder if they think we are crazy. But they obviously feel something for the dog, because they let her sleep in the hotel. I imagine they could go the other way and shoo the dog out because they don't want it to upset the queasy American tourists. It seems more an attitude of "live and let live," but people just don't have the money to take all the hurt dogs to the vet. Which I totally understand. It costs a fortune to take pets to the vet, even at home.