We meet Phil and Russ for breakfast and walk to the fruit place near the mission. They have a big iguana keeping guard over the exotic fruit
preparations. We all have the big fruit bowl with granola, honey, and cottage cheese (50 pesos)… sprinkled with seeds of some kind… It was great on
this super humid and hot morning. We woke up to rain and the steam started rising with the sun!
After breakfast we checked out a couple shops with Phil then parted, as we wanted to see the mission and museum of the missions, next door (37 pesos
each).
After the mission of Loreto, we were off to the second California mission, at San Javier. At 10:50 am we left Loreto for San Javier.
We had toyed with the idea of going on to San Jose de Comondu mission and maybe even La Purisima mission after San Javier. But the beauty and
relaxation of Bahia Concepcion was too much of a draw to avoid and the other inland missions would have to wait for another trip!
The drive up to San Javier took us 1.5 hrs. with a lengthy stop at the rock art site at Mile 8.2.
(hand rail protects rock art)
(truck from rock art site)
(dragonfly)
Across the canyon is the old road, and above it... El Camino Real?
End of pavement at Mile 9.8
The new road goes high on the west side of the San Javier valley and looks down on the town reservoir before dropping down to town.
More pictures of the road going back down, after the mission photos.
I made some mileage notes from Hwy. 1 to San Javier:
0.0 San Javier road at Hwy. 1, exactly one mile south of the signed Loreto entrance road.
8.2 Rock art parking on left, at arroyo crossing… short walk to site.
9.8 End of pavement, good graded road continues up.
11.4 Rancho Las Parras and chapel.
16.1 Rancho Viejo, the original location of Mision San Javier (1699-1710).
17.3 Road to San Jose Comondu junction.
21.7 San Francisco Javier de Biaundo 1699-1817 The second California mission was originally founded 5 miles north, but moved here in 1710. The
church was built from 1744 to 1758, and remains as the finest preserved stone mission in Baja California. GPS: 25°51'36.9" 111°32'37.0"
We spent just a half hour at San Javier for photos (no flash inside). The caretaker would not grant my request to go up to the roof as I had done back
in 1976. See those photos on my Baja Missions web site http://vivabaja.com/missions1
[Edited on 8-1-2009 by David K]fishbuck - 7-29-2009 at 11:02 PM
Wow David, you make those boring old churches seem interesting.
Maybe your on to something here.David K - 7-29-2009 at 11:07 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by fishbuck
Wow David, you make those boring old churches seem interesting.
Maybe your on to something here.
Just think of building those places with what was avilable to use, 250 or more years ago, in Baja! No power tools! Just a few missionaries, some
craftsmen, and a bunch of Indians did all that!
It is quite something! However the mysterious ruins at Magdalena are just as interesting, but in different ways... see Day 7 when I post it to see if
that grabs you!fishbuck - 7-29-2009 at 11:14 PM
Ya that is truly amazing that they were able to build those places.Corky1 - 7-30-2009 at 11:18 AM
David,
What did they use for mortar mix back then??
Thanks for the report.
Corky805gregg - 7-30-2009 at 06:10 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Corky1
David,
What did they use for mortar mix back then??
Thanks for the report.
Corky
Cement, it's what the coliseum in Rome is made of.Pescador - 7-30-2009 at 07:50 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Corky1
David,
What did they use for mortar mix back then??
Thanks for the report.
Corky
Here is the story about the lime kilns for mortar.
