Gueribo Trip Report #5: La Presentación

From Mission San Javier, we took the rutted dirt road out of town toward Rancho Santo Domingo. There, we would meet Humberto Verdugo, the caretaker of La Presentación, a mission-era visita.

I love Baja back roads. The drive itself was worth the trip, crossing shallow water-filled arroyos and winding between high mesas.



Along the way, we passed Santo Cristo del Camino.



And spied a shrine in the rockface.

The arroyo has water all year round. From his perch on a cardón, a brilliant white grulla (crane) watched us pass by.

About ten miles past San Javier, we reached Humberto’s ranch, a tidy and beautifully situated place. Humberto welcomes people to camp there, and he has shower buildings and a big palapa hangout space for visitors. Humberto can guide you to nearby cave paintings and the visita of La Presentación. He still ranches, but now makes his living primarily by guiding visitors. Some of the historic ruins do require guides—and it’s great to know them, glean from their knowledge, and support their livelihood.

It’s possible to walk the arroyo to the ruins, but because it was already late in the day, we climbed into Humberto’s truck—a workhorse if ever I’ve seen one. It was a great boulder-crawler.

The first view of the ruins looks like a rockpile, with the main entrance now collapsed. The visita was abandoned in 1817, after disease had decimated the native population.




The chapel contains two rooms—a space for the sanctuary and altar, and the back room most likely as a sacristy and living quarters for visiting priests. The inside wall is flush, with remnants of mortar and plaster still holding. There’s quite a bit of volcanic, pumice-like rock here—some of the larger stones are so porous that they hardly weigh anything. There’s a fragile arched doorway connecting the two rooms. I don’t expect that this arch will last much longer.

La Presentación was built in 1769 by the Franciscans, who had a very brief stay on the peninsula before handing off Baja to the Dominicans and hurrying to Alta California, which was much more fertile.

Arthur North passed this site in his travels in 1906. He writes, “Half a league further I discovered in a thicket of brush and cacti, just off the camino, the ruins of an extremely ancient mission. The iglesia had been well constructed of cut stone and its walls were still standing. Near at hand were the remains of other buildings made of rough stone; also, and in excellent state of preservation, a magnificent cistern 70 feet square and 6 feet in depth, and a large corral with high substantial stone walls.” North mistakenly thought the visita was the oldest mission church in the Californias.



[Edited on 2-2-2019 by gueribo]

A comparison between 1950s and today:



A view looking back toward the now-collapsed doorway.



[Edited on 2-2-2019 by gueribo]

The wall of the back room contains a niche for a bulto (saint statue).

The arched doorway between the rooms.



Nearby, there’s a large troje (granary) for the storage of animal feed:

And a sturdy stone corral. Pretty impressive for 250 years old.

But the most impressive remnant is the pila (reservoir) that North mentions above. It’s 70x70 feet, and six feet deep. It reminds me of a swimming pool, with stone steps leading down.



Here’s Humberto beside one of the stairways (and spillway).

Pottery shards lay all around the site. The place looks a bit trampled, as camping was once allowed around the chapel.



On Google Earth, the site is quite visible. You can see the clear rectangular shape of the chapel, the nearby stone corral, and the distinct square of the pila.

We climbed back into Humberto’s truck and boulder-crawled our way back to the ranch, sharing a little joke: What’s the best car for driving rough Baja roads? Someone else’s car!

Humberto said that in the beginning, guiding visitors was exhausting. He speaks very little English, and felt a lot of anxiety trying to communicate. But now, he loves meeting visitors and sharing the history of this remote place. His nephew hopes to learn how to guide visitors, but Humberto says it’s not as easy as it looks—and he’s encouraging his nephew to stay in school.

Humberto asked, as we got ready to leave, that we tell folks that he loves visitors and is happy to show people the history of the area. His fee is quite reasonable, and well worth the journey.

Headed back to town, and sad to leave the backcountry loveliness. Tomorrow . . . Mulegé and the Prison Without Doors.

More on La Presentación...

See La Presentación on the Lower California Guidebook map (1962):

Bumping this up to add one more photo of La Presentación that I recently found. Marquis McDonald c. 1950:

if anyone is going to see La Presentacion in the near future - I recently found what looks like a large man made structure (maybe a Muralla) between the church and the Attoyo
go check it out for us - please

Here's a side-by-side--from 1950 and 2019. That poor little cholla in the doorway chose the wrong place to grow!

Quote: Originally posted by shari

thanks for sharing this wonderful gem with us...these are the Baja places that more people should see and experience.

Harald, you are right!

I was at La Presentación last week and there is a giant dike about 300 meters (~1,000 feet) long and about 2.5 meters (~7.5 feet) high that runs between the arroyo and the visita site. Humberto said it was ordered built by the missionaries in order to protect the chapel and the fields during flash floods. He said there are records somewhere that discuss the building of the muralla and that it was built in 2 years. He and I both agreed that it would have been a Herculean task for the natives to build this wall. The boulders are huge and some split perfectly in half to make the wall.

I encourage everyone who visits to hire Humberto as a guide. He is great and very knowledgeable. He is the de facto caretaker for this site and he makes sure it is kept clean and not vandalized. He charged only 200 pesos for the tour (I gave him 500). He was very nice and gracious. I look forward to going back and having him show me the cave paintings in the area.