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gueribo
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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.
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gueribo
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The arroyo has water all year round. From his perch on a cardón, a brilliant white grulla (crane) watched us pass by.
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gueribo
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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.
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gueribo
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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.
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gueribo
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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.
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gueribo
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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]
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gueribo
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A comparison between 1950s and today:
A view looking back toward the now-collapsed doorway.
[Edited on 2-2-2019 by gueribo]
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gueribo
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The wall of the back room contains a niche for a bulto (saint statue).
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gueribo
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The arched doorway between the rooms.
Nearby, there’s a large troje (granary) for the storage of animal feed:
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gueribo
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And a sturdy stone corral. Pretty impressive for 250 years old.
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gueribo
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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).
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gueribo
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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.
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gueribo
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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.
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gueribo
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Headed back to town, and sad to leave the backcountry loveliness. Tomorrow . . . Mulegé and the Prison Without Doors.
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David K
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More on La Presentación...
Wonderful report and photos! Thank you, Gueribo!!!
==========================================================
It was a sad moment when a Nomad (Tehag) first reported that the doorway of this visita, so often photographed, had collapsed, around 2008.
I have a web page for La Presentación with 5 photos taken between 1906 and 2009: http://vivabaja.com/missions3/page3.html
Yes, Arthur North (Mother of California, c1908 & Camp and Camino in Lower California, c1910) was here in 1906 and thought it was so elaborate it
must have been the first location for Mission San Javier... which really was 5 miles north of the final location (today's Rancho Viejo, with no ruins
to see).
Following a post on Nomad, 'Tehag' sent me his photos taken in 2008, and they are added to this thread with the older photos, some of which Gueribo
showed us above: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=37068
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fishbuck
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That is very cool. Way out there Baja.
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
"Life's a Beach... and then you Fly!" Fishbuck
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4x4abc
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thank you for making me revisit La Presentacion
in the process I discovered something new
something so revolutionary that it needs a separate book
Harald Pietschmann
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TMW
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More excellent stuff from the back country. Thanks
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David K
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See La Presentación on the Lower California Guidebook map (1962):
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advrider
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Another amazing trip report!
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