Drive from Guerrero Negro to Rice and Beans RV and San Javier Mission

        Since we could not go on the Salt Tour we left at 10:00 am rather than our planned 1:00pm time. The Salt Tour of Guerrero Negro was to view one of the largest salt production facility in the World at 7 million tons and year and 26 tons a day.  It employs many people from this area. We drove for about 3 hours to San Ignacio to the RV park.  Through the entire drive as we do on all drives, our leaders communicated with us on their radio, with the number 8 trailer giving a heads up when a vehicle wanted to pass us. The leader would then tell us if clear and then the left turn signal would be turned on by number 8. We did that with each trailer has the passing vehicle got behind us. We would wait for the all clear from lead vehicle then in succession would let the passing car know it was clear to pass. The passing vehicle would often hopscotch behind each trailer and make the way to number 1 to get around us. Mexico has an interesting system. Flashers if we were slowing to turn. Left turn signal to indicate safe to pass.             

 When we reached the Rice and Beans RV park, we had to go in by size since the park is very small and the bigger rigs had to get parked first since the smaller, our Escapes, were last. This is a booming place tonight. The restaurant Rice and Beans, like the one last night, has every window and wall surface covered with the racing teams who have been through over the years.  The restaurant is famous for its margaritas and our crew as well as the racing crews staying here tonight, sampled quite a few. There are repairs happening near us with the guys working into the night tuning and repairing after their pre runs in the last 
weeks.

The San Javier mission church was started by the Jesuits in 1786 and later completed by the Dominicans some years later. Across from the mission church is a large plaza shaded by some lovely trees. I must make a comment about the trees and shade. When in Baja you quickly learn to cover yourself from the intense sun. It may only be 90-95 degrees but feels very hot but if you have any shade it changes all. I can see why the people of this area favor cement block and adobe (adobe seems to be only seen in old ruined buildings). Trees are a joy. The few cattle feeding in the desert even stand under the cactus to escape the sun. Another aside, these tough looking cattle, who have thin bodies the size of a yearly and the head of a three or four year old, seemed to be drawn to the road and we have seen two dead at the side of road in last two days. 

This is the front panel over the altar of the church. Pieces from panel throughout Mexico were brought in and placed in the mission church. I am not sure if this is from the period during which it was built or was part of the reconstruction that occurred in the 70's. It seems many good works happened in Mexico at the time. The first major highways were constructed. Hotels were built along the highways by the government to encourage tourism. That was also the time the airstrip was built and paved at our last stay. It some cases, it seemed some of that push has faltered over time. Forgive the writer for the need on this political knowledge. 

The square in front of the church drew everyone along with the people of the town. From left to right, Bill, Dave, Kurt, Ruth, and Euclid, all our hearty Canadians. A boy on a fancy trike was doing wheelies as his sister watched and the neighborhood dogs joined us. All the dogs well cared for, just roam like the town is theirs to patrol. Way behind Dave in blue, you can see the pink building in the distance. It is the Ice Cream shop and featured date shakes since this is a date oasis thanks to the mission priests who brought them to the area. 

This map showing the route of the Baja 1000 was in the Ice Cream shop. This town is the heart of the race route and the race is part of it's economic life blood. 

This is just a corner of the walls in the Ice Cream shop. All the motels and RV parks welcome racers. 

This is a view from our front door this morning, these guys are headed from Ensanada for a Wednesday start. We wished them the best!