Drive to Los Barriles through El Triunfo 11.28

     Today we had an early start with full black and grey water tanks after 4 days at Tecolote playa. This may be more than you want to know but a fact of life with dry camping. We had also shorted ourselves on sanitary water (water from Mexican lines) used for everything except drinking and cooking. We all carry separate purified water for those uses. Liz and Bill since they have the Class  A rig were concerned, as were we all, with the sloppy conditions caused on the beach from the heavy rain we had two days before. They were first out, giving their beautiful RV lots of speed so they did not bog down in the slippery conditions. We all followed in our order, forming the caravan, and all made it out successfully. As were leaving the beach, we saw no less than 7 stray beach dogs, mostly large, who were coming out of the dunes headed to the small restaurants and  rental places along the beach. They are always looking for food but are usually friendly and timid. The people who own the small business are frustrated by people from La Paz who come out and dump their poor dogs on the beach, leaving them to uncertain fate. All of us managed to feed these guys they know how to work us with these sad looks. 

     We drove back through the edge of La Paz and then over the mountains, ultimately to Los Barriles but on the way we stopped at an old restored gold and silver mining town of El Triunfo. It is an a town that remains largely a cooperative. The town itself owns the old mines, though they have the right to sell land to their coop members. 

This picture shows the base of the round tower and a part remaining of the smelting process. 

          The Mexican government and historical societies have worked in the last 20 years to rebuild the historic smoke stacks which date from the 1850’s. 

       The stacks one round and all of bricks is rumored to be designed by Effel of the famed Effel tower in France. The other stack is square and quite remarkable. 

        We enjoyed a lunch at Cafe El Triunfo which had a very good breads which they bake in the own bakery ovens, one of which is a wood fired pizza and bread oven. Many of us bought fresh bread as we left. As we finished, we had a drawing to see in what order we would go into the next park in Los Barriles.

       The Playa Norte RV park which has a limited number with ocean views. George and Mary were so excited that they were number 1, followed by Liz and Bill with their RV. Since, in our caravan, George and Mary are normally number 7 and Liz and Bill are number 8, this was special. Being at the end of the caravan, those of us upfront often end of with first choices, though sometimes, assignments are made by the size of the rig and how we can fit in a space. 

     The day ended with Darlene and Dave hosting a margarita party. Some of us, including this writer, found out that certain Margaritas are referred to as “deadly” go down very easily and it is easy to over imbibe. Good thing home was a few spaces down and no driving was involved. The gather was overlooking the beach and even our dogs joined us. When the dancing started, Tucker danced in his own way. 

This is the unusual square tower.