Sorry You Couldn't Come Along

Loreto Mission

The Loreto Mission, having been built in 1697, was in complete ruins. The parish priest long dreamed of reconstructing it and promised in his prayers that if he played and won the lottery he would use the money to rebuild the Mission. Obviously, he won. He also kept his promise to God. He kept asking the authorities in Mexico City to share the Mission’s plans from the archives of Jesuit records so that it could be faithfully reconstructed. They never responded. So, he proceeded to reconstruct the Mission the best he knew how, including the common feature of a bell tower. Once construction was completed, the authorities notified the priest that the newfound source of town pride must be demolished because the original Mission did not have a bell tower. However, the indignant community worked together to overturn the demolition order.

A local shopkeeper invited us to go up on the roof of his building to get a good photograph of the Mission. Glad we took him up on it. It’s the bell tower that makes it beautiful.

San Javier Mission

In 1699 the Jesuits founded their second mission in Baja California, San Javier.

When the Jesuits arrived, the indigenous people (the Cochimies in the area of this Mission) were hunter gatherers with a Stone Age lifestyle. The Jesuits located their Missions where water was available for agriculture and started growing the crops important to them, namely figs, dates, olives, grapes, wheat, barley and pomegranate. They then recruited the native people as a labor force for both agriculture and for building the Mission itself, with the understanding that to be part of the agricultural age they must give up their traditional lifestyle and become part of the Mission community.

These alter pieces from Spain are 300+ years old, according to a friendly man from town.

This very old olive tree survives from what had been the Jesuit’s orchard. People from the community use the grounds to grow a number of crops and take advantage of the water reservoir that’s been long established.

Santa Rosalia de Mulegé Mission

Founded in 1705, construction began in 1766. The native population dropped precipitously during the mission years, from 40 to 50,000 people on the peninsula to 2,000 due to European infectious diseases.

San Ignacio Mission

Once again, the Jesuits founded (in 1728) a Mission in a favorable location at an oasis in this largely desert peninsula where the native inhabitants were close at hand to be proselytized and recruited to the work of the Mission. In addition to being quite well preserved, a distinction of San Ignacio is that it bears the traces not only of Jesuit architecture, but of the successor religious orders which took on the Missions after the Jesuits were evicted by the Spanish government around 1768 (accused of accumulating wealth and power, not without basis).

When the Franciscan Order took over the Jesuit Missions of Baja California, they added their own touches such as this statuary representation of a Franciscan wearing the rough garment and cord around the waist adopted by St. Francis when he took his vow of poverty. Of course, poverty does not preclude vanity.

The Dominican Order took over this particular Mission after the Franciscans lost interest and added the distinctively shaped structures on the roof line (or so we were told). However, the Dominicans were not new to Baja, having arrived in 1722. The Missionary Era ended in 1843.

One of the most unusual ecotourist attractions of the Baja Peninsula is the opportunity to encounter Gray Whales, up close and in small boats.

Gray Whales are bottom feeding baleen whales sometimes referred to as “mud suckers” because they take in a great mouthful of bottom mud and express the water with their enormous tongues through the baleen. An adult is roughly 45’ long and 35 tons, living up to at least 70 years. They feed in the Arctic, but breed in the lagoons of Baja California and spend most of their lives migrating back and forth. The population along the western coast of North America is stable and healthy at about 27,000 individuals, although they are extinct in the Atlantic.

The first day out was in the lagoon of Guerrero Negro on a very blustery day. It had been a somewhat rough van ride out on dirt roads and then one of those thud-thud-thud rides out to the area of the lagoon in which whale encounters are permitted under tightly controlled conditions. An association is run by the outfitters to facilitate this small tourist industry consistent with protecting the whales.

The big payoff for us was when Amanda got to “say hello” to one of the whales. We, of course, attributed it to our wonderful job of singing and whistling and splashing water to encourage the whales to come to the boat. This curious “friendly behavior” (by the whales) was accidentally discovered some years ago by a terrified fisherman. Before that, people referred to the whales as “devil fish” because of the many lives lost in whaling days when the whales resorted to self defense. Given the extreme ages to which some whales are known to live, we were hoping that we wouldn’t encounter a methuselah with a long memory.

The whales will scrape their backs against the sea floor apparently in an attempt to dislodge barnacles and sea lice. We’ve now learned that they appreciate a good scratching on their skin, something only humans can help with.

The next day was a gorgeous one with very little wind, making for a smoother time on the water. San Ignacio Lagoon is considerably smaller than Guerrero Negro and is where the history of whale encounters began.

Try as we might, we only got close to the whales and didn’t establish contact on our second day out. But, we did come home with some exceptional memories of some extraordinary fellow creatures.

We hadn’t appreciated just how much food is grown in Baja California. We passed vast fields of produce wedged among the ever present mountains. Speculation about why this field (above) was allowed to go to seed ranged from it being a field meant to produce seed to wondering if a contract for the crop had somehow fallen through. The truly surprising thing, however, was that the white in the background of the photo isn’t a body of water. It’s crops being grown under cover. Again, mile after mile we passed extensive fields of white, of white tents overstuffed with growing plants.

The farming community of San Vicente has a little museum. Many community members contributed the artifacts that said something about the lives of their families. The history of the iron pieced together from what was left from everyone’s grandmothers and great grandmothers reminded Jim of the row of irons left behind by his grandmother in her summer kitchen, including the ones that fit into the surface of the wood burning stove.

La Bufadora

Being a surfer, Hiroki was very helpful in letting us know when the next series of big waves would rush the shore and push water deep into the rocks and up and out in a big water spout. It’s one of the largest marine geysers in North America. Vendors line the road to the sea spout like the way to a religious shrine, selling all sorts of food and souvenirs.

The Sonoran (?) Desert

It seems odd to call it the Sonoran Desert when half of the desert lies in the states of the Baja Peninsula, but it has no other name except “the desert.”

The desert in Baja is, we’re told, the most biodiverse in the world. This is not difficult to believe. The variety of plant life is startling. Each time we entered the desert we would see communities of plants of every description, many of them exotic even for desert plants. From the Elephant Tree, the Cardón, and Boojum Tree (Cirio) to the Ocotillo, there are plants found nowhere else.

The Boojum Tree (above, far right) has a double literary inheritance. An American naturalist was camping in the desert with his son who had been reading Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark,” a tale of people hunting a Snark (which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum). The fantastical and creepily sinister look of the Cirio plant apparently caused the son to keep referring to the plants as Boojum, a name that stuck. And, of course, anyone who sees a Boojum Tree thinks of Dr. Seuss. It’s that simple. What’s not simple is tracking down any confirmation of the story we heard that Dr. Seuss, in fact, was a visitor to the peninsula and that the trees were an inspiration for some of his illustrations. If it’s not true, that would be sad, don’t you think?

The Cholla is one of the more dangerous plants in the desert, as it seems to attack passersby without provocation. Not only will the slightest touch will embed a barbed thorn, but the plant seems to spread by the segments that break off very easily and start more little devils growing in a path.

Cave Paintings

On a rainy day we climbed through the rocks up to one of the more accessible caves with Paleolithic paintings. Other caves with paintings +/- 9,000 years old can be seen, but take a day to get to through very rough terrain and a day to return, making it a three day commitment.

The estimated age of these paintings is 700-1,000 years. The pigments used are not local to the area of the cave. They aren’t as well rendered or nearly as large as older Baja California cave paintings, but did remind us of some of the very old cave paintings in Spain.

When we arrived in Ensenada, we followed Angel’s recommendation (San Diego Uber driver) and took an Uber about 4 miles from our hotel down the coast road to a restaurant overlooking the ocean, instead of using the vouchers for the hotel restaurant. If you come for the food, you have to take the chances you get to sample it. After our order was taken, another waiter came over to explain that our original waiter really hadn’t understood what we wanted to eat and he would help us (nonexistent Spanish only getting us so far). The portions were generous, so we had ordered too much food (and the new waiter kept us from ordering even more). The seviche was the highlight, followed by octopus and smoked tuna tacos. Everything was delicious and Jim really enjoyed his stuffed fish filets with three different sauces. The staff were disappointed we refused a doggie bag, as were our mates from the tour when we got back to the hotel and described our dinner.

Down the coast from Tijuana, Ensenada is a town of about 500,000 frequented by large cruise ships. In fact, it has a history of being a playground for wealthy Americans. The former Riviera del Pacifico casino is now a city-owned social and convention center. It was quite glamorous back in the 1920s and 30s when the Hollywood set came to play and the boxer Jack Dempsey was the manager. Rumors that it was owned by Al Capone were never confirmed. As you can see in the old photo, the casino used to sit right on a beautiful wide beach. Now it is several blocks from the water and there’s no beach, as a harbor was built instead.

When the casino fell on hard times and closed, the property was abandoned and became derelict. Thieves scavenged almost anything of value. The lone chandelier to survive that humiliation was this one. The thieves couldn’t get it through the doorways because it had been fabricated on site.

Our guide Hiroshi (native Ensenadan) used a topographical map at the social center to explain our trip down the peninsula, 700 miles as the crow flies (but we’re taking a bus). The lagoons we’ll be visiting to see the Gray Whales are primarily on the Pacific side.

From Encenada we went out to the wine country.

We visited two wineries. One small, the other midsized. The ambiance was enjoyable, the wines not as much. We all have different preferences (thank goodness).

Among the settlers in the Guadalupe Valley was a colony of Russians who considered themselves to be Spiritual Christians and who were called Molokans or milk drinkers by their Orthodox neighbors (they consumed dairy products during Christian fasting periods). Somewhat more than 100 of the families who fled persecution around 1900 and began farming in the valley.

The Molokans rejected the formalities and institutional structure of organized religions, focused on a spiritual and individualized practice of religion and elected their own councils of leaders. Their descendants in the valley have retained artifacts and mementos and family names, although none of the religious practice. But, they still make borscht. In the shop next door they were selling cheeses.

Among the gifts of the Native Peoples of Mexico to the culinary world is the cacao plant and its many uses.

Two operations were demonstrated. One was the making of mole from grinding sesame seeds, a pulp of several chiles, raisins, almonds, and chocolate. The other was a chocolate drink made by first grinding the cacao bean itself (removing the husk) and adding sugar and spice. The wrist action was truly impressive using the traditional metate. However, our expert uses a blender for everyday cooking.

Prior to heading across the border to Tijuana, Dr. Iglesias spoke with us about the border as a coherent region in which the fact of the border is the driving force in the lives of many regional residents. The imbalance in resources creates a dynamic in which the Tijuana residents adapt to provide the San Diego residents with the goods and services they desire, with hundreds of thousands of people crossing the border in either direction daily. While most academics study the border region either from the perspective of the U.S. or of Mexico, Iglesias calls herself a trans border specialist and strives to understand the border from the perspective of both cultures. Indeed, the integration of the border region is striking even from our brief visit. Although one of our Uber drivers was from Ukraine, more were from Mexico and one was from Ensenada (where we would be visiting). This last driver has started his own tourism company and gave us a restaurant recommendation in Ensenda (which turned out to be excellent).

Once over the border, past the imposing steel barrier and cleared land sealed off with another imposing steel barrier, we made our way to a market in Tijuana to enjoy the sights and smells of fresh produce and wonders for us to try to identify.

Another key to understanding the border is that Tijuana and Baja California are melting pots of peoples and cultures, with immigrants coming from all over the world, from the Chinese and Japanese to Germans and Italians or, more recently, Haitians. People are not just refugees, but also come for the more sophisticated enterprises funded by foreign companies.

After a lunch featuring a Caesar Salad from the restaurant originating the same (Caesar’s Restaurant), we went to the Tijuana Cultural Center and the Museo de las Californias to view the permanent exhibits on the history of the entire peninsula from prehistoric through modern times.

Balboa Park

San Diego’s Balboa Park was created from the infrastructure built for two expositions, the Panama-California Exposition of 1915-16 and the California Pacific International Exposition of 1935-36 and includes over 15 museums, plus the zoo.

It’s a wonderful place for strolling, but must be packed during tourist season. The buildings are wonderful examples of Spanish style architecture.

The Spanish Village Art Center is a funky complex with 37 working studios representing over 250 local artists. We chatted for quite a while with a silversmith who is obsessed with all the different weaves one might use for silver chains. She learned her craft from a Native American custodian at her public school in Wyoming when she refused to continue taking Home Ec.

This Moreton Bay Fig tree was planted sometime before the first of those expositions and its canopy is roughly 150’ across. For understandable reasons, they’ve put a fence around it to help it survive for another hundred years.

The Waterfront & the USS Midway

After wandering the Gaslight District and Downtown, we knew we had to make our way to the waterfront before leaving San Diego.

Commissioned one week after the end of WWII, the USS Midway was the largest ship in the world until 1955. It saw action in the Vietnam War and Desert Storm and was decommissioned in 1992. Its home port was Yokosuka, Japan, and was too large to go through the Panama Canal. In 2004 it was brought San Diego and became a privately run museum.

Fortunately, there were tours and helpful volunteers (all retired Navy) to explain how this thing worked. On the left are the steam engine room controls that determine the power going to the propellers, whether the power source is diesel (this ship) or nuclear. In the photo to the right, the controls left of center are the fine tuning for speed. Make no mistake. This thing could move. In fact, you could waterski behind it.

We took a tour of the Island, which is the structure on the flight deck with both the navigational controls and the operations center for takeoff and landing of the aircraft. On the left, you can see the Launch Status Board which was maintained with a marker on glass, writing backwards so that the officers in charge of flight operations would always have current information available to them.

At launch with the use of a catapult, the plane would go from zero mph to 170 mph in 3 seconds, or less. Planes were launched every 90 seconds. The Corsair fighter plane was a workhorse of WWII (would not have been on the Midway).

To say that the San Diego Zoo is a special zoo is like saying that the MET is a special art museum. All comparison fails. For one thing, everything opens just a little earlier than promised. Having just arrived from the east coast, we arrived before opening time and found ourselves among the first visitors and spectators for what’s apparently the daily release of the macaws to take their stations around the 100 acres of zoo.

There’s What You Expect

San Diego has plenty of what you expect to find in a zoo, only they are more visible and accessible and in generously sized enclosures that can make you forget that they are in captivity.

Conservation at the Heart of the Zoo

One of the best known (tentative) successes of the rescue of species from almost certain extinction is that of the California Condor. They were extinct in the wild in 1987 when the remaining 27 individuals were rescued and brought into the San Diego and Los Angeles Zoos. In 1991 they were reintroduced to the wild and remain one of the world’s rarest bird species with 463 individuals either in the wild or in captivity. The infamous use of DDT, lead poisoning from consuming wild carrion (the condor being, of course, a scavenger), and electrocution from landing on power lines are among the causes leading to the critically endangered status of this largest bird of North America that can otherwise have a life span of 60 years.

The critically endangered Amur Leopard comes from a small area overlapping Russia, China and North Korea and benefits from another conservation effort in which the San Diego Zoo takes part by breeding this world’s rarest big cat for eventual return to the wild. The Chinese and Russians have both set aside substantial acreage, although it’s expected that it will be the grandchildren of a pair of two year old cubs born at the zoo who will join the effort. The population needs to be large enough that breeding in the wild can occur with individuals not overly related.

The Snow Leopard, from Central Asia, is also endangered and, along with the Amur Leopard, is unusual in being a Leopard from a cold climate. As part of its adaptation to the cold, the Snow Leopard has an enormous thick tail with which to curl up and which helps with balance in its rocky environment. This couple (they’re hoping they’ll breed) had to be moved away from the Amur Leopards after the birth of the Amur cubs because they found the scent to be wildly disturbing.

Okapi are endangered in the forests of the Congo due primarily to the hunting, logging, farming and mining by armed rebels.

From the beaches and coastal waters of Southern Africa, these penguins are endangered due a a lack of food resources and appropriate nesting areas (a common problem with bird species).

These endangered Coquerel’s Sifaka from the dry forests of Madagascar are fascinated by their visitors.

In 2016 the Giant Panda was reclassified from being Endangered to a “Conservation-Reliant Vulnerable Species.” Of course, they’re adorable and a big attraction in the few zoos permitted by the Chinese government to breed them.

We all know the story of the vulnerability of the Polar Bear due to expected habitat loss from climate change. These bears were rescued from the wild when they were orphaned. They have a special low fat diet to accommodate them to the climate in San Diego where lots of body fat would make the heat a problem. They’ve come to enjoy lettuce and hard boiled eggs as treats. Conception is a puzzle the zoo is still trying to unravel.

More than a Zoo

The zoo not only creates a natural environment for its animal guests, but grows the specific plants required for the dietary needs of the animals such as particular varieties of bamboo that no other animal may eat.

The docents also make the zoo a unique experience.

A large number of enormous aviaries are throughout the zoo, many of which you enter to experience the birds.

Whether endangered or not, some animals are just fun to watch.

Having enjoyed our National Parks trip (Yellowstone, Teton, etc.) 6 years ago, we signed up in January for a New York Times sponsored trip to the canyons of Utah and Arizona to take place in September. In April, Jim suffered from a debilitating physical condition that necessitated cancelling a May trip to China. In June, with the final payment date for the Canyon trip approaching, although much improved, it did not seem prudent for Jim to go on what the itinerary described as a strenuous trip. He graciously agreed to let me go and for son Ken to be his surrogate. Photos are courtesy of Ken.

Our trip started in Las Vegas. Here we are at the “Grand Canal” at The Venetian. Over a dinner of tapas, we met the other participants, the tour leaders and the New York Times Expert, Jim Robbins. Jim has written for the NYTimes for over 35 years, mostly on science and environmental issues. He also wrote for The Christian Science Monitor. In addition, he has done research on the polygamist groups of the Mormon Church. His commentary and lectures during the trip were informative and fascinating.

Through the Mojave Desert and on to Zion National Park.

We left the glitter of Las Vegas and traveled through the Mojave Desert with its Joshua Trees dotting the landscape. A stop in a park for lunch and introductions before we reached Zion. Zion became a national park in 1919. It is characterized by its sheer multicolored walls of sandstone narrow canyons and the Virgin River which runs through them. We hiked the Riverside Walk which follows the Virgin River to the narrows, a spot where the canyon walls come close enough to the river to necessitate continuing in the water, we turned back at this point. Along the way we saw hanging gardens, plants holding on to the sides of the canyon walls. Night in Springdale.

Zion Day 2

After breakfast at the Zion Lodge, we hiked the Emerald Pools Trail, a wooded hike that leads to a waterfall and the lower Emerald Pool. The path ended where it had been washed out by a flash flood in July of this year. Flash floods, occurring mostly during monsoon season (July and August) turn the calm Virgin River into a raging force.

On the way to Bryce.

We made our way to Bryce National Park passing through some spectacular scenery, saw Smokey and heard a lecture by Jim Robbins over lunch.

What’s a HooDoo?

Bryce Canyon is not a canyon, but rather a collection of natural amphitheaters.  It  became a National Park in 1928. The HooDoos are the geological structures that fill the amphitheaters. The towers of rocks were formed by years of wind and water erosion that carved away some of the rock. The word hoodoo may come from voodoo and the legend told by the Ancestral Puebloans that a powerful Coyote turned some evil people into stone. Either way, the resulting structures are spectacular. Bryce Canyon got its name from an early Mormon pioneer named Ebenezer Bryce who described the canyon as “a helluva place to loose a cow” Our hike down into the HooDoos included passing through “Wall Street” with its 200 foot tall cliffs and a sighting of “Queen Victoria.’

Sunrise Over the HooDoos.

We ventured out early, in the dark to catch the first glimpses of the sun as it lit up Bryce Canyon. Definitely worth braving the chilly morning air.

Grand Staircase-Ecalante National Monument.

Bill Clinton designated this area, nearly 1.9 million acres a national monument in 1996. In 2017, it was reduced to 1 million acres by presidential proclamation It was the last land to be mapped in the contiguous United States. It is a mostly undeveloped area of canyons, mesas, plateaus and river valleys.  Another lecture along the way. Ken and I opted for the more challenging Lower Calf Creek Falls Hike through a canyon to a waterfall. We were rewarded for our efforts, trudging through sand, with the spectacular waterfall. Ken took a swim.

Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon.

Leaving the HooDoos behind after another spectacular sunrise, we made our way to Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1966 and is named for the canyon flooded by the Lake Powell reservoir. Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who led the first boat expedition of the Grand Canyon in 1869. This was after he lost an arm to a cannonball in the Battle of Shiloh. Glen Canyon Dam was built to ensure equal water rights to the Upper Basin (Colorado, Wyoming, and most of New Mexico and Utah) and the Lower Basin (California, Nevada and most of Arizona). Unfortunately, with the prolonged drought in the area, there are concerns about the ability of the reservoir to meet the needs of agriculture and cities dependent on the Colorado River for water. The talk given by Jim Robbins at this stop gave a somewhat bleak outlook for the situation. Lake Powell, our evening destination is a popular recreation area, especially with boaters.

After lunch, we headed to the town of Page, Arizona where, after a brief visit to the Powell Museum, we took a tour of the Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Reservation. The Navajo name for the Canyon translates into “the place where water runs through rocks,” which is fitting since flash floods in the monsoon season carved away the sandstone in the slot canyon. To get to the Canyon you must take a tour organized by Native Americans. We climbed into the back of a pick-up truck fitted with bench seats holding 6 or 7 on a side. There were three seatbelts on each side which the driver explained was to keep the passengers from standing up and getting bounced out. Bounce was an understatement. We arrived at a clearing before an entrance to the Canyon (along with hundreds of other tourists). Our guide Nate set everyone’s phone or camera to the best setting to capture the beautiful colors. Supposedly, the highest price ever paid for a photograph, $6.5 million, was one taken in the Canyon in 2014.

A side note about time zones: Our hotel on Lake Powell was in Page, Arizona and was on Mountain Standard Time, the nearby Navajo Reservation was on Mountain Daylight Time, so our electronic devices, depending on which cell tower they were picking up, could display different times even when situated next to each other.

On our way to the Grand Canyon.

Our first stop was Horseshoe Bend in Glen Canyon, a widely photographed area where the Colorado River makes a sharp turn around a sandstone escarpment. I understand the railings were a recent addition – yikes! The view was spectacular.

We made a brief stop at Cameron Trading Post, open since 1916. A wide offering from trinkets to exquisite weaving, but nothing to tempt us.

Wow! It’s the first word that comes to mind when you see the Grand Canyon. I had visited the Grand Canyon in 1980 with my brother and I remembered that it was beautiful and that it snowed in May. The Grand Canyon was designated a National Monument in 1908 and a National Park in 1919 by an act of Congress. It is 277 river miles long, roughly 4,000 feet deep and on average, 10 miles across.

After lunch which included a serenade by one of the enormous ravens, we explored the south rim, where our hotel, The Thunderbird Lodge was located. Our group began a hike down the Bright Angel Trail, but many turned back deciding that the trail edge was too daunting. We explored the Kolb Studio, where there was an exhibit of plein air paintings created as a part of a special celebration of art event. Many of the buildings on the South Rim were designed by Mary Colter early in the 20th century.

After dinner, Ken and I explored the trail leading to Hermits Rest.

Grand Canyon Day Two.

We started out the day with a guided walk on The Trail of Time, led by a geologist from the Grand Canyon Field Institute. The Trail of Time is an interpretive path representing one billion years of time and the corresponding geological timeline.

After we collected our hiker’s lunches, the group split up into the ambitious, less ambitious, and non-ambitious. Ken, of course, was in the ambitious group (2 plus guide) who went to walk part of the South Kaibab Trail. As the guide was leaving he asked if it was okay to take pictures of Ken doing dangerous things – what’s a mother to say? From the guidebook description “the trail travels on ridge lines with expansive views.” Ken descended 1 1/2 miles or 1,500 vertical feet, had lunch, did some dangerous stuff, and hiked back out. His pictures are below.

I opted for the less ambitious outing which included taking the bus to the Hermits Rest to enjoy the views and a short hike to one of the other lookout points. I then headed back to the hotel where I ran into Ken. We then headed out to the Abyss with our watercolors. The Abyss is a lookout point where the canyon walls drop 2,600 feet, once again providing a spectacular view.

Last Day.

We got up early and hiked down part of the Bright Angel Trail to view the sunrise, it did not disappoint. After breakfast we stopped by the History Room to see a fireplace made of rocks of the Grand Canyon in geological order.

Then into the vans for the trip to the airport in Phoenix with a stop at a Mexican restaurant in Sedona, the only Mexican food on our trip. We traveled through the Sonoran Desert, distinguished by the Saguaro Cactus. The trip ended with a red-eye flight back to Boston and we went from 100 degrees to 60.