9 December 2011
Well the night at La Paz passed fast. This campground is quite nice and one that we had never heard of throughout all the years we’ve traveled the Baja. We found the history on the property and the owners to be very interesting. The Maranatha Campground
has only 12 hook-up areas and 6 casitas besides a large play area and picnic grounds to handle a couple of large family groups. They also offer a great little coffee/bakery shop right outside of the gates. In 1957, the family flew down in their small single engine plane to La Paz as missionaries from the mid-west and stayed in their own little paradise… Pictures of their arrival in ’52 still grace the walls inside the office of the campground and if you inquire about them they will tell you the very interesting story of her life as a young child from her birth in La Paz to running the campground today. Well it was time to continue heading south but before we pulled out, all 8 of us had to stop off at the coffee shop and do a little sampling. With coffee and a fresh cinnamon roll in hand we all gathered around a table and said good-bye to Bonnie and Doug. They wanted to stay over another day or two before heading down to Cabo to see what had changed over the years that they’ve been away. We had heard that Hwy 1 just south of Todo Santos was under construction with heavy off road detours so we opted to take Hwy 19 (the mountain route) the rest of the way to San Lucas. El Trunfo was the first little town we came to once we started into the mountains. At one time, El Trunfo was the largest community in all the Baja because of the gold that was found in these mountains. Item number two: Eifel (who designed and built the Eifel Tower) designed and managed construction of one of the two smelting stacks in El Trunfo.
Item number three: When the mines were going full out, the wife of the mine manager taught piano to the other women and children that wanted to learn. Being a fine musician and lover of the piano, she decided to donate her piano to the local museum and with that started others to donate theirs. Item number four: The church was and still is a major part for the people of El Trunfo.
For the size of the town now it is quite large, but back “in the days past…” it was quite a place for giving Thanks. As we arrived today we found a crowd painting and caring for the interior and getting ready for their Christmas celebration…I felt I should have grabbed a paint brush because they all looked and sounded like they were having a blast.
Today this little town, far from the border and the larger cities, and far away from the average “tourists”, sports a fine “Piano Museum”. Unfortunately it was closed the morning we were in town. What was fortunate was that we found this remarkable restaurant/bakery… It was located a block off of the main road running through town and in this very old “Hacienda”. The front part of building was the bakery ( this is Bob and Evie looking over the bakery goods thinking about what to buy for their 59th wedding anniversary)
and as you followed the passageway toward the back of the building you found yourself choosing a table at one of three very different patio locations (notice the brass covered wood rails)
that lead away from the outside cooking area
of the restaurant and looking out to the dormant gold mines and the Eifel smelting stack. The menu was small but the quality… amazing. I really don’t think this restaurant/bakery could accidentally make a bad meal or bakery item. The lunch specialty was pizza so we all opted for pizza’s around…
definitely not a bad idea. One thing was for sure, Bob & Evie, Jack & Kathy, and Louise and I were very impressed with our stop and look forward to coming back as we head back north this spring. If we were to make San Lucas before dark we had better be on our way. This route through the mountains and along the Sea of Cortez is really the more picturesque route but it does take another 30 to 45 more minutes of travel time from La Paz to San Lucas. It wasn’t long before we were running past the Cabo San Jose airport and heading into the center of San Jose. Right away it was evident that things had changed a great deal in the last 5 years since we were here last. The traffic was at least 10 fold heavier and the building…amazing. Traffic and all we still made it to San Lucas before 3 and then found that we couldn’t turn across the highway and into the Vagabundo RV Park. Now what…well we continued past and found ourselves taking some “very interesting” roads through and around the narrow and heavily traveled streets of San Lucas until we made a huge “U” turn and made it back to Vagabundos and into our campsite for the next few months…”we’re finally here”!!!