The Cactus Trip Diaries

What they say about busses is true. You don’t see one for ages and then a whole clutch of them appear!

It’s the same when I spotted this sign for a ‘4 ways’ crossing. It’s a case where first come is first served at this cross road. We first saw this sign at the start of our trip in Ensenada but I was in the middle of rush hour traffic and I had the wrong camera in my lap.

This one, seen when leaving Loreto was at a quiet time of day and I was able to pull over and find the camera. If the 4 Altos were in town, what happened to the three tenors?

When we wanted to spend the night in San Ignacio on 3 March, on the way south, we were refused entry to the town as black clouds hung above it and flames leaped up from at least three places in the palm forest.  But it seems that fires here are a regular occurrence and that the palm trees are remarkably resistant, again, according to reports on Google Search.

Still, we were a little concerned as we drove into town, to show Jonathan the Mision. Yes, there were a significant number of blackened trees, but there were also a number of young trees growing in clearings made by the burning trees or in areas cleared by the fire brigade to contain the fire. It could have been so much worse (S3423).

The next three stops (S3424, S3425 and S3426) were made as we took the turning east of MEX1 into the Sierra San Francisco. This time we did not get to the village as the road had been damaged by a combination of water and possibly a rumble or two, so that we decided that turning round would be the wiser option.

Among the plants found were Echinocereus brandegeei, a short spined form of E. engelmannii, Ferocactus emoryi subsp rectispinus and Ferocactus peninsulae subsp peninsulae (?) with reddish flowers plus Mammillaria brandegeei (in flower).

On the way to Guerrero Negro we passed a turning east towards El Ar4co, but with day light fading we decided to come back tomorrow.

The first three hotels we tried, including the Desert Inn right on the border between Baja Norte and Baja Sur were full, but the next one (Posada Don Vincente) had space for two nights plus the bonus of being one of the cheaper hotels on the trip. Sadly hot water for a shower was not available.