Cecille's Creativity

Here, some 300 miles (seldom less than three days' driving) after leaving the pavement in the north, south-bound drivers come to the first real interruption in desert harshness along the highway south of the inland turn at El Rosario. Under circumstances peculiar in the Western Hemisphere to a few regions of Baja California, date palms introduced by Jesuit colonists went wild and spread a shadowy green forest up and down the valley, wherever roots can reach water.

In San Ignacio, you can explore the massive stone church finished in 1786. No airline touches down here, but light planes can land at the short, rough, rocky strip bulldozed out of the cactus-covered lava east of town (buzz town for a taxi).