Mexico Day 131: One more day in San Ignacio

San Ignacio, Baja California Sur //

It’s in the forties this morning. I indulge in some time in front of the furnace until a sliver of sun reaches our camp. With hot tea and a book in hand, I head outside to sit in that small bit of light, eager for the sun to rise completely from behind the wall of palms on the opposite side of the campground. While everyone around us begins to wake up and move around, I sit and read. 

I find myself staring as I notice a woman unloading two, three, and then four large dogs from the inside of her small truck camper. Soon after, a second adult emerges from the same camper. I’m impressed and also a bit miffed as to how they all fit inside. I continue reading as many of the campground occupants around us pack up and depart. Our slow-moving style has never been more apparent as we watch various campers arriving every afternoon and then leaving the following morning. These are primarily people on vacation, not full-time nomads like us, and this is the difference of being here in April vs. December. In December, when many folks are home for the holidays, this place is filled to the brim with full-time travelers. Does this speak to a common thread of complicated family dynamics among full-timers? It causes one to wonder.

In the middle of the day, to stretch our legs and get a view of the scope of damage done by the recent fire, we set out for a hike to the top of the hill adjacent to the campground. To access the trail, we first have to walk alongside a canal that leads us into the burn area. It’s chilling to see how close the fire came to the campground. Had it made it through the campground, all that remained was a vacant lot before the town square, the heart of San Ignacio. It’s eerie seeing full palm tree trunks that have disintegrated into nothing but a barely distinguishable pattern of ash. Mark hears crackling and sees the trunk of a palm still smoldering. A few trucks and tractors work within what was once a dense stand of palms. We wonder what their fate will be and what this place will look like when we return at the end of the year. When we reach the top of the hill that overlooks all of town, it’s easy to see just how much burned. I feel so much sadness for the town of San Ignacio and am also glad it wasn’t worse. It seems as though they extinguished the fire in rapid time.

When we return to camp, I get started on dinner. On the menu are loaded sweet potatoes in an effort to consume our produce. Many food items are not allowed across the border, including meat, eggs, and produce, so we’re doing our best to ration what we have without running into the need to buy more in our three remaining days in Mexico. To this day, Mark gives me a hard time for secretly smuggling carrots across the border two years ago, and so I figure I should work towards a more honest crossing this year. Though I stand by the fact that I don’t know who in their right mind would throw out a perfectly good bag of fresh, delicious carrots.

Tomorrow, we’ll get back on the road. Where we’ll sleep next is yet to be determined. We’ll point the truck north and see what happens from there.