Blow up the church !

The first day of the quest for a good location in the mountains ended in the village of Mision de San Jose de Comondu.



After getting off road and driving 3 hours on a dirt track.
Going up in the mountains.

Deep in a valley with a river and palm trees, Mision de San Jose de Comondu is a bunch of houses mostly of families who moved away to the big city some time ago.
One sees abandoned and decaying structures in the old Spanish colonial style.
But also modern bungalows.

Spanish adventurers and priests established here a settlement, built houses and a church in 1708.
Developed the region, christened and colonized it to achieve a regional prosperity never matched again.

But around 1910 local people used dynamite to blow up the church, the biggest in Baja California, and the buildings of the Spanish to have the stones to build their own homes.
An amazing demonstration of selfishness.
At the time the Church and the Spanish buildings were over 300 years old.
The stones for these buildings had been transported on mule backs from far away.
The Church and the Spanish buildings demonstrated culture, civilisation and art.
Were the only heritage.
But to get stones quickly for new construction, everything was simply blowned up.

Nowadays in Mision de San Jose de Comondu, there is a church, but it has little to do with the colonial days.


It has been built less than a 100 years ago and is just a simple, rudimentary oblong stone building.
Even without a church tower.
However, inside the church of Mision de San Jose de Comondu are two remarkable things to see.
A child under a plastic cover.
And a white lady.





The Fuso Szulc is parked next to this church because it was too late to continue the journey.
Local people were met resulting in an invitation to go with them tonight to the next village, called San Miguel, that has annual celebrations.
This because tomorrow is the name day of Saint Michel.

Even here in the mountains, at 900 meters (3.000 ft), it is warm and ferocious flies bother.
But there are no noseeums.

Obviously this village is not the place to stay more than one night.
Tomorrow the return trip will be made to the asphalt road and then La Purisima will be the next destination.

Once, many years ago, the dirt road was driven from Loreto to La Purisima.
At one point, high in the mountains, there was a lake.
This image is in mind as a possible destination to spend more time.






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