Back when I was in my 60s I took that route whilst Star Wars backpacking from Canada to Cuba. I particularly liked San Ignacio, where I made some great friends.
Outside my sleeping quarters at Rancho Santa Ynez is a magnificent old cactus, upon which hangs two skulls. One is a cows head, complete with hair and teeth, but minus one eye. The remaining one fast becoming dessicated.
The other skull very old. It is sun-bleached, has a pretty necklace of beads draped artistically over it and placed within one of it's eye-sockets is a small halogen spotlight, which gives it the appearance of a crystal-gaze that follows you, like any good portrait.
Hanging between these two skulls, suspended by a rusting wire, is a charming little plastic baby doll.
I was somewhat reluctant to ask the ranch owner the significance of these adornments, but he was a very genial fellow, a forth generation Rancho, so I plucked up courage and was surprised to find that it was 'just a custom' to place such things by ranches. Now I know. Or do I?
Desert, like a dried-up sea all around, six hundred meters high. Quite fertile for the imagination, if not for the cattle. My mind slipped back to the stories told to me on the long train rides over the Canadian Rockies, the bus over the border to Seattle, and then to San Francisco. There I learnt “the earth was flooded to a depth of nine miles”. Wow!. And when did this happen? Four thousand years ago. You may ask yourself, as I did, where all this water came from? “Rain – and underground reservoirs.” So, there you have it. No need to question. All that is required is faith.
On the other side of the coin, I was surprised to learn form another American, while gazing at the statue of Ashurbanipal, one of the great Kings of Assyria, that his library – just north of what is now Baghdad - was the first in the world to contain all that was known. (You can read the inscription
at .www.emptymonkey.com just go to 'pictures' click on 'statues' and it is among all the other places I have photographed on my wanderings*). Did I hear somewhere about a war for civilisation? Oh what a long way we have come.
* I lost the domain some years ago, and somebody else has registered it!
Chula Vista was my 1st home when I left Baltimore & got a job at the zoo. I remember that bridge & day adventures into Mexico. Wish I would have done more, but single & alone....your trip sounds amazing!
Back when I was in my 60s I took that route whilst Star Wars backpacking from Canada to Cuba. I particularly liked San Ignacio, where I made some great friends.
That sounds like an epic trip!
It was, started in Eastern Europe x
BAJA ROAD TRIP MEMORIES
The Ranch. (Racho Santa Ynez)
Outside my sleeping quarters at Rancho Santa Ynez is a magnificent old cactus, upon which hangs two skulls. One is a cows head, complete with hair and teeth, but minus one eye. The remaining one fast becoming dessicated.
The other skull very old. It is sun-bleached, has a pretty necklace of beads draped artistically over it and placed within one of it's eye-sockets is a small halogen spotlight, which gives it the appearance of a crystal-gaze that follows you, like any good portrait.
Hanging between these two skulls, suspended by a rusting wire, is a charming little plastic baby doll.
I was somewhat reluctant to ask the ranch owner the significance of these adornments, but he was a very genial fellow, a forth generation Rancho, so I plucked up courage and was surprised to find that it was 'just a custom' to place such things by ranches. Now I know. Or do I?
Desert, like a dried-up sea all around, six hundred meters high. Quite fertile for the imagination, if not for the cattle. My mind slipped back to the stories told to me on the long train rides over the Canadian Rockies, the bus over the border to Seattle, and then to San Francisco. There I learnt “the earth was flooded to a depth of nine miles”. Wow!. And when did this happen? Four thousand years ago. You may ask yourself, as I did, where all this water came from? “Rain – and underground reservoirs.” So, there you have it. No need to question. All that is required is faith.
On the other side of the coin, I was surprised to learn form another American, while gazing at the statue of Ashurbanipal, one of the great Kings of Assyria, that his library – just north of what is now Baghdad - was the first in the world to contain all that was known. (You can read the inscription
at .www.emptymonkey.com just go to 'pictures' click on 'statues' and it is among all the other places I have photographed on my wanderings*). Did I hear somewhere about a war for civilisation? Oh what a long way we have come.
* I lost the domain some years ago, and somebody else has registered it!
Chula Vista was my 1st home when I left Baltimore & got a job at the zoo. I remember that bridge & day adventures into Mexico. Wish I would have done more, but single & alone....your trip sounds amazing!
Those sound like wonderful memories. I sometimes look back and wish I’d done more but remember I did the best I could with what I had at the time.