Change in plan

Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico

Santa Rosalia is a nice authentic Mexican working town; not really very touristy.

We have managed to tour the highlights, most notably the Iglesia Santa Barbara (a steel church well know for its famous architect, Gustave Eiffel, creator of Paris' Eiffel Tower), The Museo Historico Minero de Santa Rosalia (Museum), the Hotel Frances, and all the remnants of the old copper mine trains. The history of this town all revolves around the now defunct copper mines and the Boleo company that built all the wood-framed structures that litter the landscape.  Especially impressive is the old copper smelting ruins that overlook the harbour - probably pretty scary when the old smokestacks started to tumble down.  Rumour has it that a Canadian company is looking to reopen the mines, what with the increased value of copper these days, so the town is fairly upbeat.

As for food, there are a couple of excellent restaurants and of course Chuyitas, Santa Rosalia's most popular hotdog stand, serving bacon wrapped grilled hotdogs on a soft bun with the works.  Sitting on the boat in the marina is really hot; very little wind and temperatures in the high 30s every day - sort of saps your energy for any serious exploration, and really makes you not want to turn on the stove!

Lately we have been a little concerned about the timing of the expiry of our 180 day tourist visas.  With hurricane season stretching to mid October and no place where you can catch a plane or train or bus once we make our way further north, we could find ourselves in an awkward situation in a few months.  So, since we are safely tied up at the marina and there are no current imminent cyclones and the bus depot is just down the block, we have decided to make a quick trip to San Diego so we can re-enter Mexico and get a fresh set of visas.  With that in mind, we leave on a 15 hour overnight bus ride to Tijuana this afternoon.  With any luck we will be back in a few days and will have a fresh start on another 180 days.  We are beginning to understand why a lot of the cruisers down here go to the trouble and expense to obtain their FM3 status, allowing them to stay up to a year at a time, renewable from within Mexico - we will look into it when we are next at a major immigration center.

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