Saturday, 7 April 2012
We have been here a few days and quite like this small Mexican working town. It is not a tourist spot and everyone is friendly and helpful. It was founded after copper was discovered in the area in the late 1860’s. Originally, it was a small Mexican operation however the French became interested and finally took over all the small claims in 1885 creating Compagnie du Boleo. The port was created with blocks of slag from the mining process. Because of this, the town has a somewhat French atmosphere and is very different from the other towns on the Baja peninsula. The Boleo Company closed in 1954 and it became a Mexican operation. Finally, in 1986 the plant was closed however with to the increase in the price of copper, there is a move to reopen the mine.
The Iglesia Santa Barbara church is made of steel and was originally in Brussels. The Boleo Company bought it, disassembled it and moved it to Santa Rosalia then re-assembled it in 1897 and where it is still in use today. The church was designed by Gustav Eiffel.
This morning, we had a nice breakfast at the Hotel Frances which is a restored two story wood hotel dating from 1886. This is situated on top of one of the two hills above Santa Rosalia which sits in the valley between them. The local museum is close to the hotel as are many of the steam engines and rolling stock used at the mine. There are the usual slag heaps outside of town and left-over mining equipment which makes the area just that more interesting.
It is easy to walk into town and there are just two narrow main streets, along which most of the stores are located. The port is also the ferry stop for the small car ferry which does a regular trip every other day to mainland Mexico. The ferry docks on the pier next to us and it is interesting to watch them come and go. There is a nice French bakery in town so we get nice fresh baguettes and there are enough grocery stores for us to get the few supplies we need. We do have a quantity of canned goods that we still need to use before we leave the boat in San Carlos. Along with some other sail-boats, we are participating in a Potluck on the dock tomorrow. Many of the sailboats visiting here are headed to San Carlos for summer storage. We believe the weather will be favorable on either Monday or Tuesday for the overnight sail to San Carlos.