Our Amazing guided Tour to the Cave Paintings La Trinidad, a UNESCO protected site.
November 27th 2013 is the big day when we go and see the cave paintings.
Yesterday we made arrangements in the Las Casitas restaurant in Mulegé to meet the registered guide Salvator Castro Drew to take us to the La Trinidad Cave. http://mulege.net/tours/
This morning we met in front of Las Casitas. Salvator introduced us to the only other person joining our tour today, Helena from France. We boarded Salvador's passenger van and drove to the police station. The same building also houses the " Instituto National de Antopologia e Historia". Here we all had to register for the tour, and pay another 45 pesos each if we wanted to take pictures.at the cave.
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| Driving west toward the Sierra Guadalupe |
Then we drove west out of Mulegé. The van rattled, and we bounced around over the sand and gravel road.
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| On our Way with our guide Salvador Drew |
From time to time we stopped to take pictures. At one spot, Salvator showed us many native plants and their usage now and traditionally and their benefits and dangers. That was very interesting. Anything from headaches, stomach pains, sexual arousing, cancer, constipation, etc., the indigenous people have and had a cure for it. I wonder why we do not use that knowledge more today.
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| Looking at Native Remedies |
We drove west toward the Sierra Guadalupe mountains. It took us about and hour and a half to reach the ranch house of Rancho La Trinitad.
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| On our Way to La Trinidad |
This is a huge private cattle ranch ( about 16,000 acres ). Mario, the ranch hand / cowboy, or Charro is looking by himself after the 300 head of cattle. We registered ourselves and paid 100 pesos for accessing the caves over this private ranch.
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| The Ranch Hand or "Charro" talking to us |
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| Registering at La Trinidad |
From here we hiked about 30 minutes into the canyon. On the way there we admired some grinding stones left behind from times past.
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| Grinding Stones |
At the end of the canyon, Salvador had a boat we took around the rock face to the cave with the famous paintings. This pre-Colombian rock art site is very impressive.
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| Our Hike to the Cave |
Part of the cave collapsed some time ago, but it is still huge and very open and exposed to daylight.
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| At the La Trinidad Cave |
After we took some pictures, Salvador explained the history and legends of the paintings from the Cochimi Natives. There is an estimate that the paintings are up to 8000 years old. Some of the images are over painted, probably by more recent generations. The largest image is a deer in orange and red, with 2 fawns standing beside.
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| Deer with Fawns |
We admire this site, imagining what the artists may have had in mind, painting these images. The possibilities are endless.
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| Salvador Drew at the Cave |
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| Images at the La Trinidad Cave |
We all sat around taking in the history. Then we ate our lunch Salvador brought along. After a while, we slowly made our way back to the ranch.
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| We had a Wonderful Day |
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| On the way back to the Ranch House |
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| Beautiful unspoiled Country |
This was an amazing and impressive tour. I would take it again, just to marvel at history.
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| At Rancho La Trinidad |
On our way back to Mulegé, Salvador stopped on top of the hill to visit the mission Santa Rosalia de Mulegé. Founded in 1705, it is still overlooking the valley and the Mulegé River.
A perfect ending to a wonderful day.
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| At the Mision Santa Rosalia de Mulegé |
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| From Mulegé with views west toward La Trinidad |
Click on any of the links below to go to other parts of this wonderful trip.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
31. 32. 33.
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