2-11-05

yesterday morning I left my camp on the hill and came down to the set of buildings I had driven past on my way to camp. It had a big fence around it and the large gates were open when I got there this morning. There is a large sign and it says something about medicinal botanicals. I drove into the yard and got out to look around. A man came up after a short while and introduced himself as the director.
 
 I was looking at the side of a building that had a map of the place and it inticated that the road went up 5 kilometers to a farm? “Yes, he said it  is a place you can go.” He was very friendly and spoke some English. He had a really nice dog he calls Nineo. Almost all  these Mexican dogs are hard  to tell  their heritage but I would  guess this one has some terrier in its background. He said that all the plants here are indeginas to the area and are used as medicine.

I drove up the ‘el camino’ across some small  hills to an area that must have been an old ranch or farm in the distant past. There were large trees and a few concrete structures as well as shade cloth houses and groves of trees.

I wish I had gotten a photo of the group of guys hanging around under a big tree. It was the work crew and they were just getting cranking for the day I think. Hanging from this  tree were all the guys lunches that were in cloth bags dangling from small hooks from the branches. It  was a good way to keep them cool as well as from any dog that might happen by. I went up and introduced myself and asked to look around. After much discussion between them and a lot of laughing, they pointed to one guy who turns out is the lead man (I think). He didn’t speak any English but he asked if I wanted to see plants. Yah, si! Well the whole crew wanted to see me ‘pedalas’, which I was to understand meant that they wanted to see me ride my bike and go see the plants. I really didn’t want to  undo the bike but they wanted to see me do it. I rode down the road to much cheering. I must look very strange in blazing white legs, sandals, shorts, Bob’s Motorwerks BMW tee shirt and train engineers hat.

What I found was an amazing array of plants. This is a photo of a grove of trees with edible beans growing between the rows.

 The director said that you take three leaves of this tree and make a tea and it is good for diabetics. I don’t think it cures it  but somehow helps.

this is a sign I found at the edge of the orchard, could be this is  what they are.

I found the lead man out in one of the plantings and he was taking a sample of these plants every 3 feet or so. He was tying them in a bundle with a strip of palm frond and each had a small card with a number on it. there were several plantings of this kind of plant.

This planting was out in a field rather than under the tree cover.

A close up of the plant.

All the plantings are with dirp other than some plantings in the shade cloth houses.



I found a guy out cutting down this field of grass with a trimmer. He got away before I could take his photo.

The director said that the peppers and tomatoes were good for treating cancer or  keeping it away.

The tomatoes weren’t very big,  but they were plentiful and very tasty.

I have to put this one in here for Carla who loves flowers. This happens to be a tree that is in bloom that a lot of people have in their yards. This one could possibly be a carry over from the original ranch and not medicinal.

There were two signs at the corners of two groves and I would guess that this is what they contained.

I wish I knew more about plants or had someone along who spoke Spanish and could translate as I think this place has  a lot of information available for medicinal herb usage. I met a couple on the beach running their dogs. The guy is Mexican (mexico city) and he had heard about the place and  had driven by it many times, but had never stopped to look around. I showed him the photos and he is all excited now to go see. He said that they advertise in the paper that they are open to the public.

I am camped at a beach near El Pescadero. It is a pay to camp beach and the fee is four buck a night. The reason I am here is that tomorrow is supposed to be a Reggae festival. I was camped down the beach last night at a free spot but it was also in a small low area that tended to collect mud. The mud was dried out and cracked but during the night it started to rain lightly and this morning it was very sticky. Lil Red made it out OK but I didn’t want to hang out there. I had heard that  there was going to be this festival but didn’t know where it was until I made it back out to the road and saw their sign. This morning there were about twenty surfers out on their boards and short sleeve wetsuits. Around noon it really started to blow and has been raining fairly steady all afternoon. The surfers have finally all come in as there are white caps all across the ocean.  There are a few of the talapa’s which are not much more than shade structures of sticks and palm thatch. With the wind and rain, it is rather miserable. There are a few tents pitched near by as well as a few van campers. Next-door is a place where the big RV’s are camped. I met a guy walking on the beach who said that they were almost all Canadians. I am seeing  lot of British Colombia license plates and I guess this is a favorite destination.

I stopped in Todo Santos and had a good look around. There are lots of art galleries and tourist souvenir shops. This is a very up scale place and the Mexican guy I met said that the prices were way out of line. He said that a hamburger cost $15 at one restaurant. There are some really cute little restaurants tucked away. The streets are jammed with tourists and a lady I met at my last camp said that it is a big arts festival that is going on now and the tour busses are arriving and dumping loads of people in town. She said it is not usually like this. The quality of the ‘art’ ranges from the imported stuff from India and china to some really nice paintings, tile work, silver, and textiles. I can see how people come here to decorate their rooms in Baja California style. I think prices are about what you would expect to pay in Santa Fe or Tucson.

I found an internet café and asked if I could hook up the laptop and they had two plugins. As I was getting it opened up my computer asked if I wanted to hook up to the wireless. At that point it was too late and I went ahead and used their system. I still cant get my Front Page program to update my website. I wish I knew why but I do have an email in to my web host and see if there is a problem at that end. After I left there I got in lil Red and took a cruise around town and finally found an open wifi connection where I wrote a few emails and downloaded an update for windows.