We drove out to the mission at San Borja today, a mission that was only in service for about 20 or so years in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It has been being restored for the last several years and is now approximating what it originally looked like, although the restoration is still continuing.
While we're there we take the students through the mission building and around the grounds of the mission. One of the traditions that has been established over the past couple of years is an off-road hike (i.e. no trail, lots of cactus and rocks) to la "cueva mascara" or the mask cave. As it sounds, the cave looks like a face—holes in the rock cliff face that looks like two eyes and a mouth, which the native Cochimi shamans lit fires as a part of their religious ceremonies.
The first picture is evidence of the cholla that somehow magically appears attached to your skin. Derek “willingly" (not) stuck the back of his hand into a cholla and ended up with this beautiful attachment. Notice how the skin is pulled up by the barbs on the end of the cholla spines. Just a bit uncomfortable...…
Notice the donkeys--we encounterd a small pack on our way back from San Borja-on the formerly almost impassable road that is now nicely graded.
