Day 17: El Triunfo Church
(150 km approx.)
Our short trip today will bring us to the beautiful Rancho Verde RV Haven located on a 3100 Acre Ranch in the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains. We will pass through the towns of both Los Barriles on the ocean and San Bartolo in the mountains. In Rancho Verde you can enjoy hot sunny days and cool nights with gorgeous vistas and sunsets. There are miles of trails for hiking on and around the ranch and next door you can rent horses. The bird watching here is fantastic!
In the afternoon we will have an excursion to El Triunfo, a former mining town nestled in the Sierra de la Laguna. The town straddles Highway 1 and has made impressive strides in the past few years to attract more tourists, including an excellent bakery and a very unique music museum.
El Triunfo’s claim to fame was a mining boom which began in the 1860s and was consolidated with the arrival of the British El Progreso Mining Company in 1878. The town was the first in Baja to install electricity and telephones and its cultural life included regular concerts and two competing weekly newspapers. Parts of the old mine installations can still be seen, including two massive chimney stacks, “Ramona” (designed by famous French engineer Gustave Eiffel) and “Julia”, near to which mining machinery manufactured in Chicago and San Francisco has lain rusting and forgotten since the mines closed in 1926.
As seasoned Mexico campers we look forward to sharing our experiences and knowledge of the Baja with RVers just like you!
