Todos Santos

About midway between La Paz & Cabo San Lucas is a small town called Todos Santos. In its heyday it was the most fertile area of Baja California (southern part of the Baja) because of its abundant water supply from the Lajuna Mountains. It was home to eight sugar refineries & was covered with green palm trees and fruit trees. During the town's 100 year bonanza beautiful homes & buildings were built including an outdoor theater. However, a sudden loss of water from the mountains & a drop in sugar prices led to a collapse in the town's econony, & in 1950 it became a ghost town. The town slept for the next 30 years & the few remaining inhabitants devoted themselves to fishsing & agriculture to survive. Mysteriously, in 1981, the water returned & the land became fertile again. A two-lane highway was completed in 1984 & now the town was only an hour journey from Cabo or La Paz. In 1986 an internationally renown painter & sculptor settled in the town & started to promote the area as an artists colony. Sound interesting?? We thought so. So on my birthday we all packed into 2 cars & took off to check it out.

This pic is of the home that was originally the town's outdoor theater. The owners opened their home to us & gave us a tour explaining what was original & how they had changed the layout. Wow, it was magnificant. The pic directly above shows the area in purple that was the "screen" where they would shine the movie picture. Of course there were no plants or additional structures at that time. The pic above & to the left is part of their kitchen.

Part of the fascination of this town is the many old buildings, especially the doors, that have survived for so many years.

Here we have to goof around & just enjoy all the trouble we can get into as adults.

Lots of "galerias" from glass to copper to weaving to woodworking to jewelry to all the stuff inbetween.

The final bit of fun was traveling back home, finding a palapa along the road side where we could sit down to relax & have a cold one. We even got to see a show, Mexican style. These guys were transporting their donkey home when they had a flat tire.
Not a bad birthday. c