San Javier Mission

5/3/2013

During our stay in Puerto Escondido for Loreto Fest, we decided to take a side trip up to the mountains and visit the San Javier Mission.  We went with a guide named Judy that was very knowledgeable about the mission and the area.  She is from England, but has lived in Mexico for many years.  We went in a taxi van that was a friend of hers.  In one stop on the way to the mission, Judy wanted to show us a very old fig tree in this river gorge. 

The driver decided that he could make it in the van and we took off down into the gravel river bed.  Note that the van was NOT four wheel drive.  After getting stuck on the way in, we all had to get out of the van to get it off the ledge it was stuck on.  Once we saw the tree, we also had to get out of the van so he could get back out of the riverbed.  He barely made it! The road up there was also a bit exciting because in many places it had fallen off the hillside due to the hurricane last summer.  We did make it up and back, but we would not recommend this trip in the rainy season.

This was the second mission built in the chain of missions that runs from Loreto in Mexico up to the Sonoma Mission in northern California.  The mission was founded in 1699 and completed in about  1750, and has remained unchanged.  In fact, it is the only mission that has been completely untouched since construction.  It was built by Miguel del Barco, a boat builder.

All the artwork was either brought from Spain or commissioned in Mexico City.  Due to the climate, the buildings have remained in very good condition.  The crop fields that surround the mission are still farmed by the local people.  There was an olive grove that had a tree that was originally planted by the original padres in 1697.

The trunk of the tree is about 12 feet wide, and it still bears olives!  We had a nice lunch at the restaurant across from the mission.  The lunch was machaca burritos, and cheese quesadillas made with local cheese.  Machaca is a kind of dried shredded beef, like beef jerky, that is soaked in broth or sauce to reconstitute it.  The lunch was great, and of course, cheap.

The cobblestone street leading up to the mission.