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Moon Handbooks
Baja

Joe Cummings

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The Cave Paintings of
Baja California
Harry Crosby
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Sab Borjitas Cave Paintings

Another area prehistoric rock art, this site has been known to local residents since mission times; Leon Diguet visited San Borjitas in the 1800's, Erle Stanley Gardner in the 1960's, Harry Crosby in the 1970's.  To get there from Mulegé, drive north on Mexico 1 to the Km 157 marker near Palo Verde at the turnoff to Punta Chivato, then take the dirt road west into the sierra.  This route is appropriate for high-clearance vehicles only and takes around two hours each way.  Be sure to bring plenty of drinking water, as this area tends to be warm even in winter.

Keep left at all forks, pass two abandoned ranchos (when you reach a gate, go through it and close it after you), and continue until you arrive at Rancho Las Tinajas (also known as Rancho Cerro Gordo), approximately 27 km / 16.7 miles from the highway), where you should be able to hire a guide.  Until recently, you had to arrange a two-hour mule ride and hike to reach Cueva San Borjitas from here.  A new road allows you to drive to within just a mile of the cave.  At Rancho Las Tinajas you must register and obtain keys for two locked gates that must be entered between here and the cave; a fee of around $4 US in pesos is collected.  With the first key, unlock the gate next to the ranch and continue driving northwest 2.1 km (1.3 miles) till you reach yet another fork (this will be the third fork coming from the highway), then pass through an unlocked metal gate and drive another mile till you reach a T-intersection.  Turn left and pass through another located gate (using the second key), continue another mile, pass through an unlocked gate, and at 35.7 km (22.2 miles) from the highway, you can park at Rancho San Baltasar.  From here it's a one-mile walk to the cave along a trail that begins at the far end of a small corral, follows the left (south) side of an arroyo, then cuts into the canyon wall and leads to the main cave.

The paintings at San Borjitas are unique among Baja rock-art schools in several respects:  at least a dozen of the more than 50 large monos (human figures) in the rock shelter are apparently transfixed with arrows; some exhibit male genitalia; and about a dozen are filled in with longitudinal stripes.  Colors employed at San Borjitas include black, red, ocher, gray, white, and combinations of all five, painted in monocolor, bicolor, and checkerboard patterns.  Along the tuff side walls of the cave is a collection of petroglyphs (rock carvings) depicting female genitalia; the fire-blackened back wall shows fish and deer.

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Primary text resource:  BAJA HANDBOOK by Joe Cummings
Area Map 1

 
 
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