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The State tourism people are getting serious about opening up some little-known
attractions throughout Sinaloa. They proved it recently by organizing a
busload of local travel agents to tour one of the less-traveled municipalities
(counties) in the state: San Ignacio. Truly, San Ignacio has a lot to offer
tourists if the movers and shakers up there can just get their act together.
Municipal Mayor Ignacio (yes, he has the same name) Manjarrez seems determined
to see that it happens. San Ignacio is not hard to get to, should somebody
decide to develop a tour or two to the region. (Of course, motorists can
go on their own, but often a tour organizer can line up things that would
not be available to individual visitors.) It’s the municipality just north
of Mazatlán, with Marmol and El Quelite the last towns on this side of the
border. After that, it takes a while to get to a town of any size, and that
would be Coyotitan. Whizzing through there and continuing on a winding but
well-paved two-lane highway, the bus eventually reaches a left-hand turn
onto a road that leads to San Javier — but Mr. Mayor, where’s the sign pointing
that out? The only landmark in sight last month was a beer dispensary called
Deposito del Carmen. Oh, yes, and next door to it, under a makeshift shade,
there’s an open-air bakery where Doña Laura shovels trays of pumpkin empanadas
out of her primitive stone oven and sells them for three pesos apiece. That’s
a not-to-be-missed route marker. On to San Javier, with its colonial mission
church of the same name, built by Jesuit missionaries in the 18th century.
All told, the Jesuits created eight missions in this region, and many of
the tall shoebox colonial structures are still standing. Across the street
from the church is a modest Jesuit museum, once the missionaries’ living
quarters, which contains some of the relics of that long-ago time. A side
street around the corner leads to the Fraile (friars) Broom Factory, run
by an enterprising family who own outlying properties where they grow not
only the straw for the brooms but also the sticks. Ana Luisa Bernal, the
woman of the house, says they employ 15 people and fill orders for brooms
from Mazatlán, Culiacán, Los Mochis and even Sonora. To see brooms in the
making in her back yard, you have to walk through Sra. Ana Luisa’s living
room and dining-kitchen, but she doesn’t seem to mind. A little grocery
store in front of the church sells paletas (popcicles) from the juice of
pitahaya, a delicious local fruit with a peach-like flavor. And a couple
of boys around 8 or 9 years old |
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will try to sell
you jamoncillo from their grand-mother’s kitchen. This Mexican candy treat,
similar to penuche, is especially tasty when it’s homemade. In a village
called Cabasan, en route back to the main road, there’s a tiny inn where
people who want to spend a night or two can do so in serene peace. Doña
Trini has four bedrooms for rent, at 700 pesos double, 550 single, including
three meals, which is fortunate since there doesn’t seem to be anywhere
else to eat. (cell phone: 669-102-1941) Just before you get to the town
of San Ignacio, there’s a turnoff to your right that leads to some springs
— San Ignacio is loaded with hot springs, it seems — but before you get
to a big pool of sulfurous water there’s a knob of a hill with a chapel
on top, the Capilla de Bernardo Escobosa. It’s said that if you climb the
110 feet to the chapel, an almost-vertical trek of about 20 minutes, you’ll
have seven years of good luck. This arduous climb is not recommended for
the less-than-hardy. But those who strain up the path and eventually reach
the top can claim the luck of a superb 360-degree vista of San Ignacio.
Dominating the view toward the town is the mesa where an enormous 20-meter-high
statue of Jesus Christ, arms outstretched to embrace the world, was erected
by faithful townspeople in the year 2000 to commemorate, they said, Jesus’
2000th birthday. San Ignacio was founded by the Jesuits in 1582, and while
none of the original structures remain, the architecture of its 18th-century
mining heyday prevails along the main street. Led by Mayor Manjarrez, local
residents have spruced up their antique facades with pastel paint, white-rimmed
windows and doors. A tour organizer probably could arrange for visitors
to look inside one or two of the more gracious homes whose interiors have
been modified for modern living. You can get into the spirit of yesteryear
by taking a horse-drawn carriage ride around the Constitution Plaza (10
pesos per person) or merely stroll across the square to look into the church
of the same name as the town. A block up the street the Museum of Popular
Culture displays artifacts of the mining days as well as traditional local
handicrafts — pots and baskets and weavings. There are several restaurants
in this town of 10,000 people, a handy one right next door to the Municipal
Palace that looks out on the square. There, you might contemplate the many
legends that abound in San Ignacio, including the one that has it construction
on the three-story brick building to your left on the square will never
be completed. It’s haunted, say local storytellers, and the resident ghosts
like it the way it is. |
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