San Evaristo, the Salt Capital

After leaving Honeymoon Cove, we motorsailed to San Evaristo. This tiny and typically-poor Mexican town is home to a huge, community-operated salt facility. The drying pans are passively flooded monthly by high tides, and the hot Mexican sun does the rest. When the salt is ready for harvest, locals use modified hoes to scrape the salt into large bags that are trucked to distribution centers.

After leaving San Evaristo, we motor-sailed to Isla San Francisco and past a tiny island that, somehow, has supported a tiny colony of fishers and families: Isla Coyote.

The colorful mountains of Timbabiche caught our eye.

What time did I catch this fish? Dinner dangling from my hand: a tuna-family fish made great fish tacos.

San Evaristo is in a spectacular setting, with the Sierra de La Gigante mountain range looming behind.

Conni walks the beach in San Evaristo.

Shades of Don Juan: Jimson Weed or Datura Stramonium. A member of the Nightshade family, along with tomatoes and potatoes, it has been used for millennia as a hallucinogen

The Salt Pans of San Evaristo cover an enormous area to the north of town.

A tiny group of homes has sprung up on the banks of the salt pans. Most of these are date palms. Conni explores.

Conni, my favorite date, poses in front of a local date palm.

A tiny solar panel is the only clue that this home exists in the twenty-first century.

The mansion of the group, with an old gas-powered water pump for its few cattle.

We had the opportunity to hike a bit so elected to visit the beach in front of the salt pans. Conni in front of the salt pans, in front of the Sierra de La Gigante range.

Oddly, this old cemetery exists on the beach. It did not appear to contain any new graves, but had been maintained.

A typical San Evaristo home, constructed of concrete block. There's a solar panel, but it's tiny and hot.

Isla Coyote, the tiny island of fishers, decorates the sea north of Isla San Francisco.

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