An overnight bus from northern baja just over halfway down the peninsula took us firmly into desert country. Rubbing the sleep out of our eyes at 6am, we noticed that the scenery had completely changed. The sides of the roads were piled high with sand, and slender green cacti in various formations dominated the landscape. Other than that there was nothing growing aside from some spiky dry scrub.
The bus let us off at a dusty outpost dotted with a few falling down taco stands, and from here we had to hike a few kms into a town called San Ignacio. Almost immediately after turning off the main road, the landscape again changed dramatically. The town and its surrounds are swathed in a forest of gigantic leafy date palms with a river bordering one side, the perfect desert oasis.
Flat tabletop hills adorned with sherbert-coloured rocks complete the natural borders of San Ignacio. From our guesthouse in the centre of town it was possible to reach this table top, called La Mesa, and hike across it. From here you had a 360 view of the town, the surrounding palms and red desert mountains further in the distance.
San Ignacio itself seems frozen in time. Arranged in the typical Spanish colonial style around a plaza with a church at one end, the town’s historic buildings didn’t look as if they had changed in over 200 years. The plaza was filled with enormous trees, providing ample shade from the harsh desert sun.
Our guesthouse, Casa Leree, was an old fashioned hacienda style building with rooms arranged around a quiet, leafy courtyard. It was a peaceful and beautiful place to sit, shaded by big trees, complete with a hammock and cactus garden with dozens of different types of cacti. We opted to self-cater for the night that we spent here – you guessed it, tuna. We had it on tostadas – a big round toasted corn biscuit – with canned jalapenos and habanero chilli sauce. 
There wasn't much in the way of wildlife here - in fact the only thing we constantly saw were vultures circling in the sky, then coming to rest on the tops of cacti.
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