Santa Rosalía

When we rode into Santa Rosalía, our first thoughts weren’t flattering.  There is what appears to be a petroleum refinery on the edge of town, and evidence of recent mining activity, including the rusted skeleton of a foundry.
Once past all that and checked into our hotel, we wandered the core of the town and discovered that it has a much nicer feel than its outskirts suggest.
We chose to stay a second night because the hotel is cheap and comfortable so that we could do some planning for our next few stops, and Michael could progress editing the video on our recent visit to the El Oasis children’s village.
Tonight as we wandered the center of town we came across a brass band busking for change.  The band stopped promptly at 7pm so that the Santa Bárbara church could start their evening service on time without interruption.  The lights were on inside tonight, making it more inviting.
It turns out that the mining company that operated the copper foundry here was French, and it was this company that bought the church that Gustav Eiffel designed and displayed at the World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium and brought it here at the request of its employees to have a house of worship in the community. (Barbara is the patron saint of miners in the Catholic tradition.)

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