I remember going once or twice before when we were kids – I think we had been at the beach somewhere on the East Cape, and someone was with us – a visitor from out-of-town – maybe our grandparents? It was in March of 1996 – Wendy and I were 11 and 10 years old respectively.
I remember it being really hot out – and back then there was no community built around the chimney – I mean, there were homes, people lived there, but there weren’t attractions, or restaurants – no community. Back then we were able to drive right up to the chimney; I remember my sister and I crawling down, inside and staring up out the top of the-then crumbled top of the chimney. We explored a bit, and then continued on to whatever other adventure was next that day.
This is the sleepy little town of El Triunfo with a population of all of 327 people. It is a little town built around less than a half-mile stretch of the highway. I have heard this town used to be the largest in the area, with around 10,000 residents, mostly miners. The main attractions are: the 47-meter (about 154 feet!) tall chimney called La Ramona, el mirador (the lookout point), which is just a short hike up from the chimney, where you encounter the mouth of the mine (which apparently you can schedule a tour to go in!!); there are two museums in town (both of which were sadly closed for renovations the day we went) – a piano museum, and the Museo Ruta de Plata (the silver route museum). There is also an eight-room hotel called Cabañas El Triunfo that looks simply divine. If ever you were looking for a quiet, relaxing getaway, off the beaten path, and yet still close to several other attractions (La Paz, Todos Santos, La Ribera, La Ventana, Los Barriles and Cabo Pulmo are all within about an hour’s drive, or less, away) this is the spot. This little hotel offers tons of activities, and also wonderful looking lodging. I have yet to personally visit the hotel, but it has made its way to my “must try” in the near future (a perfect Los Cabos ‘staycation’, in my book).
La Ramona, the chimney, is what is left of a silver and gold mine started back in the late 1700s (so says Wikipedia). It has been restored in recent years, as the top of the chimney had crumbled from age. So much of the old mining town is still left behind. And, there is an entire museum now to teach us more about this little town’s history.
SO, Where is El Triunfo?
We drove up in the morning, it was a very warm (hot?) August day – El Triunfo is about a 90-minute drive north from San Jose (or about a 45-minute drive south from La Paz); well, it depends on who’s driving AND on your luck. You see, the highway on the east side of the peninsula between La Paz and San Jose del Cabo is mostly a two-lane highway, with little to no shoulder and it is terribly windy. You will almost always encounter livestock on the road – goats, cows, chickens, dogs, roadrunners, iguanas, and so on…); so, driving cautiously is required. Plus, whoever is in the back seat may get carsick (again, it’s windy). It is, however, incredibly beautiful – the scenery in every direction is always breathtaking, whether a sparse desert plane or a beautiful seemingly-tropical lush blanket of blooming desert. I once drove through an enormous swarm of yellow butterflies; it was simply amazing.
I digress…we drove up in the late morning, arriving smack in the middle of the afternoon. Our little hike to the chimney and then up to the lookout cliff was like walking through a clay oven. Heat was radiating in every direction. It was probably 95°F, with a real feel of 120°F. It was perfect. Hot summer days are nostalgic for me – this is home, this was summer break. The heat of the summer is when the locals have the run of the town (this is becoming less and less true anymore, it seems Cabo is a year-round destination, regardless of the summer heat). And yet, still, I absolutely love the kind of days when you can feel the sun coming at your skin in every direction. It’s therapeutic (so long as you slather on some healthy sunscreen).
Above photos show the available activities, including going inside the mouth of the mine, ziplining, and much more. I believe these are activities provided by the Cabañas mentioned earlier.
The town and the attractions were more beautiful than I had remembered. We had had so much rain in recent months, the desert was green and blooming in every direction. Plus, it was pitaya season. Pitayas are a fruit harvested from cactus – in our region of Mexico, we have pitayas from the ‘Organ Pipe’ cactus (I think? Or maybe they’re off the nopal?). There are all kinds of pitayas, depending on which cactus they’re from. I have also heard this fruit called ‘tunas’ by a few friends from Oaxaca. In El Triunfo, when you drive through the town during pitaya season, there are men standing on every corner with buckets of pitayas for sale. All you have to do is roll down your window, and you can buy a fresh bundle of white and red pitayas. Along the entire drive up to El Triunfo from San Jose del Cabo we encountered several stands selling pitayas and mangos, AND, fresh ice cream or sorbets! This is so common, every summer – when you visit this area in the summer, eating fresh pitayas is a MUST.
This particular trip happened to be during a partial quarantine in our state – all of Mexico was asked to be extremely cautious during the 2020 pandemic, however we personally still needed to get out a little, so we chose safe, outdoor excursions. This was one of the many day trips we took throughout the summer to explore and feel like we had some mini vacations, since traveling was not an option for us. We also got out and about to try to support some of the local business trying to stay afloat. On this day we dined at the lovely Café El Triunfo.
This little place is a bakery, known throughout the tip of the peninsula for their rustic sourdough bread (they deliver loaves to several businesses in surrounding towns, and sometimes all the way down to Los Cabos). They have several sweets, too. Wendy and I shared an out-of-this-world good almond croissant. It was filled with a sweet, buttery almond paste that I could eat by the jar. I will go back to this town JUST for another one of these treats – and, really, our entire meal was great.
I started with a fresh ‘naranjada’, which is one of my favorite drinks (as a non-drinker, I really appreciate how many options are available in Mexico. You can almost ALWAYS order a fresh limonada or naranjada…it’s amazing). A naranjada is just like a limonada (lemonade) except it is made with freshly squeezed orange juice…and, in my case, I ordered a ‘naranjada mineral’, which means it is prepared with soda water. So, on a (really) hot summer day, there is NOTHING more refreshing than a sparking orange or limeade. (I ordered a second for the drive home when we left).
And for our meal, they brought us some freshly baked bread made with nuts and cranberries along with some dipping olive oil, we ordered a beautiful, fresh salad, and, they are also known for their pizza oven. Wendy and I split a simple yet delicious margarita pizza. They make their margarita with a twist: instead of the usual fresh mozzarella cheese, they make a traditional fresh ranch cheese in this area – it is made with fresh cow’s milk and ‘cuajo’, and the traditional rancher’s way of making this fresh, salty cheese is using part of the cow’s stomach, which creates some sort of enzyme that curdles the milk into cheese (there, that’s my very rudimentary explanation of our cheese). What you need to know is: it’s damn good.
We went, we saw, we explored. We visited what was left of the mine (the public parts at least), we ate too much food, we tried to go to the town’s gift shop, we got lost in one of the little dirt road neighborhoods, we bought some fresh pitayas, and then we made our way back home.
Even though this is such a tiny town, there really is so much more to see. We will for sure return soon to visit the museums, probably do a tour of the mines, and of course, to eat more pizza and pastries.
