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Published: March 28th 2008
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I woke up fairly early this morning which was very surprising. Keely took me to San Juan Capistrano where we were planning to visit the mission. It was nice to finally be alone together to catch up on news... not that we really needed to after all the epic emails we sent each other over the past year! We stopped off at Trader Joes, an organic supermarket, and bought some food.
San Juan Capistrano was lovely. The historical area was home to the mission we visited as well as an old church and some 19th century houses. The mission was founded in 1776 by Father Junipero Serra and was the seventh of 21 Spanish missions built in California.
We walked around the inner courtyards which were full of flowers and very beautiful. In the courtyard was a traditional native American shelter or 'kitcha' made from willow branches and tule leaves, and a large stone in front of it which would have been used for grinding acorns apparently.
We wandered through the museum rooms. One contained Native American artefacts such as woven baskets and hunting weapons. There were also some amazing photographs of the Acjachenmen 'Indians' taken in the
late 1800s. (I have to say I am surprised by how often the native tribes seem to be referred to as 'Indians' even in a museum. I didn't realise the term was still used and I find it very confusing as every time any says 'Indian' I naturally think of India. It also seems a little insulting both to the American tribes, and Indian people.)
Another room was dedicated to the Spanish and contained the sunken wine vat where the local boys would crush grapes by treading.
We watched a welcome video which outlined the basic history of the mission - I got a little confused since we walked in halfway through and then watched the first part of the film afterwards! We returned to exploring the gardens. Behind the museum rooms we found the mission industrial centre where the Acjachemen made soap, candles, grease and ointments from animal fat in the tallow vats. There were dying vats for colouring wool and the Catalan furnaces, the oldest metal furnaces in California.
We walked to the Serra chapel and each lit a candle by the door. The chapel was built in 1782 and restored in the early 1920s by
Fr. St. John O'Sullivan. the chapel was beautifully cool and peaceful. At the altar was a huge baroque retablo made of hand carved wood with gold overlay, brough from Barcelona and thought to be around 400 years old.
We walked through the mission cemetary to the sacred garden with the bell wall and explored the ruins of the great stone church which was built between 1797 and 1806, then destroyed by an earthquake in 1812 at which point the bells were removed and placed in the sacred garden.
We returned to the main gardens and relaxed by the pond and watched the large coy swimming beneath the surface. Eventually we left the peace of the mission and returned to keely's apartment stopping en route at her parents house to feed the dogs... and the parrot, finch and gekhos - quite a menagerie!
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Katravels
Katherine
Yey! You've finally updated!!! xx