mine is ca 56 miles or so from port (my streets an

mine is ca 56 miles or so from port (my streets and trips program says 55-56 miles) = all on paved highway- all but last ca 6 miles on hwy 1- baja's interstate- which was improved in last few years to add truck passing lanes etc
so can get to mine in maybe 75 minutes- surogateson would know better - they reportedly have federal checkpoints since mex govt carefully guards its tourist cash cow ensenada against hoodlums- whether one has to stop for such i dont know

without pre-arrangement for a tour, odds inveigh against getting in on short notice now that bob is gone- but much of the mine can be seen from the highway- pics of 1 of the drill holes were taken from the hwy- can maybe park on beginning of crwn entrance road before the gate and tell any cwrn guard u r a stockholder on these stock boards- they dont want to make enemies of the press -if u do get in may have an nda -so all reasons why u have to plan for taking pics from the road

if you bought a DSLR -sticking w canon cameras for simplicity- since u mention canon
the lowest price entry level canon dslr still selling new would be T3 12.2 mp- w kit 18-55mm lens e.g. at b and h $399 for camera and kit lens -for t3i better camera 18.8mp w same kit lens $549 (can cf newegg.com etc)

the best dslr tele for the money right now imo is the tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 VC (ca 2.5 stops of effective stabilization-handy for use w a 2x converter ) USD ( hsm silent AF motor) for $349 on sale -coupled w 1.4 or 2x teleconverter will give 1.4x(4-5.6) 98-440 or f 8-11.2 140-600mm range -light should not be a problem there -besides the faster dslr programmed cameras of the last few years are obviating the need for super fast lenses- e.g canon rebel t4i ca $800 body-has an effective iso range to 12,800-as basically does t3i

get a polarizer filter for its purposes and to protect the lens and for sunny shots which capture both sky and subject will have to use polarizer or backlight function or split neutral density filter

can get a sigma non-stabilized 70-300mm for as low as $144 at b+h etc but some are sloppy-read the reviews and will have lower image quailty -esp at 200-300mm and usually some vignetting etc

if you can find 1 of the non-stabilized tamron or sigma all-in-one 28-300mm lenses at some sacrifice to pic quality and light but good enough for your purposes you can save by not getting the 18-55mm kit lens w camera -newer tamron 28-300 VC is ca $600 -I cant find the sigma 28-300 3.5-6.3 DG Macro non stabilized $300 lens for sale new anymore -and u dont need macro

film SLR'S had a 24 by 36 mm image sensor -only expensive (full sensor) dlsrs have 24 by 36mm sensor anymore-something the average public is not aware of and the APS-C makers dont advertise -but compact and ilc owners usually are not aware of the sacrifice of the small image sensor on most of those cameras either -the ones with decent image sensors usually cost more than much better entry level dslrs -so imo no reason to buy such compacts unless purely for small size and simplicity of use-but dslr not hard to use either

most entry level dslr's are APS-C cameras and have less than 1/2 that 24 by 36mm size sensor-but still much better sensor than most ilc's or compacts- which limits image capture but does give u a greater tele effect

e.g. the image sensor ratio on canon entry level dslr rebel line is 1.6 so if u have a 70-300 mm zoom lens multiply by 1.6 to give an effective tele effect of 112-480mm -need min of 400mm for good tele range and preferably 600mm to view mine etc from road -so if have a zoom w upper range of 300mm can get a 2x teleconverter for ca $250-300 to double the range to 600mm at cost of ca 2 stops available light-which wont be a problem for u re the mine and erendira due to the high iso range of the canon t3i to t5i - stand alone 600mm zoom lenses are way too heavy, long and expensive for your purposes-thus the 1.4 and 2x teleconverters
or a 1.4x teleconverter to give 440mm length-not counting any image sensor multiplier

canon and nikon lenses are out of your price range (mostly paying for better weather sealing and durability etc and some of the newer esp tamron lenses reportedly have as good a quality pic) so sigma and tamron lenses w canon mount are best for your purpose
the decent ilc's and very good compacts cost as much or more than the excellent entry level dslr's so for pic quality and versability dslr is way to go- ilc's and compacts are usually used for compactness purposes

if u are extravagant I've joked before u can get a sigma 300-800mm f5.6 ex be hsm for $7700 or a 200-500mm f2.8 apo ex dg for $26,000 from www.cambridgeworld.com- i wouldnt take such-the latter 2 lenses- to mex- and the latter only gives more light -which u will not need-
its like haiti, where, when u send snail mail, u have to imprint stamps in the country of origin or they will steal the stamps off the envelopes- so I wouldnt take a full sensor dslr beyond the tourist zone-out of your price range anyway

also, erendira is practically on the ocean only 6-10 road miles from the mine -so go on the same paved hwy to the agricultural/fishing hamlet of erendira and take shots of the landslope to ocean edge-for a ship loading station is planned by navial there where the waters are unusually deep just offshore- and anything else interesting- as many pics as u can at both locations- as we havent had new pics for a long time