Our next stop along the Baja was a small town on the Sea of Cortez called Loreto. It is a quaint town with lots of good restaurants and shops. We met the owners of the RV Park and the man arranged for us to hire a boat for the next day to explore the island of Coronado east of the harbor. On the way around the island we encountered a school of dolphins. Every time we chased them they would dive under the water and disappear. This happened about 3 or 4 times until finally they allowed us to run the boat alongside as they swam around and under the boat. What a spectacular experience! The rest of the boat ride around the island consisted of seeing beautiful rock formations, watching pelicans fishing, interrupting some sun bathing sea lions, and watching a baby Osprey and mom flying around their nest. Then our captain took us to a sandy beach to have lunch and enjoy the sun. It was another amazing day.
Unusual rock formations
Sea Lions bathing in the sun (a little annoyed with us)
Paula and Warren enjoying the ride
Stopped at a nice sandy beach to enjoy our lunch
Pelicans fishing
The rest of the time in Loreto was spent exploring the town. It is the oldest established town on the Baja. The first mission was built here in 1697. I don’t know if the mission located in the square is the same one that was built back then but it is a very cool building. Also, the square around it is really quaint with shops, restaurants, and a neat old hotel. One night we went to the top floor of the hotel by way of a winding staircase located in the inner courtyard. On the top floor there’s an outdoor patio which has a bird's eye view of the main square. We also discovered a pool on the roof. It was very impressive. The decor was old Mexico with lots of rod iron and old wood. Beautiful!
The town square of Loreto
The mission church
The trees are shaped to make a tunnel for the walkway
The old hotel with the viewing patio and rooftop pool
One incident that happened while staying in the RV Park (located in the middle of town) was there happened to be a girl’s 15th birthday party (called a quinceanera). If you know anything about the Mexican culture you know that this is a very important birthday. So, as it happened, the family hired a band, invited all their friends and commenced celebrating the birthday. They had a microphone which they allowed the girl to sing what must have been her favorite song. She probably sang it a half dozen times. Unfortunately she wasn’t much of a singer and the music sounded all the same except for a variation of the tempo. This of course went on until 2 AM! Try sleeping through that. I didn’t work very well. Most everyone woke up the next morning blurry eyed and a little grouchy but we had a great story to tell.
The next stop…La Paz!
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