Dias 9 & 10: Loreto, BCS, Mexico

Our original plan when we left Mulege was to camp on a beach on Bahia Concepcion.  But our supplies were low because we couldn't find a decent supermarket to restock our pantry, and as we came down the hill overlooking the northernmost beach we saw the Baja Amigos tour group there.  There was space for us, but we figured it would be less crowded on our return north.  So instead, we surveyed the many beachside campgrounds along the Bahia as we headed south, deciding which ones we will visit on our return through this area (there are two different campsites that appeal to us).

So we decided to stop in Loreto, which is about 90 miles south of Mulege.  Along the way there, we came upon the scene of an accident, where a semi had somehow crashed, leaving the tractor straddling the steel guard rail and the trailer dangling down a steep cliff.  We suspect that the trailer was empty, since it would appear otherwise that gravity would have pulled it and the tractor over the edge.  After passing the site, we saw two heavy duty wreckers heading north from Loreto, and can only imagine the traffic delays that occurred once they went to work trying to winch that trailer back up the cliff.  (We just know that after a while there was nobody overtaking and passing us.)

We are camped at Rivera Del Mar (290$, power, water, hot showers, free wi-fi), a small, but very well kept RV park situated in a residential neighborhood in Loreto.  The Baja Amigos arrive here tomorrow, and this place is tiny enough that I find it hard to imagine how they will all get wedged in here (it is almost worth staying another night just to see that).

The planners that I know would find Loreto interesting.  Keeping in mind that this is a residential neighborhood, situated behind the RV Park is a Crossfit studio that plays loud music from early morning to noon and then again from late afternoon to late into the night.  That and the RV park are uses that seem somewhat incongruous next to what for most people is their largest financial investment: their home.  On the other hand, across the street from the park is a very small fast-food Chinese restaurant and just down the street is a tiny laundry service, both of which would likely be convenient amenities for the neighborhood.  But I suspect the apparent lack of zoning has an important benefit - it keeps land prices low, since there is always an adequate supply of land for any particular use.  It would be the availability of infrastructure that would dictate whether a particular, more intense use is feasible in a given location.  That, and the demand for whatever is being offered.

A pickup with loud speakers plies the Malecon.

It has taken us a while to adjust to the nighttime noise levels here in Mexico, and so are only just now starting to get some good sleep.  In most places we've stayed, crowing roosters and barking dogs are the main noise sources.  And at times there are enough coyotes to make quite a racket.  In larger towns, there are a variety of vehicles with large loud speakers mounted on their roofa, blaring some sort of advertising all over town, often until late at night or early in the morning.  We find that by running our fan at night it usually creates sufficient white noise to cover all but the most of these obnoxious noise sources.  But it is good that we aren't late sleepers.

Loreto has been around since the late 1700s, so there is some interesting architecture here, and another old mission church (the oldest and head mission church on the peninsula).  And the area around the main square has some attractive streets lined with small trees that provide some deep shade.

An ice cream vendor struggles to get up a shallow grade to the main square.

The government agency responsible for gentrifying various Mexican resort cities like Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan has also invested here, though so far it seems that the city is off of most folks' radar.  The Malecon (the waterfront esplanade, where the LORETO sign is located) and new harbor would seem to be the visible results of those efforts, as would the flight from Alaska Airlines that we saw land here today.  There is a also a big nearby hotel, The Desert Inn, that was built under the program.

The big attraction here is the Marine Park around the offshore islands, a major snorkeling, diving and kayaking destination.  The waters are said to be clear for more than 40 feet down, and there is lots of marine life.  Since it is currently unseasonably hot here (it has cooled to the low 90s in the afternoon), taking a boat tour over to the Park presents a logistical challenge for us (due to having to leave the dog unattended in the heat), so unless it cools off considerably we won't be able to do so.

Environmental education is prevalent since the Marine Park has been established.

But a stroll down the Malecon was interesting enough, as there were hundreds of blues crabs of all sizes crawling over the rocks, with some even jumping several feet from rock to rock.  Even here the waters were clear enough to see plenty of fish in the bahia.  And just past the marina is a public beach where Lana can play fetch in the crystal clear waters.  She has never been a great swimmer, so we tried putting her life vest on (a vestige of our kayaking days), hoping it would make her more bouyant.  It was perhaps marginally effective.  If wearing it meant she could continue to play ball (we always worry that she'll ingest too much salt water because she sits so low in the water), she wasn't going to complain.  But afterward it was clear the she had indeed taken in too much salt water, as she later drank lots of freshwater and then peed prodigious amounts.  At one point she was clearly uncomfortable, which was almost certainly being caused by a distended bladder.

There are no large super mercados here in town, so our trip to get groceries and cash required us to visit both of the larger mercados, plus a mini-mart, in order to get everything that we needed.  But at least we will know where to do our shopping when we pass through here again in a week or two.  We also learned that there is a good, low traffic road for us to get some cycling in near here - the road to San Javier.  So it is likely that we will spend more time here on our return north, perhaps staying here more than once.

A while back I mentioned that we bought a four liter bottle of red wine for $4, or a buck a liter.  It is OK, but it is sweeter than I like my wine, so we went shopping for a replacement.  During our search, in one of the stores we came across "Liquor de Caña" in 5 liter jugs for about $3 (we didn't buy any - apparently it is a 40-50 proof liquor make from cane sugar).  We eventually found one liter bottles of dry wine for $2.