Shore Time in Loreto

April 5-8

Kirk dropped us off at the Cabanas de Loreto run by the Jacksons, Jill and Rick, honorary cousins, naturally. Rick is a talented photographer whose printshop is on the premises. His photos, including astonishing shots of rays and dolphins leaping out of the water, birds in flight and local scenes decorate the rooms.

Strolling and riding on the Cabanas' free bikes(!!)  through Loreto, our quick impression was of a coastwise low key town that’s lovely and convenient for walking. The town had a malecon along the Sea with a wonderful estuary at the south end, though not much for beaches. The main street, named Salvatierra after the monk who originally settled the town, is just for walking. No Cars! We loved the tree topiary arches that provided shade and greenery along the way.

Our first Good Friday experience in walking the Stations of the Cross.

As it happened to be Good Friday, we found ourselves in a traffic jam caused by the re-enactment of Jesus’s walk to the crucifixion. The procession was led by 4 horsemen in Roman garb. This was definitely a first for Charlie and me. Watching the erection of three crosses with real people on them fascinated us. A rigger would be scandalized that there was only one block to pull up the cross of Jesus, no safety lines. Luckily no one was hurt during the tricky execution drama.

The backside of the 1744 church at San Javier.

As missions are a big attraction here and because we haven’t left the coast much, we rented a car and drove into the desert mountains to San Javier, a remote town at the headwaters of the Loreto River. The town was having a sort of indigenous festival we heard, but in fact not much was happening. Inside the church we saw the gold paneling carved in Mexico City with San Javier centered over the altar.

We did meet Erika, a friendly resident who used to be a kayak guide in Loreto, then married a local and is trying to learn to raise cash crops. She walked us through her farm telling us of her frustration in trying to research methods of agriculture. There is no internet up there.

Olive trees planted by the Spanish are still productive as well as popular shade trees.
Our guide, Erika, stopped here with us on the way to her farm.  

In Loreto the group Eco Allianza is trying to do environmental education with families and through the schools. They have started recycling plastics and found a company in Constitution that will take them. I had a nice conversation with the director. While we were talking, a US American walked into the headquarters and introduced himself as a birder, Tom Haglund. Living in Loreto for 15 years he had photographed and had put together a website of the birds of Baja, (www.bcsbirds.com) a wonderful resource. On Easter morning we decided to bypass the Mass and instead joined Tom for a fantastic birdwalk through the river outlet south of town. We saw almost 50 species, everything from grey thrashers, cactus wrens and a vermillion flycatcher to monk parakeets to most of the shorebirds in the area.

Charlie and I stopped at the huge Tianguis, aka Loreto’ s farmer and flea market on our way back to Puerto Escondito. It was really hot and the car’s air conditioning broke, but we managed to recover enough energy to hike up “Steinbeck’s Canyon” located across Highway 1 from the marina. We got good views, though not as far as the alleged lake up there.