Thursday, June 16, 2011

0627, Thu, 061611. We spent a nice day in Loreto. We headed in right after morning routines and found a small but nice marina. There is a little breakwater along an otherwise straight waterfront made for the local pangas. We saw another dinghy so we headed over there. It turned out to belong to Pandora, but we never saw them in town. Loreto is where Padre Juan Maria Salvatierra established the first mission in 1677. Later, in 1769, Padres Gaspar Partola and Junipero Serra headed north to establish the well known chain of missions throughout California. There used to be a series of bells all along the route throughout CA lining the Camino Real (most have been stolen). We found one of these distinguished bells in the central plaza. Loreto became the center of business for Baja California but business was later moved to La Paz due to a devastating hurricane in 1892.
Town was very clean. The streets were all swept and most of the buildings were in good shape, clean, and well painted. We enjoyed walking down the streets (stamped concrete to look like cobblestone) with arches made from ficus trees along the way. They have lots of palm trees around also. It was a hot day, but with all the greenery it eased the heat. We found the Fruiteria and the ISSSTE (government subsidized) grocery, but that was for later. We toured a few gift shops and tried to see the mission museum. It was Wednesday and the lady at the desk (in Spanish of course) was pointing to the sign that said they were closed on Monday. We smiled trying to figure where the problem was. We finally figured they were closed this morning. On the way out Sue asked why they didn't clean on the day they were closed and I said, because no one is at work that day. We headed over to the coffee shop and enjoyed a Frappe, checked out the ATM, and missed a show of photography. Sue had seen a photo show in the lobby of the city hall earlier and I made the decision to see it on our way back. Sue lead the way to the spot and no pictures. I guess the show was over, ha. In our tour we came across the tourist information booths that seem to be around these areas. They are now a way to hook people in to sell Condos. Being the only people around the guy targeted us. He asked if we were off a boat. We were curious how he could tell and he said it was just our look. Of course the tan gives us away and then we started looking at ourselves and figured the West Marine Bag might be a give away also. Funny how it shows so much. We did enjoy our time spent at the coffee shop watching the people go by, lots of gringos, then toured the streets some more, hitting Café Ole for lunch. Finally time to hit the stores. Not knowing who sold what, we went to the grocery first, then over to the Fruiteria, then back to the grocery and back over to the Fruiteria. One store had the groceries, no fruit (we didn't notice that the first trip) then the other only had two dozen eggs so we went to the other to get eggs but they didn't have any. Luckily they were only a block apart, but the police officer directing what little traffic there was down at the corner was getting to know us. With full packs and lots of sight seeing we were done and heading back to Neos.
In the late afternoon the wind was blowing opposite the current making for a rough ride for a couple of hours but it all calmed down by evening and another Bond. Tim Dalton stared as 007 in Living Daylights. He lands a spot on our score board just behind the famous three for having what it takes to be James Bond….more later..

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