Streets of Loreto Part 2, Junclaito Beach, and Whales´Tales

We had a great time exploring Loreto. The city has been occupied since the 1600’s, and was the capital of Baja Sur until the 1800’s, when a hurricane destroyed most of the city and they decided that La Paz was a safer bet. The old, historic part of town has streets of cobblestone and interlocking cement tiles, lots of little shops and cafes, and just oozes charm. The mission is still there—Our Lady of Loreto—and is beautiful. We couldn’t go in on Saturday because of a funeral being held there. After the funeral mass, they loaded the casket into the back of a pickup truck, and piled all the flowers and wreaths on top of it. Then, with a police car escort, the truck made its way slowly through town , presumably to the cemetery, with all the mourners walking alongside and behind it. On Sunday morning before we left town, I walked over to the mission hoping to go to mass, but I was about 45 minutes early, so I just went in and said hi to God, and left. Other great things about Loreto: a bakery 2 blocks from our RV park, a bookstore/fabric shop (the fabric was very poor quality, so I didn’t buy any, but it was still fun to come across a fabric shop in Mexico), and excellent fish tacos. Actually, we’ve eaten fish tacos in almost every town we’ve stopped in, and I haven’t had a bad one yet. They sell everywhere for 10 pesos (one dollar) each.

We didn’t go very far when we left Loreto—just about 14 miles down the coast for a couple of days of dry camping on Juncalito Beach. There were quite a few RV’s parked there, both right on the beach and tucked away in some palm trees, but we were able to find a secluded spot at the north end of the beach and settled in for a couple of days of relaxing.We had actually planned on spending only one night there, but I got a touch of tourista, so we stayed an extra day. How I got it is a mystery—although we had forgotten to add bleach to our water that day, all I did was brush my teeth with it. Steve used the same water I did with no ill effects, and his stomach is usually way more sensitive than mine. But Imodium did its magic, and we were on the road again.

We left Juncalito Beach yesterday, still heading for LaPaz, but took a side trip to San Carlos, on the Pacific side, to take a whale-watching tour. The one RV park in San Carlos has closed down, and we were wandering around wondering what to do because we were advised that it wasn’t safe to boondock on the beaches around there, when we stumbled upon the whale-watching operation. The owner, Fito Gonzalez, generously offered to let us stay in the parking lot there. So, after making reservations for an 8 a.m. whale-watching tour, we moved in. Later in the evening, after he had closed up and everyone had gone home for the day, we were visited by the local policia, who were out patrolling, and, although they didn’t speak English, made it clear that this was private property and we couldn’t camp there. I explained to them in my best Spanish (which isn’t saying much) that we were booked for a whale-watching tour at “ocho manana,” and that Fito had given permisio for us to stay acqui. Miraculously, I was understood AND believed!

This morning (January 31st, I think), dawned bright and sunny, with no wind and calm seas. We climbed into a panga (an open boat that looks sort of like a driftboat) with a single woman from England, a vacationing Mexican from the mainland and Luis, our panga driver, and headed out into Bahia de Magdelena to look for whales. It took about an hour to get out to where the whales were, and then the fun began! First, we started spotting spouts off in the distance, then an occasional dark back, and some tails. Before long, there was whale action all around us, and we could see them clearly. Most of the time, the whales were 30 or so feet away, but some came as close as 15 or 20 feet, and one swam right next to our panga and came up about 8 feet away. It was VERY cool.

We left San Carlos after the tour and drove the 45 minutes back to Ciudad Constitucion, back on the highway, Mex 1, that goes to La Paz. We camped in a little RV park just off the highway. It’s an interesting place. The owners, a British guy and his Mexican wife live on the premises, as do what appear to be her parents. The parents have chickens and peacocks, who parade around the grounds. Berta, the woman owner, speaks excellent English, and told me all about herself. She was a secretary at a company in this city, and met her husband when he came here to work for that company. They’ve been married for 11 years. They have an adorable 6 year old son who looks totally Latino, and I did a double-take when I asked him his name, and he replied “Nigel.” He is bilingual, and speaks unaccented English and correctly accented Spanish.