Loreto Area Excursions

Tied safely to a mooring ball in Puerto Escondido, we rented a vehicle for a road trip to San Javier.  This spectacular, winding 1 hour drive through mountains and canyons led us to San Javier Mission (founded in 1699 with the stone temple built 1744-1748) tucked in a picturesque oasis of palms. 

We explored the first missionary orchard (where the first olive trees of the Americas were planted), walked around the old irrigation channels, and marveled at rows of grape, olive, and citrus trees that were planted in the 18^th century.  These were some very old tree friends.  As we walked through the cobblestone streets of town, roosters crowed, Spanish music played, and goat bells tinkled from the hillsides; the whole scene was classic Mexico.  Lunch was freshly made tamales followed by fruit-filled empanadas from local vendors, enjoyed on a bench in front of the old Mission.  We left with a bag of San Javier treasures for the boat – olive oil, wine, citrus fruits, and mango jam.  Cora couldn’t resist a little volcanic rock carved pig that she named Pickles. 

Into Loreto, we walked the waterside malecon and found a brewpub with the best beer we’ve had in Mexico – El Zopilote Rattlesnake IPA.  Back at the marina, live music played as we dinked back out to our boat, stars above and phosphorescence below.

Before we said farewell to Gpa and Gma, we wandered around Loreto again where Calder was ecstatic to go to a fishing store, Jen was ecstatic to find a used bookstore, Cora was ecstatic to get a Chai Frappuccino, and we again enjoyed some street vendor pollo mole tamales while sitting in front of the Loreto Mission. We loaded up on groceries (2 different stores and one farmer’s vehicle) for our upcoming visit with Petersburg friends arriving soon.  At the harbor, we enjoyed a clean boat, clean selves, and clean laundry – the simple things!

We decided to sneak away for a couple of nights to nearby Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen to Cora’s dismay, as the swell wrapped around making for an uncomfortable anchorage as compared to our previous cozy and very still mooring ball. 

After catching up on school, we enjoyed hiking and exploring on shore, Cora basking like a lizard in the soft sand. 

That night I experienced some unfortunate food poisoning (bad half-n-half we think), as the rest of my family realized another bonus of catamarans – hiding out in the other hull watching a movie.  Food poisoning in a rolly anchorage is not a fun experience and I spent the next few days recovering.  We did have an enjoyable downwind sail back to Puerto Escondido with some beautiful bottlenose dolphins leaping with us (“They are just SO playful!” Cora exclaimed). 

The kids explored the bay’s mangroves in the dinghy, declaring our dinghy engine “the sea cow” (another Steinbeck reference), as they rowed back to us.  We had a “Mexico moment,” when I was cooking a grocery store chicken and found not only the normal giblets in a bag, but also the feet – why waste those?!

Finally recovered, we celebrated by a stunning hike in the red-toned Tabor/Steinbeck Canyon (Sierra de la Giganta Range), walking along the dry river bed of smooth rocks, then jumping from ginormous boulder to boulder until our crew of two families decided we’d gone far enough, as not all of us felt comfortable with a few steep pitches and a vertical rope climb of 20 feet.   The following are photos from the hike that day:

Back to the boat, we excitedly await the arrival of the Whitacre family from Petersburg; we love sharing this life with our friends and family.  A journey becomes even more beautiful when it is shared.