Welcome to Loreto!

(Sunday, January 11, 2009)

(Note: these next few entries have been written over the past few days—sorry to post them all at once! Our access to internet has been pretty limited, and so as of yet we have no pictures of Loreto uploaded. We should soon! Scroll down a bit and start reading bottom to top….)


We got in last night around 11:30, after a frustrating bus ride with a driver who stopped for 35 minutes to eat dinner and gossip with the restaurant staff while all of his passengers sat on the bus, watching “Crash” in Spanish for the second time in a row. After exchanging annoyed looks with other passengers, I finally went and politely asked him what time we would be arriving in Loreto.

We checked into the Hotel Junipero, a spare but nice place right across from the historic mission, a fact we appreciated at first but which lost its charm when the bells began clanging at 5:30 in the morning. We’re told that only happens on Sundays, so we’re going to tempt fate for another night.

Loreto is wonderful so far, if a bit touristy. It’s lush and green with palm trees, and has an untamed air about it, as though the city is resisting development into resorthood.

The streets and sidewalks are paved with false cobblestones, drawn and sculpted into wet concrete—on occasion one stumbles across footprints that mar the illusion. There are shops with trinkets and prices in American dollars, signs in English. There are luxury hotels whose “Activity Directors” wander the streets with a predatory air, hoping to lure tourists into a timeshare with the bait of free gourmet breakfast and the chance to try some activities: “VIP Events.”

But right next to these are vacant lots fenced with ratty palm-leaf mats, where the young fan palms crowd into the empty space and the coconut palms tower above, maybe a rusty wheel well or abandoned shack to remind you that humans make their mark here, too.


We had a delicious breakfast and discovered a little new & used bookstore—El Caballo Blanco—where a nice old man sold me a book on the plants of Baja California. Look forward to being thrilled by my newfound discoveries, such as this one: Date Palms and Coconut Palms (both are introduced species) are the only two feather-leaf palms in Baja Califoria, the rest being fan-leaf palms. Cool, huh? I can’t wait to tell you about the different types of cactuses.



Besos,
Jessie