Loreto

~ 17 July - 20 July 2019 ~

We left Ballandra early on Thursday, getting up and going by 7AM.It was just short motor over to Loreto about 5 miles, but we had a lot to do, so we started early.

Loreto is a what they call a “roadside” anchorage, which is basically an anchorage along a long uninterrupted section of coast. These anchorages are usually only day stops because there is no protection from the wave if the wind picks up. The shore at Loreto runs north south and the depths are quite shallow. We thought we might be luckily it was going to be calm for a few days and we hoped we could stay overnight.

The town of Loreto is beautiful town. Its one of the original settlements on the Baja Peninsular although it is rapidly growing as tourist by into this quaint area. Like most towns it has a small dinghy marina for Panaga's but we could use if we needed to. There is a little malacon area but the best part of the town is the main streets which are cobblestone, lined with date palms.

The first day, Paul dropped me off on the beach and went back out to the boat. I didn't think I would be able to work on the boat without feeling sick so I found a great cafe to work from - it had some a/c, a working espresso machine (not always easy to find!) and great internet. It was nice to be out of the heat for a little while. For the most part, I was the only one there all day. I asked if he had any food, but he said they just had desserts. Then he said he could probably make an omelet ( I think in the waffle maker or something). So he left the store, came back with 3 eggs, a hot dog and some cheese. And I had my omelet :) 75 pesos for the day!

I read in Steinbeck’s book that Loreto had had Italians mining there and we found plenty of pizza places - so we enjoyed ourselves! The first place we checked out was having all you can eat pizza for $7. It was great pizza too! Brick oven pizza! It was a little local resort with a pool but the pizza was good, although they started to slow down on bring us pizza which was a little un fair.

We finished off all our chores the next day. We were able to find a local laundry mat. On Baja there are small family laundry mats that do a great job for little cost so we alway try to support them. There are 2 major grocery stores in town so we got groceries for the next month or so. It was hard work in the heat, a reasonable amount of walking but we found there were some good Icecream places to enjoy.

That night we went out with our friends from Katannu for pizza again. This pizza was much better than last nights and it was inside with air conditioning so that was awesome. Again another brick oven!

We were enjoying Loretto so much we decided to stay for most of Saturday. We found a little restaurant that made Gorditas. They are kind of a cross between a pancake and tortilla. They are about 3 inches in diameter and about half an inch thigh. Then stuffed with mostly meat dishes cheese and lettuce. They were delicious and our first time every eating them. The place was cool as well. A family had setup a small with their tables and aare with a little shed for cooking. They had pot plants every where and in was just a nice clean (dirt floor though) area and they were super happy to serve us even though they spoke no english. We have a rule they if a lot of Mexicans are eating there the place must be good, and we had seen people coming and going from this place as we walked around doing our chores.

It was late on Saturday when we got back to the boat, it was only a few miles north to Coronado Island, but that was an hour less we would ahve to travel on Sunday, so we pulled up anchor and motored to Coronado Island.

It was nearly sunset when we arrived but we were only staying the night.