We anchored in front of Loreto. Conditions were perfect, even Earl had no qualms about leaving his boat at anchor. We left our dingy in the small boat harbor, which is really for small boats, like pangas and boats under 28 feet. Another boater helped us tie up. His boat was a 23 foot sailboat, appropriately called Speck. He had spent lots of time in the area and was a well of information. Most importantly, the weekly farmer’s market was being held in that direction and his favorite restaurant was Café Ole. Just then, his wife showed up to tell him that no internet cafés were open, so we were able to return a favor and offer them the use of ours on our boat later. We found the farmers’ market and bought all we could carry, including eggs, one of which did not survive the trip home. Then we checked out Café Ole. It was very simple, you placed your order at the counter and picked it up when ready. It was also very good and pretty cheap. We stopped in a Budget and arranged to rent a Jeep the next day. I wanted to visit a mission about 20 miles away in the mountains. According to the rental car people, and the guide book, we needed a four wheel drive car.
That afternoon our boaters from Speck came over. As always, we found interesting stories. This couple, Bath and Gary, are from Eugene and have a small stained glass business. Their children are grown, so they had built a mother in law apartment onto their house and were living there while renting out the house. The mother in law apartment is 300 feet . Since the house is for sale we were able to see pictures and it is amazing how liveable 300 square feet looked. Obviously they don’t mind small spaces.
Although we would have been fine overnight in front of Loreto, we ran 8 miles across to Isla Carmen and a lovely anchorage called Balandra, then the next day we headed for Puerto Escondido. Puerto Escondido is an extraordinary anchorage, almost totally enclosed by hills and incredibly protected. There is a small Singular marine, small at least in available tie ups. All Singular have identical shore facilities, which are very nice. Singular controls the entire port and has installed many mooring buoys. The charge for use of the buoys is small – the same charge applies to anchored boats. In return we had the use of the facilities, including the internet. There is a good sized semi permanent community of cruisers and an active cruiser club with a large DVD lending library and book exchange. We had dinner at the restaurant at the marina. The proprietor, a Mexican named Peter, had spent two years in Cuba and made killer mojitos.
The next day we took our car into Loreto and stocked up on groceries and wine. The only major disappointment was the absence of ice cream. Then we went to pick up the Esslingers at the airport. The airport building is only 7 months old, and there is a small eatery there, manned by none other than Mojito Peter. As usual it seemed to take forever for our guests to get through the Mexican formalities. There are only 4 international flights a week into Loreto, so I guess the officials like to stretch out the process.
Yesterday we took off to go up the mountain to visit the mission of San Javier which is reputed to be one of the most beautiful of the missions as well as one of the best preserved. It was built in 1740 and virtually everything for it was carried up into the mountains by donkey. Well maybe we would have done better with donkeys than with the jeep. The first 12 miles were paved and pretty good, except where the road had been washed out or the edges undercut and collapsing. It is very rugged country and we climbed up quite a way. Then the paving stopped. As Alaskans we are no strangers to unpaved roads, and, in fact, we have found a good gravel road good going at 45 mph. The signs had warned us that this road was not ‘for high speed’. This was no gravel road, in fact, it was not a dirt road. It was a rock road and when, after a couple of minutes, we were told it would be the same for another 12 miles, we decided to skip the mission and head back down the mountain to Loreto.
On my to do list for Loreto, apart from sightseeing, was to get an orange juicer and a bag of oranges. We stopped at a hardware store, which, while not impressive from the outside, seemed to have everything, include a huge selection of stainless steel screws for Earl. I explained that I ‘wanted something to make orange juice’ and was showed quite a fancy and large counter top model for about $20. Storage is always an issue, so I asked for something smaller and cheaper and was presented a small plastic reamer, which was just what I had in mind. Later we stopped by a fruit store and bought a large bag of oranges for not much money, and I spied another juicer, a hand operated aluminum model which I bought for $3. Turns out, it works wonderfully as we have found to our delight.
Before touring the town mission, we stopped at the Café Ole and all enjoyed more lunch than we needed. The fish tacos were huge and Earl loved his. Then Louise and I were allowed a little wandering around time, long enough to view the church. There is a small museum, but it was closed for lunch and we were not allowed to wait for it to open. ( Welcome to touring with Earl.) Loreto is quite a nice small town, pretty streets and not many tourists. We enjoyed our short stay, then back to Puerto Escondido and off to Honeymoon Cove on Isla Dazante, just 4 miles away, for the night. We are off and heading north, hoping to find the whales and porpoises we saw the other day to show off to the Esslingers.
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