6/28/2011 - actually 6/21/2011 - a taste of Loreto

OK, I admit it. We've been back from the fishing trip for a couple of days but I just haven't felt like blogging. But, I decided that today, I'd just plan on spending the afternoon writing blogs. So, even though they may show up over the course of the next couple of days, they were all written today, June 28.

6/21/2011:

We'd been planning on getting in to Loreto pretty soon to see what it was all about.

It's something like 14 miles from Puerto Escondido so it's a bit more than we want to walk. You can get there by taxi. The cost for a taxi is normally around $600 pesos round trip. The driver will escort you around town and wait while you're shopping, etc. If you have no idea where anything is, this is a decent, though spendy, way to go. For about $500 pesos, you can rent a car which is OK although you have to figure the town out yourself. Not sure what the bus costs but you catch it out on Highway 1, a 10-15 minute walk from the marina. There aren't any buses in the morning (except for that part of the morning when it's still dark) but, after noon they seem to come by every hour or so. Then, there's the thumb, which, I'm told, is a reasonable alternative. All this to say that you need to put a little thought into your Loreto trip.

Jay was under the impression that a fellow cruiser with a car was going to give us all a ride in "either Monday or Tuesday" but, when Tuesday arrived with no word, he kind of gave up on that. Well, he went ashore Tuesday morning and, somehow, got to talking with a taxi driver. The guy wanted the standard $600 but Jay told him that he wasn't some rich gringo and there was no way he could afford that. Ultimately, the cost got down to $400 and he called to see if we were up for it. We wre, indeed, so we headed ashore.

Loreto is a very pretty little town. The taxi let us off in the area around the mission and would be back for us at 2:00. We walked around, had some mocha frappes, visited a farmacía, and a couple of grocery stores.

Look at the size of the mortises and tenons in this door:

Now that's my kind of carpentry!

Jay's favorite place to eat in Loreto is Mexico Lindo so we stopped there for lunch. The food was excellent.

The complimentary chips and salsa was more like a mini nacho plate:

Jay had tostados de pollo:

I had chiles rellenos con carne:

And Lulu, not feeling real well, had sopa de tortillas:

But the real draw of this place, besides the excellent food, was this guy:

He's an amazing artist. I'm ashamed to say that I don't remember what he said his name was. All that design you see is actually made up of what must be literally million of seed beads. And he doesn't have a pattern drawn out, he's just winging it as he goes along.

This is all made of beads just glued down. It's incredible. He also covers cow skulls with beads.

It was very inspiring. I can't imagine the patience required.

Anyway, we really liked Loreto and plan to return soon to spend a couple of days exploring.