Whenever I think of Loreto, I get happy. I have many fond memories of this little town, and each visit is a little nicer than the last: It’s a lovely entrance to town, green grass greets the caravan as we roll on down to the malecon. It’s a left turn at the bottom, and….. oops, there are cops and they say “no can do” when I ask to get by and along the blvd. But after only a little pleading, they get on the radio and tell the guys down the road to get out of the way to let us by. Nice municipal police here.
And so it’s into Rivera del Mar campground for 2 nights. Yolanda greets me as usual, and there’s lots of room for us this late in her season. A quick excursion around town and shopping makes a pleasant afternoon pass quickly, and before you know it, it’s a hosted dinner at the Goggling Dolphin restaurant.
Ubaldo is an attentive host, and the musicians are in great form tonight. Lots of good old songs mixed in with these guys variants of R&R classics. I enjoyed this evening, and I believe the group had a good time too!
Morning brings our excursion up the mountain to San Javier mission. It’s a 45 minute drive up there, with spectacular scenery, a twisting turning dizzying road, but the mission is well worth it. A true jewel, this mission is well preserved and leaves one with a sense of awe over the very feat of its existence way up here in the mountains. We gather around the ancient olive tree at the back of the gardens, and admire the irrigation systems installed by those missionaries so many years ago.
On the way back down, the van (Elly) begins to show symptoms of transmission troubles, and by the time we’re at Del Borrachos for lunch it’s apparent that Elly isn’t going to make it any further on this tour without repair.
Poor old Elly, she’s had a tough three years of ripping up and down Baja hauling the castle on her back, and now she decided to have a rest. There are lots of places that are worse than Loreto for a bit of R&R (Remove and Repair) so its not all bad.
Yolanda, back at the park, recommends Ruben as the guy to go see, so Elly and I limp up there to see him. He doesn’t speak a word of English, so I struggle away trying to explain the symptoms with charade like gyrations and much pointing. We go for a road test, and he’s asking me questions that I think I answered without insulting his ancestors too much.
Back at the shop, Ruben is suddenly speaking English. The wiley old dog was testing the new recruit it seems. Well it looks like I passed that test, and he has Elly to play with for nearly 2 weeks until we return after Semana Santa.
Semana Santa: Holy Week. Mexicans just don’t work during this time, it’s all about camping on beaches, drinking, eating, drinking, driving, and more drinking. It can make for harrowing experiences on the roads, as decisions are made a little more haphazardly than usual. Thankfully, we’ll be off the highways for lots of the time, enjoying the sights and sounds of Mexico.
No large vehicles are available for rent that can tow the trailer that is house and home for us (Foxy), in fact there are no vehicles at all for rent due to Semana Santa, so again we rely on Yolanda’s contact book for help. Unfortunately, no vehicles can be found, and it’s looking bad.
Pat comes to the rescue with his kind offer to tow Foxy behind his motorhome. He checks his tow rating, and we’re within specs, so this is the plan! Soon the newly formed unit #1.7 is rolling out of Loreto and we’re off southward bound once more.
This is really cool, because I don’t have to drive, and all I do is chat with Annie, and play with the dogs. It’s like a holiday, as Diane carries on calling traffic from the front seat, and Pat twists the steering wheel with aplomb.
It’s Cuidad Constitution that we’re looking for, and Palapa 206. Mike is away with Nigel, racing his dune buggy, so we don’t get to see them this time, but Bertha looks after us just fine. It’s a hot day, but it cools off nicely for a decent night sleep. Morning shows us a very heavy fog, and it’s slow going in very limited visibility for some 20 miles before it clears. We get to witness some interesting driving by the locals in this fog, but all ends well, and soon enough we’re in glorious sunshine once again.
We’re heading to Rancho Verde, skipping our scheduled beach time because of the Santa Semana. We’ll look at that beack on our return leg.
We arrive to El Triunfo at 12:30, and find it’s pretty busy, but they find us food eventually, and it’s great. A nice stop along the way.
Rancho Verde is nice and cool, not humid, and the birds are here. Many varieties of tweets are greeting us, all around us is life in bloom.
It’s quite high up here, nearly 2000 feet, and so the nights are always deliciously cool, making for a good night’s sleep.
Then we’re off the next morning to the Tropic of Cancer, and photo ops. Finally tropical!, you just knew it would happen!
Quickly we get through SAn Jose, and driving along the 25km between San Jose and Cabo, one is amazed by all the new construction along the sea. It’s just phenomenal!
Soon, we are all shopping at Walmart, while I walk over to get the rented van that we’ll be using for excursions during our 3 day stay here in gringoland.
Driving into the RV Park, Villa Serena, we find it completely empty: it’s all for Baja Amigos!
Our excursion today is a trip to the glass blowing factory, and a tour of back streets and the harbour.
our evening dinner is at Vags, or as they would like it “J&P’s Restaurant”. Peter is there to help us all with the menu, and great food comes out of the kitchen, as it always does here. People are always amazed, we just smile and nod 🙂
It’s a busy night however, and there’s not really any room for dancing, but we all had fun anyway. Thanks Peter!
