Rio Travelers: LORETO BAJA

Two weeks into the trip brought us to Loreto which is a small city on the Sea of Cortez side of Baja South. It is a fairly busy town with a full hook-up RV park which means we have water (sometimes), electricity (although the voltage can be high or low) and sewer. The problem with the park is that it keeps getting smaller every year as "gringos" decide to build homes to escape the cold weather of the U.S. and Canada winters. While in Loreto we took a drive into the mountains to visit the first of the missions built by the Jesuits to bring Christianity to the natives. This one was built in 1699. We also had a company sponsored dinner as well as a "LEO" (Let's Eat Out) at a very nice restaurant overlooking the water.

We also had a white elephant and two guests who really wanted the same gift were having a friendly discussion about who should have it. In the end, someone else took it home.

Loreto is also an area that the Mexico government tried to developed into a tourist area many years ago but initially did not take off like Cabo San Lucas or Cancun. When we were here in 2007 we explored an an area called Loreto Beach a ways south of town. You could see that it had been laid out for development but there were only several buildings. We even looked at a condo. Now growth in that area has exploded. When we drove through the area there was just condo after condo and most of the cars had Northern US states plates or Canadian plates. So the area is growing again.

Thanks to Jim Wilson for the pictures he contributed