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| Cute Burro |
Hilary - Bob suggested that we head out early this morning to the mission that is about 45 minutes into the mountains thus avoiding some of the heat of the day. We left Loreto at 6:30 AM with no breakfast but with promises of one later. The route to Mission San Francisco Javier Vigge Blaundo, #2, was straight forward as we followed the quite curvy 2-lane road up and down and around corners including a true hairpin turn. The road was mostly in excellent shape and paved all the way. We arrived just before 7:30 AM and as we turned into the area leading up to the mission, I was amazed that there was a lovely tree-lined rock paved road with small buildings on both sides. There is a whole community here as well as a farm and at least 3 restaurants. The mission is the second one built in the long list of missions established in Baja, Mexico and California. It was founded in1699. It remains one of the main sanctuaries of the peninsula demonstrated every December 2 when thousands of pilgrims come from many different parts of Mexico. |
| The mission |
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Some of the roses around the
Mission |
The church wasn’t open yet so we wandered behind it and down a slope where there is a 300 year old olive tree and a great vegetable garden being tended by a man with a machete.
He was using it to remove weeds which seemed to work pretty well. Bob was hunting for the Belding's Yellowthroat but we saw Hooded Orioles and a Northern Cardinal. There were great arrays of bougainvillea in many colors, a small water viaduct, a burro, a horse, a nice woman with whom Katy and I spoke when she asked if we were birding and if that was the right term.
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| Variety of bougainvillea |
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| Huge roots of 300 year old olive tree |
Heading back towards the parking area, we decided to get some breakfast in one of the restaurants where only one table was occupied. The man who was watering a plant outside and taking chairs from the back of a pickup truck was the man who came and took our orders too. There were many photos on the walls. The most impressive one was of a woman who was born in 1808 and died in 1933!
Two grey haired guys came in in their motorcycle gear to eat as well. This seems to be a thing as this is the second pair of older guys out on their bike adventures on this trip. The others were Canadian. These guys were speaking English but whether American or Canadian, we didn’t ask. We haven’t notice any young people doing such a trip maybe a retirement thing.
After we ate, the doors to the mission were open so we were able to go in and take some photos. There are stone sculptures decorating doorways, a massive gold wall behind the altar with 8 oil painting inserts and a unique ceiling decoration of an 8 pointed star. The gardens have roses, orange trees, palms among other plants.
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| Inside |
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| Ceiling detail |
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| Gold framed oil paintings |
We drove back to Loreto easily finding our Inn and a parking space in front. Katy and I wanted to go see the local Loreto mission and do a bit of shopping so we took our hats and water and went to see what we could find. Various map programs gave me different locations for the mission which seemed odd but we could tell where it should be and headed that way. We figured that we would see the bell tower without too much difficulty. Just a few blocks away, there is a tree line pedestrian walkway that we explored. We shortly found the mission and went in. This is the first mission founded (1697) and built in Baja so we especially wanted to see it. We have now seen 8 missions on this trip. Three of them are just remains of adobe but the others are fully functioning massive stone structures. One of the things that I find amazing is how large these buildings are for the time when they were built. They took years to construct but even then it was quite an undertaking. They aren’t just small rural churches but big buildings. Some have stone that was quite neatly cut and others used stone that was more crudely cut but fitted together well with some kind of mortar. It is hard to tell, of course, what was built originally and what might have been added or modified later.
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Inside the oldest mission -
The one in Loreto |
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| Map of all of the missions founded in Mexico |
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Interesting construction
Detail around a window |
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Every few blocks there was another circle in the street with
Different designs. The one in front of the mission had bells. |
Now was time for a bit of shopping. I was looking for a t-shirt and Katy wanted a new tortilla holder basket as her one from La Paz (50 years ago) is a bit on the worn side. We hadn’t seen any touristy shops along the malecón last night but we were now in a tourist shop area. I passed a few shops with typical t-shirt offerings but then saw one with much more creative designs. Katy and I both found shirts there and I got a mug as well. Katy had a recommendation for a shop whose name we could partially remember but we actually found it almost by accident. The power was going off and on so it got a bit hot in a couple of the shops but Katy got both a spoon rest and a beautiful tortilla holder basket - hand woven at a local ranch from agave.
We wandered towards the water to cool off but first managed to find an ATM - finally - and then a smoothie shop. We got excellent smoothies for lunch and found a bench in the shade. We made it back to the edge of the malecón but the wind really picked up so we headed back to the Inn. Our big decision now is to figure where to go for dinner.
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| One wall in the restaurant - Mi Loreto |
About 5:15, we walked back and showed Bob the pedestrian walkway and then the mission. There is a restaurant across the street called Mi Loreto and we opted to go there. It is colorfully decorated with painted chairs, different colored table cloths and napkins and various things on the wall. The menu turned out to have a number of of items that we hadn’t seen on other ones. We’ve been finding mostly the same things on many menus. Katy and Bob had Cuba Libres and I had a traditional Mojito (they had 3 other flavors). The waitress also brought us an amuse bouche - only the second one of the trip. Katy ordered tortilla soup and grilled fish. Bob ordered Arrachera with an aguacate (avocado) sauce and I ordered Mi Loreto enchiladas (3 enchiladas with different sauces - verde, roja and mole. We all enjoyed what we got but especially Bob as the aguacate sauce was excellent. He practically licked the plate clean. We walked back a few blocks taking a moment to go into the lobby of a beautiful hotel at which we had wanted to stay but didn’t since they had no off street parking. The hotel is the Posada de las Flores and has a stunning lobby. We made a plan for tomorrow which necessitates an even earlier start than this morning - leaving at 6AM. Bob wants to go back to the mission in Mulagé as the grounds have many sightings of the key bird he needs.
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