 |
|
|
 Travel & Outdoors | October 2005 
Quiet, Untrampled Loreto
 Stanton H. Patty - The Columbian
Loreto, Mexico - Magic happens on the sandy beach of Loreto Bay following the embers of a flaming sunrise. The sky changes from red to blush pink, then bold blue. Low-flying pelicans dive for seafood breakfasts. Dolphins roll in the surf. There may be a blue whale out there, too.
A Mexican gondolier steers his sightseeing skiff toward the beach and waves a greeting to passengers waiting on shore. Where is the music? It's a scene worthy of a grand crescendo. Mariachi, maybe?
Loreto - old in the chronicles of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, almost new on tourist maps. It's a quiet seaside village on the Sea of Cortes, where visitors are not swamped with street vendors bearing silvery jewelry and silly sombreros. Not yet.
There is jetliner service to Loreto from Southern California, and the occasional cruise ship drops anchor for an afternoon of sightseeing. But the "international" airport terminal here is so tiny that baggage-handlers slow-shuttle luggage to a carousel large enough for only a dozen or so suitcases at a time. And cruise passengers mostly are on their own for touring and shopping. Loreto is not like Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan or other Mexican resorts. Not yet.
What may change it is a real-estate development called The Villages of Loreto Bay, in the Nopolo area, about seven miles south of Loreto town. A Canadian company, the Trust for Sustainable Development, has joined with FONATUR, Mexico's federal tourism agency, to build vacation homes on more than 8,000 acres of property at Nopolo. Sponsors say it will take 12 to 15 years to complete the eco-friendly project, with units priced from $200,000-plus to more than $1 million.
FONATUR had a key role in developing Cancun, Los Cabos, Ixtapa and other popular visitor destinations.
The Loreto Bay resort plan appears so promising that Alaska Airlines has opened twice weekly flights between Los Angeles International and Loreto. The trip takes only about 90 minutes. Meanwhile, untrampled Loreto is as peaceful as an afternoon siesta.
Well-heeled sport-fishers have known the area for years. They travel here to hook marlin, sailfish, dorado and other catches. Local guides and fishermen charter their pangas - open, skiff-like boats with outboard motors - for the fishing trips. The stable, little pangas also are available for whale-watching and sightseeing excursions.
Continued sport-fishing was assured a few years ago by establishment of the Loreto Bay National Marine Park. Big commercial fishing vessels are banned from park waters - and out to more than 20 miles offshore. Now once-depleted fish stocks are thriving. So are resident dolphins and several species of whales, including the big blues.
Some of the best whale-watching is in Magdalena Bay, about 60 miles south and west of Loreto, on the Pacific Ocean side of the Baja Peninsula. Cecelia Haugen, owner of C&C Ground Services and Tours, specializes in Magdalena Bay whale-watching trips from mid-December through February. Launch point on the bay is the town of Lopez Mateos (named for a former president of Mexico). The all-day tours include motorcoach transportation; two hours among huge gray whales on a 22-foot-long, fiberglass pangas; and a local-restaurant lunch featuring lobster, shrimp and other seafood. Meat and vegetarian dishes can be substituted.
"I work hard, but I love what I do," Haugen says. "I am a single mom who has raised four successful kids."
The gray whales arrive in Magdalena Bay in December after a summer of feeding in Arctic seas. It is here, in the warm waters of Baja, that they give birth to their calves. By late February, most of the grays are on their way north again, covering a migration route of about 5,000 miles along the Pacific Coast to the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas rimming Alaska.
"Wow!" a visitor exclaims. "I had no idea the whales were so sociable."
Close, very close, encounters with the grays begin less than 15 minutes from the port of Lopez Mateos. Mother whales, perhaps 40 feet long, cruise close to the tourist-laden pangas. Some present their babies for the visitors.
"Some babies," says Cecilia Haugen. "Newborns can be 5 feet long!"
Patting the barnacled backs of the adult whales is like greeting affectionate puppies back home; they seem to enjoy the gentle touches.
A few whales raise their massive heads out of the water, as if to have a better look at the tourists. One curious gray appears to stand on its tail flukes - thrusting vertically in a maneuver known as "spy-hopping."
"Up periscope!" a visitor shouts with a chuckle.
Another seagoing outing in the Loreto area is a sightseeing cruise aboard El Don, a 69-foot charter yacht that roams Loreto Bay and the Sea of Cortes. Passengers sip Mexican beer and munch on chips with red-hot salsa as El Don journeys by bird cliffs and rookeries crowded with California sea lions.
Suggestion: Pack shorts and plenty of sun screen for the bright Baja sunshine, even in winter.
'Refreshingly local'
There's adventure aplenty for Loreto visitors. But save time for the history-proud town of Loreto.
Paul Frichtl, editor of Alaska Airlines magazine, describes little Loreto (pop. 11,000) as "refreshingly local." There are no trendy shops or cafes. Not yet.
Cobbled, tree-shaded streets lead to a town square with a handsome stone church - Mision de Nuestra Senora de Loreto (the Church of Our Lady of Loreto) - built by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century.
The first priests from Spain arrived here in 1697. Loreto soon became the first capital of the Californias, a vast Spanish-controlled territory stretching north through Mexico to what now is the Oregon border. And it was from Loreto that Father Junipero Serra, the tireless Franciscan priest, traveled north to San Diego to begin a chain of 21 missions extending to Sonoma in California's wine country. (Franciscans replaced the Jesuits in Baja in 1767, when Spain's emperor ordered the Jesuits expelled from Spanish colonies).
Visit Loreto's old mission church in late afternoon, when the last shafts of sunshine streak the cobbled streets and light the dome like a golden torch for a few moments. Then go around the corner from Our Lady of Loreto and find El Canipole, an open-air restaurant, featuring traditional Mexican dishes with chicken, lamb and other meats.
The owner, Sofia Rodriguez Helguera, is famous hereabouts for her mole, a chocolate-flavored sauce that takes almost two days to make. There's a tray just inside the front door with the more than two dozen ingredients, from spices to nuts, that Sofia blends for mole.
If you can't stay to dine, at least wait until sunset and admire the view of the mission church from El Canipole's courtyard. And when you say good-bye to Sofia, she likely will send you off with a smile and a bear hug.
Loreto has a sense of humor.
Local ladies have formed a chapter of the Red Hat Society, the fun-after-50 organization for women.
"We call ourselves the Red Hot Tamales," says Judy Leighton, a Loreto tour guide from England who decided to make her home here.
Judy also points out the town's only ATM machine, at the corner of Madero and Salvatierra, across from the Municipal Building. "It works most of the time," she says. "The odds are good."
Baggage inspection for arriving passengers at the Loreto airport is another kind of lottery. A customs officer invites you to push a button that controls a traffic light just like those at street intersections. If the light above the luggage counter turns red, then you must open your suitcase. If it is green, you're free to go.
The odds seem to be in the "house's" favor. But who cares?
Ole!
Stanton H. Patty, a Vancouver writer, is the retired assistant travel editor of The Seattle Times.
IF YOU GO:
Where: Loreto is on the Sea of Cortes, at about the halfway point of the Baja California Peninsula. The town is tucked between Loreto Bay and the close-by Sierra de la Giganta mountain range. Loreto (pronounced like Loretta, but ending with the letter "o") is 240 miles north of La Paz and 330 miles north of Cabo San Lucas. The Loreto airport is midway between the town of Loreto, which is north of the airport, and the resort community of Nopolo, to the south. Distance between Loreto and Nopolo is about seven miles.
Lodging: Camino Real Loreto, Baja, on Loreto Bay, in the Nopolo area. Rates begin at about $225 U.S., double. Phone: 800-722-6466. Internet: www.caminoreal.com.
Whale-watching: C&C Ground Services & Tours in Loreto. Price is $110 a person for all-day tours that include two hours of whale-watching in Magdalena Bay. Phone from the United States: 310-227-6522. E-mail: candclto@prodigy.com.mx. There is no internet site. The tour company also offers city tours and sport-fishing trips.
The Villages of Loreto Bay: Phone: 866-956-7386. Internet: www.loretobay.com.
Getting there: Alaska Airlines flies between Los Angeles International Airport and Loreto on Thursdays and Sundays. Flight time each way is about 90 minutes. Phone: 800-252-7522. Internet: www.alaskair.com. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us