Loreto - February 1, 2015

Loreto is also a tender port.  We arrived at 8:00 and went ashore at 9:30.  It was mostly sunny, but still rather cool, especially along the water.  It had rained recently, so everything was muddy. 

Loreto is a very small town, the location of the first permanent settlement on the Baja peninsula.  We walked along the Malecon, then went into the neighborhood. 

We spotted a hummingbird feeder on a balcony, and while we waited to see if anything appeared, a gringo came along on a bike.  He knew the local birds and directed us to the estuary for some nice shore birds.  And darned if we didn't see the Asian woman having her photo taken along the beach.  We figured either she's a celebrity or she thinks she is.

We walked back through town and saw the church, with a bell that was sent from Spain in 1750.

After walking through the stalls of tacky tourist stuff we returned to the ship in time for lunch.  We had 12 bird species at this stop, mostly shorebirds. We never did see the hummingbird that is endemic here, the Xantus.'