Kayaking Loreto to La Paz

Our kayak trip didn't turn out to be the epic 100 miles of paddling that it could have been.  The wind blew and the waves grew so we only paddled about 35 miles. But who can really complain about spending a week traveling to beautiful beaches with warm ocean temperatures in mid-November?
After a short warm up paddle on Sunday we started our paddle Monday morning. The view from our window Monday morning was beautiful.

The view from the front of the kayak was great

and the view in the back was pretty good too.

We paddled about 14 miles that day, but that was the longest paddle we had.We settled into our room with another gorgeous view.

  After that our paddling time got shorter and shorter, but we did some interesting side trips on land. We actually spent a lot of time hanging out with the other paddlers at our deluxe camping tables. The food was great.

This is possible the house that John Steinbeck stayed in when he heard the legend of the Pearl, which he used in his book. At any rate the owner of this house made a fortune in pearls and lost it all.

Another beautiful sunrise.

Here we are actually in the kayaks,

but after a short paddle we were exploring on land again.  This time we visited a salt mine that was really salt evaporation ponds. Calvin is standing by a pile of salt.

Another beautiful sunset

One of the highlights of the trip was snorkeling with sea lions in a marine preserve. 

We also saw several eels swimming in the middle of the morning

and lots of beautiful fish.

Here is our group at the final dinner.

A pretty good way to spend a week in November.

Loreto and La Paz

On our recent trip to Mexico we spent the first day in Loreto and the last day in La Paz. We have been to Loreto several times, but I saw a few new things or things I didn't remember. It was a busy town that weekend.  A telenovela filming in the town square on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday, so our hotel was overbooked and we ended up staying in a rather nice hotel closer to town.

I noticed this memorial as we walked through town.  The beginning of the El Camino Real.  

The beginning of the road also means that Loreto was the first mission on the road. 

I believe there have been several reconstructions over the years, but Our Lady of Loreto was established in 1697.

The interior was quite simple with an interesting ceiling.

At the end of our kayak trip we stayed an extra couple of days in La Paz. We stayed in a very nice little two room apartment a  few blocks from the main tourist drag.  It had a delightful shady courtyard with a very cold pool.

Close by was the La Paz cathedral. It is still in very active use, but we managed to sneak in for a quick look with a crowd from a tour bus.

It has also gone through a number of renovations over the years.  The bell towers are new additions that weren't added at the same time. It also had a fairly simple interior.

I liked the stain glass windows, but they looked fairly modern to me.  The stain glass was on split windows that could be opened to let a breeze in.  This time of year they were all open and had fans in the bottom half of the window.

Most of the attractions in La Paz are found on the Sea of Cortez, but since we had just spent a week on the Sea of Cortez we mostly just walked around town enjoying the food.

I noticed that unlike many tourist towns in Mexico that we have visited almost none of the servers spoke English.  We did a lot of pointing and pantomiming, but we were fed well.

In the evenings we would walk along the Malecon, which is a very nice walk way along the waterfront that was always thronged with tourists and locals.  I tried to take a picture of the super moon over La Paz, but as big as the moon was that night the street lights had more light.