Island Scenes Around Loreto

Our days start early at the dive shop. We have been coming to Loreto, and Dolpin Dive, since 2005 and this is (we think!) our sixth time here. Needless to say, we love it! Between the diving, the local divemasters, and the laid back, small-town feel of the town, we will no doubt continue to come back. 

Coronado Island is the closest island and therefore, where the majority of the diving is done. It's also where the sea lions live, always on this one rock outcropping on the east side of the island. It's fun to dive here as they are often playful and come to visit us under water. But above water, they are very stinky so we always hope the wind is going the right direction when we're there. 

I found this photo humorous with the sleepy sea lion being watched over
by the attentive birds.

There are some very cool rock formations.

Can you see the blue footed boobies?

A closer view

The rock in the middle is called Monkey Face Rock (for obvious reasons). The small one on the left, to me, looks like a penguin or a meerkat. 

Happy to be heading to Danzante Island.
It's further away so they usually only go when the water is very, very calm.

Carmen Island is largest of the islands near Loreto. We don't often make it to the far east side but there's lots of interesting things there such as an old salt mine and big horn sheep. Unfortunately, a google search of the sheep produced nothing but articles about hunting them!

This beach on Carmen Island is where we camped while on a kayak trip we went on several years ago.

We found lots of beautiful shells on the beach.

Always on the lookout for something interesting to take photos of.

Diving in Loreto

Loreto is one of our favourite places to dive. One could say our most favourite place since we've been back here many more times than anywhere else. (We think this is our 6th or 7th visit!)

The town itself is big enough to have some nice restaurants and coffee shops but not big enough to be overly touristy. Although tourism is one of their main industries and, sadly, tourism is down in recent years. I'm sure the recent travel advisories from both US and Canadian governments, recommending no non-essential travel in the northern part of Baja or the southern city of Cabo San Lucas, hasn't helped. It even gave Andrew and I pause this time and we changed our driving plans and flew from LA to Loreto instead. (In the end, we were pretty happy about that given the additional paragliding we did while in Santa Barbara.) 

The other thing that attracts us to Loreto is Dolphin Dive and their long-time dive master, Rafael. He's a local and knows pretty much everything there is in the ocean here. We are always impressed, after all these years, by his little-boy's enthusiasm for diving, the ocean creatures and his commitment to preserving this environment. 

We've had a great couple first days! I've gotten a bit of under water video (which is never spectacular) but Andrew's got a some great photos already. 

Early morning, en route to the dive shop. From the place we're staying we walked down a pedestrian street . . . 

. . . and along the malecon and then a half block up another side street.

The harbour is quiet in the morning other than the pelicans and seagulls.

En route to diving! Loreto and the mountains in the background.

Great blue heron.

The always humorous, but smelly, sea lions. And video of dolphins below.

A stop at the beach on Coronado Island

I forgot to take the underwater filter off my GoPro for this shot but liked the odd colors it produced.

Loreto Under Water

I started the week in Loreto with 158 dives under my belt. Because we only dive once or twice a year, I usually spend the first dive or two flailing away like I’m a total newbie until I get comfortable and figure out my buoyancy again.

But this time, I was fine the very first dive! Maybe because it’s also the first time using a camera (GoPro) underwater so I had that to concentrate on instead.

It’s also the first time that I consistently used less air than Andrew. Progress, for sure! I didn’t have to resort to making sure I didn’t go as deep in order to end up with the same or at least close to the same amount of air by the end of the dive.

The GoPro does a reasonable job with video, even in deep water. I took a lot of photos the first few dives and only saved a few of them. It really only worked well in the shallower water where there was lots of light, and on subjects like starfish that don’t move too fast.

The videos aren’t stellar (to be posted in near future). The visibility wasn’t great on a few of the dives and I need to figure out how to hold the camera a bit steadier. Oh well, it’s fun to try it out and see what I can produce with it. Hopefully I get better with practice! 

Scorpion Fish

Hello Loreto!

Ahhhh, it's so good to be back in Loreto. One of our favourite dive spots on the Baja Peninsula. It's a relatively quiet little town located on the Sea of Cortez. Just busy enough to have some nice restaurants and coffee shops but small enough that it's not too touristy.

Having said that, we stopped by Dolphin Dive to get set up for our first diving tomorrow and chatted with dive masters Raphael and Joel. (Joel is also a kayak guide we have been on two trips with.)

We wondered why there were so many staff around and Joel advised they had 42 (yes, 42!!) divers the past couple days! Some big international group. Yikes! So glad we missed that! Thankfully it will be back to the usual 4-6 divers tomorrow.

At the marina, watching the brown pelicans diving for fish.

There are a couple new statues along the malecon since we were here.

Hibiscus popsicles. Yum!

Pedestrian street, heading away from the water toward the town square. The place we're staying, Santo Nino, is the white building in the centre of the photo.