Around Loreto

Many random photos around Loreto . . . mostly at sunset and sunrise because the rest of the days are so hot! 

Fishing under a full moon

This arch at the end of the pedestrian street is new since we were here last.

A garbage can with attitude

There is almost always a seagull sitting on the nose of this sea lion statue.
Hence, all the bird poop. 

Doesn't take much of a workout to get sweaty here!

Seems like good advice to me!

Historic Mission Loreto

Dos copas vino tinto, por favor.

At colourful Mi Loreto restaurant

Vegetarian enchiladas with mole sauce and chili relleno with plantains. So good! 

Whale statue near the marina.

Every night is cruise night on the malecón! 

It was festival week for the founding of Loreto so these lighted lanterns
were all along the pedestrian street.

From the restaurant inside the Hotel La Misión.

Delicious smoothie and smoothie bowl at a new little food kiosk we found.

Through the construction zone to get closer to the birds for photos!

Off to work early.

Some beautiful murals.

Birds of Loreto

There are so many birds around Loreto. Some are easier than others to get photos of! 

The brown pelicans are so fun to watch as they dive bomb into the water to catch fish. But trying to get video of them is an almost impossible task. I'm usually either too fast or too slow with the camera following them down as they hit the water, or they dive on the opposite side of the dock from where I am. But!!! On our last day in Loreto, we had some time to wander and I think I got finally got a good video of it! We'll see. In the meantime . . . 

The local gathering spot

Snowy egret (differentiated from the great egret by its yellow feet)

Great Egret

Cormorant

Not the greatest photo but it shows off some fishing skills.

Green heron (see Andrew's post - link below - for much better photo)

Blue footed booby

A pretty house finch

This heron was in the same spot each morning that we got out for an early morning run.

Also a couple herons around the marina on our last morning there.

Sea gulls everywhere! 

See Andrew's Loreto Birds post. Much better photos and more types of birds! 

 

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.