Spring Break: Loreto!

Hola!

So first off, sorry it's taken so long to actually update this thing. It's been a crazy couple of weeks--homestay weekend, a camping trip, the whale festival, a couple of day trips, and a bunch of projects and presentations to work on. Then midterms and on to spring break. All good things (well... I guess the midterms were good as midterms go...), but definitely not conducive to updating blogs regularly. It feels like there's so much going on that it's hard to choose what to write about in here. I know I won't be able to convey every exciting, interesting, fun, or otherwise notable thing I do here, and prioritizing is tough. It's all new, all momentus, and I want to share all of it with you. I was going to talk about my directed research project, but I just published a column about whales and turtles in the Colby Echo (the weekly student newspaper. The article is also posted here as my last entry). I know you all have many things to do in life other than read my blog, so I try to keep these entries short. Which I guess I just failed at by rambling on about topic selection for a paragraph. Oops.

Wednesday morning, after 2 days of midterms, we all boarded a bus from Puerto San Carlos to Ciudad Constitucion, the closest city. In Consti, those of us going on to the historic town of Loreto left our La Paz and Cabo bound classmates, and spent an hour enjoying muffins and coffee in "Coffee Star" before our next bus ride. The bus in Baja is VERY nice. Nicer than some Greyhounds I've been on in the States. We watched dubbed versions of Little Miss Sunshine and Pirates of the Caribbean II from comfy coach bus seats for the 2 hour ride through the mountains to Loreto. Loreto was founded by Jesuit missionaries in the late 1600's and is now a tourist destination, capitalizing on its proximity to the Bahia Loreto National Marine Park and historic sites. We walked across town, down a pedestrian walkway, lined with trees and tourist shops selling ceramics, textiles, hammocks, and t-shirts. Loreto is approximately the same size as Puerto San Carlos, but feels worlds away. Prices are in dollars and pesos, English is spoken pretty much everywhere. After checking into our hotel (the type of thing Mom would pick out for us and love--a converted house, decorated in classic Mexican style, beautiful, with lots of common spaces to hang out... or write in blogs. And a dog to pat and play with.) After Puerto San Carlos, where we are hyper-aware of our status as outsiders and very careful not to do anything that marks us as "those gringos from the escuela," the chance to relax and be goofy loud Americans was great. We decided early on to embrace being tourists and obvious Americans, and to just have fun. Last night we went for dinner somewhere where they served us bread and olive oil on the table, and we got pasta and pizza for dinner. There's an ice cream place with mint chocolate chip and chocolate oreo. All the streets are paved and have side walks! Development is a nice change....

Wednesday afternoon and Thursday were spent exploring Loreto, buying souvenirs and gifts that we just can't get in Puerto San Carlos, enjoying coffee and the possibility of food that didn't involve beans, rice, or tortillas. We hit up the supermarket for non-biodegradable shampoo (our gray water at the center is filtered through the mangroves) , chocolate, and Nature's Valley granola bars. We sat on the rocky beach right next to town and read for hours, people-watching from the shade of little thatched umbrellas set up on the beach. We also made friends with Cesar, a representative from a tourist agency, who found us discounts on a boat ride and car rental. (He was confused when we kept responding to his English greetings and questions in Spanish, and we got to talking.)

Thursday night, we ran into the other SFS group in Loreto. As we wandered around Loreto, looking for somewhere to hang out, we found what looked like a private party in a club next door the the bar the other group of girls had wanted to take us to. The bar was closed, but as we loitered outside the club, a woman came outside. "This isn't a private party, you can come in" she said. "It's my 40th birthday party, but please, come in!" How often are you invited to a 40th birthday party? We headed in, taking in an outdoor bar, palm trees, and all the trappings of clubs we imagine in the states (yay for not being 21...) Settling into a zebra-striped bench with high stainless steel tables, we rocked out to 90's American pop before the band started to play. The band played American classic rock, many of the guests seemed to be American, and the hostess made her speech, thanking the guests for their donation of toys for needy children, in English and Spanish. We never did get the whole story, but our hostess (whose name none of us could remember) was gracious, constantly checking in to make sure we were enjoying ourselves, happy we were dancing. "This is the best night of my life. Thank you girls so much for coming!" She said as we left, thanking her profusely for a wholly unique night.

Friday morning, we got up early to get to the marina to meet the Panguero (boat driver) that Cesar found for us. We left the dock and headed around the nearest island, Isla Coronado. As we sat in the back chatting, the boat slowed down, and our panguero pointed off the side--"ballena!" Sure enough, a humpback whale was going down for a dive, showing his flukes! Though we all see whales on a regular basis with school, it never gets old :-) Further around the island, we saw sea lions (well, heard then saw... they bark) and a HUGE pod of dolphins--over 100! (Photos to come when I get back to school. Also check out the photos of volcanic rocks and caves. They are SO cool.) We continued around the island and got to a white sand beach, protected by spits of basalt rock leftover from volcanic activity. Palapas (pavillions) are set up on the beach for shade, and we can see the fish around the rocks from the boat. We had a few hours to chill on this beach that we only had to share with a few other tourists and their pangueros. We slept in the sun (yay sunburns. Oh well, it had to happen some time) and then went snorkeling. The water was cold, but schools of Sargent Majors, scattered puffer fish, and the biggest King Angelfish I had ever seen made it worth it.

Today, we headed up the the San Javier mission, 32 km off the highway into the mountains via dirt mountain road. We rented a car and left Loreto early to make the trip. Stopping at cave paintings and beautiful oasises (oases? oasii?) along the way, the road was harrowing and would have made mom cringe, but was a LOT of fun and BEAUTIFUL. Again, check out the photo album once I get back. The mission is old and beautiful, a relic of the Jesuits who were the first Europeans in Baja. We tagged along with a tour and followed them down to a hundreds-year-old olive tree at the edge of a farm. It's beautiful trunk branched and twisted intricately. It still bears olives every year. (Pictures. Picasa. Soon.) We headed down, taking the curves carefully, narrowly missing disaster when a pick-up truck came barreling over a steep hill--we couldn't see it from below, it couldn't see us from above. I threw our rented car into reverse, he threw on the brakes, and we were fine. The rest of the trip was uneventful, driving the rough, windy dirt roads was fun, and the scenery was BEAUTIFUL. We stopped at Del Borracho, a grill/bar/restaurant right before the highway, for malted milkshakes, and then came back to our hotel for a nap. Which I am now going to go take.

Love and hugs!
~Emma