Going to town

Loreto, BCS, Mexico

Just in case anyone out there thinks that we have nothing but perfect sunny days all of the time, we can now confirm that that is not always the case.  For the last few days we have seen some clouds, especially in the mornings.  It even threatened to rain - we felt a couple of drops.  OK, it was not enough to force us to actually close the ports or anything, but it was definitely rain.  Unfortunately not enough to wash the dust off the boat.  When we started thinking about it we realized we have not seen any precipitation at all since leaving Ensenada on January 1st - this would be the first rain, if we can call it that, we have seen this year.

During this inclement weather, the temperature struggled to get to 30C degrees.  And it cooled off to about 27 at night.  The overcast skies have made our solar panels struggle to keep up with our power demands, but they are almost holding their own.  Lately we have had to resort to pulling our boom way out to the port side to allow more of our panels to be exposed during most of the day.  Our bimini does cause a bit of a problem when the sun is getting lower in the sky, often shadowing one side or the other of our two largest panels, but given the choice of power or shade, we opt for the shade.

Today, with the possibility that the sun would not be beating down on us relentlessly all day, we took a bit of a road trip.  We negotiated a round-trip by taxi to the town of Loreto, some 25 kms north on highway 1 (We use the Canadian method of bargaining - we ask how much; they tell us, and we say OK).  600 pesos - pretty expensive but cheaper than renting a car for the day.

Loreto is a very touristy little town with hotels and restaurants and bars and such, but definitely off season right now - not too many people about.  We did visit the historic mission church, "Mision Nuestra Senora de Loreta", located near the center of town.  From there, everything of interest is within about a 4 block radius.  The pedestrian-only cobblestone streets are pretty cool.

We did the obligatory walk along the seaside malecon and paid a visit to the local supermercado (supermarket) to pick up a few things that are not available in Puerto Escondido.  Note: it is possible to sail to Loreto and anchor by the town, but it is an open roadstead anchorage with little protection from winds from any direction - really only good for a day trip.  It just seemed easier to visit here by car.

Tomorrow will most likely be a laundry day, and then we should be out of here the day after that, heading ever northward to escape the threat of hurricanes.

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