Loreto

Typical Baja scenery, although we were told it was unusually green due to heavier than normal rains in the previous months.  

I was amazed at the beauty of the rugged mountains and desert flora.

We spent one night in Loreto on our way back north. It is a really nice, small town that feels warm and inviting, not overly touristy. I would have been happy to spend more time there. As is typical, the town square had a large bandstand and the kids took the opportunity to run and play on it.

 

The church in Loreto was one of the first in Baja and a base for further mission work by the priests who settled there. We took the time to explore the museum adjacent to the church. Reading about the history of the mission and how the Spaniards treated the native peoples was pretty disgusting to me. It seems that when faith gets mixed with political gain and power hungry governments nothing good can come of it. It ends up being such a perverse and distorted version of the Gospel of Christ, becoming the opposite of Him.

In spite of that, the mission churches are beautiful to walk through.

This ended up being the only family picture we got of all of us while we were Baja! We even got the shadow of the guy who was taking it. He was such a sweet man, so friendly and encouraging to us about our family. 

Oh, and this... our other family picture. In which we're very, very tall.

The center of Loreto is beautifully maintained. And I did have the old cowboy song going through my head the whole time we were there. (As I went out in the streets of Loreto...) Different Loreto, I'm sure, but it's a catchy tune.

We came upon a big enclosure with a peacock and his peahens, such pretty birds.

We found a little taco stand and enjoyed the fresh veggies that were so nicely presented. The tacos often just come with meat on them and then you get to fix them just the way you like. Yum!

Loncheria "Mary". I think the cook was very pleased that we were pleased.

As I walked out on the streets of Loreto... see, that song is stuck in my head again. Uh, as we went out on the streets of Loreto we found the town square being decorated for Christmas and the people preparing for some festivities that evening. It turned out to be a nice little town celebration featuring performances by several groups of school children, who'd obviously practiced and were very excited. The most memorable was a group of young girls dancing to the Spanish pop version of The Little Drummer Boy. I'm pretty sure I can't begin to do justice to it, but let's just say that the point of the song may have been lost on the dance.