Loreto Archives - Iron Roamer

Long Ride to La Paz to get Ferry Tickets to Mazatlan

It was a long ride today to get to La Paz where I got ferry tickets for October 16 to Mazatlan.

Highway 1 from Loreto to La Paz

I left Loreto in the warmth of the morning. It was an awesome ride to start with as the road hugged the Sea of Cortes.

It doesn’t take long though before it leaves the coast and goes inland. As the day wore on it got hotter and hotter. And yes, the butterflies reappeared.

Also reappearing were sore knees. This started as I was riding to Loreto. I thought maybe a day in Loreto would solve that. It didn’t.

As I got closer to La Paz there was lots of road construction. I wish I had a picture here. But the way they create a detour around the construction is to grade a rough path beside the road. For long stretches I was riding on dirt/sand/dust/rocks. Passing trucks created lots of dust. At times I couldn’t see the road in front of me. Not fun.

Baja Ferries

My first order of business in La Paz was to go to Baja Ferries and get my tickets for a ferry to Mazatlan on October 16, 2016.

It was so nice to get into the air conditioned offices. The staff there were so nice and very professional. One gentleman came out and gave me a Baja Ferry patch.

There was a bit of communication issue. Luckily the ticket agent I was dealing with knew a little more English than I knew Spanish. To get the ticket I needed to produce my drivers license, passport and temporary vehicle import permit.

The ferry is an overnight trip leaving at 8 pm and arriving in Mazatlan the next morning. Because of this I got a basix cabin so I could sleep. You also get a dinner in the price of the ticket.

Hotel Zar

For this night in La Paz I stayed at the Hotel Zar. It is quite an odd hotel in that it reminded me of one you may find in Eastern Europe from the old communist era. The hotel, however, was new.

Across the street was Mega Foods. Off I went to pick up some buns, cheese, cold cuts, and beer for dinner.

After a long day I was asleep pretty quickly.

My Route for October 4, 2016

A Day in Beautiful Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico

I was sooooooo looking forward to spending a day in beautiful Loreto. It didn’t disappoint. So quiet, relaxing, clean and friendly.

Morning Walk

First on the agenda was a morning walk around town before it got hot.

They keep the town soooo clean. Like many parts of the world it is much cheaper to use human lbour to do this than machines. Plus it keeps people employed. All around the town were worked sweeping the sidewalks, streets and curbs.

Sea Coffee

Next was my morning coffee. I enjoy my one cup of coffee a day. One thing I miss on this trip is going for coffee at Picnic with my co-workers back in Victoria, British Columbia. My favorite part of the work day ha ha. A coffee toast to all those I went for coffee with 🙂 Good times!

Anyways …. back to Loreto.

I checked on Tripadvisor for the best coffee shop in Loreto. Sea Coffee was number one. I asked the hotel clerk where it was. It turned out it was right at the hotel across the hall!

For the next few hours I enjoyed coffee and apple pie, the sunshine, and fans ha ha (it was very hot) while I worked on my website.

Evening Walk

I enjoyed the afternoon in my air conditioned room ha ha. But in the evening I went for another walk and enjoyed the sights.

It looked like they were doing a wedding rehearsal inside the church. So I got a sneak peak inside.

Mi Loreto

I decided to cap off the day with a nice meal. Being the researcher I am, I looked on Tripadvisor again. Mi Loreto was ranked number one. It was only a block from my hotel.

The staff were really nice. They spent a lot of time with me and all the other patrons.

To start I had a coconut Margarita and an appetizer they give for free.

Next a salad just for my daughter Carllee 🙂

The main course:

And they supplied th4e dessert for “free” too. A date pie.

Life is tough on the road 🙂

By the end though my stomach was starting to rumble. Please don’t let it be Montezuma’s revenge!

Instead of doing a night stroll I went back to my room to let my stomach settle down. I ate so much.

It was an awesome day though. Soooooo glad I decided to spend the day here.

My location for October 3, 2016

Sometimes the Best Surprises Come After a Long Day’s Ride – Loreto Mexico

Sometimes the best surprises come after a long day’s ride. And believe me, this was a long day.

Guerrero Negro Malirrimo

I left Malirrimo in Guerrero Negro nice and relaxed. It was partly cloudy. The coolness was appreciated though.

Whale Watching

The plan to to head to El Vizcaino to see if I could do some whale watching.

As I made a right turn to head down the road to the UNESCO sanctuary, it started to spit rain. The road seemed to go on forever. And I would have to come back the same way! About 40 km down the road I got frustrated. I thought to myself that I have seem lots of whales before. I have gone whale watching in Tofino on Vancouver Island and in Newfoundland. Heck, I have seen lots of whales just crossing on the ferry between Sydney and Tsawwassen back home.

Between the spitting rain, the length of the road, having to turn around and do the same road back, and having seen lots of whales before, I decided to turn around right there.

One way you can tell I am frustrated is by the lack of photos ha ha ha.

Santa Rosalía

The plan was to stop for the night at Santa Rosalía. A blog I read recommended a hotel there.

As I made my way there I encountered “herds” of butterflys! What do you call a herd of butterflys? I am sure it is not a herd huuummmmm. Anyways … they were hitting my glasses, face, windshield, and getting into my helmet. I was ducking, bobbing and weaving as I was riding. I felt like Mohammed Ali!

Finally arriving a Santa Rosalía, rode around looking for the hotel. My impression of the town was that it was a mining town. I had passede a big mine entering the town. The town was decrepit and dirty. It had character though. I’ll give it that.

When I finally found the hotel it just wasn’t appealing. My frustration was kicking into overdrive.

Mulegé

The next town was Mulegé. I decided to give that a try.

Mulegé was a bit nicer. I just rode around looking for a place to stay. Nothing was appealing. I did see a campsite that looked good. But by this time I was in no mood. I just wanted a nice hotel with air conditioning. By this time it was hot, which was adding to my frustration.

Loreto

I decided to make the ride to Loreto which was a hour further down the rode. The views were awesome. But I was frustrated. hence no pictures ha ha. I was definetly speeding as I made my way through the curves and past really nice camping spots on the beach. Perhaps if I wasn’t so frustrated i would have stopped at one and camped.

I finally reached Loreto. I was going to stay here no matter what. The hotel search began.

I checked out one hotel – a dive.

As I rode around I stopped at the least nice looking expensive hotel ha ha thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be too far out of my price range.

As I waited for a front desk staff to enquire about prices, I looked outside at their pool. There I spotted a guy at the pool bar drinking a pint of beer from a frozen mug ahhhhhhhhhhhh. I wanted that. Around the pool were a couple of nice looking women in bikinis. From the pool spouts of water were shooting out.

At that moment I would have paid anything!

A fro nt desk clerk came up. I asked about the price and the cheapest was $138 USD. WAY out of my range. I asked for something a lot cheaper. He recommended the Plaza Loreto.

As I rode around though I began to like Loreto. It was very quiet and clean. Beautiful!

Hotel Plaza Loreto

The Hotel Plaza Loreto was perfect. It was right “downtown” Loreto, in my price range, the people were soooooo nice, and I was offered a place in a compound to park my bike.

I decided to spend another night here and enjoy what looked like an awesome town. One of the advantages of having no real commitments or plans.