Desert Mountains and Beaches

Riding up to an old Jesuit Mission in the mountains we shared the road with mountain bikers in a race; the finish line was at the Mission. It was a beautiful ride through the mountains and small streams.

Loreto is a small quiet town on the sea. We spent a few days there mainly chilling out. We met this Golden Retriever on the beach who was owned by a Venezuelan family who lived nearby. She loves to be on the beach so they leave her to it....we were asked to just take her home when we were leaving!

There was a Christmas boat parade one evening, with goodies being given out to the children. Dee didn't seem to qualify after hovering about!

Leaving Loreto we headed north through Santa Rosalia, which has an interesting mining history where the structures and buildings are all still in place. There is also a church designed by Mr Eiffel (again).
Passing through some roadworks reminded us of Argentina (they dig up the whole road).

We stayed in Mulege before cutting west across the mountains to San Ignacio.

Bahia Concepcion has some lovely beaches, but alot are taken over by "snowbirds" - longterm motorhome campers mostly from Canada. After exploring, we chose a spot (mainly as we saw dolphins there). There was no shade next to the sea, so we made some from our hiking sticks and travel towels!

San Ignacio is a spring fed oasis full of Date Palms. We spent a couple of days hiking some rough desert trails full of lots of different cacti and surrounded in volcanoes. Oh, and we tried Date smoothie, Date pie and Date empenadas! It is a very peaceful place :)

A group of offroad riders arrived at our hotel - this desert terrain is really popular with Americans for a week or two's holiday.