4/1/15

I obviously had my dates screwed up. Anyways it is the eve of the 1st and yesterday after getting picked up by Christine, Erik, Paul and Oliver we decided to go to this old mission that was about an hour away (we took their rental car). It was a really great drive through the cannons and up and down the mountains to get there. It was a quaint little street with some houses and then the mission. We went in and checked it out, I am embarrassed to say I didn't even go in the one in Loreto, then we walked to the back where there was an olive tree that we heard was around 300 years old. Even if it wasn't it was a very cool tree. We tried to eat there but they closed everything at 5, seems weird they close so much at supper time but I suppose they have their own suppers to have. So we drove back and ate at a nice Mexican place before going back to the boat and crashing. We are going to go on a hike early tomorrow morning through the cannon nearest to where we are.

PS my computer is definitely on its way out. The keyboard helps but it is doing all sorts of funky stuff. Bummer.

Cows and horses walking around and across the whole road to and from, our friends actually hit one in their rental car. They were fine but the car was totalled. 

The whole drive was up on the way there, down on the way back and windy the whole way. Those are the orange signs telling you you are going down (just in case) 

Mission finished in 1758 after 14 years of building

One side of mission

Inside mission 

Old olive tree

Trail behind the mission, along side is the fresh water they collect for the farms

One road leading to mission, you can see at the end. That is it there is nothing else around.

4/2/15

We had asked a guy yesterday for a ride as far as he could take us up toward the cannon so we met up at 8am to get a ride. He drove us as far as he could, probably 1.5 miles, until their was no road at the beginning of the cannon. He also asked for 200 pesos I don't know how these guys ask for so much money to drive you short distances here. Sorry off topic. So we hiked up until we found water and then we swam in it and just hung out on the rocks. I guess when the water is higher you can go down the rock slides and the pools are obviously deeper but this was still great. 

Beginning of hike

Middle, water flowing down almost all the way up

We went up until we couldn't anymore and went swimming, Erik thought it was too cold

Part of the hike

 

Where we spent most of the day until there was no more shade

Hike back down

So as we were there we had talked about going to the other side (back to the Pacific side of Baja) to see the Grey whales that are having their babies and resting at this bay. We had heard about it and that the whales are super friendly (if that is the right word), they come up to the boats and you can touch them and their calves. We heard from some friends that it was awesome, they had just done it the other day. So we decided to do it. They already had the rental car so we just extended the rental and looked up the place and hit the road. Paul insisted on moving the boat to a mooring ball, which is only $20 for 2 nights, so we did that quick before we went. A mooring ball is a concrete slab at the bottom of the ocean that has a chain and ball like a fishing bobber at the top that holds your boat in place of the anchor, if that makes sense. It's a good time to get away from the beaches since it is holy week, semana santa is what they call it, they all have time off and go to the beaches to party. So we left around 4, we stopped to get supper and now we are at the hotel getting ready for bed. We should be touching whales tomorrow late morning, I am so excited!

Just one of the numerous beaches covered with people and their tents to celebrate the holiday