Today, David and Rhonda from Swan, Ken from Drifter, and I rented a car to drive in to Loreto.  We wanted to do a little banking, sightseeing, provision, and get some fuel.  Oh, and we had to stop at Taqueria el Rey on Suarez.  Amazing, phenomenal, gustatory, satisfying, flavorful, fresh and whatever other adjective you can find to describe the best fish tacos on the planet.  It’s a small, whitewashed building, very clean, with two rows of plastic picnic tables and chairs, seating at a short bar in front of the cooks, and a serving shelf with all of the homemade condiments on it.  Very simple.  A husband and wife own and operate it, with the husband doing the cooking, and his wife serving and cleaning.  They are very friendly and pleasant, and just want you to enjoy their food.  No problem there!  At times, when not in school, their 8 year old son very efficiently buses tables and brings you your just squeezed orange juice or lemonade.  He’s got a huge smile for everyone.  The line is out the door come lunchtime, and it’s filled with locals.  You know it’s gotta be good!  I had three, count ’em, three huge tacos with fresh caught parrotfish as the fish of the day.  Finish that off with a sweet, fresh glass of cold orange juice, and my eyes about rolled back in my lil’ head.  We all just kept looking at each other and shaking our heads.  It was good….

These are all from El Mision Loreto

We walked through town and visited the mission Fr. Junipero Serra built in the 1600’s.  The construction was impressive.  The walls were about 3.5′ thick and of hand-hewn stone.  The ceiling beams were of beautiful 12×12 logs adzed to get the right shape and cut.  There was an ancient confessional that was hand built.  Looking at all of this, we were amazed at the labor, design, and craftsmanship that went into something like this, in the 17th century!  There was tilework stating that this was the beginning of the El Camino Real in Loreto.  The whole area was simply beautiful.

Rhonda and I went into a curio shop near the mission, and spoke with Marisol and her husband for a bit.  Marisol had a huge smile for us, and we asked questions and ooohed and aahed at the items for sale.  After spending about 30 minutes in the shop, Marisol offers us a shot of tequila.  This is shopping!  Dave came in and enjoyed a bit, also.  They really got a kick out of the crazy gringos, and we did buy a few things.  Pretty fun.

After that, we got down to business of provisioning for the next few weeks.  First stop was El Mercado Pescadores, and it was clean and very nicely stocked.  We probably spent an hour there, crossing things off our lists in order to try and sink our boats again with food.  After, we stopped off at the well, kinda like Grand Central Market in Downtown LA, but really not.  I wasn’t too impressed, especially after a cockroach that could kick Makani’s butt crawled out of the fresh eggs for sale.  It wasn’t too pretty.  I bought some chicken and tortillas, and that was good enough for me.  We stopped at the bank, and made our way back to Puerto Escondido to offload and then reload onto our respective boats.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, I’ll top off the diesel, do a last load of laundry, a last internet check in, and depart Wednesday morning.  I’m not sure where, but I’d really like to explore the nearby islands of Loreto.  I hope everyone is enjoying this almost last week of spring and getting ready for summer!  Congratulations to my sister, Missy, and her husband, Andrew, for tying the knot on the top of Half Dome this last weekend!  Adventure runs in the family!  I’m so happy for you both, and Andrew, what a way to begin Birthday Week!  Take care, Everyone, and know how much I love and miss you!  It may be 4-6 weeks before I hit the internet again, so know all is well, and there are no problems associated with the computer silence.  Much love…