Salinas Bay & Loreto
The early morning light illuminated the abandoned village at Salinas Bay, located on the north-eastern coast of Isla del Carmen. As we landed in the long, sandy beach, we got the feeling of entering another era: the empty, weathered buildings spoke of better times as the turkey vultures added the only touch of movement into the scene. Established sometime around the late 1700’s or early 1800’s, the village thrived for many years harvesting the salt still visible behind the houses. Big ships from as far as Alaska and Central America used to travel all the way here to pick up valuable cargoes of salt, and the salt works provided economic prosperity to the nearby town of Loreto until 1983 when the works closed. Everyone moved out to Loreto and the buildings no longer echoed the laughs and chants of the people. We wandered around the chapel dedicated to the Virgin of El Carmen, the former medical center, the pier and the remanents of the first railroad system in the peninsula. The oldest houses, made of carved chunks of sandstone or pieces of Porites coral, made us marvel at the resourcefulness of their builders. We tried to imagine the hard life of the people that worked, loved and died here.
After our visit to the village, the National Geographic Sea Lion repositioned to Puerto Escondido, and from there we traveled by bus to Loreto. The former capital of a huge territory that once expanded from what is now San Francisco, CA to Cabo San Lucas, Loreto is now a quiet and sleepy town, still proud of its past glories. We visited the Mission, which in 1697 became the first permanent mission built by the Jesuit missionaries in the peninsula. We also got the chance to experience a bit of the local flavor and enjoyed delicious ice cream of many different flavors; the prickly pear cactus fruit was my own personal favorite. Some were even lucky enough to do some interesting birding while still enjoying their ice cream! White and white-faced ibises, snowy egrets and the endemic Xantus’ hummingbird were among the species observed. We all enjoyed a great day full of history, both natural and human.
The early morning light illuminated the abandoned village at Salinas Bay, located on the north-eastern coast of Isla del Carmen. As we landed in the long, sandy beach, we got the feeling of entering another era: the empty, weathered buildings spoke of better times as the turkey vultures added the only touch of movement into the scene. Established sometime around the late 1700’s or early 1800’s, the village thrived for many years harvesting the salt still visible behind the houses. Big ships from as far as Alaska and Central America used to travel all the way here to pick up valuable cargoes of salt, and the salt works provided economic prosperity to the nearby town of Loreto until 1983 when the works closed. Everyone moved out to Loreto and the buildings no longer echoed the laughs and chants of the people. We wandered around the chapel dedicated to the Virgin of El Carmen, the former medical center, the pier and the remanents of the first railroad system in the peninsula. The oldest houses, made of carved chunks of sandstone or pieces of Porites coral, made us marvel at the resourcefulness of their builders. We tried to imagine the hard life of the people that worked, loved and died here.
After our visit to the village, the National Geographic Sea Lion repositioned to Puerto Escondido, and from there we traveled by bus to Loreto. The former capital of a huge territory that once expanded from what is now San Francisco, CA to Cabo San Lucas, Loreto is now a quiet and sleepy town, still proud of its past glories. We visited the Mission, which in 1697 became the first permanent mission built by the Jesuit missionaries in the peninsula. We also got the chance to experience a bit of the local flavor and enjoyed delicious ice cream of many different flavors; the prickly pear cactus fruit was my own personal favorite. Some were even lucky enough to do some interesting birding while still enjoying their ice cream! White and white-faced ibises, snowy egrets and the endemic Xantus’ hummingbird were among the species observed. We all enjoyed a great day full of history, both natural and human.
