Beach Time

Since we last wrote, we've mostly been hanging out in small towns and on the beach. We've wandered around a couple of little towns, often sampling their ice cream and park benches. One of the highlights was San Ignacio, which contains a beautiful old mission church. We happened to show up a 9:55 on Sunday morning to the town square, just in time to hear the peeling of the church bells and peoplewatch as familes filed in for the service.

We continued meandering southward, taking little walks along the way. David has been really excited to see more birds.  The latest round of avian highlights include: Vermillion Flycatcher, Black-and-White Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and the incredible Gray Thrasher (one of the five endemic birds to Baja).
 

Mountains in Baja.

Cool beetle

We came upon a beach on the Sea of Cortez that was so nice we ended up staying five days.  There were really amazing friendly people there who really took us under their wing.  We split our days hiking in the mornings before it got too hot; exploring lots of canyons, hiking up arroyos and dry washes, and looking in each of the many caves for possible petroglyphs.  In the afternoon we would lay low and took siestas on the beach.  One day our wonderful neighbors Larry and Wendy let us borrow their sea kayak and we paddled around some of the islands in the bay and Emily went snorkeling.  Our tent was about 10 feet from the ocean.  When we woke up at night we could look out of the tent and see the Big Dipper right above the ocean.  When we woke at dawn (so David could go birding!) we could see a beautiful pink sunrise each day.  It was really nice to stay at one place for a while and really get to know the people well.  There were lot of really interesting personalities on the beach with a lifetime full of stories and adventures to share with us. 

There are caves everywhere here. Some of them contain cool petroglyphs and pictographs.

Looking southeast, view of Bahia Coyote. We were camped at the very far end of this bay.

Turkey vultures on a cardon cactus.

Our campsite on the beach. Each site has a palapa, which provides a nice place to cook and get in the shade.

Sunset at Coyote Beach. In the mornings and evenings, the water is a calm as a lake. Waves are the choppiest in the afternoon. They can get to almost one foot high!! (aka very little).

Today we bittersweetly moved on from our temporary home to explore a little more going south on the peninsula.  We're in a really nice town now called Loreto.  We were wandering around this evening and we stumbled onto basically a talent show for the local elementary school at the town plaza.  Just as entertaining as the singing and dancing was all the random kids playing on the fringes, the supportive mothers applauding while serving tons of platters of food, and the proud fathers taking photos and videos of their kids up on stage.  It seemed like a very wholesome and happy event and we were lucky to be able to watch part of the events.  Food here has also been pretty awesome.  Emily got a homemade strawberry popsicle that tasted like the best fat juicy strawberry you've ever had in the height of summer, intensely distilled into a popsicle.  She claimed it was the best dessert she has ever had.  The ice cream store had about 20-30 different flavors of homemade popsicles (paletas).  We also bought fresh bread and cookies from the back of a pickup truck that was blaring a song about buying bread much like an ice cream truck in the states. 

We'll be in Baja for about another week and then are going to spend a bit of time in southern Arizona and SE California before returning to Portland.  Hasta manana!