We’re not big on towns as a general rule, but Baja’s Loreto is an exception. Its laid-back style the belies the development going on all around it. There’s the required mission – this one being the first of all the California missions, with an excellent museum.

This photo of one of the walls gives a graphic history of the construction periods, and damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and fire. There are four different types of masonry in this one small area.

The "downtown" area sports several small hotels, restaurants, Internet cafes, and markets. The photo above is looking through the roof to the floor of the swimming pool. We hope they have their engineering figured right!

Here’s another historical marker. One of the older streets paved with brick, rock, and some tile.

Mini-cruiseships deposit their passengers here each week, and the local merchants have geared up for the free-spending tourists.

You probably already know we’re basketball fans, and that we live in Arizona when not aboard Wind Horse. Even though Arizona State is our instate rival (and the enemy), we thought we’d snap this photo anyway.

There’s a compact and protected small boat harbor for the local fishermen. The mini-cruiseships also deposit their passengers here. They anchor offshore, as we did, in 15 to 20 feet (4 to 6 meters) of water.

The fishing must be really good inside the harbor because there are hundreds of pelicans. We had a dinghy "pool" on how many pelicans we’d see sitting on the boat when we returned. Numbers varied from six (the optimist – Steve) to 17 (pessimist – Linda).

The most amazing thing was watching the pelicans diving on fish. The do a full vertical attack and hit the water with a resounding splash not 2 feet (60cm) from the dinghy.

Oh, and the dinghy "pool"? Not a single pelican – and more important, no bird poop!