Cockfights in Loreto

I went to the cockfights in Loreto with Mark, a retired fireman from Anchorage. He was meeting Andrés, a friend and “roosterman” who was not fighting, but promised to show Mark around. Andrés said that he had 40-50 fighting roosters. He wasn't fighting because it was a championship and the biggest fight of the year in Loreto. Some of the teams were local and some roostermen brought birds from as far away as Constitución. There would be 100 fights and each team (a ranch or trainer) entered four birds. The fights began at 3 PM and would run until 3-4 AM the next morning. The top three teams would collect the prize money.

Warning: cockfighting is a blood sport; this post describes and has pictures of violence to animals.

Damselfish: Danger (and Sex) on the Reef

I was up before sunrise to go diving in Parque Nacional de Bahía Loreto (link). Driving south from Nopolo on Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway, I stopped at the Mirador (viewpoint) above the village of El Juncalito to check sea conditions. The winds were light from the north and the Sea of Cortés was calm. I turned off the highway where it turns inland and begins to climb. The dirt road to Ensenada Blanca drops down into an arroyo that drains a large canyon stirring up a cloud of dust. I wondered what the arroyo was like during a flash flood. 

Sunrise over Isla del Carmen from the Mirador above El Juncalito

Across the Sea of Cortés on Ferries

About a week before our six-month Mexican tourist visas expired, we drove up the east side of the Baja peninsula from Loreto to Santa Rosalía to catch the ferry to Guaymas on the mainland. We left late in the morning when the sun was high and the air was warm. It was Semana Santa (Easter Week) and we had been warned that the roads would be crowded with travelers. Mario, our neighbor just back from Mulege, told us that the beaches along the Sea of Cortés were packed with campers.

Playa El Requeson on Bahiá Concepcíon

Beyond Puerto Vallarta

Rande and I spent two months around Bahía Banderas (Bay of Flags) on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. We stayed in Bucerias north of Puerto Vallarta, and Punta Negra and Boca de Tomatlán south of Puerto Vallarta. According to one writer, “…Banderas Bay seems to have been artfully designed for vacations and retirement. It seems to have been invented for people who believe they have suffered enough, so bring on the paradise, now, please…” (link).

The beach at Mismaloya

The high-rise hotels and elaborate tourist attractions of Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta were less interesting to us than old town with its narrow streets, wonderful shops and restaurants, and assorted cast of locals, expatriates and tourists. We also explored several outlying areas and attractions including the set of The Night of the Iguana, a movie filmed at Mismaloya; the Vallarta Botanical Gardens; and the remote coast of Cabo Corrientes.