Gull Rock & Loreto
The mountains of the northern part of the La Giganta range were glowing with beautiful pastel colors in the early morning light as we approached our anchorage at Gull Rock. Located on the Baja California peninsula, Gull Rock is a very interesting place and a great example of the area’s desert environment; in order to fully appreciate it we divided in several groups and went hiking the along a nice arroyo, which in some places is surrounded by impressive rock walls.
We admired the beauty and resilience of numerous plants, many of them in bloom. Flowers of all colors were seen everywhere, especially by those who bent over and looked at the many diminutive species that, like spurge, live a quiet, modest life among boulders or crevices. More conspicuous and less timid plants also sported an abundance of flowers and many of us even witnessed the precise moment when the petals of a Passion flower opened to the morning sun rays!
Costa’s hummingbirds, ravens and lizards were some of the other creatures that shared time and space with us in this beautiful place.
Early in the evening the National Geographic Sea Bird anchored just off Loreto. Although it is now a small sleepy town, Loreto has a long history and was once the capital of a huge territory that once spanned from San Francisco, CA, to Cabo San Lucas.
We had the chance to walk the quiet streets while looking at the numerous birds in gardens and backyards. Date palm and Ficus trees provided lots of shade and made our walk a pleasant one. We visited the old mission, founded by the Jesuits in the late 1600’s, and watched local children at a school costume party. On our way back to the ship all of us enjoyed the spectacular plunge dives of the very abundant brown pelicans which looked for their evening meal of small schooling fish at the local marina and put an end to another beautiful day in Baja California.
The mountains of the northern part of the La Giganta range were glowing with beautiful pastel colors in the early morning light as we approached our anchorage at Gull Rock. Located on the Baja California peninsula, Gull Rock is a very interesting place and a great example of the area’s desert environment; in order to fully appreciate it we divided in several groups and went hiking the along a nice arroyo, which in some places is surrounded by impressive rock walls.
We admired the beauty and resilience of numerous plants, many of them in bloom. Flowers of all colors were seen everywhere, especially by those who bent over and looked at the many diminutive species that, like spurge, live a quiet, modest life among boulders or crevices. More conspicuous and less timid plants also sported an abundance of flowers and many of us even witnessed the precise moment when the petals of a Passion flower opened to the morning sun rays!
Costa’s hummingbirds, ravens and lizards were some of the other creatures that shared time and space with us in this beautiful place.
Early in the evening the National Geographic Sea Bird anchored just off Loreto. Although it is now a small sleepy town, Loreto has a long history and was once the capital of a huge territory that once spanned from San Francisco, CA, to Cabo San Lucas.
We had the chance to walk the quiet streets while looking at the numerous birds in gardens and backyards. Date palm and Ficus trees provided lots of shade and made our walk a pleasant one. We visited the old mission, founded by the Jesuits in the late 1600’s, and watched local children at a school costume party. On our way back to the ship all of us enjoyed the spectacular plunge dives of the very abundant brown pelicans which looked for their evening meal of small schooling fish at the local marina and put an end to another beautiful day in Baja California.
