The Streets of "Loreto"

Location: Loreto, BCS

We got into Loreto, Baja California Sur yesterday. The directions to the campground were a bit confusing, and our entire caravan wound up threading our way through the busy, narrowish, cobblestoned streets of the town. A policeman on an ATV, probably alerted to our plight by the honking of the helpful drivers of Loreto, kindly gave us an escort and we all made it to the campground unscathed.

The area surrounding the campground is run-down and dusty, with roosters crowing at all hours and stray dogs yapping. But it is reasonably nice inside, and the Sea of Cortez is only a few steps away:

We got up this morning just before dawn. At that hour and this latitude, the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion was fully above the horizon and looked lovely. We got to the sea while Venus was still bright in the sky, and we could even see her reflection in the water. The dawn was full of oranges, reds, and yellows, and soon the seabirds and the fishermen began their day. It was beautiful, but I need a nap!

The Day At The Beach In Mulege

Location: Mulege, BCS

The Mulege Lighthouse:

The Sea of Cortez:

Gulls and pelicans (the pelicans are covering the far spit):

An American Oystercatcher (and we saw them extracting an oyster from his shell):

Mulege, Baja California Sur

Location: Mulege, BCS

We are now at Mulege (Moo-Luh-HAY), still geographically sub-tropical, but feeling very warm and lazy in a "latitude-attitude-adjustment" sort of way. It lies on the western shore of the Sea of Cortez, the body of water that separates Baja California from the rest of Mexico, just north of Loreto.

Mulege is the first place we've seen in a long time that has a river that flows year round instead of dry arroyos that only see water occasionally. There are date palms and tropical plants everywhere, and signs on doors ask that they be kept closed to keep the mosquitoes out. I haven't seen a mosquito yet, and that's okay with me!

The campground we are staying in has the largest bougainvillea plant that I have ever seen -- it is so big, it has taken over the roof of the laundry and begun to climb up a date palm. There are a lot of cacti also, although we have now passed south of the Boojums' habitat.

Mulege only has around 4,000 people, but lots of birds -- we have seen herons, gulls, egrets, pelicans and pipers, and that was on a single half-hour walk.

We had dinner last night in the Hotel Serenidad, a very upscale restaurant compared to most eateries. After dinner, the restaurant surprised us with a pinata, and all the "birthday boys and girls" -- 5 of those on the trip have birthday's during our Mexico stay -- took a swing at it (that was one tough pinata!) And, of course, the Margaritas are excellent!

A Big Moving Hole

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This is one of several blog entries that I set up to be posted while I am in Mexico.

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As we get more and more into the alternative energy source discussions, coal is again coming into play. We have lots and lots of it -- anthracite coal is mined primarily in Pennsylvania, and bituminous (soft) and sub-bituminous coal in Wyoming. One estimate we heard was that a 500 year supply exists in the U.S. alone. Whether you are for or against the use of coal, the mining operations are huge in every sense of the word!

Last summer I toured an open pit coal mine in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The mine was described as a "big moving hole" -- as the dirt is removed to expose the coal seam, it is dumped into the already-mined end of the hole to "reclaim" the land. In this way, the hole "moves" across the landscape, continually being excavated at one end and filled in at the other.

The hole is huge; the operation is huge; the machinery is huge; and the output is huge.

The coal in Wyoming is used to generate electricity in 36 states. After it is mined, it is loaded into railway cars -- 100 tons per car, and sent on its way south. We saw these same coal trains again when we got to Colorado as they meandered south, and once counted 120 cars on a single train. And there were several long, long trains moving through each day. That's a lot of coal!

Coal seam and one piece of huge equipment:

  

Where the train is loaded, and a train on the move: