Heading to Loreto

Arrival in Loreto:  I headed out for Loreto early Sunday morning.  The only traveler from Spokane, I picked up two in Seattle, Mavia, a high school student who I've found has a fantastic attitude and teamworking approach, and Dr. Dana Bridges, an equine vet in Monroe Washington.  Arriving in LA, we picked up two more, Shelley a masters student in Atlanta, who plans to apply to vet school, and Tonia,  a licensed technician from San Francisco.  The flights all went very smoothly and we arrived in Loreto at 4:30.  Always a little worrisome to get the bags through customs, with the necessary drugs and supplies, but fortunately our hosts have contacts with the customs agents and this facilitated the process.  Misty, the diehard coordinator volunteer,  was there to pick us up in her trusty old red Ford pickup.  Here in Mexico, there is no problem with sitting in the bed, and with the sun shining and fresh air, we were fighting to see who could hang in back in what became known as the Loreto Limo.We arrived at the house to meet up with the rest of the gang who had arrived on Friday.  They appeared relaxed and had smiles all around (seems to be the Loreto influence I've noticed).  They also had one canine contingent, Parasita, a very sweet dog that had  been dumped at the airport just when Misty came to pick up the group on Friday.  She had already become one of the group, attaching herself (almost physically) to one of the team Dr. JF Carmel, a veterinarian from British Columbia.  The other two docs, Dr. Stacey Steele and Dr. Dave Burgess live and work in Western Washington.  Dr. Steele, who does spay/neuter clinics for her local area, was able to get funds raised to bring two of her staff, Michelle and Sarah.  The remaining members of our team included Shari,  who works with Dr. Burgess, and Nancy and Alex Sherertz who had participated in the trip to Belize, and wanted more!  We are staying at the same house as last time:  a beautiful Mexican home with a guest house, plenty of room for us to spread out and yet have a central area to gather, share stories and get to know one another.We headed out to dinner La Palapa,  had some great food - crab, tortilla soup, chicken mole were among the dishes served.  Tired I headed for bed soon afterward.   The next day was Monday, a free day to get to know the area and the team members.  Misty had arranged a boat ride through a local dive shop.   We met up with Rafael down at the marina for a boat ride to Coronado, a small island not far from the peninsula.  It is a national park that formed from a volcano and had some interesting rock formations.  We enjoyed the wildlife, sea lions (though one had a net wrapped around its neck), ospreys, crabs and puffer fish.  No dolphins or whales seen on our trip but it was a wonderful time nonetheless.  Later in the day, four  of thefive doctors ambled about town to look for momentos and gifts.  We decided to get something to eat and Dr. Steele had a hankering for tres leche cake.  We were unsuccessful in our quest but ate some great tortilla soup at La Palapa again and calamari and carrot cake at the restaurant at Hacienda Suites where 5 of the group had stayed before the rest arrived.  We straggled in to the house that evening and the rest of the group was hungrily awaiting our return.  Being sated from our journey, they headed out without us and had a late return that nite.  We all spent the rest of the evening quietly, our thoughts of the full day ahead of us.

---

---