Hotel Oasis Loreto

... and murders.

There are alot of indigenous people in this part of Mexico. Keith the Australian compared them to "them abbos back home". Nice.

We went to see what might be the smallest museum in the world, the Museum of Mayan Medicine. It explains how the people in this part of Mexico still practise traditional medicines, rather than modern western methods. Apparently skunk urine cures rheutamism, and black spider fangs cure swollen testicles. Try it sometime! The finale ...

... from New York but he was also kind enough to let me borrow a similar one in the mean time, jolly nice fellow. This means of course that I have to return in February but it`s kind of on the way so not really a problem. I was still feeling rough at about 1300 but felt I had an obligation to se at least something cultural, so I got across to the other end of the city and paid a visit to the Aztec Stadium, scene of the infamous hand of god in 86. Got a guided tour for a measly ...

... the Malecon a couple of blocks in the sunshine and took the tender back to the ship. It was a good day in the sunshine in a pleasant seaside town. No time-share sellers...no pushy souvenir vendors....just people who smiled and waved back! The ship left early....about 4:00! After having most of us off the ship yesterday from 4:00am to 10:00 pm Holland America needed us back in the shipboard shops, casino, bars and spa spending the money we saved yesterday ...

... reason, want to throw away $40 to stand under the hot sun and hear about salt. Not surprisingly, they ended up going alone. As for us, it was back to the other side again where, after a somewhat odd stay in an orchard near Mulege where we enjoyed fine dining while camping with goats, we stopped for a couple days on a beach in Bahia Concepcion, considered one of the most scenic places on the entire Baja peninsula. Very interesting ...

... one I came upon had a guard with a machine gun and there were 3 or 4 army guys working out right inside the fence. I thought perhaps this was the wrong entrance so I meandered about for a while and found another one. This one was only guarded by a gentleman who wanted to take my picture then charge me for it and a man selling disposable cameras (of which I should have invested in a few). I made my way into the park and passed the entrance I had passed up before ...

Oh dear, Chris would appear (even to the untrained eye) to have decimated his front sprocket. This spells poo, really deep poo. After temporary desert repairs and modification, the valiant steed known as the industrial revolution (Chris`bike) was towed into the nearest town, which happened to be the same one we had left earlier that morning. Thats progress. After hours of broken spanenglish discussion with ...

... improv, although that would be pretty dangerous when you see what they do. So to learn each move, in combination, with six guys in the ring, and pull it off perfectly, giving the illusion of aggression and danger and pain, is admirable. I was sitting there thinking: it's kind of like a combination of gymnastics, mime, icehockey, trapeez, kickboxing, and, I suppose, wrestling. Great night anyway. The last couple of days we spent in the Palacio Nacional ...

... check. You wait in line and push a button. If the monitor is green you move on. Red, you get checked. We both got through on greens and into the waiting crowd. We walked up and down the corridor until we found a local holding a sign reading HOY. It was Gerardo, our host for this trip. We were waiting for some medical school students who were coming here to learn medical spanish so we ventured up to the second level and got some McDonalds. We met ...

Loreto. Several of the people alongside of me on the airplane are arriving with plans to go fishing, on the Sea Of Cortez. Me, I feel like a 'secret agent' ... see, because ... as soon as I patiently endure the ...