It has yet to be integrated into the Imperial Franchise. If you were to go there, and you really should, you must then stop by Pachamama, a Chilango-Argentinian bistro atmosphere with a local touch, right on the little plaza.

If you bring kids and they like real sand and saltwater, stay at either La Pinta or Las Trojes, the first being a seventies style, dot.gov-run 3.52 star hotel and the latter an 8 room palapa bungalow compound, La Pinta with a kid-hip pool, but both are right on the beach, at the north end of the Malecon, which has plenty of advantages, including a quickie happy hour for non-intellectuals 2 minutes away at Chilly Willy's,

Divers and fish-a-holics have several options and book with baja.org to later catch things with ARTURO'S Sport Fishing Fleet.

There are several levels of accommodation being offered in Loreto. From the top down:

LA POSADA DE LAS FLORES, on the plaza evokes by all means the grandeur of 18th century colonial style interior design, including a roof top glass bottom pool, flanked by the best restaurant within several hundred miles.

Some of your after-dark-time will likely be spent at Mike's Bar, just a block south, while JORGE will rock your eardrums and who knows, maybe some friendly stranger will tell you what the difference between a choyero and a chuniquero is.

If you have the time, take a rental car or group trip to the SAN JAVIER mission, about an hour west of town in the SIERRA DE LA GIGANTA, Southern Baja's oldest spiritual franchise, right out of Roma. It's well worth everything, including the rough ride, and look at it this way, if you were to be doing the ride in the company of nicely chested companion(s), what joy that will be!

Unless you're a golfing geezer and need to smell fresh concrete on your wedding's 77th anniversary (to make you happy), stay out of NOPOLO, the mere name of it already begins negatively. (I know, this will make some of you really want to go there)

There are no bowling alleys, ice skating rinks and ferris wheels in Loreto, which is what makes it "nice", the remains of what was once Baja's first capital, before getting creamed by Dios Naturaleza some two hundred years ago.

_{Miguel Alemán has been an editor for baja.org since 1988}

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