Loreto Bay National Marine Park on Mexico's Baja
California peninsula celebrated its first 10 years in July 2006!
On July 19, 1996, by
decree of the Mexican President, Ernesto Zedillo, the National Marine Park of
Loreto Bay was established. Called "Bahia de Loreto Parque Nacional" in
Spanish, the park encompasses 2,065 square kilometers of uninhabited island
jewels such as Carmen and Danzante and the deep rich pristine Sea of Cortez
just off shore of the little seaside town of Loreto. The Nature Conservancy and
other organizations such as The Grupo Ecologista Antares, AC. are working with
the new park system to bring scientific researchers to the area, to protect the
resources, and to educate people about this unique environment. Blue, fin,
humpback and other whales, dolphins, sea lions and all kinds of fishes and sea
life thrive here. Sea Kayak Adventures, Inc. is one of the very few to be
granted a full license to operate tours in the Loreto Bay National Marine Park
and in the federally protected gray whale lagoon of Magdalena Bay on the Baja
California peninsula's Pacific coast, and we feel honored to guide people in
these special places.
Loreto is located 700
miles south of the USA/Mexico border, on the Sea of Cortez. When the Spanish
explorers first arrived in 1533, the area was sparcely populated by the Pericu
Indians, who gathered fruit, fish and hunted. Loreto was eventually the first
European settlement in all of Baja California and Alta California (the current
USA state of California). It was founded in 1697 by Jesuit missionaries and is
the site of the first of all the California missions. Despite periodic
hurricanes, the mission cathedral in downtown Loreto built in 1697 is still
standing, well cared for, well loved, and well used to the present day.
Considered the head and mother of all the missions in Baja California, it was
from here that missionaries set out to build their vast network of missions
eventually extending all the way to northern California in what is now the USA.
In addition to Loreto's rich historical and cultural history, the town's
scenery is spectacular, sandwiched by the Sea of Cortez on one side and the
rugged Sierra de la Giganta on the other, rising steeply up out of the sea in
phenomenal fashion.
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