Touring Loreto on panga boats

The past few days have zoomed by like a speed boat across the smooth sea early in the morning. The analogy may be too on the nose but we went on two boat rides recently so we’ve spent a few days on the water.

Here’s a screenshot of maps so you can orient yourself to the area.

You MUST take at least one boat trip to the nearby islands in the Sea of Cortez / Gulf of California while in Loreto. The beaches in town are mediocre at best. I am a real beach snob, but even by Corey’s standards, the beach by the malecon is just okay.

But a quick 15 minute boat ride out to the nearest island, Coronado, will transport you to a completely different scene. Don’t take our word for it. Here are some photos.

<– Coronado vs Loreto –>

First we’d like to share what going to Coronado Island was like, then we will share our experience visiting Danzante Island.

We walked to the marina at 9am and boarded a panga with 6 other people. We left the marina and started for the south of Coronado. Along the way we sailed past thousands of dolphins. This is not an exaggeration. At one point you could look in any direction and see hundreds of simultaneous splashes from dolphins jumping and swimming and playing. We then moved closer to shore and saw bottlenose dolphins. I have so many cool videos that captured these moments and they’re posted on our gram.

From here we continued counterclockwise hugging the shoreline. We encountered interesting rock formations, birds (like the blue footed booby), and sea lions. No one in my boat was brave enough to snorkel with the sea lions but there were a few from the other boats doing similar tours.

The water was not as clear as I had hoped for. Our guide explained that this time of year it’s very green and usually you can see a lot more.

After almost circumnavigating the island, we arrived at the cove that we would stop in for swimming and lunch. The cove had a long white powdery beach and a few boats already parked on the beach. The water was cold. Corey donned a wetsuit and spent some time looking at fish. I hung near the beach and worked on my tan. We spent about 2 hours on the beach then the boat left to explore the rest of the coastline, then sped back to the Loreto marina to arrive around 2:30 in the afternoon.

Danzante
Our tour was not as organized as we would have liked but we kept an open mind and a relaxed spirit. We departed the marina with just us and the captain at about 10 on a small panga boat. It was almost an hour boat ride to Danzante and the whole voyage runs parallel to the coast of Carmen Island, which is nearly 20 miles long, and inhabited only by birds and wildlife (like the big horn sheep which you can pay to hunt).

Our captain, Ismael, navigated well through some choppy water and small swells. Occasionally the ocean spray would splash across the bow, reminiscent of Seattle rain: that light mist that doesn’t require a rain jacket. The spring is the dry season in Loreto, and my skin was feeling the dry air so this late morning boat ride was refreshing.

Approaching an island always reminds me of Jurassic Park. The steep cliffs develop into looming rocks as we pull closer to shore. Can you hear the music yet?

Danzante is about the same size as Coronado and we approached it from the north side and moved clockwise. Coronado is volcanic so had different rock formations. Danzante reminded me of big thunder mountain from Disney. Do you see it?

We navigated around the island, again hugging the coastline and after some time we encountered some dolphins. It seemed like a small, playful group and we watched them for about 15-20 minutes.

We sailed for about 30 minutes more looking at interesting rock formations. This one looks like a dog to me.

We finally nestled into a small cove so we could swim at Honeymoon Beach. It was small with only 2 other boats present. The water was clear and shallow with a lot of scattered rocks. Great for standing still in the water and watching all the small fish move around you! We saw an eel, striped fish, black fish, and some sea stars.

After about an hour or so we left the beach to make the journey home. I figured we would have choppy waters based on the whitecaps I saw in the morning, but the ride back was different. Ismael instructed us both to sit on the bow and right away we were slogging through some deep swells, no whitecaps this time. I had one hand firmly grasping onto the side of the boat and my legs squeezing my beach bag between my feet. My sister, Kerri, would have hated this!

Most of the ride we were able to glide through the waves almost like a hovercraft but then occasionally we slammed into the lower part of a swell. Thunk! There were a few times my butt cheeks momentarily lifted off the seat. That part of the voyage lasted for about 15 minutes and the rest of the trip Corey moved to the middle of the panga next to the captain and I stayed on the bow. The swells were smaller at about 1-2 feet. There’s a video of a similar boat coming along side of us that I posted on our Instagram.

We arrived back at the marina at 3 pm. It was a lovely day overall. I love being out on the water. I’m a water baby. It’s has been fun exploring the islands here. Looking forward to exploring more beaches in the weeks and months to come. We will share in the coming days where we are headed next!