Loreto is a good place for cruisers to do provisioning and get what repairs they may. There are any number of hardware stores and small groceries there, as well as a good pet food store, a couple of car rental outfits, gas stations and a propane supplier a bit out of town toward the airport. The malecon next to the pangas’ darsena makes for a nice walk, and ConaPesca has an office there at which you can get your national park permits for the islands in this part of the Sea of Cortez.*
Loreto’s old mission was established in 1697 and is the first permanent mission on the Baja peninsula. It and the museum next door are a fine way to spend a couple of hours.
Loreto and Mulege are about 120 miles apart on the Transpeninsular Highway – a more or less straight shot in the car we’d rented in Loreto. Mulege is on the coast at the mouth of a date-palm-lined arroyo and a river delta, but one or more recent hurricanes and/or floods have caused the river to silt in and it appears some of the homes along the riverbanks near the delta have been damaged – if not lost. 
There seems to be no comfortable overnight anchorage for a cruising boat, or access by dinghy up the river into town. But the 1705 Mision Santa Rosalia de Mulege sits atop a bluff overlooking the river and the town, and is a good place to stop and wonder – as GB did – how all those Jesuits felt over 300 years ago, sweating underneath those smelly, flea-bitten wool robes.
Nestled up in the Sierra de la Giganta mountains west of Loreto is San Javier, home to the historic Mision San Francisco Javier de Vigge-Biaundo, founded by the Jesuits in 1699. The grounds include olive groves lining fields of onions, and old fruit trees following a mountain stream. 
If you follow your nose down footpaths behind the mission, you eventually find a very old, very gnarly olive tree that was planted when the mission was founded. The church is still in use, and the town of San Javier looks like an average small, remote mountain town that has had a bit of prosperity that its history and some tourism have brought it.
But the road to San Javier is where the real entertainment is. In dry April weather, it’s a fairly well-maintained, mostly-1½-lane, 35-Km (feels like 35 miles) dirt road that runs up and down canyons, has switchbacks and hairpin turns, and sometimes crosses arroyos. Heck, part of the road was diverted to run for miles ALONG the bottom of an arroyo. In short, if you’re accustomed to driving small passenger cars on US Forest Service or logging roads, the road to San Javier is Big Fun. We rented the smallest 4-door Dodge contraption that Europcar in Loreto had. Geoff and Linda from Curare piled into the back seat while GB rode shotgun and I drove.
I prefer driving off-road because (1) it’s slow; and (2) there’s not much traffic, so (3) any mishap will probably be non-fatal and (4) meanwhile I can look at the scenery. The road to San Javier was perfect for my needs. As we started into the mountain range and gained elevation, the arroyos and washes below the road became narrower and deeper – in turn, creating a little bit cooler climate for plants and animals. We soon began spotting groves of date palms in the canyons below us. Cardon cactus became more plentiful, making a true cactus forest. Suddenly we saw water – and soon a shallow stream crossed the road near a wide spot where clearly many cars have parked for picnics and whatnot. We had come across a spot where “cave paintings” (I’d call them “pictographs”) decorated a cliff face. 
At least three different species of brightly-colored dragonflies flew low over the water and a small school of wee fish. We had found our first oasis.
Moving on after a time, we climbed higher to the village of Las Parras and the little roadside chapel there, all decorated for some lucky girl’s 15th birthday celebration.
The land soon plateaued, and we entered ranch country. Cattle and goats were startled by our breakneck 20mph speed. One ranchero had put topes (large speed bumps) on either side of his house – but these topes were the only impediment to our progress. Soon the road approached another canyon and the village of San Javier appeared below. The rest of the trip followed a typical tourist pattern: lunch at a family-owned restaurant near the mission. Tour of the mission. Tour of the mission grounds. Back in car to Loreto for provisioning and other errands. Back to the respective boats and so to bed. Nice day.
* 260 pesos (about US $26) gets you a year’s pass to all of Mexico’s national parks. This is a screamin’ deal, people, especially if you plan to do a lot more than just sit on your boat. Get you some.
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