Mulege, Baja California Sur:
Mulege is a 300 year old town, about an hour and a half drive north of Loreto, at the mouth of the Mulege “River,” actually an estuary that shares its water with the Sea of Cortez. The estuary, a mixed fresh and salt water lagoon, threads its way through the town, and its groves of tall palm trees and other greenery make an unexpected oasis of this desert shoreline location.
The church of the Mision Santa Rosalia de Mulege is still in active use, and a former prison-without-walls whose inmates were allowed to work jobs in town and return to their cells at night, is available to tour. The unique estuary and all it offers (fishing, kayaking, and boating access to the Sea of Cortez), are the most renowned feature of town, and the sandy beach at Punta Prieta at the estuary’s mouth adds yet another attraction. Another popular activity is visiting cave painting sites with tour groups – there are 12,000 square kilometers of land in deep canyons of the San Francisco mountains nearby, and more than 300 sites have been recognized, among them La Trinidad, Piedras Pintas, and Cueva San Borjita