Salvatierra chose the site for the most practical of reasons: water. The Baja Peninsula is overwhelmingly arid, and a reliable spring was the difference between a mission that could sustain itself and one that would wither. The Jesuits built their headquarters here, and from Loreto they launched expeditions that established missions up and down the peninsula. The town became the administrative center for all of Las Californias. When the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, the Franciscans inherited the Baja missions. Two years later, the Franciscans were ordered to turn over the peninsula to the Dominican Order and head north with Portola to establish new missions in the unexplored territory that would become Alta California -- today's U.S. state. The capital moved to Monterey in 1777, but Loreto continued as the seat of the Lieutenant Governor of Baja California until 1829, when a devastating hurricane forced the capital's relocation to La Paz.

Loreto sits on the eastern coast of the Baja Peninsula at roughly 10 meters above sea level, with the Gulf of California to the east and the Sierra de la Giganta rising steeply to the west. The geography is dramatic: a narrow coastal plain backed by a mountain escarpment that runs parallel to the gulf. The climate is hot and arid -- Koppen BWh -- with average temperatures around 24 degrees Celsius and annual rainfall of only 160 millimeters, concentrated in August and September. Summer days push to 34 degrees with high humidity. The highest official temperature ever recorded, 44.2 degrees Celsius, was measured on July 2, 2006. The Pacific hurricane season, running June through November, poses the most serious weather threat. Hurricane John struck the peninsula on September 2-3, 2006, bringing heavy rainfall and flooding.

Loreto's modern identity is built on sport fishing. The town has two distinct seasons: summer brings dorado -- the mahi-mahi that has become the town's emblematic species -- along with black marlin, blue marlin, striped marlin, and sailfish, ideal for fly fishing. Winter features yellowtail, or jurel, one of the strongest fighting fish in these waters, alongside year-round species like snapper and sea bass. Dorado season runs from late May through November, peaking between July and September, while yellowtail peaks from March to April. The combination has produced multiple IGFA records and sustains an economy built around pangas -- the small open boats that carry anglers out onto the Gulf each morning. Local restaurants will prepare whatever the tourists catch that day. The fishing has made Loreto a destination primarily for American travelers, served by daily flights from California to Loreto International Airport.

Seven buildings in Loreto from the 18th through 20th centuries are designated historical monuments by the Mexican federal government. The most significant is the Mission of Our Lady of Loreto, which marks the start of El Camino Real -- the Royal Road -- the historic route that follows the chain of Spanish missions northward all the way to Sonoma, California. The Jesuit Missions Museum beside the church houses religious art, weapons, and tools from the 17th and 18th centuries. Twenty kilometers north lie the ruins of Mission San Bruno, the first mission attempted in Baja California, founded by Padre Eusebio Kino in 1683 and abandoned two years later by order of the Spanish Crown. In the Sierra de la Giganta mountains west of town, cave paintings left by indigenous groups survive in canyons and rock shelters. The nearest sites, Cuevas Pintas and La Pinguica, contain works that UNESCO has added to its list of world heritage sites. Loreto maintains active sister city relationships with the California cities of Hermosa Beach, Cerritos, and Ventura -- a reminder that the connection between the two Californias, forged when Portola's expedition departed these shores in 1769, has never entirely broken.