Isla del Carmen is the big one: the largest island in Loreto Bay National Marine Park, stretching thirty kilometres from north to south directly across the bay from town. Almost nobody lives there. Its coast is a run of long sand beaches, rocky headlands and deep bays, and on its eastern side the ghost town of Bahía Salinas — a salt mine abandoned in the 1980s — sits beside a beach of dazzling white sand. A day on Carmen is a day of space.
A Day of Space
Carmen is close — 45 minutes to an hour across the bay — but it is long, and that is what changes the day. Instead of one beach you have dozens, and your captain picks by the wind: the western side facing Loreto when it is calm, the sheltered bays on the north or south when it blows. Whatever the day, you will almost certainly have your beach to yourselves.
Bahía Salinas
On the island's far side, a lagoon was worked for salt for over a century until the mine closed in the 1980s. The buildings, church and rusting machinery are still there beside a beach of bright white sand and clear shallow water. It is a strange and beautiful place to eat lunch, and a proper expedition: reaching Salinas is a full day of six to seven hours on the boat.
Snorkeling and Fishing
Carmen's headlands drop into deep water quickly, which makes the points productive for fishing — yellowtail in winter, cabrilla and snapper year-round, dorado passing along the outside in summer — and the rocky bays hold good reef for snorkeling. Sea lions haul out at several points and, in the channel between Carmen and the mainland, this is the water the blue whales feed in from January to March.
How Long to Book
Six hours is the minimum for Carmen and gives you the near western beaches with a good stretch at anchor. Seven or eight lets you round the island to Bahía Salinas or split the day between fishing the points and a beach afternoon.
