BonVivant

First lunch in Bahia Magdalena. Beans with chipotle and cheese Beans and rice, fresh tortillas in woven basket. A granny makes tortillas to order, cooks them on a big metal sheet above an open fire. Beautiful palapa/palm leaf thatched roof

More beans, peppers and rice. Loreto is pleasant, has lots of food options. Local are chill and courteous. Has both mountains and sea, and is very popular with Canadian and American pensioners, middle-aged tourists, snowbirds (temporary residents) etc.

The homemade tortillas here are massive, the size of a wheel. The cooks are women and they cook with woods. The dark chilli paste again It's dark inside and the photo is blurry but you can kind of see the green stuff which is cactus. Giant homemade tortilla filled with flank steak cooked over an open fire Yes. Still cheap. Everything only gets more expensive after Guerrero Negro. I haven't seen many carnitas places so far. The wet/stewed beef and offal tacos are more common. Fish/prawn/scallop/octopus tacos are king.

A little fish taco feast at this simple and clean restaurant near my lodging. Whole fish, bones removed. Guessing pureed rehydrated dried (smoked) chillies with something added to form a paste. I've read sometimes finely ground tortilla chips are used. I wanted to ask for myself but forgot. I will when I get back to Loreto.

This is the first lunch I'll eat when I return to Loreto in 4 days time. Sauce for the clams And earlier...

At a simple place. All 4 different tacos. Private hummingbird feeder in the garden in front of my room.

Happy to leave windy, mozzi-infested San Ignacio. Too windy for whale watching and I didn't want to hang around waiting to hear if they'd go the next day or not. Maybe next time. Nature owns me nothing. Hopped on the bus the next moring to Loreto. Shell is very thick and heavy. Almejas chocolatas are a typical clam in Baja Sur. A quick break somewhere between San Ignacio and Loreto And some hoppy beers, finally! Amateurish but I'll take it! Si. In Bahia Magdelena this moment.

Fish underneath the vegs. Beans and rice alongside.

Simple food in windy San Ignacio. I only know flauta, aroz roja, and chile rellenos on this plate.

Last dinner in Guerrero Negro, just around the corner from the hotel. We are always the first to arrive. Less crowded, sit where we want. They only have the 3 and chicken If you don't here from me again for a week that means I got bitten by rabid dogs and died... Or when I return to warm and sunny Loreto in a week's time. There are so many feral dogs in this one-horse village and they are nasty. One already had a go at us!

Posting from Bahia Magdalena. Hoping to have more (soul-stirring) encounters with whales in the next 6 days. Last lunches in Guerrero Negro. I walked down the town's main road and ate a couple of things at different places for the last time. At the next place And the last

My first carnitas and they were Michoacan. I make it sometimes with leftover confit duck. @Smithy, cannot escape ceviches, cocteles, all things seafood in Baja Sur. I have 2 more weeks to gorge on it.

Wanted to try this super cheap, simple and local place purely out of curiosity. The vast majority of tourists in this village go to (fancy) restaurants catered to them. If you want to check out "comidas economicas" joints, such as this one, you must be able to turn off your clean-freak mode and change your mentality. 12 days into the holiday and I have not experienced any physical problem from eating on street, at cheap and expensive restaurants. (Deep-)fried tacos with 2 different meat fillings. Fortunately, the white sauce was not mayo.

Glad I ate seafood tacos so often last week! Just got to San Ignacio yesterday and there's almost nothing like that here in this tiny isolated commune in the middle of nowhere. There 3 places in San Ignacio to eat very simple food and it's expensive. I had it good in Guerrero Negro. Where I ate the tacos (photo taken at 8am one day)

Sunset ceviches Clockwise: octopus, fish, scallop, prawn.

I did it. I ate tacos 3 times a day. Tacos gobernador The inside Callo Rancheros-style

I'm in Baja Sur, that means seafood tacos in the sun. Second round with flour tortillas And earlier. Birria tacos at 2 different places. @heidih , thanks.

A big late lunch after a full day excursion to the middle of Baja (Sur) to see giant ancient cactuses and prehistoric cave paintings. I've been looking for clams. They are only found in this "campechana" (mixed coctel of octopus, scallops and clams). Fresh local red lobster. The most expensive item on the menu. The lobster on this mixed plate is a big smaller.

A (seafood) taco shack next to the road: Would rather be here than in NZ or OZ. You are looking at a novice taco eater's happy meal. Btw, the bottled hot sauces are worthless. After only 2 days I started asking if they have fresh jalapeño or habañeros.

Marinated local scallops in a big, heavy goblet. The restaurant doesn't have ceviche on the menu so I tried this. The same scallops taken out of the goblet Fish with octopus Flan that's not drenched in caramel, much too hard and far to sweet. Someone else ate it for me. It's osprey mating season here. This one with a big itch was seen from my table. This is the animal I was talking about: From the tour yesterday: mother and calf were gliding silently right next to the boat and on my side. It was an amazing and unexpected moment (didn't see them coming, they were so quiet).

First food and my first real Mexican tacos (!) after 3 flights and 16 hours in the air, without sleep over 24 hours. Roadside taco truck in Guerrero Negro (Baja Sur), sells only 2 things, prawn and fish tacos. I got 8. Why did I even consider NZ or Australia? Did my research on both and was underwhelmed (I know just about everyone "loves" them). Turns out Mexico has more than food to offer me. It has my most favourite and epic animal and that's why I have come here and not NZ (original plan) or Australia (plan B). White bits are cabbage, not cheese.

Lyonnaise sausage with lentils and buckwheat Last of Iberico blood sausage, with Sauerkraut and chestnut-tempeh dumplings. In Sicily:

Two different pierogi fillings: Percorino brought back from Sicily and boletus brought back from Lyon. Last arancino* in Sicily. (* They have male and female terms for deep-fried rice balls in west and east Sicily)

Quail braised in cream In Sicily: wild fennel and dandelion greens

Three dozens in one go Leftover creamy broth became noodle soup with fresh crab meat I added coconut water and chilli paste to the cream In Sicily: fresh ricotta with honey and pistachios from Bronte