Blues Against Hunger receives warm welcome and generous food donations in Loreto

l-r: Sixx Pack, Estaban St. James, Federico Soto, John Frye,
Sweet Rachel, Ron Rando, Lou Pando of Wild Pack and Tsunami Bands
at Oasis Hotel in Loreto.
The winter of 2017 was one event after another, one tour after another. Sometimes they seem to run together and I start to forget things, which town that which, or the names of everyone that was there. I guess it's part of getting older.

However, sometimes there are events that stand out, that leave a bookmark in your mind. The one event that dog-eared my brain this year was during the annual Baja Blues Against Hunger tour from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. We were in Loreto, in Baja California Sur, Mexico. 

The restaurant at Hotel Oasis in Loreto shot from the beach.  
During the tour, Sweet Sixx and The Wild Pack and Tsunami Band and several guests toured the entire Baja feeding the hungry and preserving and sharing the blues. The best part is we stop in every community on the 1000 mile route. This year, the tour began in San Felipe and traveled south down the half-completed, half-graded Mexican Highway 5. We stopped for Whale Watching in Guerrero Negro, then continued on to the San Ignacio, the historic Mulege and the breathtaking Bahia de Concepcion, and then onto Loreto, La Paz, Los Barriles, San Jose del Cabo, Cabo San Lucas to finish in Todo Santos on the Pacific. Every community is beautiful, we could always guess a response by the size of the community.  In Loreto, the overwhelming welcome and generosity were moving.

Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto
One of my favorite stops on the tour is the incredibly beautiful Loreto. It's a town with colonial buildings, picturesque shopping in cobblestone walks shaded by a canopy of ficus trees. A town plaza with municipal building and bank facing off, surrounded by cafes, restaurants, and more recently even a new craft brewery. But that's not all, directly in the center of this little oasis is the Mother of all the Spanish missions herself, the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto, a 17th-century church. And just a couple blocks east toward the Sea of Cortez on the beach, at the southern end of the Malecon is The Hotel Oasis.

The Hotel Oasis were very supportive of the Baja Blues Against Hunger tour and provided us with wonderful accommodations and hospitality. Last tour we had the pleasure of playing at a great bar near the Oasis called Stroker Reef, owned by bikers and musicians Kathy and Jaime, awesome people. The event was a great success, the best we had seen, so we expected to do about the same in terms of people. We were wrong. We didn't now that many people lived in Loreto. The hotel was overwhelmed and ran out of tables and chairs and began turning people away. Fortunately, that was quickly resolved and staff was pulling chairs from throughout the hotel.

We were a little concerned at first because the hotel has placed the stage next to the buffet. So for the first part of the set, we had a hungry bunch of line dancers besides the stage, making their way to the chow. Which was out of this world. Our drummer Ron Rando is an oyster nut - truly - the buffet had oysters cooked about 10 different ways. He was was in heaven. The best part is since Wild Pack and Tsunami had been taking turns performing first each night, it was Wild Pack first this night. Once were done, we had time to get into the buffet line, grab a cold one and watch the band.

We had a great time, Loreto is an amazing town and even more amazing community. The food was donated to a home for the elderly in Santa Rosalia. It's a great feeling to see and FEEL the love and appreciation. It's what makes it wall worth it. Here are a few pictures from the Loreto Baja Blues Against Hunger event in Feb 2017.

Sweet Sixx and The Wild Pack Blues Band perform blues food drive concerts and jams throughout Baja during the winter and the United States during the summer on Brewers & Blues Against Hunger.



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