Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A little more news...

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I better update you on the "little things" because there isn't much new going on here. The hot and humid summer came to a close around the third week in October. Everyone told us it's like a switch that turns the humidity off. They were right. One day you wake up to find the cool ocean breeze blowing (instead of the warm one) and the temperatures below ninety. Amazing!

We had our first Vancouver visitors (Bill and Joanne). They stayed at their time share but we were able to get together a few times during the week. They invited us to share their fresh catch (6 Dorado fixed 5 different ways) at their hotel restaurant. There was enough fish for 30 people. It was a culinary delight. We met the friends they traveled down with (very funny people) also from Vancouver. I think everyone had a great time.

Dinner on our back porch with Bill and Joanne
 
The day before they left we took them to Todos Santos (home of the legendary Hotel California). It's unclear as to whether this is the actual hotel that the Eagles' sing about but the folks in Todos Santos are convinced that it's the one and only!

We lunched at a "hippy" health food restaurant in Todos Santos

Happy couple enjoying Mexico
 
On our way back we stopped to show them a quaint boutique hotel on the beach of Pescadero (a surfer's Paradise). The owner of the hotel started this project as his private residence. Since then he's turned it into a hotel. It's very Mexican.

The Cerritos Hacienda (a luxury boutique hotel)

Northern bungalow's pool view of the Pacific Ocean. 

Bill and Joanne waiting for our fresh margaritas at the Whale Watcher's Bar.

The bartender used fresh limes, fresh oranges, and a splash of Sprite. Yummy!

Three Amigos

Warren and two cool chicas

A view of the front courtyard
 

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Where we work and play...

Some of you are wondering what we have been up to lately. Well, really not much. We have been laying low because of the hotter weather and mostly playing golf as our activity. It's a stretch to play in the heat but we ride in a cart and drink lots of water. I thought you might want to see where we work and play so I've decided to include some pictures that show just that. I hope you enjoy.

Warren teeing off at Cabo Del Sol Ocean Course

Looking out to the Sea of Cortez

Beautiful views on the Ocean Course

Hole #17 from the black tees

This is a great beach


Spending time on the Pacific Coast

The weather here has finally gotten hot. Well, relatively hot. It usually starts out around 88 degrees and peaks out around 95-97 degrees. The humidity is around 30% which makes it feel a bit hotter. So recently we had a great opportunity to spend some time on the "cooler" Pacific side of the Baja. Another marshal that we work with at Cabo del Sol, asked us to house sit and dog sit for him while he took a trip to Seattle. His house is located 50 miles north of Cabo heading toward Todos Santos on the Pacific Ocean.This area tends to be 5-10 degrees cooler. It was a nice change.

I've included some photos of this amazing place. It sits right on the ocean. The mornings and evenings were fantastic. Because we are so far out of Cabo the stars were really bright. I walked the beach most mornings with Sofia. She was my constant companion. I couldn't go anywhere without her right at my side. What a sweet girl. The other dog is 14 and does her best but she has a hard time getting around. However, when it's time to eat, she's right there!

Sofia the constant companion

Ruby taking it easy in one of the bedrooms

Originally it was built to be a gourmet cooking school. The wonderful plants that would be part of the fresh cuisine did not do well in the salt sea air. That's not to say that there isn't organic produce near by. In fact Todos Santos has a lot of great local farms. It has a natural water spring that creates a great place to grow produce. Anyway, it was a fun week. The down side was having to drive back to Cabo to do our marshaling duties.

Just one beautiful sunset on the Pacific

The back courtyard

Dining and Living Room

Porch that overlooks the ocean

Sunset viewing and sitting area

More of the courtyard

The view of the Pacific

The gourmet kitchen

One of the 6 bedroom suites
Another thing that happened during this week was the water tank for our rental house, called a pila, started to leak. We had to turn off the water, drain the whole tank, fix the leak with a special concrete, and then fill it back up. This took about 5 days. Fortunately we had a place to stay during this fix. Everything went well until we turned the water back on. To our surprise there wasn't any water. Apparently, the water company periodically turns off the water to a subdivision as their way of conserving water. It is not noticed when you have a full pila tank but when the tank is empty it becomes a big problem. Warren had to order a truckload of water to fill up the 3000 gallon tank. On Monday or Tuesday the water was turned back on and all is well again. Welcome to Mexico!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Electical Storm

I wanted to share some pictures of the electrical storm we experience. I rained off and on for a few hours but the thunder and lightning was spectacular.

It started with big black clouds and lots of thunder

As the storm got closer so did the lightning

This strike was super close! WOW!

Monday, April 30, 2012

Cabo at last!

We just arrived here less than a week ago but I wanted to share some pictures with you. We are settling into our new digs and really enjoying the larger space. Plus it is located near shopping (Costco and Walmart) and right across the highway there's a fitness facility that I joined so I can get my "gym fix". Warren and I are continuing to walk most mornings and have even taken our bikes out for a spin. We need to set our alarm, though, and get going earlier so that it doesn't get too hot for us. So far, we are finding the days on the cooler side. There's been a lot of cloud cover and breeze so it's not gotten over 85 degrees for the last 4 days. We were a little worried when we first arrived because it was in the 90s! There will be plenty of time for that kind of heat, just not yet! Anyway, here are the photos:

This is our view from our back porch.

A trip to an area of San Jose that we haven't been before (great spot).

The front of our little abode.

Dining room

Kitchen (full size oven, yeah!)

Living room

Upstairs powder room

Guest Room (come visit us)

Our bedroom

The back yard

Stair well

The community pool we share with the neighbors

The street we now call home
The little house is a reversed living floor plan where the upstairs has the living room, kitchen and powder room. The downstairs is the two bedrooms and baths and an office space in the entrance. We really like the colors and the decorations. The owners left their artwork which is fun and colorful. The furniture is very comfortable and tastefully done. We've met a few of the neighbors and think that we will be very happy here.

Warren and I are applying for marshalling jobs at the local golf courses so that we can play golf for free (otherwise it's pretty expensive). It's looking pretty promising because most people who do this volunteer job leave for the summer months. It's a way to get our foot in the door and play some great courses that we wouldn't probably play because of the expense. I'll let you know... 

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Los Barriles

As our journey continues down the Baja we were told to visit the East Cape. The activities include but are not limited to wind surfing, snorkeling, beach combing, and ATV riding the miles of beaches. Also, there is a large retirement community here. So we decided to let our little trailer rest for a while and rent something. Our friend, Pat, sent out an email to her friends in Buena Vista to see if anyone knew of a rental. We received two responses back.  We decided to rent a studio apartment overlooking the beach. The people we rent from have been full time residents here for the last 7 years. They retired from the airline industry where they were based out of Texas. They really don’t miss the states and are fortunate enough to be able to travel back to see family easily. The airport from here is only a 45 minute drive (unless you get stuck behind a slow moving semi-truck) because there are no stop signs between here and the airport. Plus it’s a very scenic drive.
One view along the beach.

Looking toward Los Barriles

Looking back toward Buena Vista.

The house we are staying at (apartment is above the garage)

This area began to grow back in the 1970s because it was the only place in the Baja that an American could get clear title when they bought property. Many of those brave souls who pioneered this place are still here. Most of the people we have met came in about 2004. Everyone has great stories about fishing, driving the Baja, and the hospitality they’ve experienced from the Mexican people they have encountered over the years.
One of the nicer hotels in Los Barriles (Las Palmas)

Overlooking Los Barriles at sunset

Looking out over the Sea of Cortez

We spend our days walking the beach (it’s possible to walk 10 miles in either direction), driving around the small town of Los Barriles on the ATV we rented from our hosts, going to the various events around town (for instance there is “open mike” on Wednesday nights at a local restaurant and the talent is quite good), meeting the other gringos, enjoying the beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and hiking in the desert hills. We attended the local church last week and went to the Easter Service on the beach at sunrise. It was quite spectacular seeing the sun rise as the pastor spoke of Christ rising again. Then we went to a breakfast potluck at a home on the beach. It was a good opportunity to meet some other Christians in town.

Our hosts have been kind enough to invite us over to meet some of their friends. During one of these visits four donkeys showed up at their gate looking for a hand out. Our host, Debbie, accommodated them by feeding them carrots. It was quite a sight.  The other thing we’ve enjoyed is playing cards. Every afternoon at 4:00 a group of about 14 people get together at someone’s house and play a game called “Up and Down the River”. Since Warren and I are very familiar with this game we got right into it!
Hello Donkeys!

Can we have carrots please

One at a time!

All four lined up patiently waiting for their treat
The other thing that our hosts invited us to do is take a long ATV ride out to a working lighthouse. We drove the ATVs on the dirt road to a town called La Ribera about 5 miles away to have lunch first. Then we rode the ATVs on the beach another 7 miles to the lighthouse. Just a few miles south of the lighthouse is the beach house of the infamous Jesse Ventura (he was the controversial Governor of Michigan or Minnesota). Unfortunately he wasn’t around so we parked our ATVs and watched for sea life. Then we headed back and this time we stayed on the beach the whole way. It’s incredible to ride along the beach for that many miles.
The working lighthouse

Taking a break in front of Jesse Ventura's house (Steve and Debbie, our hosts middle and left)

Warren along the beach during our long ATV ride

The reputation for the East Cape is that it is very windy. That is true for the months of January through mid-March. We’ve experienced a few days of wind but by this time of year the norm is to have a couple of days of wind and then 4 or 5 days of calm. When it’s calm the water looks like a lake and it’s easy to see the sting rays jumping and the dolphins playing out in the water. We haven’t seen any whales but then again it is a little late in the season for that.

We’ve made a couple of side trips to the little surrounding towns. One is called Triunfo. It is quite charming with cobblestone streets and an old mission that’s being revamped. There is a good restaurant there that makes artisan bread and pizzas in a wood burning oven. We haven’t tried the pizza but the bread is excellent! The owner is a biker dude who came to Mexico, married a beautiful Mexican woman and is now a reformed restaurant owner/baker (kind of reminds you of the Dave's Bread story). While we were there a bunch of school kids were ordering their pizzas to share. We also were surprised when a 10 year old boy drove up in a little pick-up truck, hopped out, delivered something to the restaurant, got back in the truck and drove away. 
One of the old buildings in Triunfo

The little famous restaurant

A neat art-deco house being built across the street from the restaurant

Hand carved wood doors (impressive)


Another thing we did was visit a family in Los Barriles that owns a house that they have turned into a kind of funky art museum. Over the last ten years they have created sculptures, furniture, and art work out of rocks and wood they found in the desert and on the beach. They see a rock, picture a face or an animal in it, paint it so the rest of us can see it, and voila-a new piece of art.  It’s pretty incredible. Their house was filled with these rock creatures. Most of the furniture is made from materials found in the desert. Apparently they only open their house to viewers once or twice a year. We were fortunate enough to be in town during one of the open houses. It was  so amazing I've included all the pictures I took and wish I had taken more.
This is a little spot the owners created in their yard

This depicts a story of the lost gold that is supposed to be hidden somewhere in the hills around here

The guards of their entry way

Some gecko lizards and an alligator head

Donkey sculptures

A sitting area in the yard


Some friends from Vancouver came to Cabo for Spring Break. We spent the afternoon at the pool at the Villa Estancia Resort where Don and Tammy were staying and then went to dinner at a restaraunt called Solomon's Landing located at the marina in Cabo. It was good to see familiar faces.

Dinner at Solomon's Landing

Tammy and Chris  (a couple of hot mamas)

One thing that we hope to do before leaving this area is visit Cabo Pulmo National Park. It is the only living coral reef in the western North America. We hope to snorkel there but the locals tell us to wait until May or June when the water warms up so you don’t need a wet suit.  Another thing we would like to do is go to a working ranch and ride horses. If you arrange it ahead of time, they even provide lunch. The owners take you out on trails in the hills where you can see some waterfalls. Yes, you read that right, waterfalls in the desert. Incredible! When or if we do these things I will definitely report back.