Big News!

Well, we had decided last year that we would just rent a nice house on the beach each year and forget about buying anything. Of course this year about a week went by before we started "just checking the prices because there was so much for sale". It seemed that the prices had come down somewhat so we continued our “just looking”.

Our realtor from last year sent us a few emails to see if we were interested in seeing anything and finally we made a list of things. So long story short and four offers later we now own a lot in an area of Los Barriles called Las Brisas. Its beautiful! Its fairly flat as these lots go with a fantastic 360 degree view of the water, the arroyo and up into the mountains. We are very excited about it and hope to start building by August – September. Of course we have to officially own it first and at this point it is in escrow in Colorado. We expect it to close by the end of June, all going well, and then we will really own it. Well, we will own it for 50 years renewable....  Buying a property in Mexico can be quite interesting to say the least. We are doing what we are supposed to do with lots of guidance from the realtor, the lawyer and friends.


We had hoped for a “turn key” but it seems like house owners still want more than what Lorne is prepared to pay in this economy, plus there is not really anything that excites us within our price range. So… we will build what we want.

Now comes the exciting part! Designing what we want to build and then…. Building! There is not much building going on now, so, there are lots of builders available and they are charging much less than a few years ago. Unfortunately, building supplies are still expensive. We have found an architect from La Paz who has come down to meet with us and to photograph the lot and the views. Here’s hoping for all good things at not very much money…..

We slept overnight on our lot for the two nights before we left town.  These two photos are of the sunrise.  The video below is taken from the roof of the motor home. 

Los Barriles Comes to a Close

It has been a very quick trip this time – at least it really feels that way. We have been so busy since we got to Los Barriles. Friends back home puzzle over what do we "DO?"  Well, its a very social environment with lots of like minded people around our age, mostly retired. 

I really enjoy playing Mah Jong with a group of women on Fridays. We play from 10 am till 4 with a very quick break for lunch. It is a challenging game and I would love to find some people to play with in Victoria.

I was taking yoga classes twice a week till I could no longer walk – I think the side plank did my hip in. I have bursitis! So, I never did get back to yoga, perhaps Karen’s classes in Metchosin or Peggy’s in Victoria will be better. I’ve been painting with the ladies at Sandy’s house every Thursday. What an encouraging group of painters! There was a three day acrylic class with Jennifer Bowman that I participated in along with 12 other women and tried my brush in acrylics. It’s a much more forgiving medium than water colors that’s for sure. Consequently I have been on ebay searching for good deals on acrylic paint – and finding lots of course. Its easier to buy and there is more available on the US ebay.  Plus its much easier and cheaper to have things delivered to a US address – and items sell for less money than on Canadian ebay. In addition, many people won’t deliver to a Canadian address and if they do it is very expensive. So, thankfully we have a few friends in the US that will receive my parcels and we can pick them up on our way north.

Music has continued at Road Runner Café every Wednesday night. There have been some excellent musicians in town and a wide taste in music. A Sunday night jam has started at Vinny’s in Spa just 2 blocks from us. Vinney plays and teaches accordion. It has been quite interesting playing Bluegrass and blues with an accordion. Its been a lot of fun too. I much prefer the jamming to performing. Road Runner has standing room only on Wednesday nights now – 70 - 80 people is not unusual and Donna has been providing wonderful set meals. Everyone seems to really enjoy the musical diversity and people tend to come up and do 2 or 3 songs and leave so its nothing like a jam.  The place to be on Wednesday nights is the Road Runner!

This is an aside as I'm writing this while driver er passengering North;   [GASP!  Good Grief! The road south of Catavina is the worst ever, there a holes and ruts and bumps and wind and uneven patches and bites out of the side and no shoulder and many many pieces of ripped up tire to demonstrate how bad it is for tires to drive on roads like this. Lorne reminded me that every year he gets two new tires for the front and moves the old ones back.]

The Big Car Race!

This was a very exciting car race held in the area, competitors come from the US and Mainland Mexico as well as some local talent.  Our cleaning lady's husband came in third in the car race!  He would have won but had an electrical problem somewhere out in the desert that took him some time to fix.  Even so he came in third so that's pretty good.  The cars (and bikes) left from the hotel downtown on the beach road, up and over the highway and then off into the desert for about 4 hours or more before returning down one of the arroyos and back into town, finishing at the hotel. 

This is the website for the race:

http://www.probajaonline.com/

Be sure to watch the video of the race through the desert - the route is barely marked and is very rough! 



promo Dos mares 500 2010 de RIGOS VIDEOS from army66 on Vimeo.

Some Interesting Videos

This is a video taken right in front of the hotel in down town Los Barriles.  We didn't see it happening but we do see and hear the rays leaping out of the water day and night - in a sort of can-can dance.  Its puzzling as to why they do this....  Ideas?

Rays and orcas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvDxnpBxCeQ



A whale shark swam into El Coyote 2 days before we got there, the campground was buzzing with it and here is the video they took:

Whale Sharks El Coyote
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvLy6tyGbBo




Sortly after we arrived in Los Barriles the big kite board and wind surfing competition occured.  It was a world class event and there were competitors there from all over the world.  These are a few of the clips, pretty amazing and very exciting to watch.  They jump some 30 feet in the air:

Lord of the Winds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7sC7tH5ac&feature=player_embedded



Lord of the Winds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHr2x7qi3Bg



Lord of the Winds
http://vimeo.com/19331710

Yikes! I thought I posted this.....somewhere around January.....

The time has been whizzing by without documenting anything!! It seems as though at this point not only do we need a date book to tell us what we’re going to be doing each day, we need to write down what we did right when we did it so we can remember that too!! Yikes!


We have finished our house sitting at Paul and Renota’s and moved to our rental house in Spa Buena Vista. Paul and Renota’s home was great – fresh grapefruit and oranges every day and conversational Spanish Tuesday and Friday mornings with Umberto the gardener and Mondays with Gloria the cleaning lady. Every Tuesday Marcos the fish man and his mother Maria arrived at the gate by 9 am with fresh fish caught in La Paz the night before by his brother. Beautiful fish: scallops, shrimp, parrot fish, yellow tail, bass, trigger fish, dorrado, tuna, clams, and occasionally lobster. He always has a good assortment of fresh fish at a very reasonable price.

We made a deal with Marcos that he would come over to Spa with fish for us on Tuesday afternoons; but we have yet to see him. It is entirely possible that by the time he finishes with Los Barriles he is sold out!

Spanish classes three mornings a week have been great, it is a lot of fun and we laugh a great deal at the outrageous stories we make up together in class; all in Spanish. Adriana is an excellent, very professional teacher. She once taught elementary and secondary school but prefers adults now. She gives lots of homework but it is manageable, and I think I am learning something for my time and money.

Shortly after moving to Spa, I got bursitis in my hip and then Lorne put his back out, it has taken us some time to get mobile again. Quite the pair of crips creaking in and out of the car! Shades of life to come I guess…. I stopped taking my anti-inflammatory drugs and immediately had a relapse that took several days to get under control again. We are both on the mend now.