Los Barriles 2010

Lovely Lizard if you click on him you will see he has is mouth open, he must be eating something! This was the bigget iguana I have seen here, although I know there are bigger - or so I have heard. His body is at least 6 inches long.

Oriole in the tulip tree, also eats grapefruit and oranges right off the tree!! Before they are quite ready of course.

Heidi the Queen who announces her arrival before she is at the door so it will be opened for her. She then must be accompanied down the hall to her freshly filled food dish whenever she wants it. When ready she must be immediately let out. This of course is night or day. I can't hear her when she does this at night....

Heidi the Queen

Heidi the Queen

Squeaker the Cat lives outside and is the sweetest cat who loves to cuddle, if you stop too soon she will attack you. She is a Baja cat.

Checkers the Dog - does she look familiar? She is a wonderful Baja dog found at the Milles Flores gas station when about 6 months old.

Squeaker the cat


Squeaker the cat



Checkers the dog

Los Barriles
I have been very negligent in writing my blog since being here. I guess we have settled into the process of living so its similar to being at home…. We are busy with life and the many activities that lead to a full one.

So what’s making us so darn busy?? Yoga, music - listening to, dancing to, and playing, the animals, gardening, cycling, walking, kayaking, Mah Jong, shopping, painting, looking for stuff on ebay, quading, looking for a house or property to buy....la, la, la.

I am going to yoga twice a week which is so great, I was doing that at home and was very pleased to find a good yoga teacher here. She is not Karen, but has much to contribute to my practice. It has been great cycling into class as well. By the time I’m back home I am quite tired with my morning of exercise. The girlfriends and I often go for lunch after yoga so maybe that’s a contributing factor to the tiredness. The sand road leaves a lot to be desired. Even though I have a mountain bike with the big knobbly tires it is not at all easy. Fortunately there are only about 2 miles of that before reaching the paved road. There are however, two large sand arroyos to pass over as well as a good hill before arriving at class. It takes me about 35 minutes so all in all its not far. Certainly not far at all when I think about what I have to do to get ready to cycle to Seattle when I get home!!

Lorne has been cycling with me on alternate days to yoga, as does the wonderful dog Checkers. We usually ride out the sand road to the paved one then ride up the big Los Barriles hill (apparently written about in cycling magazines) and then come cross country down to our place. Checkers loves running along beside the bike. Lorne has her very well trained. He has a pocket of yummy treats and she will just about do anything for him (well, for the treats). The first time we took her out with the bikes she took off after a quad and ran a long ways. She came running back looking very pleased with herself. Needless to say, she has never done that again!!

Our daily exercise routine is towards the end of each day – around 4. So when not cycling we walk up the hill or along the beach with Checkers, for at least an hour or more. Lorne’s knees have been very good this year, no problems at all for him to cycle, even up the hill.

I have found a number of people in town that play music by putting an ad in the Pony Express (an online local newsletter) for anyone interested in playing Bluegrass. Turned out there are lots of people interested in Bluegrass. So we have been getting together a few times a week and now have a regular Wednesday night open jam at one of the restaurants in town, the owner is one of the players. Two of the musicians play in a local band called El Viejos…. (the old ones). The restaurant is not usually open in the evenings. However, since we have been playing they are open for the people who are listening. This Wednesday they will be open for a special dinner. Yikes! Sounds an awful lot like performing to me….

Our first music get together was at one of the musicians home. When we walked into the house there was a woman (Pam) there who took one look at me and knew me immediately from Banff!! Hilarious! That was some years ago – like life before children years ago. I can’t believe she recognized me just like that, she didn’t look at all familiar to me.

I took a 5 day water color painting class. It was very interesting and fun. Once I had sat down and got myself organized at the big table I realized I had sat down right next to Pam! Neither of us knew that the other was at all interested in painting. We had a great time together painting and her husband (Bruce) and I have a great time playing music together. They are both interested in investing and Bruce taught at UVIC and Pam at Camosun College, so Lorne has lots in common with them too. Not only that – they live in Victoria!! Small world. So we have more new Victoria friends that we have met in the Baja.

I was quite pleased with how much I learned about painting in that short time, so now I am all enthusiastic about painting and am very busy researching paint, brushes, paper and looking for good deals on it all on ebay. Pam taught me how to bid so I can win and not pay more than I want to. Lorne says he wishes that I spent as much time learning about investing as I do learning about brushes and messing with ebay…..!! Well, I’ve saved tons of money on art supplies by buying on ebay – never mind how much I spent!!

We planted a little garden here, it came up almost immediately and we have been harvesting beautiful leaf lettuce and radishes. The first head lettuce was ready today. We have cilantro up and we are eating that. The corn, peas, broccoli and cantaloupe are up and growing like topsy but won’t be ready before we have to leave. The grapefruit, oranges and little Mexican limes are over, I still have some in the fridge, and the big lemon tree has been producing like crazy! While the fruit is almost all finished there are beautiful aromatic flowers and lots of new baby lemons growing. I make fresh lemonade – its very delicious.

We have found a very nice real estate lady (Carlene) who has been very helpful showing us lots of property. I think she can’t quite figure out what we want. Of course we haven’t figured that out either! We have found lots to think about and some very nice and acceptable places. However, we have decided to not buy anything this year. Lorne is certain prices have a long ways to drop yet and we should be able to get an even better deal next year. We have determined that it is much cheaper to buy a house already built than it is to build one right now, materials are very expensive. There are some very nice homes but…. Most need some renos to me. We shall see. Failing that we are content to rent or continue to house sit for friends. I know Paul and Renota want to go camping next year so we may be here again house sitting for them. And realistically, if we can rent a nice beach house for say $2,000 a month for three months each winter we are way ahead financially anyway without any of the worries of owning a home down here.

Much to think about, and now off to play Mah Jong – great game.

Mulege

All is not lost in Mulege, here are Kita, Lorne and Dawne under a beautiful bougainvillea. It is still a very beautiful lush oasis. Many of the homes appear undamaged and many are in various stages of repair.





Thought I would enclose some not so pretty pictures of the remaining hurricane damage to Mulege.




This casita has severe damage to the roof - of course then the rain and the rising waters of the river visited as well, leaving quite the mess. They are repairing many of the casitas, however, Lorne noticed that they do not use hurricane ties that we use in our construction in Canada.





Many friends have visited this city and love it, aren't we glad we don't have property along the river....?!

January 12 Los Barriles

We arrived in Los Barriles the 12th stayed at the East Cape RV Park for the night and on to Paul and Renota’s on the 13th. They left on the 15th to drive up to the US for needed medical treatment. We hope all goes well for them.









We are very fortunate to be able to stay in their beautiful home a block from the beach. It has a beautiful garden with palms, fruit trees including avocado, mango, papaya, guava, fig, lemon, lime, pomegranate and grapefruit. The later 5 have ripe or ripening fruit! Yum! Lovely to pick a ripe grapefruit right off the tree for breakfast! We have two cats and a very cute dog to care for. There is also a pool and hot tub. It will likely be too cool for the pool but the hot tub I can handle. It also comes with a gardener twice a week and a housekeeper once a week. A tough job but you know, as they say, someone has to do it.







Yoga starts tomorrow for me, classes twice a week, just like at home! I am quading into town with the girlfriends.

Perfect Under the Palapa

January 11 Ciudad Constitution

We have had a wonderful time so far. We are currently in Ciudad Constitution, about a 4 hour drive north of La Paz. We are here for the night in a lovely RV park that has a swimming pool, fruit trees and lots of tropical plants. It’s run by a delightful Mexican couple, Patty and Jaime. We stay here when we pass through coming and going and they have become friends. Their daughter Aimie wants to attend the College of the Pacific in Metchosin. I wrote all about them in my blog last year.

There was a terrible hurricaine in Baja last summer that did a lot of damage in this city, fortunately the RV park survived well. The city has been cleaned up for the most part but you can still see the twisted remnants of metal roofs and walls around. I just can’t imagine how frightening it would be. Eight hours of howling wind in a little Mexican home with roofs flying off, windows breaking and trees falling. They were without power for several days and without water for over a week – then when water was trucked in it was very expensive to buy. The hurricane didn’t bring rain to them, only wind.

Mulege was severely damaged and many people lost their houses. They got a lot of rain causing lots of flooding. The river is much wider now… This is the third time they have been hit by a hurricane in 5 years with this year by far the worst. Dawne's friends in Mulege had lots of damage to their home. However, it is still standing, unlike a lot of others.

More South

Sun Rise at San Lucas Cove











A Posing Vulture on Top of a Palapa


Pelicans and Friends Ater a Fish Ball



January 8

Today we got to San Lucas Cove while it was still light! This is good. Dropped off our laundry and headed into camp to visit with John. As luck would have it there was a big jam planned for tonight starting at 5 and going till 9 (Baja Midnight). We rushed through dinner and headed out in the dark to search for the campground called Dos Amigos. It was too dark, we couldn’t see the road to this campground – sob – so Dawne and I gave up the search and were happy that we found our way home in the dark and played on our own.

The next afternoon we played in one of the little buildings in the campground and were soon joined by another couple who played fiddle, harmonicas, mouth harp and a bass ukulele. We played all afternoon, took a quick supper break and played again all night. This made up for missing the previous night. It is such fun to play with others! Dawne was leaving us in Mulege the following day – I will miss playing with her for sure. She has been such a fun travelling companion! She is planning on staying Mulege for a few days and then taking the ferry over to the mainland.

After one short night in Santispac we are now in Ciudad Conception. Tomorrow it will be La Paz to stock up on some food, then on to Los Barriles. We need to be there by the 14th so we are on schedule – although I don’t know where the time has gone! We were hoping for lots more opportunities for kayaking. Well, perhaps on the way back with any luck.

Sleeping with the Whales

Next stop was Guerro Negro to coordinate with son Michael by telephone so Lorne could help him while he installed the new inverter Lorne had ordered. The internet is truly a wonderful thing. He could research it, check out the specs, find out if any of the solar stores in town had one, order it, write out a simplified version for installation and then follow along while Michael was doing the work. There were detailed pictures of the inverter in the specs so he could see what it looked like to further help Michael. Very cool. All is well now. The house is once again up and running. Thank goodness for kids.

Once that the instalation of the inverter was complete we headed out to Laguna Ojo de Liebre (aka Scammon’s Lagoon) had lunch and hired a panga to take us out to view the whales. Very awesome. We had them right beside the boat surfacing and spy hopping! Very large fishies! One mother had a huge chunk taken out of its back, the panga operator said that this was the second year he had seen her there and she seems fine although the wound looks gross. She showed us her baby. If you double click on the pictures you should be able to see a larger image and then if you can zoom in you should be able to see what I mean by the huge chunk out of her back, its like a saddle. The first whale to spy hop was right beside the panga - he was huge! and none of us expected him - he just rose up and peered at us - of course my camera was not ready..... I have some great pictures of where the whales were.... I didn't want to take our new camera as it might/would get wet with all the spray from the whales. The whales are late this year and there are only about 10 in the lagoon and only 2 mothers with their babies. I think we saw them all! It was nothing like our last trip here when there were over 300 whales in the lagoon and we could see them spy hopping and breaching all over the place. We couldn’t hear them at night like we did last time either. I guess its better to go on the way back home?

None the less it has to be one of the very quietest places on earth. That night the sky was clear, the stars were brilliant, not a breath of wind and the water was completely still. It was so quiet it felt like my ears were almost ringing. Perhaps this is what is meant by "the silence was deafening".

Bahia de Los Angeles

We did spend 3 days – I think - in Bahia de Los Angeles, we camped in town at Tony’s place – he also has the motel across the street. There were no other people in this park, however it was nice to stay in town. While Dawne and I were playing, Lorne cycled out to the RV parks north of town and there were very few people camped there. As Lorne said he saw more dead dogs on Mex 1 than motor homes on this trip. Yikes!

With Dawne with us we played lots of music every day. Following a leisurely lunch under the palapa at the motel she stayed at we played the rest of the afternoon and then again in the evening. Very fun. Lorne and I had a few nice paddles in the morning and in the late afternoon. We paddled with a school of dolphins and a couple of sealions popped up to check us out too. There were no whale sharks. They arrive in the late summer and hang around the bay. They are huge. They are also very peaceful, one can swim with them – cool – maybe someday we will be here when they are. I'd like that.

One afternoon while we were playing music in the motor home Dawne’s dog Kita was waiting patiently outside. Close to dusk someone let off a few firecrackers (leftovers from New Years) Kita took off, dragging her leash along with her! We searched for her till dinner, stopped for a very quick dinner then searched again. I saw some kids and ran over to ask them if they had seen a little dog - in my very best Spanish of course. Dog in Spanish is perro. Well one of the boys earnestly said that he had indeed seen a perro and it was at the tienda (store) around the corner. (At least that’s what I thought he said). Off we went at a run as I was so concerned about finding her before she ran further. We got in the store and I saw no perro. I asked the teens in the store if they had seen a chico perro and they looked confused. The young boy told them what I was looking for and one of the teens went to the freezer and lifted the lid – well I was quite agast! To my horror I thought they had put the dog in the freezer and had visions of a poor little dead Kita to return to Dawne! The teen held up a bag of ice (hielo) and said hielo? Now to me when I say perro it does not sound at all like hielo, however when I said perro and the boy responded with hielo? I truly thought he said perro and he truly thought I said hielo. Good grief! And here I thought I was getting much better with my Spanish.

Well, just as I was returning to the beach area someone called from across the street at the motel where Dawne was staying that Kita was over there. Some one had brought her back. She is the only dog in town with a halter style leash and I guess Dawne had been seen walking her so she was returned! Excellent! What a relief! We had a good – if somewhat morbid – laugh about the hielo perro!

Driving into town we saw two cars in the ditch turned over on their very crushed roofs. There were people standing around and the police were there so no need for us to stop. As we drove along two tow trucks passed us. We were speculating how this accident happened – both cars on their roofs, and both on the same side of the road right next to each other. As chance would have it Dawne checked into the same motel as the people who were involved in the accident. One guy was driving and towing the other vehicle which was loaded with his friends' belongings and their dog (a great dane). His friends were following along with their four other dogs. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and both cars still ran! They had the cars towed to a mechanic in town who was going to bash the roofs up so they could be driven again. However, the dog was missing. They went back every day to look for it but didn’t find it. So sad. We saw them leaving to drive on to Cabo with these two cars – no windows and a very rough job on the body work! They were wearing helmets with face guards! Just like the Baja 1000!