End of Baja journey...3/19/10

Well, here is the end of the big Baja adventure. Our valiant wagonmasters met us at Mulege' on 3/16/10 for the 4 day trip north. Spring had come to Baja Norte and wild flowers were beautiful along the road. This was just the final leg of an awesome trip for us. Danny and Linda Peterson stayed in Los Barriles, dropping off the main tour in Jan., as we did. We had a great time exploring the east cape with them, and made lists of the 'toys' we want to bring back in Dec. Jack and Myrna Freeborn (I hope I've spelled that correctly) are from Canada, and coming back again too. Marcia Stiers has been coming down to Loreto for several years. I won't go into our return through the Otay border crossing, ugly memories there, but you can tell from the photos, that it is a madness, and believe me, it just got worse... at least for us. But after 2 hous, much frustration, we did cross over into the USof A. We stayed at the Chula Vista KOA for a couple of days and then moved on to the Thousand Trails park in Jamul, CA, not far from our original crossing at Tecate.

We are now in Yuma, have arranged to have flooring and couch replaced with laminate and two nice recliner chairs. Our beautiful but ungainly dining table is going away at the same time. I am doing the Happy Dance about getting this all done at once. Everything just fell into place! We return to Yuma 4/5 to get all the work done and will pick up the coach 4/9 if all goes well.

After this adventure, I would say to everyone, never stop dreaming, never stop planning, dare to have some fun! Now, I may have a different story to tell if I actually DO get a kayak, and end up in the deep, BUT, for now, it's my mantra! Happy trails...

Baja Wildflowers

Well, I just had to put up some photos of the wildflowers we saw on our return trip from Baja. These flowers were in the "bad lands" of Baja. The carpets of purple and yellow flowers were just amazing. After the sandy desert of southern Baja, to come onto these flowers and the green trees, and bushes, it was like turning on a technicolor movie. I liken it to the scenes from Over the Rainbow, where Dorothy comes into OZ which is in color, from Kansas, which was all in black and white. Of course, the other side of the rain which made the flowers, were the washed out access roads to the bridges that were under repair. On another note, I included 2 photos of "toys", ala Baja. As you've seen from other pages here, water is beautiful and all around in Baja. We are dreaming of some 'toys', maybe sea kayaks or "zodia" type boat with small motor. There are many kinds of both of these boats, and part of the summer will be spent checking it all out.

Meanwhile, happy trails....

Baja-heading north

Well, we are on the road again, heading north this time. I've included a photo of road traffic when road work is being done. Usually you drive on some part of the road WHILE it's being worked on. This can lead to some harrowingly narrow roads.... We were diverted around at least two bridges today while repairs are being done to the access parts. Our wagonmaster told us the bridges usually hold up fine during a flood, it is the dirt access part to the bridge that fails. We certainly saw evidence of that today. I've also included a photo of Roger at leisure at Santispac, under a frayed palapa, looking out at the Sea of Cortez. We took a drive to nearby Coyote beach and El Burro beach. These are sheltered beaches w/ almost no facilities, except turquois water, white sand beaches and a few palm trees.
The photo of Roger and I dancing is a fun Baja story. With folks who are returning with Baja Winters to the states and parked at Santispac, we decided to go to Anna's on the beach for dinner. We somehow had missed this place on the way down. So we troop in, and find out it is dance night, along with dinner specials. Seems most of Mulege' gringos turn out for these nights at Anna's. The previous Sat. night (this happened to be Sat. night, but we have long ago lost track of the days) had been a "Prom night" and everyone came dressed up for proms and had their photos taken etc. Well, this group of folks our age (more and Less) had a rocking good time, a good meal, and all was sort of a 'surprise' for us, who had not even known this place was there! We are just outside Ensenada tonight. We'll go to the hotel restaurant for our last group dinner. I can hardly believe this adventure is almost over. We expect to cross the border about noon tomorrow. We have had such a great time, made such great friends, and had some serious adventure.... everything we hoped for and much much mas!

I'll have more photos after we get back to states and have reliable wifi, along with hot water laundry, cell phone coverage, tv etc. Guess we will be able to cope....
Meanwhile, happy trails....

Baja some fine places

Well, here are the Petersons and Koehns at one of their favorite hangouts, Caleb's in Los Barriles. You can see we've all gone native in shorts, colorful tops and sun glasses... not that the natives are seen in shorts at this time of year! We are sitting in the top section of the restaurant, upstairs. Down below is an art gallery and bakery. They have wifi and all the varieties of mochas, coffees, etc. From where we are sitting in our 'usual' table upstairs,we can see the views in the photos that follow. If I had a better lens I could give you a better look down to the sea.

Another of our favorite places in "Mariscos" which means seafood. When we first started coming to this little place, dirt floor, plastic chairs and tables but with table cloths, it was very small. Now she has a new larger palapa in the back which will be a bar area and food too, I'm sure. There is also a wonderful view of the sea from this little place too. The place is just across the hiway from the sea... you can see a shrimp boat in one of the photos. The seafood here in Baja is just wonderful.. cannot praise it highly enough... its reasonably priced and so fresh!

Remember you can click on a photo to get a larger view. We leave Friday and it is hard to believe how fast the time has gone. Roger and I were talking about what makes this place so special as we were driving back to the rig, on the beach looking out at the sea. Well, I said, you can drive on the beach in WA too, but it is 30 deg. warmer here and our "home" is looking right at the sea...... oh, yeah.....

happy trails....

Baja paintings and beach

Well, my watercolor workshop with Frank Hills is over and I'm putting up some photos of my work from the class. It was a great experience and I hope I learned to loosen up and use some color! This was 5 great days of demos, hands on work, and funny stories.

I'm also putting up a couple of photos of a "kite lesson" in progress. Walked down the beach this morning to get photos of a little beach restaurant and saw this gal taking a kite lesson. Got my photos of the restaurant and started walking back to the rig.... and got bopped by the gal's kite as it came down...in a hurry! No damage done, but warned us to keep better lookout of what's going on around us. Today is a bright sunny day in Los Barriles. Wind is up so some of the kite flyers are out and I've seen one sail-boarder out there. Our visit here is winding down this week ... hard to believe how fast the time has gone.

happy trails...

Day at an Oasis 2/26/10

Today we took an offroad Jeep ride up the north arroyo to a waterfall and oasis. It is probably 10 to 12 miles in and took us about an hour to get there. This 'road' is all sand/rock/gravel and runs through a long arroyo (area where rains run down off the mountains). This is the same arroyo that fed water down to the sea a few weeks ago when we had the big rains. You might have seen the ditch on the beach on the blog at that time. Well, it's all dry now,until you get to the waterfall. The land goes from scrub to tall palm trees and stands of a skinny bamboo and lots of other plants. We also heard frogs letting us know they were in the neighborhood as we walked down the creek to the falls. Falls are not huge, but in the desert they are pretty impressive!
I've also included a photo of a huge rock that is held in place by a couple of handfuls of sand... I know someday soon it will come crashing down... another lost landmark. The palms at the oasis are huge and surround a large white sand area. We had to walk in the last way, walking in the stream part of the time. It got warm early today and is supposed to hit 81 by this afternoon so I was glad for my hat and sunglasses. We came home to a sea full of kite and sail surfers. I hope to get some good photos of them soon. The kites have leads of at least 50ft so it is hard to get a photo of the kiter AND his kite in the same photo. Well, that's all for another blog.

W enjoyed our morning at the oasis, and another great day here in Los Barriels.

Happy trails.....

Snorkling,travelling and more

Couple of days ago the Petersons took Roger and me to a beach north of Los Barriles. We travelled down a typical back road, ala Baja, (hope not to meet someone coming the other way on a one way road) but the trip was worth it! There was no one else on this beach while we were there until the last hour or so when two other couples arrived and moved on down the beach. There are miles of beach this year with no one on them. This beach was strewn with white coral, broken into small pieces; there were some various shells too. Now I have to get snorkling gear.... Linda was disappointed that day with the fish or lack there of, but it sure looks like fun, even without the fish! Today, 2/23 the four of us took a drive to La Paz with stops at San Antonio and El Triunfo. San Antonio has a cultural center where a woman from my drawing class is teaching pottery and they are trying to promote local artisans. This is a very old town, and we would like to more of it. We hoped to have lunch in El Triunfo but our favorite resturant was closed (Sun and Mon it turns out). We struggled on to La Paz. What we learned in La Paz was that we are in no hurry to return, that Walmart does NOT carry everything we want, and that "American" resturants in Baja hold no charm for us. Very long day; Roger did major work driving that long curvy, narrow road! We made ourselves feel better by stopping at our favorite ice cream store in LB. Nothing like home (LB) for us!

I've included a photo of the church in San Antonio and one of an old wall there in town. The streets in old town are cobblestone and there is a charming large plaza. Some of the streets were too narrow to drive the Jeep down. I have also included a couple of photos of paintings... you just can't keep some people down, !! I've also been taking a drawing class based on the book "Drawing from the right side of your brain"... and those I wont put up! I am doing my homework tho, so maybe I will improve. Meanwhile, we hope you all are well and having fun...we sure are! Happy trails....