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Monday, December 30, 2013

Christmas in the Dessert

Definitely didn't feel like Christmas surrounded with sand and cactus, but was a good one none the less.

When we were here nearly three years ago we met two couples:  Robin and Miriam who have a real estate business in El Centenario and Chuck and Sherry who had just built a little house for their planned retirement.  We reconnected with both these couples our first week and they're just as nice as we remembered.

Chuck and Sherry invited us to join them for New Year's Eve celebrations at a nearby restaurant and to help at a Christmas Eve dinner some gringos were hosting to feed some needy families from a nearby pueblo.  Miriam and Robin invited us to a Christmas pot luck dinner in our little neighborhood of Colmitan.

The Christmas Eve dinner was good, although over staffed with gringos.  We tended to just get in each other's way.  Each family received dinner and there were gifts for each child.  There were also bags of groceries for each family as well as new blankets and pillows.  Everyone loaded up their plates with food, and took most of it home.

Sherry Dishing Up Christmas Dinner


Christmas dinner was really nice as well.  It was good to meet our neighbors.  We shared stories on how we all ended up in this spot in Mexico and it's amazing to me the variety of people that decide to move here.

The day after Christmas, Matt and I played golf at the Costabaja course in La Paz - it was amazing!  There were ocean views from nearly every hole.  I struggled through nine holes and then decided to just drink a couple of beers and drive the cart.  I think we'll look into lessons for me when we return to Chapala.  Experiences like this one are just too good to miss, and would be a lot more fun if I could actually play!



One thing I think we'll really like about living here is the opportunity for some very cool day trips.  Matt and I took one this week when we drove to La Ventana which is about 45 minutes aways.  La Ventana is nearly always very windy and draws a lot of kite surfers.  We loved watching them; reminded us of Cabarete.  It is incredible the amount of vacant land with incredible ocean vistas.  I'm sure the developers will get here eventually, but thankfully for now it's still just a little Mexican pueblo.  La Ventana also has about six or seven RV parks and they were all nearly full (probably because of Christmas/New Years).  Love seeing all the families that come down here for the water sports and the little kids playing in the sand.  Much better than a visit to Disney!


Kite Surfers at La Ventana
The weather has definitely improved the past week.  Most days have been mid 70s or 80s - so nothing to complain about.  And we do have some beautiful sunrises!

El Centenario Sunrise
 From last blog I forgot to post a pic of Claudia and her kids.  Claudia was our housekeeper and La Cruz and she is such a sweet, beautiful lady - plus really good at her jobs.  She would often bring two of her four kids with her when she was working.  Matt loved to slip Tiffany and Christopher candy....or buy them ice cream.  On our last day, Claudia brought us a little gift of a sea shell painted with a La Cruz beach scene and her camera to take our picture!  We'll miss this sweet family.

Claudia, Tiffany and Christopher



Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Trip to La Paz

Well, we're here!  It was a journey but we made it safe and sound with no real problems.

We packed up our La Cruz house on Saturday and had everything ready to load.  We hadn't made it to Roberto's Xocolat for dinner during our stay so we splurged had went there Saturday night.  It's perched on the side of a cliff with an amazing view of La Cruz, the marina and Banderas Bay.  Perfect way to end our stay - and dinner was excellent.  But dang, we forgot our camera!

Early Sunday morning Matt started loading the car.  He is an amazing packer.  He was watched over by this sweet sculpture.  I think it's St. Francis of Assisi, but I'm not expert on saints.

We have our own traveling angel that was given to us by Matt's mom.  This sweet face will go with us to each new home.  Here she is in the car, already to pull out.


We walked down to the Sunday market for one last visit.  Matt loves the marlin burritos that one of the vendors makes and he wanted those for his lunch.  And he wanted to say hasta la vista to Martin, his favorite La Cruz cigar man.


We left about 10:30 and had an uneventful drive to Mazatlan....although I think we definitely took the scenic route.  Matt forged his own way, rather than obey the GPS.  We saw a lot of little fishing villages along the coast and field after field of mango and banana trees, and still got into Mazatlan before sunset.  We found the hotel with no problem.  The malecon in Mazatlan is beautiful with some amazing sculptures.  Unfortunately it was too dark for pics.

Baja Ferries have two routes to La Paz.  The largest one is between Mazatlan and La Paz.  But this trip is 16 hours.  The other option is the route between Topolobampo and La Paz.  Topo is about a five or six hour drive north of Mazatlan, but that ferry trip is only 7 hours.  Because of Hermann, we decided to take the Topo ferry.  They allow dogs on both ferries, but there is no option to walk them or feed them and that's just too long.  But we wanted to buy our ferry tickets in Mazatlan so we could have that all taken care of when we eventually arrived in Topo.

On Monday morning we were out of the hotel by 8:00 and then went to the Baja ferry pier in Mazatlan.  This was definitely a situation where I was glad I had some Spanish!  No one spoke even a bit of English!  I explained to the guard at the ferry pier what we wanted to do.  He told us to join this line of semi trucks waiting to be weighed.....and quite the line it was.  We inched along, sandwiched between all these semis and finally made our way to the weigh station.  There the attendant measured the length of our car and weighed it.  Asked for our passports and some basic info from Matt (name, age, nationality), filled out a slip of paper, and then sent us off to the ticket office.

There were some people ahead of us in line, so we took a number.  They were serving #19 and we were #29.  Not bad we thought.  Well, it was 1 1/2 hours before we got to the ticket window.  This is a VERY slow process.  But the ticket agent understood my Spanish well enough to know we wanted two passenger tickets from Topo, plus the car and our "mascota" and that we wanted a "cabina".  I asked about where Hermann would stay, but she just told me that as long as he had a crate he would be fine.  She also told us we needed to be lined up to load our car in Topo by 9:00 p.m. - the ferry is scheduled to leave at midnight. The total cost was about the equivalent of $300 USD.  Not bad to save at least four hard days of driving!

The drive from Mazatlan to Topo was fine.  Good roads and not much traffic.  This is a huge center for agriculture.  We saw miles of fields growing citrus, nuts, tomatoes, squash, peppers and beans.  We later found out that it's not just and fruits and vegetables that are grown in this area; and that the cartel is very powerful here.

We arrived at Topo about 6:00, not long before sunset.  We located the ferry pier and then went into to Topo for dinner.  There is definitely not a lot going on in Topo!  A few stands on the street selling tacos, hot dogs and ceviche.  And that's about it....and we had three hours to kill here.  Luckily there was a Christmas program being held at the waterfront so we watched a Spanish version of Disney story re-enactments.  It was fun.  Then we had a hot dog and some ice cream....and we just waited.


A bit before 9:00 p.m. we headed to the pier.  We joined three rows of cars waiting to load, we were about six or seven cars from the front of the line.  All the semis were in another lot.  And we waited some more.  We did meet up with one other American who was waiting to board and he'd made this trip several times.  He gave us some idea of what to expect, and also verified that Hermann would need to stay in the car for the entire trip.  I took this opportunity to give him plenty of time out of his crate.  At 11:00 p.m. they started loading the cars onto the ferry.  Only the driver is permitted to drive the car on and off the ferry, so I put Herm in his crate, told Matt good-bye and went to join the other passengers waiting to walk on.  About 11:15 they started to board the walk on passengers and there was a big rush for the stairs.  I went as well.....not sure why.  They let a few passengers go past the stairs, but they were just standing in another line waiting to cross the bridge to the ferry.  The rest of us were still jammed in the stairs, and lots of crying babies!  Who could blame them, way past their bed-time!  I decided to go back to the waiting area, I was in no hurry to board.  Finally about 11:30 they started letting passengers go off the stairwell into another waiting area.  I gave it another five minutes for the crowd to clear and went up myself.  Well, I should have waited.  After you got off the stairwell, they divided the group into two lines, one for men and another for women.  The marina guards (in camo uniformes and armed with ak47s were searching some of the men's carry on luggage.  The women weren't searched, but a drug dog walked up and down both rows.  The drug dog had already checked out our car while I was waiting with Matt, and was especially interested in Herm.  He immediately picked up Herm's scent on me and stopped right in front of me.  Luckily his handler had remembered us from the car search, laughed and went on.

I finally got on the ferry about 11:50 and went to the reception desk for our cabin key.  Matt and I had prearranged to try and meet at the bar, or if he couldn't find me there to come to the cabin.  At this point I really just wanted to go to the cabin and collapse in the bunk, thought Matt could find me there. Well....in Mazatlan we had been assigned cabin 98, but the receptionist gave me keys for cabin 96 instead.  I didn't notice until I was nearly to the cabin.  So I through my bag in the cabin, and headed to the bar to wait for Matt.  I was sure he was already on the boat as they'd started loading the cars so long ago.  Well, the bar was closed and no sign of Matt waiting for me.  I sat on the sofa outside the bar....and didn't move even after it opened.  About 12:20 a very tired Matt Sullins came up the steps.  Our car had been one of the last few loaded, he had driven on just about midnight.

Manny the Mariner wedged in with all the big boys

We went to our cabins, took another dose of dramamine, and that was it for us.  We saw nothing else of the ferry, although what we did see was very nice, much like an older, simple cruise ship.  Our cabin was small, but very clean and all we wanted were the beds anyway.  Matt was out like a light; I slept about four hours but was freezing.  I managed to grope my way to closet and I grabbed his jacked to sleep in, but was still too cold to sleep.  In the morning after we turned on the light, I saw that there were two extra blankets in the room, I could have used both of them!

We docked in La Paz about 7:00 a.m. and I just took a seat and waited while Matt went down with the other drivers.  I knew I'd have a long wait as he'd need to go through customs before I could join him....but didn't realize how long.  Once again, he was one of the last cars off the ferry.  The customs in La Paz did a thorough search of our car.  He had to unload Hermann and some of the bags, but luckily nothing off the car top carrier.  The custom agent was very polite and friendly and admired Matt's cigar collection.  Matt actually offered him one but he refused it.  He also laughed about my stash of Absolut.  Matt eventually cleared customs at 10:00 a.m. and picked me up.  We took Herm to the first open area we could find and finally let him out of his crate and gave him water.  Poor baby, but he seemed find.

Found our new home in La Paz; it's actually in El Centenario.  So different from La Cruz, but beautiful in it's own way.  Sand and cactus everywhere.  Our house is right on the beach.  This isn't a swimming beach, but still lovely to look at.  Herm loves this big, sandy yard to guard and spends most of his days on our front porch.






There is a roof top deck where we can see the bay at night; and the full moon was beautiful rising over La Paz.


We settled into our new home, unpacked our things, and made a grocery store run on Tuesday.  And we slept so good that night after this long trip.  Wednesday morning I took Herm out and he was peeing blood and there were drops of blood around the house.  Of course I went into panic mode.  We took him to a vet in La Paz (English speaking thankfully) who gave him a thorough exam and decided it was a bladder infection from that long trip.  He tried to give him an IV treatment but Herm would have nothing to do with that.  So instead he got about four injections, we left with some vitamin C, pain meds, and antibiotics.  We also bought a months supply of a special food, six months of heart worm preventative, and one month of Frontline.   Total cost was less than $100.  Not too bad.  Herm was doing much better by that afternoon.

So now, we plan to spend just a few days doing nothing.  The hard packed sand along the beach here is perfect for riding our bikes.  I'm starting yoga classes today, and in a few days we'll find a Spanish tutor for me.  But no rush; we're ready to chill!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Time to Move On!

While I love the opportunities that the life style we've chosen give us, the one part I don't love is leaving.  La Cruz is the third stop on our retirement journey and, like Cabarete and Ajijic, very hard to leave.

This has been a short stay.  We were in Cabarete for five months and Ajijic for four.  Our stay in La Cruz has only been two months.  When we found our casita we fell in love but it was out of our budget.  The owner was very helpful and negotiated the rent to a point where we could afford it, but could only do this up until mid-December, which is when their high season kicks in.  I fully understand - with the hot, humid summers here she only have a few months of prime rental season.  But I'm sad to move on, our time here went too soon.  And right now the weather is PERFECT!   We have great pool days even though the water is starting to feel just a bit cool, unlike the nearly bathtub temperature the pool was when we arrived mid-October.  In the evening, you feel just a hint of cool in the air, but not enough to even bother with a jacket.  And the mornings are incredible!  The air is crisp and cool and so refreshing.  My yoga class is at 7:15 a.m. and I walk the six blocks in just my workout clothes.  But the Mexican ladies in my class arrive in thick sweaters or bundled up in warm hoodies.  While we're enjoying this, much of the US has been experiencing unseasonably cold weather, sleet, and snow.

So Sunday morning we leave.  We'll probably start sorting through our things the next few days to see what we can leave behind.  I have a massage scheduled for Saturday afternoon to get me in the mood to travel.  Sunday morning we'll stop at the artisans market behind our house.  Matt's favorite food item their is the smoked marlin burritos and they haven't had them the past several weeks.  But he put in a special order, and they're bringing just two for him.  Then we'll drive about five hours to Mazatlan and spend the night.  In Mazatlan we should be able to buy ferry tickets.  Mazatlan is one of the two towns that the ferry travels to, but the trip from Mazatlan to La Paz is about 18 hours -- too long for Hermann to be in a crate.  So Tuesday morning we're going to drive another five hours north to Topolobampo.   From there the ferry trip to La Paz is only eight hours.  The ferry leaves at 11:00 p.m. each night and arrives in La Paz at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday.  So in six days we'll be at our new home!

The visit with my sister was such a good one!  We had her to ourselves for six days.  We went to Desildoradas beach and had a great day at this beautiful beach.  There are always local men diving for oysters right off the beach and for 80 pesos they'll crack a dozen for you right at your table.  The water is clear and calm, and still very warm.  I did have my first encounter with what I believe was sea lice here.  I was in the water just up to my knees when both legs starting stinging.  I got out and rinsed off with bottled water but this didn't help.  The next days I had multiple patches of bumps that looked like poison ivy on both legs and MAN did it itch.  This went on for about four days before it finally cleared up.  But still.....well worth the experience and this is nothing that will stop me from swimming in that beautiful ocean.  Sue joined me for yoga classes, which we're her first studio classes, and she did great.  And she convinced me to go to strength training classes with her.  And then we had lots of good mornings watching the sunrise from her palapa apartment and hanging at the pool.

Syd and Sister Sue at PV Marina









Sue's husband Rodney arrived on December 2nd.  He booked a fishing trip and Sue and I decided to join him.  Guess who caught the biggest fish?  Yep, that's my bad boy and I pulled it in all by myself.

Syd's big catch
Oh, and here's Sue's big catch.  But she did reel it in without help.


Sue's big catch

 We also took Rodney back to Desildoradas and then spent another incredible beach day at San Pancho - and none of us had a camera!  Love San Pancho!
Matt, Syd & Rodney at Desildoradas Beach

Sue and Rodney wanted to show us the Puerto Vallarta Marina; Matt and I had never been there.  It's beautiful, if you can find a place to park!  Their favorite restaurant there is Victors where we went for breakfast.  At Victors, it's free tequila shots; any time of the day.  So along with our bloody mary's we had a couple of shots; good thing Matt was driving!

Monday we dropped off Sue and Rodney at the Hardrock where they'll spend a week before heading home to cold Kansas City.  Now, Matt and I are back to normal....just the two of us for a few more days.  We do love being on the beach if it means we can have visitors!