What have we been up to?

Over a month since I've posted!  I've used this excuse before....it's not that we're not doing anything!  It's just that we do pretty much the same things.  I would say we get in a rut; but it's a pretty nice rut so let's call it a routine instead.   I go to yoga almost daily and Matt plays golf occasionally (the high price of green fees here is a downer for him).  I have Spanish class once a week for two hours and always am assigned homework.  There is a new bowling alley in La Paz and we bowl with friends once a week.  We go to the beach, ride our bikes and take walks along the shore in front of our casita.  We have two sea kayaks here for our use and I finally got Matt to give that a try and it was a lot of fun.  There are a couple of very nice, but small, organic markets here that we like to visit.  We also love to go to the movies here.  There are three theaters near us, all very modern and nice.  The cost per ticket is $37 pesos (which is less than $3.50 USD) and each week they always give us a coupon for a free ticket for our next visit.  Yesterday we saw Monument Men.

Daily chores here just seem to take longer than they would in the US.  First, this is a new town for us.  Secondly, the language issue.  Yesterday we needed to have a crack repaired in our wind shield (or parabrisa).  There is a web board, La Paz Gringos, that all the gringos here use for recommendations and to share information so I went on there asking where to go for this.  I received several recommendations for Jose, who speaks English.  I sent Jose an email and he responded with the cost to repair ($200 pesos) and the hours of his shop.  But not the address.  I called the shop, asked the man who answered if he was Jose - he said "no".  I asked in Spanish "do you speak English?" - he said no.  So in Spanish I asked where the shop was located.  He responded:  "blah blah blah and Jalisco".  Since I couldn't understand the "blah blah blah" I said "repieta por favor".  And he repeated "blah blah blah and  Jalisco".  Matt and I decided to just drive down Jalisco street looking for the shop and wonder of wonders we found it!  When we went inside, I asked the man working there (in Spanish) if he was Jose.  No, he was his brother.  We struggled to communicate, me using my bad Spanish but finally it became apparent that he could fix it so he pulled out a couple of chairs for Matt and I and began to work on it  When it was all done, he quoted me a cost of $300 ($100 pesos more than Juan!) but I didn't care; that's still only about $25 USD.  Our next stop was to get an oil change.  I asked him in Spanish if he recommended a place for an oil change.  He couldn't understand what I was saying.  I kept repeating, the still couldn't understand.  Eventually he said to me, in very good English, "perhaps if you said it in English". This is not the first time this has happened to us.  Many Mexicans here seem to want to hide the fact that they speak good English.  Maybe it's just more fun watching us struggle.

The weather here has been beautiful!  It's starting to warm up; we've had days close to 90.  But with a nice breeze and slightly cool evenings it's still almost perfect.  The nearest beach to our casita is El Magote, it's a great place to take Herm as there is never any one else there he can bother.  To get to Magote, you drive through the sand dunes until the road gets too soft and then walk through the sand dunes for about 50 feet to the beach.  On our last visit we noticed how HOT the sand was when we were going back to the car, burned right through my flip flops and I'm sure not to comfortable for Herm either.  So we've pretty much decided that's the end of Magote.

We did find an incredible beach north of La Paz called Tecolote.  Beautiful long beach with gentle waves.  There are small palapas on the beach for shade and gentle waves.  Also plenty of beach side restaurants serving ceviche, clams and cold cervezas.  It' a bit of a drive, but worth it!

Tecolote

During this past month, Matt needed to make a trip back to Kansas City; leaving Herm and I on our own for a week. I missed Matt mucho, but was a good experience for me.  I drive very little when Matt's here so I felt very empowered zipping through La Paz traffic on my own.  Matt was lucky enough to be in KC for his oldest grand daughter's birthday and was able to spend some fun times with his little buddies.

Abbie - All she wants for her birthday is two front teeth!

Levi

It's been a tough winter for almost everyone NOB and Matt got just a taste of that during his KC visit.  Ten inches of snow one day, lots of shoveling and too much time holed up at his Mom's house because the roads were too bad to drive.

While Matt was battling this snowy mess, I had one of my best days on the water ever!  I took a boat trip to Espiritu Santo Island which is just north of La Paz.  Weather was beautiful and we saw whales, mantas, dolphins and were able to swim with the baby sea lions.  Matt had the camera with him, so I couldn't take any pics.  But were making this trip again next week so should have pictures then.

Annie on the Bed

Hermann and I also cared for Annie, an English Setter, whose owners had to make a trip back to Colorado.  Annie and Hermann got along well, although we both felt Annie seemed to feel just a bit entitled.  Herm isn't allowed on the sofa but there as no stopping Annie!

Annie on the Sofa

While all my friends were posting pics on Facebook of the beautiful flowers they received for Valentine's Day, I was feeling pretty smug.  Flowers are nice, but not everyone receives a gourd for V-Day.  Matt and I went into a shop in La Paz that was hosting a visiting artist from Guerra.  He painted gourds and did it very well.  Very intricate designs and we were amazed.  Here's the one Matt gifted me instead of flowers.  The top opens so it works as a small jewelry box.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to go fishing.  We left for our fishing trip out of Bahia Suerte (Bay of Luck).  Bahia Suerte was formerly known as Bahia de Muerte (Bay of the Dead) until a developer started building a housing development and golf course there.   Guess he thought Bay of the Dead wasn't a very appealingname.  The developer went bankrupt (guess he wasn't so lucky after all) so nothing there but a few houses and a palapa restaurant and one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.

View from the Palapa Restaurant

I went with Barney (owner of Annie the English Setter) and between us we caught three cobrillas (which I think are a type of sea bass) and three dorados.  Not a bad catch for the winter season when the fishing is notoriously slow.  Oh, and being the amazing fisherwoman that I am, I also caught two pelicans.  Here's a video of our captain reeling one in.

More amazing pics from that beautiful day of fishing are below and also a short video of the crazy birds hanging on the beach while the fishermen clean their catch.

Sunrise from Our Boat

Bahia Suerte

Barney, my fishing buddy

Captain Jorge

We're at the half way point of our stay here, two more months.  I'm sure it will fly by and it will be time to move on before we know it.  We have our friends from Chapala, Vern and Kathleen, visiting next week so should be fun showing them around.