It's been a month since my last post! We haven't been kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel, haven't been bitten by a rattlesnake, or sent off to a nursing home. We've just been busy.
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| Javier's turn to sing |
After nearly a year in Mexico, we finally were invited to a real Mexican fiesta. Our neighbor Javier was having a party to celebrate his brothers 30th anniversary and he asked several of the gringos in the neighborhood to join. I learned several things. First, authentic Mexican home cooking (prepared by Javier's sister) is amazing. We had carnitas, pozole and barbecued ribs. Second, at a Mexican fiesta, the tequila flows. I guess I already knew that, but was fun to find it out first hand. No way I could keep up, although Matt will say I tried! Third, Mexicans love to sing...loudly. Fairly early in the evening the karaoke machine came out and there was always someone anxious to pick up the mic.
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| Syd & Kate... back up singers |
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| The gringos took the mic, along with Javier's handsome son |
Matt was looking forward to following March madness, and since we had great cable t.v. at our casita on the beach, he was able to catch all the games. We did go into La Paz to Tailhunters to watch his Jayhawks play. We found out that Matt was the ONLY Jayhawk fan in La Paz, but we got there early enough to ensure that the big screen was tuned to his game.
These Baja dogs tend to draw me in more and more. My schedule in the Baja was to go to yoga every weekday at 7:30, then on my way home I'd stop at the little refuge to get some face time with the Comitan pups (the litter of pups that had been dumped in our neighborhood). These babies are adorable, but after 30 minutes with them I'm reminded why I prefer old dogs! There's always one crawling up my back to pull my hair, one biting my cheek, one tugging at my ankle bracelet and one stealing my sunglasses. Oh, and they all want some loving....for about 30 seconds before they get into trouble again. It was fun to go up there and tire them out....and leave them like this.
We had been enjoying the new La Paz bowling alley and bowling every Wednesday afternoon with two other couples. Matt is never one to bowl for fun....he'd much rather be in a league.....but we both found this to be a lot of fun. Here's a pic of our last bowling day.
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| Chuck, Diane, Matt, Syd, Claude & Shawn |
Our friends from Kansas City, Candy and Steve, came to visit us from April 5th to 10th. Matt and I drove down to San Jose del Cabo to pick them up at the airport. Originally we had planned to stay in La Paz until April 15th, and then head to Ajijic. However, we realized that would have us traveling in the middle of the week of Semana Santa. That Mexican families would start arriving on "our" beach Saturday April 12th for a week of camping. This means loud music and parties until nearly sunrise. Since we would be taking the ferry to the mainland, there would also be a lot of Mexican families traveling so the ferry would be more crowded than usual. And we would be driving about 700 miles during the holiday week when there would be a lot of others out there who had consumed more than their share of tequila. Because of all this, we decided that we would take off the day after Candy and Steve left. Having them visit us right before we were leaving, turned out to be a blessing because we really focused on having fun and enjoying the beautiful Baja, and not obsessing about getting ready to leave. We re-visited many of our favorite spots and explored some new ones. Matt was able to get in one last Baja game with Steve, while Candy and I enjoyed a great beach day. We went to Todos Santos for a last margarita at Hotel California, and then drove to Cerrito's Beach to check out the surfers. We explored a beautiful B&B on the bluff above Cerrito's and had a drink on their patio with the most amazing views. Candy, Steve and I (no Matt) had an amazingly beautiful day at Isla Espiritu Santos! Was a great visit!
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| Candy & Steve |
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| Candy at our Beach Day |
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| Espiritu Santos |
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| Exploring the Canyon |
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| Up Close with a Humpback |
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| One of Herm's last beach days |
I had started taking food and water to a stray dog that had been hanging around our neighborhood. From time to time I ran into a Mexican woman who was also feeding this dog. It became more an more obvious that this dog was pregnant and babies were coming soon. I had a "conversation" one day with this woman (in her bad English and my bad Spanish) that this futura mamacita needed to get off the street. So I talked with Joaquin who runs the shelter in La Paz and he said if I got her up to the little shelter in El Centenario to have her pups, he'd take them into his shelter when they were old enough. So I lured mamma into my car, took her to the vet for immunizations and de-worming and then took her to the El Centenario shelter. I would check on her twice a day, she was as big as a barn; I knew those babies had to come out soon. Nine days after we got to the shelter, Candy, Steve and I checked on her this is what we found.
Six beautiful, brand new pups! We marveled how she could have carried all of these. I gave her fresh bedding and she ate and drank a bit. The next morning when I checked on her, this is what I found.
She'd had three more! A total of nine babies! No wonder stray dogs are a problem in the Baja. These mamas have BIG litters.
Well, Candy and Steve left on Thursday morning, Matt and I started packing up. We've gone through this process three other times, so we're definitely getting better. Some of our great neighbors in Comitan (Kate, Pablo, Jim, Linda, Robin, Miriam, Chuck & Diane) held a bon voyage party for us that evening, and it was a great opportunity to say farewell to a group of wonderful people.
So Friday morning we packed up and left. We caught the 2:30 pm ferry from La Paz to Topolobampo. It's about an 8 hour ride but we still got a cabin and glad we did. The ferry was pretty much packed so nice to have a quiet place to hang. The entire ferry trip went very well
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| All packed up....again |
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| Kate walking her "girls" on our last day |
except for a little instance with Mexican customs. They felt our import permit for our car was expired and we'd have to drive to Tijuana to get this problem resolved - that's about a 1,200 mile drive! Luckily, we kept insisting that they check the status of our permit on line...and they did...and they found that we were good until November 2014. After that, when Matt nearly had a melt down, everything was a piece of cake. The loading process in La Paz went very smooth, knowing a little Spanish definitely helps. The process to disembark in Topo was also very quick. When we arrived in La Paz every vehicle had a thorough search by Mexican customs; however in Topo none are searched. I guess that the drugs tend to flow into the Baja, not out of it. We were at our hotel room in Topo before midnight and on the road by 6:15 am on Saturday.
We made the drive from Topo to Ajijic in one looooong day. Stopped at Vern and Kathleen's house on the way in and Kathleen had a bottle of wine waiting for me....and an incredible dinner. We met the property manager Saturday night to get our keys, but now way we could stay in the house. It desperately needed a good cleaning. We stayed in Vern and Kathleen's beautiful casita. Sunday morning we did a basic cleaning and unloaded our things. Monday the housekeeper was here to do a thorough cleaning and now we LOVE our new home. Oh Monday we also went to pick up our new addition, Ms. Lola. I fell in love with Lola last summer at the rescue and she had some health issues. I intended to adopt her this spring when we returned but I knew she needed m
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| Herm does not look too happy |
ore attention than she would receive at the ranch. Luckily, two or our wonderful lake friends, Ron and Jan, offered to foster her until we arrived. Ms. Lola was very fortunate and she thrived in their care. I can't ever thank them enough. Now, she's home with us and his immediately claimed Matt as "her person". Matt has found his comfortable place. He loves our new terrace.
Enough for now! Pictures of our new home very soon!
