Wrote a long entry in Pisa and suddenly the computer quit so nothing got posted! Apparently the system the cafe has just turns itself off when the time is up - they just didn't tell us ahead of time . . . oh well. So - we just quit and went home. I will try to recap some highlights.
So - Venezia - we liked it. 3 nights was not quite long enough. We saw the Guggenheim, the museum and the Doge's palace. Missed the massive cathedral, would have liked to have seen it, although after the Vatican . . . . . Went to the island of Mirano where the glass factories are. The best glass blowers in the world have been born and bred in Mirano for centuries - we saw the glass museum with samples of glass from the first century BC. It was all very interesting but overall not the richness or quality or culture we saw in Florence. Seems to be set up to lure the tourists - one small tourist shop after the other. Lots of shiney things - jewellery, glass, glass jewellery, glasses of every size and color, glass art, glass lighting, glass everything - beautiful, and yes expensive. They will ship anywhere. They will bargain (a bit) on the price. We have very small suitcases so bought nothing to speak of. Food incredibly expensive, some of it good. We stayed in a B&B on the island of Lido, a short boat ride to St. Marc's square.
So - Pisa - yes the tower is still leaning - a wee bit more every year. Food not so pricey as Venice. Stayed one night in a nice little B&B so that we could arrive early in the day at Cinque Terra. We were unable to arrange accomodation before we got to Cinque Terra. Nothing else much to say about Pisa.
Cinque Terra - Oh dear! May 1 is a big big holiday for Italians - its sort of their labour day so it was a long weekend. Turns out that most of the country decided to go to Cinque Terra the same time we did - five little picturesque and remote villages that cling to the cliffs on the West Coast of Italy. There are hiking trails that go between them. Friends have told us - no problem getting accomodation after you get there, there are lots of places that don't have a web connection for prebooking. Hah - that may be true on any other weekend in the entire year.
We arrived and nothing could be found in spite of efforts made by the kind local people we met in the towns. On their suggestion we went to Levanto, a town outside the park of the Cinque Terra, no luck there either - we were befriended by two people who run the Tobacco shop at the train station - I called all the places they recommended - nada! While I was doing that Natasha went into town to the tourist info place and ended up at a travel agency. There she met two German ladies that were having the same problem. The travel agent was able to find a country house for the four of us away up in the hills - she called a taxi to take us there and it turned out that our friend from the tobacco shop was the cab driver. He drove us up an impossibly steep and narrow road to the top of a mountain - much higher than mine - and told us there was no grocery store but there was a restaurant up there in this very tiny village and dropped us off. Good there was a restaurant as we had no food with us since everything just happened so quickly. We all showered and changed and trooped over to this delightful restaurant hanging off the cliff and overlooking the steep valley, the town of Levanto and the ocean below. Walked in and there was NO table possible, they were totally booked - it was after all the holiday weekend! We pouted and imagined going hungry when the phone rang and there was a cancellation! Yippee! We enjoyed a wonderful meal at a very reasonable price, including delicious teramisu!
Next day our taxi driver (now called Papa) arrived to take us down to the town and agreed to take us back up again at the end of the day - no busses - it was a holiday! Had great hikes over the next two days - even though it was a bit like being in a parade, so very many people. Beautiful setting for hiking but a lot like East Sooke park - with thousands of people. The towns are very picturesque, however, totally packed with people! We had to imagine what it would be like there without all the crowds.
The train goes between each town so you can hike one way and train the other - the train experience was something else - wow - many many people squished together and pushing to get on - very claustrophobic!
Our two new best friends Marie and Ann were wonderful and so much fun, we just laughed and laughed. Marie had to drink quite a bit of wine before she could talk English - but she was certainly able to make herself understood even so. Ann could speak English quite well so she had to be the translator. We were so very lucky to have met them.
We spent one afternoon and night on the beach in Finale Ligure another small Italian Riviera town, so that we wouldn't arrive late at night into the big city of Nice as we didn't have a reservation. That night we got the first rain of our trip - a huge thunder and lightening storm - wet pavement the next day but otherwise it is nice in Nice. We were able to easily get a place right close to the old city of Nice. So we will be here for three nights then on to Barcelona for three nights before a week in Paris and then home. Still having a wonderful time!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Last Day in Florence
There are still some sights we havent seen here - can you believe it? We have been walking from morning till we climb the 102 concrete steps up and up to our room with a view. We have a little terrace on top of our room - have to go up yet more steps to get there! All the buildings around us are the same height as we are so we have a great view around. There is a fabulous view of the Duomo glowing over the rooftops (also from our room).
I have been to church so many times mother would be very pleased! Natasha is now tired of the church thing and opted to stay in bed this morning. May also have something to do with the cold both of us have contracted milling around millions of people,going non-stop since we arrived in Italy and being too jazzed to sleep when we get home.
Besides the wonderful art and antiquities there are many shops lining all the main streets, big names of course including Prada, Yves St. Laurent etc. There are at least two leather shops on every street selling soft exquisite leather - Natasha got a beautiful lambskin jacket. She went in the store for shoes, they didnt have her size, she found a great belt, and the next thing she knew she had bought a jacket! What can I say, I wasnt with her and they are very good salespeople! It is lovely - dont think she could get such a jacket for such a good price at home. Sometimes you just have to do these things.....
There is a market that floods about 4 blocks, no cars able to get through, filled with stalls selling inexpensive interesting things. There is also a great indoor market - two huge floors with beautiful fresh fuits and vegetables, alongside wine stands, cheese shops, meat and fish stands. Great musicians in the piazzas at night, artists painting and selling their work, and a round of black market sellers with "gucci" bags and "rolex" watches. The sellers play a great game with the police, since what they are doing is illegal when a polzia comes near they grab up their booty in white sheets and walk or just stand completely innocent, the polizia are not 5 feet away and out come the displays on the street again! Its funny to watch. Most of these guys are black and they speak many languages, certainly enough to play haggeling games with the tourists.
We are off by train tomorrow for Venice for three nights, Pisa for one night, and then to the Cinque Terra on the west coast of Italy - the Italian Riviera before hitting France.
I have been to church so many times mother would be very pleased! Natasha is now tired of the church thing and opted to stay in bed this morning. May also have something to do with the cold both of us have contracted milling around millions of people,going non-stop since we arrived in Italy and being too jazzed to sleep when we get home.
Besides the wonderful art and antiquities there are many shops lining all the main streets, big names of course including Prada, Yves St. Laurent etc. There are at least two leather shops on every street selling soft exquisite leather - Natasha got a beautiful lambskin jacket. She went in the store for shoes, they didnt have her size, she found a great belt, and the next thing she knew she had bought a jacket! What can I say, I wasnt with her and they are very good salespeople! It is lovely - dont think she could get such a jacket for such a good price at home. Sometimes you just have to do these things.....
There is a market that floods about 4 blocks, no cars able to get through, filled with stalls selling inexpensive interesting things. There is also a great indoor market - two huge floors with beautiful fresh fuits and vegetables, alongside wine stands, cheese shops, meat and fish stands. Great musicians in the piazzas at night, artists painting and selling their work, and a round of black market sellers with "gucci" bags and "rolex" watches. The sellers play a great game with the police, since what they are doing is illegal when a polzia comes near they grab up their booty in white sheets and walk or just stand completely innocent, the polizia are not 5 feet away and out come the displays on the street again! Its funny to watch. Most of these guys are black and they speak many languages, certainly enough to play haggeling games with the tourists.
We are off by train tomorrow for Venice for three nights, Pisa for one night, and then to the Cinque Terra on the west coast of Italy - the Italian Riviera before hitting France.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
More travels....
We did successfully make it home, following spring as we moved north. No time to post as I had to begin planning for a trip to Europe with Natasha. We are now in Florence Italy for 7 nights.
We landed in Rome, were awestruck with the opulance of the sights of the Vatican. Everything is so grand. Also awestruck with the colleseum, the forum and the pantheon. Loved the pantheon. There were many smaller churches we wandered into with much more intimate and spiritual feelings than St. Peters. An incredible amount of art and antiquity in this city. Hard to believe that buildings - and roads - built centuries ago are still standing, continue to be used and remain in good shape! In Canada we have nothing to compare - we knock things down before they get even a bit old!
We walked and walked, with aching feet and legs we fell into bed each night. Now we are in good shape - yesterday we walked up all 465 steps to the top of the Duomo in Florence (round and round, narrower and narrower, darker and darker, warmer and warmer, less and less oxygen, feelings of opression, then people started to come down! using the same staircase as us!! Very cozy indeed. Not for the faint of heart - quite claustrophobic. What an amazing view of the city from tiny (in comparison) coppula on top! I am sure Lorne would have loved it - NOT!
We then spent three nights in Siena - an old walled city that was quite amazing too. And of course all a lovely siena color! More fantastic cathedrals and hours of wandering the steep medieval narrow cobblestone hilly alleys of this ancient city. &Thank goodness for maps - even if they dont have all the names of the streets on them. And just try to find that wonderful restaurant we passed!!! Drank ciante in a cool wine tasting cellar with Alesander, a lovely Italian man who charmed us in the piazza del Campo - where the fabulous and amazing historical paulo horse race is. Got beautiful flags (about the size of large scarfs) from three of the twelve districts that compete in this race.
We are immersed in art here in Florence, so far I am loving being saturated every museum is better than the last - the Uffizi gallery, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Pitti Palace, The Bargello museum- Natasha is enjoying it too and she is very good at picking up Italian quickly. There is a Parisian guest at the hostel and Natasha is also very good at remembering her French and communicates well with her too! This will be a real asset when we get to France! Most everyone we come across in Florence and in Rome speaks English (a bit- certainly more than we speak Italian!). I keep speaking Spanish - doesnt work so well.....
Next is Venice, then..... the Cinque Terra??? perhaps, if we can 1. find a place to stay and 2. figure out how to get there from Venice.
We landed in Rome, were awestruck with the opulance of the sights of the Vatican. Everything is so grand. Also awestruck with the colleseum, the forum and the pantheon. Loved the pantheon. There were many smaller churches we wandered into with much more intimate and spiritual feelings than St. Peters. An incredible amount of art and antiquity in this city. Hard to believe that buildings - and roads - built centuries ago are still standing, continue to be used and remain in good shape! In Canada we have nothing to compare - we knock things down before they get even a bit old!
We walked and walked, with aching feet and legs we fell into bed each night. Now we are in good shape - yesterday we walked up all 465 steps to the top of the Duomo in Florence (round and round, narrower and narrower, darker and darker, warmer and warmer, less and less oxygen, feelings of opression, then people started to come down! using the same staircase as us!! Very cozy indeed. Not for the faint of heart - quite claustrophobic. What an amazing view of the city from tiny (in comparison) coppula on top! I am sure Lorne would have loved it - NOT!
We then spent three nights in Siena - an old walled city that was quite amazing too. And of course all a lovely siena color! More fantastic cathedrals and hours of wandering the steep medieval narrow cobblestone hilly alleys of this ancient city. &Thank goodness for maps - even if they dont have all the names of the streets on them. And just try to find that wonderful restaurant we passed!!! Drank ciante in a cool wine tasting cellar with Alesander, a lovely Italian man who charmed us in the piazza del Campo - where the fabulous and amazing historical paulo horse race is. Got beautiful flags (about the size of large scarfs) from three of the twelve districts that compete in this race.
We are immersed in art here in Florence, so far I am loving being saturated every museum is better than the last - the Uffizi gallery, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Pitti Palace, The Bargello museum- Natasha is enjoying it too and she is very good at picking up Italian quickly. There is a Parisian guest at the hostel and Natasha is also very good at remembering her French and communicates well with her too! This will be a real asset when we get to France! Most everyone we come across in Florence and in Rome speaks English (a bit- certainly more than we speak Italian!). I keep speaking Spanish - doesnt work so well.....
Next is Venice, then..... the Cinque Terra??? perhaps, if we can 1. find a place to stay and 2. figure out how to get there from Venice.
Monday, March 12, 2007
In LA and Homeward Bound Manana...
Well its Monday and here we are at Miguel's waiting for him to get to our coach. A few things have come up for him so he may not be able to look at it till tomorrow, or . . . oh well.
Border Crossing on Sunday:
Don't do it. What were we thinking? We had a 2 1/2 hour wait in the hot sun at the Tecote border only for them to look in the fridge and send us on our way. We had thoughtfully emptied everything out that morning so we had nothing for lunch. No worries, we would be well across the border by lunch! Ha!! Not!! We spent lunch in line and I made natchos for lunch. No nice fresh salad. No vegs. no fruit. Now we know.
Food
I have had some requests for comentary on the food, well camerones and scallops - yum, what can I say. At El Coyote a vender or three came by every day with fresh caught fish, scallops and camerones - our dinner slept in the sea the night before! Can't get too much fresher than that. We were not the piggy wiggys we were the first year or even last year, we now manage to make a kilo of camerone last for a dinner and a lunch the next day. Our big find this year is carne asada. Due to Lorne's food issues most Mexican food is verboten, however we were in Costco shopping for when the kids came down and Lorne grabbed what he thought was corned beef that he could eat as the marinade did not include onions or garlic. Turned out it was not corned beef at all but the most delicious thinly cut tender beef. This is traditionally bbq'd on a charcol grill and tortellias heated to fill with the beef. Add lots of hot sauce and whatever else you want - peppers, salsa, onions and WOW! this is so good. So we went back to Costco and bought up lots of carne asada to bring home. Difficult to make it fit around all the camerone and scallops we have in the freezer tho.... I think I could probably figure out a marinade that would work to make this at home too. Oh boy a Mexican food party - get ready!
Had to have lunch today at the In and Out - think I've had enough of that now but it is very good. Its also cool to watch them peel and cut the fries right in front of you.
Homeward Stretch
So, now is the time to give me a list of any items you would like us to bring back for you from the US. If you haven't figured out how to send comments just send me an email (don't worry you are not alone! I have received many emails from others who can't figure it out either). We will be stopping at one or more of the outlet malls and a regular mall too - possibly Frys, a huge computer store in Oregon if they will give us a warranty that will be honored in Canada. Did I mention that our computer is toast? We are using Miguel's computer today and will check email before we get home if we can. Otherwise you can text message me on my cell phone.
Border Crossing on Sunday:
Don't do it. What were we thinking? We had a 2 1/2 hour wait in the hot sun at the Tecote border only for them to look in the fridge and send us on our way. We had thoughtfully emptied everything out that morning so we had nothing for lunch. No worries, we would be well across the border by lunch! Ha!! Not!! We spent lunch in line and I made natchos for lunch. No nice fresh salad. No vegs. no fruit. Now we know.
Food
I have had some requests for comentary on the food, well camerones and scallops - yum, what can I say. At El Coyote a vender or three came by every day with fresh caught fish, scallops and camerones - our dinner slept in the sea the night before! Can't get too much fresher than that. We were not the piggy wiggys we were the first year or even last year, we now manage to make a kilo of camerone last for a dinner and a lunch the next day. Our big find this year is carne asada. Due to Lorne's food issues most Mexican food is verboten, however we were in Costco shopping for when the kids came down and Lorne grabbed what he thought was corned beef that he could eat as the marinade did not include onions or garlic. Turned out it was not corned beef at all but the most delicious thinly cut tender beef. This is traditionally bbq'd on a charcol grill and tortellias heated to fill with the beef. Add lots of hot sauce and whatever else you want - peppers, salsa, onions and WOW! this is so good. So we went back to Costco and bought up lots of carne asada to bring home. Difficult to make it fit around all the camerone and scallops we have in the freezer tho.... I think I could probably figure out a marinade that would work to make this at home too. Oh boy a Mexican food party - get ready!
Had to have lunch today at the In and Out - think I've had enough of that now but it is very good. Its also cool to watch them peel and cut the fries right in front of you.
Homeward Stretch
So, now is the time to give me a list of any items you would like us to bring back for you from the US. If you haven't figured out how to send comments just send me an email (don't worry you are not alone! I have received many emails from others who can't figure it out either). We will be stopping at one or more of the outlet malls and a regular mall too - possibly Frys, a huge computer store in Oregon if they will give us a warranty that will be honored in Canada. Did I mention that our computer is toast? We are using Miguel's computer today and will check email before we get home if we can. Otherwise you can text message me on my cell phone.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Conception and El Coyote Beach
We stopped for eight days to kayak and hang on the beach. The Conception area is just south of Mulege and is a very large bay with about 8 quite sheltered camping access beaches and a number of small islands so if we were to find a place to kayak this should be it. We had never stayed at El Coyote before so thought we would give it a try. It was fabulous! Similar to the West Coast of Vancouver Island, the wind usually gets up about 11 am so we needed to be up and on the water early to get in a good paddle. The second day we went out we were not far from our beach when we were suddenly blasted with a big wind! and I mean big! And it wasn´t even 10 am yet! It was a bit startling for us newbies to say the least so we quickly paddled to shore, fortunately it was blowing towards land so we had the wind at our backs and not too much water in our boats, lots of whitecaps all around and breaking over our bows. My boat felt good tho and it wasn´t more sea than we could handle so that was good.
We had heard the wind can pick up quickly here but we had no idea it would be quite like this, dead calm one second and then pow! We learned these winds are called buffaloes, good name. We also discovered that a fellow named Gary broadcasts the weather for the area over the VHF (marine band) radio every morning at 8. He lives at the next beach over (El Burro) and weather is his hobby. He let us know that we now had a few days to wait for really flat water and to expect big winds (buffaloes) every day.
We spent some time hiking, there are some great hikes to do around this beach, up and over the desert hills to the next beaches and into beautiful valleys. We also hiked along the old Baja road and into a lush valley, very nice. Read a few books and soon it was time to do some serious kayaking. Last Monday dawned with the water like glass, kayaking was amazing, it was like moving over gentle shimmering folds of silk. It was so clear we were looking into a tropical aquarium with lots of interesting fish to see. The water was quite warm so I also enjoyed swimming and banging up my shins practicing wet exits. Couldn´t get Lorne it tho. We did find a fairly large red jellyfish, fortunately not while I was swimming.
The first few days I was buttoned up tight in my life jacket and thinking we really should have our skirts on, Lorne of course had his jacket on but not zipped and was totally opposed to the skirts as it was really quite warm. By day 3 Lorne´s lifejacket was strapped to his deck and by day 4 so was mine! We really didn´t go any further off shore than what we could easily swim and the water is warm so, we dressed for immersion - swimming suits!
ElCoyote is the beach that our friends from Santispac, Chet and Marida have moved to so we had a few good visits with them. They built a new, almost identical palapa and moved their whole kitchen and stairway over from Santispac. They don´t own the land but pay $10 per day all year for the privledge of renting the land, plus they have services that they didn´t have at Santispac - water and sewer - so they are reasonably happy and settled now. It was quite devastating to them when they arrived at Santispac this year to be told they had to move off the beach by the end of January. Six of their friends from Santispac have also moved over to this beach. Santispac looks quite different now with almost all the palapas gone. Apparently it has been bought by someone who plans to put in a resort... A Baja dream or??
We are now in Guerro Negro, working our way north. The desert today was in bloom and so aromatic it was wonderful! My plant book tells me the flowers were lupins, a type of poppy and an incense flower. We´ve bought a big load of camerones and scallops to take home, the freezer is full! We´ve also got a few bags of delicious San Ignacio dates and a container of their yummy honey too. We should be in LA by next Monday where we will visit Miguel to have him give the GMC a once over before heading home. Depending on how things go we should be home by next weekend.
Time to cook - as once again I am not doing the driving on Baja!
We had heard the wind can pick up quickly here but we had no idea it would be quite like this, dead calm one second and then pow! We learned these winds are called buffaloes, good name. We also discovered that a fellow named Gary broadcasts the weather for the area over the VHF (marine band) radio every morning at 8. He lives at the next beach over (El Burro) and weather is his hobby. He let us know that we now had a few days to wait for really flat water and to expect big winds (buffaloes) every day.
We spent some time hiking, there are some great hikes to do around this beach, up and over the desert hills to the next beaches and into beautiful valleys. We also hiked along the old Baja road and into a lush valley, very nice. Read a few books and soon it was time to do some serious kayaking. Last Monday dawned with the water like glass, kayaking was amazing, it was like moving over gentle shimmering folds of silk. It was so clear we were looking into a tropical aquarium with lots of interesting fish to see. The water was quite warm so I also enjoyed swimming and banging up my shins practicing wet exits. Couldn´t get Lorne it tho. We did find a fairly large red jellyfish, fortunately not while I was swimming.
The first few days I was buttoned up tight in my life jacket and thinking we really should have our skirts on, Lorne of course had his jacket on but not zipped and was totally opposed to the skirts as it was really quite warm. By day 3 Lorne´s lifejacket was strapped to his deck and by day 4 so was mine! We really didn´t go any further off shore than what we could easily swim and the water is warm so, we dressed for immersion - swimming suits!
ElCoyote is the beach that our friends from Santispac, Chet and Marida have moved to so we had a few good visits with them. They built a new, almost identical palapa and moved their whole kitchen and stairway over from Santispac. They don´t own the land but pay $10 per day all year for the privledge of renting the land, plus they have services that they didn´t have at Santispac - water and sewer - so they are reasonably happy and settled now. It was quite devastating to them when they arrived at Santispac this year to be told they had to move off the beach by the end of January. Six of their friends from Santispac have also moved over to this beach. Santispac looks quite different now with almost all the palapas gone. Apparently it has been bought by someone who plans to put in a resort... A Baja dream or??
We are now in Guerro Negro, working our way north. The desert today was in bloom and so aromatic it was wonderful! My plant book tells me the flowers were lupins, a type of poppy and an incense flower. We´ve bought a big load of camerones and scallops to take home, the freezer is full! We´ve also got a few bags of delicious San Ignacio dates and a container of their yummy honey too. We should be in LA by next Monday where we will visit Miguel to have him give the GMC a once over before heading home. Depending on how things go we should be home by next weekend.
Time to cook - as once again I am not doing the driving on Baja!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
More on Casa Metta and Los Barriles
Following the hurricane there were apparently quite a lot of bugs, as you may know, I am not that fond of bugs, particularly the eight legged variety. However, I was assured that there was not that many now. And actually it has not been bad at all. There are many unusual bugs that we had not seen here before - one of the is a very large (about 2 inches long) black cricket. Apparently following the hurricane there were hundreds around and in the house once the sun set; fortunately not that many now. Just enought to be annoying. They are very loud, particularly when in the house. Like most of the houses here Casa Metta is made of concrete block and has a wonderful echoing resonating sound for a chricket to sing in. We could make a killing selling them in China!!
The other interesting insect we have seen lots of is a humming bird moth. They are very amazing insects, look and fly a lot like our hummingbirds at home and like most things in the desert, very very fast. We have lots of pictures of empty space, they are really difficult to capture on film. They have a very long tongue that rolls out to sip the nectar from the flowers. There is also quite an assortment of beetles with beautiful designs on their backs and great long antenna. No, I don't think they were cockroaches, they didn't mind the light and they were very easy to catch.
At the park where we are now there are so many kite boarders - it's a very popular sport here on the East Cape, along with windsurfing of course. They are quite amazing to watch as they leap and twirl high in the air with the big winds that come up here. These of course are not kayaking days and no it's not my next thing to take up, at least not yet . . .
The sunsets here are truly breathtaking. Dawn really does "break" this far south and the sun rises so quickly out of the Sea of Cortez. Mainland Mexico is not visible at all as it is quite a distance away (over 300 kms) so for us Westerners it is quite wonderful to see such a sunrise. The full moon rising out ot the Sea of Cortez is also spectacular. The rise of the full moon was amazing - the sun was setting on one side of us while the moon was rising simultaneously. Two spectacular events!
We are out to dinner tonight with the Bradleys, good friends from Rancho Pescadero, and then tomorrow morning we go north, hopefully as far as Ciudad Constitution.
The other interesting insect we have seen lots of is a humming bird moth. They are very amazing insects, look and fly a lot like our hummingbirds at home and like most things in the desert, very very fast. We have lots of pictures of empty space, they are really difficult to capture on film. They have a very long tongue that rolls out to sip the nectar from the flowers. There is also quite an assortment of beetles with beautiful designs on their backs and great long antenna. No, I don't think they were cockroaches, they didn't mind the light and they were very easy to catch.
At the park where we are now there are so many kite boarders - it's a very popular sport here on the East Cape, along with windsurfing of course. They are quite amazing to watch as they leap and twirl high in the air with the big winds that come up here. These of course are not kayaking days and no it's not my next thing to take up, at least not yet . . .
The sunsets here are truly breathtaking. Dawn really does "break" this far south and the sun rises so quickly out of the Sea of Cortez. Mainland Mexico is not visible at all as it is quite a distance away (over 300 kms) so for us Westerners it is quite wonderful to see such a sunrise. The full moon rising out ot the Sea of Cortez is also spectacular. The rise of the full moon was amazing - the sun was setting on one side of us while the moon was rising simultaneously. Two spectacular events!
We are out to dinner tonight with the Bradleys, good friends from Rancho Pescadero, and then tomorrow morning we go north, hopefully as far as Ciudad Constitution.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Casa Metta
What a beautiful spot, a beautiful home, great weather. Its great to be here. The sea has been fabulous, we have had lots of flat water so have been able to do lots of kayaking. The water is so clear on flat days that we can see a multitude of tropical fish right under our boat.
Mike Kate and the grandkids Lindsay (4) and Tristan (2) were here from the 5th to the 15th. We all had a great time, playing, walking the beach, swimming in the little pool; Lindsay is now swimming all on her own! She likes to dive under for things and to sink down to the bottom and sit on your feet! Tristan had a good time in the water too. The two of them get along so well, they played and played all day. They found lots of cool things on the beach including a whole dried trigger fish! That was the best find, but it has to stay here. We visited the neighbors animals with the children and fed them treats. The dogs were more than happy to gobble up their treats and to play ball with the kids but Trish and Trev’s cats scampered away when the kids arrived, only two of the four came out for camerone! And Smokey, well forget him! He didn't show his face!
Mike and Kate did some kayaking and snorkeling while here and they took the kayaks out one day to where the batrays were jumping. They saw literally hundreds of batrays swimming under their boats and watched them leaping out of the water at a very close distance. They were able to get some great pictures. This leaping thing is a very strange thing the batrays do. It sometimes looks like a chorus line with many of them leaping up together and landing with a big slap on the water. This goes on at times day after day and all through the night. When the water is really flat they make a very loud slap, almost like a gun shot! These are not small creatures – their wingspan is between 3 and 4 feet on average so a fairly awesome sight to see at close range.
I started a Spanish class on the 12th for three hours a day with about 6 hours of homework every night. There were a total of 8 in the class and it was only for 8 days, one can do anything for a short period of time right? I learned a great deal, Paulina was a wonderful teacher. There was an exam at the end and I passed. This means I can go on to the second level and spend another 8 days working 10 hours a day/or I fall asleep on Spanish. Not this trip - maybe next year, that was an exhausting 8 days but I think well worth it!
Our neighbors (and friends) Jim and MaryAnne lent us their quad and Lorne and I drove the 6 miles into town. Way cool. I think Lorne is sold on getting one. I had to travel daily with Trevor to town on his quad to attend Spanish lessons; quite a different driver than Lorne! Each day he went a little faster, very fun. Perhaps once Lorne gets more used to it he will find the gas pedal…. Ha.
We have had some great visits with the neighbors here. Some very interesting and lovely people; we feel completely at home in this little neighborhood.
Our friends Ellen and Chris own Casa Metta and they have been so very kind to welcome our use of it even though they will not be here till March 5. I wish we could stay till they get here but we do need to start heading north. Ellen told us that they had a caretaker here who was in the casita (small house) and we could have the big house. Well we did have a bit of a surprise when we arrived here, as the kitchen in the casita had been ripped out and a new one, which was to have been put in months ago, was yet to be completed, or to even have had any workers for quite some time! So that puts Dirk the caretaker in the house with us. Well he sleeps in the casita; and understandably has to cook in the house. Good thing he is such an easy going nice guy.
Tomorrow, Friday, we head to Los Barriles to stay at an RV park in town for a few days then will head north looking for good kayaking. We plan to be home the second or third week of March.
Being without a computer is such a drag I tell you. I only hope we can get things off the hard drive from the fried one.
Mike Kate and the grandkids Lindsay (4) and Tristan (2) were here from the 5th to the 15th. We all had a great time, playing, walking the beach, swimming in the little pool; Lindsay is now swimming all on her own! She likes to dive under for things and to sink down to the bottom and sit on your feet! Tristan had a good time in the water too. The two of them get along so well, they played and played all day. They found lots of cool things on the beach including a whole dried trigger fish! That was the best find, but it has to stay here. We visited the neighbors animals with the children and fed them treats. The dogs were more than happy to gobble up their treats and to play ball with the kids but Trish and Trev’s cats scampered away when the kids arrived, only two of the four came out for camerone! And Smokey, well forget him! He didn't show his face!
Mike and Kate did some kayaking and snorkeling while here and they took the kayaks out one day to where the batrays were jumping. They saw literally hundreds of batrays swimming under their boats and watched them leaping out of the water at a very close distance. They were able to get some great pictures. This leaping thing is a very strange thing the batrays do. It sometimes looks like a chorus line with many of them leaping up together and landing with a big slap on the water. This goes on at times day after day and all through the night. When the water is really flat they make a very loud slap, almost like a gun shot! These are not small creatures – their wingspan is between 3 and 4 feet on average so a fairly awesome sight to see at close range.
I started a Spanish class on the 12th for three hours a day with about 6 hours of homework every night. There were a total of 8 in the class and it was only for 8 days, one can do anything for a short period of time right? I learned a great deal, Paulina was a wonderful teacher. There was an exam at the end and I passed. This means I can go on to the second level and spend another 8 days working 10 hours a day/or I fall asleep on Spanish. Not this trip - maybe next year, that was an exhausting 8 days but I think well worth it!
Our neighbors (and friends) Jim and MaryAnne lent us their quad and Lorne and I drove the 6 miles into town. Way cool. I think Lorne is sold on getting one. I had to travel daily with Trevor to town on his quad to attend Spanish lessons; quite a different driver than Lorne! Each day he went a little faster, very fun. Perhaps once Lorne gets more used to it he will find the gas pedal…. Ha.
We have had some great visits with the neighbors here. Some very interesting and lovely people; we feel completely at home in this little neighborhood.
Our friends Ellen and Chris own Casa Metta and they have been so very kind to welcome our use of it even though they will not be here till March 5. I wish we could stay till they get here but we do need to start heading north. Ellen told us that they had a caretaker here who was in the casita (small house) and we could have the big house. Well we did have a bit of a surprise when we arrived here, as the kitchen in the casita had been ripped out and a new one, which was to have been put in months ago, was yet to be completed, or to even have had any workers for quite some time! So that puts Dirk the caretaker in the house with us. Well he sleeps in the casita; and understandably has to cook in the house. Good thing he is such an easy going nice guy.
Tomorrow, Friday, we head to Los Barriles to stay at an RV park in town for a few days then will head north looking for good kayaking. We plan to be home the second or third week of March.
Being without a computer is such a drag I tell you. I only hope we can get things off the hard drive from the fried one.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Aaaaarrrrggggg
Our laptop has crashed!! Life without a computer is something else - total isolation - totally not connected - I can't remember not having a computer..... We are using a neighbour's old old old laptop and have to go to their house to do it, so its a bit of an interruption in their day; consequently I will not likely be responding much to email or be able to post to my blog frequently. Will, as ever, do my best as I do hate not being connected.
Life at the Casa is well - shorts and ts, bathing suits in the pool, leisurely paddles in the kayak, looking at the multitude of tropical fish in the beautiful crystal clear turquoise water, Its almost as good as snorkeling without getting cold. The water here is a bit on the chilly side when snorkeling even with a wet suit. There are light breezes to slightly cool us so its never too hot. Two delightful grandchildren to play with, a little pool, excellent food and drink, wonderful neighbors with dogs and cats for the kids to visit, what can I say - besides life is good? - fabulous, grand, wonderful? It think its about as good as it gets without a working computer.
We did manage to take the beach road (about 6 km of a one lane packed sand road with a few pullouts) to town and then back on Mex. 1 to Los Cabos to pick up the children. We only met two trucks and had to pull way over, they were very considerate. We almost got stuck in the sand and Lorne drove right over a glass beer bottle and then over a very large boulder. It is a very narrow one lane road with occasional spots called "the slides" by the locals where the road slips away down to the beach. However, the drops are small, only about 20 feet as opposed to I dunno a km? definately to a certain death on the upper road.
We ended up being a bit late to get the kids, it took longer than anticipated and we still had to stop at Costco before getting them and rushing back home before dark. I tell you we took the shortest time ever in Costco (20 minutes) and spent the most money ($500) in order to have enough supplies for 10 days while the kids were here. So yes, we are eating (and drinking) well.
Word from the neighbors is that they are doing actual road work on the upper road with machines. So, perhaps it will be drivable for us to get out of here.
Life at the Casa is well - shorts and ts, bathing suits in the pool, leisurely paddles in the kayak, looking at the multitude of tropical fish in the beautiful crystal clear turquoise water, Its almost as good as snorkeling without getting cold. The water here is a bit on the chilly side when snorkeling even with a wet suit. There are light breezes to slightly cool us so its never too hot. Two delightful grandchildren to play with, a little pool, excellent food and drink, wonderful neighbors with dogs and cats for the kids to visit, what can I say - besides life is good? - fabulous, grand, wonderful? It think its about as good as it gets without a working computer.
We did manage to take the beach road (about 6 km of a one lane packed sand road with a few pullouts) to town and then back on Mex. 1 to Los Cabos to pick up the children. We only met two trucks and had to pull way over, they were very considerate. We almost got stuck in the sand and Lorne drove right over a glass beer bottle and then over a very large boulder. It is a very narrow one lane road with occasional spots called "the slides" by the locals where the road slips away down to the beach. However, the drops are small, only about 20 feet as opposed to I dunno a km? definately to a certain death on the upper road.
We ended up being a bit late to get the kids, it took longer than anticipated and we still had to stop at Costco before getting them and rushing back home before dark. I tell you we took the shortest time ever in Costco (20 minutes) and spent the most money ($500) in order to have enough supplies for 10 days while the kids were here. So yes, we are eating (and drinking) well.
Word from the neighbors is that they are doing actual road work on the upper road with machines. So, perhaps it will be drivable for us to get out of here.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
South to Casa Metta, our Home for a Month
After Saturday night in La Paz we headed to Tecolote, the beach just south of La Paz, rather than drive on a Sunday on Baja, generally not a good idea. We have been told there tends to be copious drinking and driving on Sundays, so a good day to just hole up. Tecolote is a beautiful white sand beach with lots of shells – I know, I think there is something about women and shells – we just have to collect em. As much as I kept reminding myself I already have many containers of shells at home, as much as I walked along doing my best to hold my head up and look into the distance, I kept finding myself finding more treasures along our walks. Even trying to make a deal with myself: nothing in my hands or pockets till on the way back, no matter how pretty…. To no avail; before I knew it I had my hands and pockets full. Of course Lorne will not carry any of my treasures for me; in fact he tries to get me to carry great huge rocks, insisting they are absolutely beautiful and must be carted back, by me. I think he is having me on.
After completely filling the motor home with bags of good things to eat and drink from Soriannos, and CCC, our favourite supermarkets on the Baja, we headed south for the final few hours drive to Los Barriles and our home at Casa Metta for the next month. The road was twisty and narrow – so what else is new you ask? Well we were able to look down on small interesting pueblos and more lush vegetation, palm trees, bougainvilleas if glorious flower; there is definitely water in this area.
Los Barriles was a welcome sight and we could see some of the remains of the damage deal from Hurricane John. The roads through the two arroyos were quite damaged and have not been repaired yet, although there is work on them and there is an alternative road beside the one being repaired.
There are two choices of roads to get out to where we are staying – the paved road through mountain passes that eventually gets to El Cardonel and has a cut off road through the arroyo to Rancho Pescadero where we are located, or the sand Beach Road. We were advised to take the paved mountain road. Oh my goodness….. what a scarey trip!! It’s only about 11 km or so north from Los Barriles on this road – however – it has suffered horrendous damage from the hurricane. Coming this way was a bad decision.
Our first clue should have been when the road crew, who were busy sweeping the road with their new brooms and wearing their brand new safety vests (very unusual to have safety vests on the Baja) looked quite stunned as we drove by. Not a single smile, not a single wave, nada. You have to realize that in Baja, whenever we pass a Mexican they smile and wave; men, women, children – really – everyone does it, and we find that we are cheerfully waving back to complete strangers whenever we pass anyone. As you drive through the little pueblos you are greeted with big smiles and waves from everyone on the street, the truck drivers driving by or passing smile and wave (I wish they would keep both hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road) all the road crews stop working and smile and wave. Even those guys on the telephone poles smiled and waved! BUT – not these guys on this road.
Our next clue – not one single person passed us, nor did we meet anyone on this highway (thank goodness as we were hugging the left side of the road and this is not Britain). Back to this mountain road… I wish I could post pictures – I was trying to distract myself from completely losing it by taking pictures - there were about five places where the road was narrowed to one lane. Why? because the other lane was gone – truly gone – as in down the mountain gone. There was one spot, the very last gruesome piece where it truly looked to me that there was nothing underneath the pavement we were about to go over. The road was so undermined…. I was trying my best to be calm and keep breathing as I demanded that Lorne move over more from my edge – he kept telling me that he couldn’t as there was nothing on his side either ….. now what does that tell you?? I think we are very lucky to be alive.
We successfully made our turnoff (obviously) to cross through the arroyo to Rancho Pescadero (the name of our small community of 8 houses along the beach) however, as we drove on this narrow sandy road throught the arroyo we met two large trucks, one of them the water truck and we knew that at this time of day they could only be heading back to Los Barriles - so they drive that road…. Regularly we find out. And they live. At least so far. HOWEVER – that does not mean that we will drive it. Ever. Again. At least not this trip south…. and certainly not with me in the motor home. What remains to be seen is how on earth we are going to get out of here. I think a helicopter would be good.
At last Casa Metta! Ah what a wonderful sight, we can just relax and enjoy for many days to come. The grandchildren arrive on the 5th (and their parents) for 10 days. That will be fun. We have a little pool (actually a large hot tub) so the kids should have fun with that. Of course there is the ocean at our doorstep as well and low and behold a good effect of Hurricane John is that the beach has returned to sand – the last two years the beach was deep in round boulders, very slippery when getting in and out of the water. Sand is much better.
After completely filling the motor home with bags of good things to eat and drink from Soriannos, and CCC, our favourite supermarkets on the Baja, we headed south for the final few hours drive to Los Barriles and our home at Casa Metta for the next month. The road was twisty and narrow – so what else is new you ask? Well we were able to look down on small interesting pueblos and more lush vegetation, palm trees, bougainvilleas if glorious flower; there is definitely water in this area.
Los Barriles was a welcome sight and we could see some of the remains of the damage deal from Hurricane John. The roads through the two arroyos were quite damaged and have not been repaired yet, although there is work on them and there is an alternative road beside the one being repaired.
There are two choices of roads to get out to where we are staying – the paved road through mountain passes that eventually gets to El Cardonel and has a cut off road through the arroyo to Rancho Pescadero where we are located, or the sand Beach Road. We were advised to take the paved mountain road. Oh my goodness….. what a scarey trip!! It’s only about 11 km or so north from Los Barriles on this road – however – it has suffered horrendous damage from the hurricane. Coming this way was a bad decision.
Our first clue should have been when the road crew, who were busy sweeping the road with their new brooms and wearing their brand new safety vests (very unusual to have safety vests on the Baja) looked quite stunned as we drove by. Not a single smile, not a single wave, nada. You have to realize that in Baja, whenever we pass a Mexican they smile and wave; men, women, children – really – everyone does it, and we find that we are cheerfully waving back to complete strangers whenever we pass anyone. As you drive through the little pueblos you are greeted with big smiles and waves from everyone on the street, the truck drivers driving by or passing smile and wave (I wish they would keep both hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road) all the road crews stop working and smile and wave. Even those guys on the telephone poles smiled and waved! BUT – not these guys on this road.
Our next clue – not one single person passed us, nor did we meet anyone on this highway (thank goodness as we were hugging the left side of the road and this is not Britain). Back to this mountain road… I wish I could post pictures – I was trying to distract myself from completely losing it by taking pictures - there were about five places where the road was narrowed to one lane. Why? because the other lane was gone – truly gone – as in down the mountain gone. There was one spot, the very last gruesome piece where it truly looked to me that there was nothing underneath the pavement we were about to go over. The road was so undermined…. I was trying my best to be calm and keep breathing as I demanded that Lorne move over more from my edge – he kept telling me that he couldn’t as there was nothing on his side either ….. now what does that tell you?? I think we are very lucky to be alive.
We successfully made our turnoff (obviously) to cross through the arroyo to Rancho Pescadero (the name of our small community of 8 houses along the beach) however, as we drove on this narrow sandy road throught the arroyo we met two large trucks, one of them the water truck and we knew that at this time of day they could only be heading back to Los Barriles - so they drive that road…. Regularly we find out. And they live. At least so far. HOWEVER – that does not mean that we will drive it. Ever. Again. At least not this trip south…. and certainly not with me in the motor home. What remains to be seen is how on earth we are going to get out of here. I think a helicopter would be good.
At last Casa Metta! Ah what a wonderful sight, we can just relax and enjoy for many days to come. The grandchildren arrive on the 5th (and their parents) for 10 days. That will be fun. We have a little pool (actually a large hot tub) so the kids should have fun with that. Of course there is the ocean at our doorstep as well and low and behold a good effect of Hurricane John is that the beach has returned to sand – the last two years the beach was deep in round boulders, very slippery when getting in and out of the water. Sand is much better.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
The Big Sting
Friday January 27
Friday morning was beautiful at Santispac! Totally flat sea and no wind. I had a lovely paddle while Lorne got things ready to go. Unfortunately we are feeling compelled to moved along. We met some a delightful couple on the beach - Sandra and Richard Law and their cat Whisky from Osoyoos BC. Lovely people, hope we run into them again.
Didn’t travel far before a big wasp flew in my window, landing on my chair! I successfully dispatched him with our trusty electronic swatter and settled back to writing again when bang bang, I received two sharp stings on my inner thigh! Ouch! I applied sting stop right away and then applied this fabulous German ointment we got in Mexico last year. It went from a large and very sore red welt to two little red dots in short order, and stopped hurting entirely! Quite amazing. I kept applying this ointment the first day and a few times the second. It seemed to be gone so stopped and now (Sunday) it is a large puffy red welt again and hurts. Dang! I’m just so darn delicate.
So, my activity while driving on Friday was to build screens for our windows in the front. Kept me busy for quite some time. Duck tape is amazing stuff. Lorne tells me all kinds of things are made out of duck tape, including ball caps. He wants to make a bet with me about this… somehow I think this is just another of his factoids and I will lose, so I’m not taking him on.
We stopped in Loreto to meet a fellow GMCer that Lorne met on the internet, he and his wife have a house just south of Loreto, next to Loreto Bay developments (this is Butterfield’s project, a man from Victoria). We spent the night just south of Loreto at Porto Escondido at what looked to be a nice RV spot but turned out to be not so great. Driving out of Porto Escondido (its only a few miles off Mex. 1 and on a paved road) we drove over what looked like a tarantula – so of course we stopped, backed up and sure enough it was! It was the biggest dang spider I ever saw! Yuk. It just sat there! So I took some pictures of it – from the safety of the motor home of course. If we ever get to a place with any internet speed and we can upload pictures, I will add them.
Next day we came south to La Paz and stayed at Aquamarina RV Park in town. This is a lovely park on the beach where we have stayed the other times we have been in La Paz. It is operated by a very interesting elderly couple – Richard and May Lou, and is right on the water. They used to have a dock and a very large ship until various hurricanes wrecked them. There is a boat launch tho. Mary Lou grows orchids and their park is filled with beautiful flowering trees as well as palms. Hurricane John this past year did further damage to their trees and they lost half their orchid house. They are such interesting people, we would love to stay and learn more about them. They used to take people touring on their ship, including many oceanographers and biologists on their various ventures.
From La Paz it is just a short drive to Los Barriles and our beautiful Casa on the beach. Casa Metta is owned by our dear friend Ellen and her husband Chris whom we have yet to meet. It is a beautiful home and we are so fortunate to have use of it for the next month.
Friday morning was beautiful at Santispac! Totally flat sea and no wind. I had a lovely paddle while Lorne got things ready to go. Unfortunately we are feeling compelled to moved along. We met some a delightful couple on the beach - Sandra and Richard Law and their cat Whisky from Osoyoos BC. Lovely people, hope we run into them again.
Didn’t travel far before a big wasp flew in my window, landing on my chair! I successfully dispatched him with our trusty electronic swatter and settled back to writing again when bang bang, I received two sharp stings on my inner thigh! Ouch! I applied sting stop right away and then applied this fabulous German ointment we got in Mexico last year. It went from a large and very sore red welt to two little red dots in short order, and stopped hurting entirely! Quite amazing. I kept applying this ointment the first day and a few times the second. It seemed to be gone so stopped and now (Sunday) it is a large puffy red welt again and hurts. Dang! I’m just so darn delicate.
So, my activity while driving on Friday was to build screens for our windows in the front. Kept me busy for quite some time. Duck tape is amazing stuff. Lorne tells me all kinds of things are made out of duck tape, including ball caps. He wants to make a bet with me about this… somehow I think this is just another of his factoids and I will lose, so I’m not taking him on.
We stopped in Loreto to meet a fellow GMCer that Lorne met on the internet, he and his wife have a house just south of Loreto, next to Loreto Bay developments (this is Butterfield’s project, a man from Victoria). We spent the night just south of Loreto at Porto Escondido at what looked to be a nice RV spot but turned out to be not so great. Driving out of Porto Escondido (its only a few miles off Mex. 1 and on a paved road) we drove over what looked like a tarantula – so of course we stopped, backed up and sure enough it was! It was the biggest dang spider I ever saw! Yuk. It just sat there! So I took some pictures of it – from the safety of the motor home of course. If we ever get to a place with any internet speed and we can upload pictures, I will add them.
Next day we came south to La Paz and stayed at Aquamarina RV Park in town. This is a lovely park on the beach where we have stayed the other times we have been in La Paz. It is operated by a very interesting elderly couple – Richard and May Lou, and is right on the water. They used to have a dock and a very large ship until various hurricanes wrecked them. There is a boat launch tho. Mary Lou grows orchids and their park is filled with beautiful flowering trees as well as palms. Hurricane John this past year did further damage to their trees and they lost half their orchid house. They are such interesting people, we would love to stay and learn more about them. They used to take people touring on their ship, including many oceanographers and biologists on their various ventures.
From La Paz it is just a short drive to Los Barriles and our beautiful Casa on the beach. Casa Metta is owned by our dear friend Ellen and her husband Chris whom we have yet to meet. It is a beautiful home and we are so fortunate to have use of it for the next month.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
In The Water At Last - at Santispac
Here it is, the launch of our Maiden Paddle!! Well, after trying for an hour our connection is just not fast enough to let me post pictures ... not even one! I will see what we can do to speed it up later.
(written Friday January 26, 2007)
Ahh, kayaking – I think we have found a wonderful sport! I’m a born-again-kayaker! We were a bit discouraged when we first arrived as Santispac had a very brisk offshore wind. The next day was better and we enjoyed a short few hours on the water, however it was quite windy returning to shore, requiring a bit of muscle to paddle in. It felt a bit choppy too, on this our maiden paddle. My little mystic is wonderful; it is quite narrow and has a small cockpit but sits very comfortably for me. It does feel pretty tippy but I think I will get used to it quite quickly. I didn’t have any trouble keeping up to Lorne, in fact it was the reverse!, especially when I was using his much bigger paddle! Ha ha! I do like to zip along! Lorne is happy with his kayak but I would not be surprised if we buy another one for him fairly soon. Not sure yet what one it would be, have to do some more research.
Thursday was beautiful! We paddled for the whole morning and paddled over to another little gringo village on the beach just south of Santispac (complete with tennis court). (Posada Concepcion or Bahia Tordillo) This whole area has a lot of hot seeps and this village has made several attractive stone surrounds to make pools so you can sit in them. There is a large one right in the center of the village and several small ones along the shore. Santispac has its own little muddy hot spring that doesn’t look that appealing to me but our neighbors enjoyed it when the tide was high.
There was just a light off shore breeze which of course picks up as the morning wears on, so the trip home took a little more effort than going out. I went out for a late afternoon paddle too, the water was like glass and so crystal clear you could see down into that enchanting world of fish and sea creatures. These beaches are shallow for quite a ways out so much sea life was visible.
No cell service here or internet unless you carry your own satellite. Already being 800 lbs overweight that’s one essential item we do not carry! Sometimes there is someone who has an open WiFi we can hook into but this year, with all the changes on the beach, there was no one. However, Lorne found one over in the little village we had visited by kayak, and with his handy dandy new USB WiFi adaptor we were able to pirate into Jim’s satellite service if we walked way down to the end of beach where we had a clear site line over to the village. If we had brought a headset the signal was strong enough to use Skype. Thank you Jim whoever you are!
There have been many changes on this beach this year. For years gringos have enjoyed the freedom to build little beach front grass houses and last year there were many lining the shore, including some not so little, very elaborate two story ones complete with air conditioning. These houses were framed with wood and the walls were made of a grass or palm matting. They had to pay the Ejido a nominal fee, something like $10 per day for the pleasure. This year they were given notice they had to remove their houses and move off the beach as of the end of January. There were many sad people who were busy packing up their belongings and tearing down their houses to rebuild them at other beaches near by. Rays restaurant, also a palapa style building – sand floor, grass mat walls and palm palapa roof was burnt to the ground, rumour has it the Ejido offered to let him stay if he paid. He refused to pay and it is suspected that they played a hand in this fire while Ray was away on the mainland over Christmas. But, who knows, there are many stories in Baja and many mysteries yet unsolved.
There are three permanent houses built way down at the end of the beach. These are quite beautiful stone and adobe houses with elaborate stone walls around them. Apparently they were offered to buy the approximately ½ acre their houses are on for $120 thousand. This, in our opinion, is a reasonable price as these beautiful homes are worth at least ½ million or more. One family agreed to this and the other still has not! They are trying to sell the house at the moment. Interested? You might get a real deal! It will be interesting to see what happens to this beach in the future. There is much speculation as to what the Ejido have planned for it.
(written Friday January 26, 2007)
Ahh, kayaking – I think we have found a wonderful sport! I’m a born-again-kayaker! We were a bit discouraged when we first arrived as Santispac had a very brisk offshore wind. The next day was better and we enjoyed a short few hours on the water, however it was quite windy returning to shore, requiring a bit of muscle to paddle in. It felt a bit choppy too, on this our maiden paddle. My little mystic is wonderful; it is quite narrow and has a small cockpit but sits very comfortably for me. It does feel pretty tippy but I think I will get used to it quite quickly. I didn’t have any trouble keeping up to Lorne, in fact it was the reverse!, especially when I was using his much bigger paddle! Ha ha! I do like to zip along! Lorne is happy with his kayak but I would not be surprised if we buy another one for him fairly soon. Not sure yet what one it would be, have to do some more research.
Thursday was beautiful! We paddled for the whole morning and paddled over to another little gringo village on the beach just south of Santispac (complete with tennis court). (Posada Concepcion or Bahia Tordillo) This whole area has a lot of hot seeps and this village has made several attractive stone surrounds to make pools so you can sit in them. There is a large one right in the center of the village and several small ones along the shore. Santispac has its own little muddy hot spring that doesn’t look that appealing to me but our neighbors enjoyed it when the tide was high.
There was just a light off shore breeze which of course picks up as the morning wears on, so the trip home took a little more effort than going out. I went out for a late afternoon paddle too, the water was like glass and so crystal clear you could see down into that enchanting world of fish and sea creatures. These beaches are shallow for quite a ways out so much sea life was visible.
No cell service here or internet unless you carry your own satellite. Already being 800 lbs overweight that’s one essential item we do not carry! Sometimes there is someone who has an open WiFi we can hook into but this year, with all the changes on the beach, there was no one. However, Lorne found one over in the little village we had visited by kayak, and with his handy dandy new USB WiFi adaptor we were able to pirate into Jim’s satellite service if we walked way down to the end of beach where we had a clear site line over to the village. If we had brought a headset the signal was strong enough to use Skype. Thank you Jim whoever you are!
There have been many changes on this beach this year. For years gringos have enjoyed the freedom to build little beach front grass houses and last year there were many lining the shore, including some not so little, very elaborate two story ones complete with air conditioning. These houses were framed with wood and the walls were made of a grass or palm matting. They had to pay the Ejido a nominal fee, something like $10 per day for the pleasure. This year they were given notice they had to remove their houses and move off the beach as of the end of January. There were many sad people who were busy packing up their belongings and tearing down their houses to rebuild them at other beaches near by. Rays restaurant, also a palapa style building – sand floor, grass mat walls and palm palapa roof was burnt to the ground, rumour has it the Ejido offered to let him stay if he paid. He refused to pay and it is suspected that they played a hand in this fire while Ray was away on the mainland over Christmas. But, who knows, there are many stories in Baja and many mysteries yet unsolved.
There are three permanent houses built way down at the end of the beach. These are quite beautiful stone and adobe houses with elaborate stone walls around them. Apparently they were offered to buy the approximately ½ acre their houses are on for $120 thousand. This, in our opinion, is a reasonable price as these beautiful homes are worth at least ½ million or more. One family agreed to this and the other still has not! They are trying to sell the house at the moment. Interested? You might get a real deal! It will be interesting to see what happens to this beach in the future. There is much speculation as to what the Ejido have planned for it.
Monday, January 22, 2007
More Pics.
Oh yes, I remember this road! Overlooking Bahia de Los Angeles, yes it is beautiful. Cactus forest, mostly datillilo and cardon.
Hopefully some warmth . . .
Here are some of the camerone at the Black Market in Ensenada. There were several booths with piles of various sizes.
See the snow we left behind? This is our RV site outside Mercy Hospital in Roseburg southern Oregon. Notice my Mystic (kayak) on the roof, Lorne's is on the other side.
I tried to post some pictures to the blog yesterday but no luck, as the connection was so slow. Better tonight, although it does take some time.
Well, so much for Bahia de Los Angeles. Nothing but wind, and very cold. Not as windy as it could be but too much for us to make our maiden kayak voyage. The problem was the wind was mostly blowing off shore and during the course of the day it just gets stronger, not less. If I have to struggle with wind I really would prefer to fight going out rather than struggle coming back in. And since we have only paddled in a pool…..
So we are on our way to Guerro Negro where they will take away all our fruits and vegetables at the agricultural inspection station north of town. We can buy new ones in town. We will stay the night and tomorrow make our way to San Lucas Cove and our next chance to get in the water. Hopefully we will see our old friend John there.
They have made some real headway on running the telephone wires up Baja; they are now almost at the turn off for Bahia de Los Angeles, or at least the poles are, and the wires are on their way. We passed a work crew of about 10 guys, two to each pole, one to climb up and the other to help sort out the wires and ropes the other guy was carrying up. No cherry pickers for these guys; and no harnesses or spurs either. They had to shinny up the pole using a heavy rope fashioned into a double loop. I was truly too stunned to take a picture! More than a bit scary – our friend Lois would have been impressed – she could have shown them a thing or two I am sure.
A great deal of the coastal agave is in bloom along this route. The desert changes frequently; from Bahia de Los Angeles it was predominately boojum, then for quite awhile it was elephant trees together with yucca, along with the boojum; then it turned to predominately datilillo (tree yucca). This is a most useful tree – according to the Baja California Plant Field Guide: A tea from the flower buds is used to treat diabetes and rheumatism. The buds can be eaten like bananas. The flowers are cooked and ground for candy, the rootstock is used for soap and softening cowhides. The fibers are used to make sandals. The stalk is shredded for mattress material. The trunk is often used by ranchers as a living fence around a home garden or corral. Much of the barbed wire fences along here use the datillo, apparently you can just cut off a piece of it dig it in like a post, and it will usually reroot itself. The black ripened fruits were harvested and eaten by the natives after boiling or roasting.
Lorne’s cold is still hanging on. Now it is in his larynx and he sounds very croaky. He is eating Baja honey.
I tried posting a number of pictures last time but our internet speed was so slow it just didn’t work, hopefully we have a faster link tonight. It varies, I forgot about that…
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Into Mexico January 18
We crossed at Tecate without seeing anyone at the inspection booth, however, we got the green light so drove on through. Drove around and around looking for a parking place so we could go back to the border and get our Visa. Our usual method getting it ahead of time through Vagabundos (Mexico RV club) didn’t work this year for some unknown reason so we needed to get them ourselves at the border. Only trouble was no one was home. Really, no one knew where the Immigration guy was (or more importantly when he would be back). We were directed to Tijuana or Mexicalie but they said we could get them at Ensenada so we continued on our way. Turned out we had to pay a $7 fine and it took at least an hour, have to go one place to buy the forms (in triplicate), another to get the form stamped, over to the bank to pay and get another stamp, back to Immigration to get another form filed out and get them all stamped and to pay our fine. Oh my! Next year they tell us, we will not be able to get a Visa in Ensenada, it must be at the border.
Onward to the Black Market (that is the name of the Fish Market) on the Malecon to pick up some #1 camerone, about 4” long without the heads on (1kg for $14) and some beautiful crab claws (2 kg $10). I’m sure others dicker to get a better price but we were so thrilled to have it that we didn’t bother and paid what they asked. The crab looks a lot like the stone crab from Florida but its not the same, don’t know what kind it is, certainly not Dungeness. A great dinner! We love Mexico! And Ensenada is a great city.
Down the highway we motored and turned in at Las Canadas Campamento – a beautiful park with three swimming pools, water slides, mountain bike trails, fishing and boating lake and lots more. We were the only ones there – I think they cater to Mexicans in the summer time. They were very pleasant.
Tonight we are in El Rosario and off to the internet café, which was closed!
January 20, 2007
Onward to Santa Inis and Bahia de Los Angeles today– at last some water to get the kayaks in! I can hardly wait! Hope for no wind! It can really blow there, sometimes for weeks at a time. They also have an internet café within cycling distance of where we camped last year at the turtle beach.
This is a very twisty road and much of it on the ridges of the high hills. Lorne the engineer is busy redesigning the road as we drive along. I am trying hard not to look at it, paying attention to the cactus and the terrain is enough for me. Lorne is not fond of my gasping as the wheels practically go off the road – particularly when we meet an oncoming semi.
This is the area of huge cardon cactus and the tall strange blooming boojum (cirio) trees. In spite of all the rain we heard the Baja had this year the desert looks quite dry and not as green as last year. So far the roads are no worse than last year. This is quite extreme desert, far from any major town, there are occasional small pueblos and ranches. It’s a puzzle what the people do here to survive. There doesn’t appear to be any veg. gardening going on and not many cattle around.
The further we drive along the road gets somewhat straighter and less extreme up and down; the cardon and boojum grow taller and thicker and stretch on for miles in all directions, and the larger and more numerous the boulders become; until they are as big our motor home. It is a very strange and beautiful area called the Catavina Boulder Field.
Once a bit south of Catavina the boulders thin out and the desert is much more desolate. This section of the road has a yellow line, not in the center of the road but a yellow line none the less. Have I mentioned that the lanes are 9 ½ feet wide and the motor home is 8 ½ feet wide? On the Baja And there are no shoulders, there are more consistently white lines on the edge of the road that our first trip down two years ago, but truly that is where the road ends. Usually dropping off to a sheer cliff that is frequently decorated with the skeletal remains of a vehicle below. It could be that the height and width of our motor home makes this road much more scary than it would be in a small car. Lorne is getting so casual at driving he drives along with one hand on the steering wheel and the other with a glass a coke, and this is gong around corners with a semi coming at us. I try not to look/gasp/shriek for fear of distracting him…..
Heading for Bahia de Los Angeles, great road barely any traffic (one car passed us), mostly flat and straight comparatively. Lots of diverse vegetation, boojum, datilillo, ocotillo, some blooming its orange flowers, cholla, elephant trees, cardon cactus, brittle bush blooming its daisy like yellow flowers, lots of the agave is flowering. There was one section where the boojum were covered with ball moss (gallito). It is a flowering plant related to the pineapple family.
There was a group of turkey vultures feasting on a dead cow. As we drove by the all flew up and away except for...Ooops, we came very close to having a turkey vulture on the windshield!! Yuk – that would be quite disgusting!
Arrived at Bahia de Los Angeles. Now, if only the wind would stop blowing we could make our maiden voyage in our new kayaks!
Onward to the Black Market (that is the name of the Fish Market) on the Malecon to pick up some #1 camerone, about 4” long without the heads on (1kg for $14) and some beautiful crab claws (2 kg $10). I’m sure others dicker to get a better price but we were so thrilled to have it that we didn’t bother and paid what they asked. The crab looks a lot like the stone crab from Florida but its not the same, don’t know what kind it is, certainly not Dungeness. A great dinner! We love Mexico! And Ensenada is a great city.
Down the highway we motored and turned in at Las Canadas Campamento – a beautiful park with three swimming pools, water slides, mountain bike trails, fishing and boating lake and lots more. We were the only ones there – I think they cater to Mexicans in the summer time. They were very pleasant.
Tonight we are in El Rosario and off to the internet café, which was closed!
January 20, 2007
Onward to Santa Inis and Bahia de Los Angeles today– at last some water to get the kayaks in! I can hardly wait! Hope for no wind! It can really blow there, sometimes for weeks at a time. They also have an internet café within cycling distance of where we camped last year at the turtle beach.
This is a very twisty road and much of it on the ridges of the high hills. Lorne the engineer is busy redesigning the road as we drive along. I am trying hard not to look at it, paying attention to the cactus and the terrain is enough for me. Lorne is not fond of my gasping as the wheels practically go off the road – particularly when we meet an oncoming semi.
This is the area of huge cardon cactus and the tall strange blooming boojum (cirio) trees. In spite of all the rain we heard the Baja had this year the desert looks quite dry and not as green as last year. So far the roads are no worse than last year. This is quite extreme desert, far from any major town, there are occasional small pueblos and ranches. It’s a puzzle what the people do here to survive. There doesn’t appear to be any veg. gardening going on and not many cattle around.
The further we drive along the road gets somewhat straighter and less extreme up and down; the cardon and boojum grow taller and thicker and stretch on for miles in all directions, and the larger and more numerous the boulders become; until they are as big our motor home. It is a very strange and beautiful area called the Catavina Boulder Field.
Once a bit south of Catavina the boulders thin out and the desert is much more desolate. This section of the road has a yellow line, not in the center of the road but a yellow line none the less. Have I mentioned that the lanes are 9 ½ feet wide and the motor home is 8 ½ feet wide? On the Baja And there are no shoulders, there are more consistently white lines on the edge of the road that our first trip down two years ago, but truly that is where the road ends. Usually dropping off to a sheer cliff that is frequently decorated with the skeletal remains of a vehicle below. It could be that the height and width of our motor home makes this road much more scary than it would be in a small car. Lorne is getting so casual at driving he drives along with one hand on the steering wheel and the other with a glass a coke, and this is gong around corners with a semi coming at us. I try not to look/gasp/shriek for fear of distracting him…..
Heading for Bahia de Los Angeles, great road barely any traffic (one car passed us), mostly flat and straight comparatively. Lots of diverse vegetation, boojum, datilillo, ocotillo, some blooming its orange flowers, cholla, elephant trees, cardon cactus, brittle bush blooming its daisy like yellow flowers, lots of the agave is flowering. There was one section where the boojum were covered with ball moss (gallito). It is a flowering plant related to the pineapple family.
There was a group of turkey vultures feasting on a dead cow. As we drove by the all flew up and away except for...Ooops, we came very close to having a turkey vulture on the windshield!! Yuk – that would be quite disgusting!
Arrived at Bahia de Los Angeles. Now, if only the wind would stop blowing we could make our maiden voyage in our new kayaks!
Snow
Here we are in snowy Roseburg (southern Oregon
) in our RV spot outside Mercy Hospital. Note my new kayak! Lorne's is on the other side.
) in our RV spot outside Mercy Hospital. Note my new kayak! Lorne's is on the other side.
Two Breakdowns Later
Taking the coast road was beautiful, especially the redwood forest we passed through (mostly when it was dark). The local cappuccino was almost as good as Jim’s. Timewise it saved us none and cost us more but at least we were not driving through a blizzard. Much of the road was twisty so slow going. Oh well. We will get there when we get there. Our master mechanic Miguel in Uplands (a city that seems to be part of Los Angeles) is scheduled to go to a big GMC rally in Quartzite on Monday the 15th so he wanted us to arrive on Friday the 12th. It will be the 12th but just barely at this rate!
As we were zipping merrily up the Grapevine – 4 lanes of heavy traffic (in one direction) all going at least 120 km/hr (and that is the speed limit) and climbing at least 4,000 feet; we were congratulating ourselves on how well the motor home has been running! – ohhhh yes, we know that is a mistake, especially going up a steep grade at 11:00 at night. Suddenly the motor started belching smoke into the cab releasing a horrible stench – I start shouting directions – we pull over to the side of the road onto the narrow shoulder – and :
a) we both leap out
b) only I leap out while Lorne sticks his head into the motor inside the motor home
Oh yes and what would you pick? What do you think happened? The answer dear friends is b. Truly! There is an access to the motor between the driver’s and the passenger’s seats and he had opened this up and had stuck his head right in there! Meanwhile this smoke and stench was filling the motor home. I was thinking - What is he? - nuts? I thought we were on fire and was waiting for it to blow up like in the movies.
He mutters something like – It’s steam… It smelled like smoke to me and was certainly black!
Did I mention it was very cold? Winter coat cold! After trying a number of things in the freezing cold that didn’t work we managed to pull the motor home over to a side road that we were lucky enough to be close to and spent the night. Of course in the morning Lorne knew exactly what was wrong and fixed it. It was the thermostat – it had stuck shut so the motor overheated – he took it out so the water could circulate.
A thermostat for the GMC is a $6 item so it was easily replaced once we got to Miguel’s the next morning.
Miguel worked tirelessly and by Monday we were on our way – that is until we were about 20 km down the road at a Walmart parking lot picking up last supplies before Mexico. Lorne went to start up and it would not go. Miguel had left already for the rally but we called him on his cell to get a recommendation of where to get help and he sent his son who arrived in about 15 minutes! It turned out to be the starter so we now have a new starter too.
So while it was bad luck to have these breakdowns at all it was very good luck that they were so easily fixed; were close to Miguel; and they did not occur in some remote area in the Baja. So – now we are truly on our way.
As we were zipping merrily up the Grapevine – 4 lanes of heavy traffic (in one direction) all going at least 120 km/hr (and that is the speed limit) and climbing at least 4,000 feet; we were congratulating ourselves on how well the motor home has been running! – ohhhh yes, we know that is a mistake, especially going up a steep grade at 11:00 at night. Suddenly the motor started belching smoke into the cab releasing a horrible stench – I start shouting directions – we pull over to the side of the road onto the narrow shoulder – and :
a) we both leap out
b) only I leap out while Lorne sticks his head into the motor inside the motor home
Oh yes and what would you pick? What do you think happened? The answer dear friends is b. Truly! There is an access to the motor between the driver’s and the passenger’s seats and he had opened this up and had stuck his head right in there! Meanwhile this smoke and stench was filling the motor home. I was thinking - What is he? - nuts? I thought we were on fire and was waiting for it to blow up like in the movies.
He mutters something like – It’s steam… It smelled like smoke to me and was certainly black!
Did I mention it was very cold? Winter coat cold! After trying a number of things in the freezing cold that didn’t work we managed to pull the motor home over to a side road that we were lucky enough to be close to and spent the night. Of course in the morning Lorne knew exactly what was wrong and fixed it. It was the thermostat – it had stuck shut so the motor overheated – he took it out so the water could circulate.
A thermostat for the GMC is a $6 item so it was easily replaced once we got to Miguel’s the next morning.
Miguel worked tirelessly and by Monday we were on our way – that is until we were about 20 km down the road at a Walmart parking lot picking up last supplies before Mexico. Lorne went to start up and it would not go. Miguel had left already for the rally but we called him on his cell to get a recommendation of where to get help and he sent his son who arrived in about 15 minutes! It turned out to be the starter so we now have a new starter too.
So while it was bad luck to have these breakdowns at all it was very good luck that they were so easily fixed; were close to Miguel; and they did not occur in some remote area in the Baja. So – now we are truly on our way.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Meanwhile back at home . . .
As I said previously the propane generator broke Monday night when Lorne was changing the oil. He took the head off and Bruce (our generator mechanic) picked it up the day we left – he will return it fixed, hopefully very soon. The night we left (Tuesday) about a foot of snow fell so Natasha had a challenge ahead of her getting to and from work. Relying on the gas generator till Bruce returns to fix the generator, she only had one or two tanks of gas and would have to pick up more at the gas station and hopefully be able to get the car up the hill to transport the needed gas. Hauling it up the hill is a daunting task!
Needless to say, when she returned from work the power was down – ie off – so it didn’t get charged up enough. She had to get the generator running, restart the power to the house and charge up the batteries, even though she charged it for a good length of time, the house went down again. Meanwhile more snow fell making it even more difficult for her to get up and down. She had to walk up and down so she could get to work, that’s two km of steep walking, and slippery and cold. Putting the chains (real ones) on the car is difficult and time consuming at best. So, we are currently worrying about her, hoping she has managed to get safely up and down, get the needed gasoline for the generator, get the batteries charged up and above all she is safe and warm. We have no cell service on this road and were unable to reach her this morning from a land line. So much for Natasha enjoying some time in our home – nothing but work and inconvenience for her so far! Plus she (and we) have the worry of our house freezing with the power going down resulting in serious damage to the heating/plumbing system. Sorry about all this Natasha! The joys of having an off-the-grid house!
Needless to say, when she returned from work the power was down – ie off – so it didn’t get charged up enough. She had to get the generator running, restart the power to the house and charge up the batteries, even though she charged it for a good length of time, the house went down again. Meanwhile more snow fell making it even more difficult for her to get up and down. She had to walk up and down so she could get to work, that’s two km of steep walking, and slippery and cold. Putting the chains (real ones) on the car is difficult and time consuming at best. So, we are currently worrying about her, hoping she has managed to get safely up and down, get the needed gasoline for the generator, get the batteries charged up and above all she is safe and warm. We have no cell service on this road and were unable to reach her this morning from a land line. So much for Natasha enjoying some time in our home – nothing but work and inconvenience for her so far! Plus she (and we) have the worry of our house freezing with the power going down resulting in serious damage to the heating/plumbing system. Sorry about all this Natasha! The joys of having an off-the-grid house!
The Butter Hasn't Melted Yet
January 11 we are on our way across 42 from Roseberg (southern Oregon) to the Coast. The snow caught up with us so at the recommendation of the locals we decided not to risk the passes and head for the coast where hopefully, it will be warmer and less likely to have black ice and snow.
We had a great nights sleep in the parking lot of the Alder Creek Kayak store (on an island in the middle of the Columbia River outside Portland, under the flight path of the Portland airport and yes, somewhere nearby was a train). Yesterday morning we picked up my beautiful new kayak – an Impex Mystic from Alder Creek in Portland. We got a great deal on it and I am very happy. It’s a Canadian made boat and I got a better deal in the US than I could in Canada – partly because it was a demo (used once they say) so has a few marks on the hull. It fits me perfectly, can’t wait to get it on the water! A bit chilly to kayak here tho without the proper gear. We spent about an hour in the store purchasing all the necessary paraphernalia for kayaking on the Baja. Brian, from Alder Creek Kayaks was a great help and I think we are good to go – once we get further south. He had many great suggestions and was an all-round good guy.
With a late start we headed south only to have me develop severe pain in my right leg while driving. It was so severe that we stopped at the hospital in Roseberg to ensure it wasn’t a blood clot. They were fabulous to us; and no, thankfully it wasn’t a blood clot – likely muscular skeletal, so I will have to take more care with getting up, walking, and stretching during this trip. They provided travel advice and insisted that we drive no further due to the snow and black ice conditions on the I-5 passes, and to consider going over to the coast the next day after it warmed up a bit. They also provided us with free RV parking complete with plug-ins! In the morning they insisted on checking the road reports for us and provided the same advice – head for the coast! So, here we are. As we near the coast the sky is turning blue and the snow on the ground is much lighter, so hopefully we can pick up some time.
We had some very sad news, our friend Kenyan, husband of my dear friend Jayne, has passed away. In spite of all his efforts and those of his doctors his cancer returned for the third time and this time it took him away. He was only 48 years of age and Jayne and he were so very happy together.
We had a great nights sleep in the parking lot of the Alder Creek Kayak store (on an island in the middle of the Columbia River outside Portland, under the flight path of the Portland airport and yes, somewhere nearby was a train). Yesterday morning we picked up my beautiful new kayak – an Impex Mystic from Alder Creek in Portland. We got a great deal on it and I am very happy. It’s a Canadian made boat and I got a better deal in the US than I could in Canada – partly because it was a demo (used once they say) so has a few marks on the hull. It fits me perfectly, can’t wait to get it on the water! A bit chilly to kayak here tho without the proper gear. We spent about an hour in the store purchasing all the necessary paraphernalia for kayaking on the Baja. Brian, from Alder Creek Kayaks was a great help and I think we are good to go – once we get further south. He had many great suggestions and was an all-round good guy.
With a late start we headed south only to have me develop severe pain in my right leg while driving. It was so severe that we stopped at the hospital in Roseberg to ensure it wasn’t a blood clot. They were fabulous to us; and no, thankfully it wasn’t a blood clot – likely muscular skeletal, so I will have to take more care with getting up, walking, and stretching during this trip. They provided travel advice and insisted that we drive no further due to the snow and black ice conditions on the I-5 passes, and to consider going over to the coast the next day after it warmed up a bit. They also provided us with free RV parking complete with plug-ins! In the morning they insisted on checking the road reports for us and provided the same advice – head for the coast! So, here we are. As we near the coast the sky is turning blue and the snow on the ground is much lighter, so hopefully we can pick up some time.
We had some very sad news, our friend Kenyan, husband of my dear friend Jayne, has passed away. In spite of all his efforts and those of his doctors his cancer returned for the third time and this time it took him away. He was only 48 years of age and Jayne and he were so very happy together.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
We're Off! January 9, 2007
This first picture on the left is a view of our driveway going down the hill, the picture on the top right is a view of our house from thedriveway, the bottom left is what happened to just part of the grove of trees near our house with our much increased view of the harbour in the distance. We were lucky.
In our predictable fashion we left only about 24 hours behind our idealized schedule with (hopefully) nothing left undone. With the motor home stuffed with heaping boxes of unrelated and highly necessary stuff - we rushed off for the 11:00 am ferry, only to arrive at 11:08….. So, we had breakfast in the parking lot, sorted out the inside somewhat and caught the 1:00 ferry. Such a crossing! Much wind; waves sloshing on deck, as we lurched about in the dark caverns of the deepest part of the ferry, sandwiched tightly between the wall and huge tanker trucks with inches to spare. I had several rushes of claustrophobia trying to find navigate between these huge trucks to get upstairs and down. We will be in Portland to sleep tonight as we travel south trying to get ahead of this storm.
In our predictable fashion we left only about 24 hours behind our idealized schedule with (hopefully) nothing left undone. With the motor home stuffed with heaping boxes of unrelated and highly necessary stuff - we rushed off for the 11:00 am ferry, only to arrive at 11:08….. So, we had breakfast in the parking lot, sorted out the inside somewhat and caught the 1:00 ferry. Such a crossing! Much wind; waves sloshing on deck, as we lurched about in the dark caverns of the deepest part of the ferry, sandwiched tightly between the wall and huge tanker trucks with inches to spare. I had several rushes of claustrophobia trying to find navigate between these huge trucks to get upstairs and down. We will be in Portland to sleep tonight as we travel south trying to get ahead of this storm.
Lorne arrived home late Sunday night – I had been entrusted with getting us all packed and ready to go – except for Lorne’s personal things and his idea of necessary items for the motor home (bits of rope and rubber and metal things much of them greasy and dirty and taking up a lot of space – the price one pays for being married to a handy guy!). So we were ready. All that was left to do was put all the extra stuff away into the nooks and crannies of the motor home that I can’t get to - like the handy storage under the bed – one day we will install those hydraulic lifters so I can lift the bed up to access these storage areas myself, and making it a one person job. Then there was Lorne’s last minute to do things and to pack the fridge….. Well – he had to fall a very large tree that had been threatening to topple over since the big wind storm. Then he had to replace the thermostat for the furnace, change the oil in the generator – oops it broke – so then he had to take the head off and the back-up gasoline generator had to be put into action.
Oh yes, I am responsible for the bike maintenance – Lorne’s chain needed serious attention having commandeered some rust – so thinking there surely must be some great new product on the market – I chose to consult with none other than a Wal-Mart guy who recommended WD40 – now I know better than to use that so I got a second opinion from a Canadian Tire guy who with absolute certainty assured me that he had just the stuff for me. Well – when will I ever learn that guys don’t necessarily have more expertise than me when it comes to bikes and that there really are no short cuts. Both chains are now a HUGE mess. The stuff I put on is like heavy duty lube with the consistency of slug goop – a cloth sticks to it and when you try to pull it off the goop clings to the cloth somewhat like very thick sticky chewing gum. Oh oh dear. With no more time to spend on the bikes we strap them on and hope that the rain and snow we go through on the highway will somehow “melt” this stuff off.
It’s sort of been like this for the past month or so . . . Broken hot water tank, tank replaced on warranty with a malfunctioning thermostat requiring three call backs by the repair guy – the water heater replaced on warranty cost us $700 – for labor and shipping, the tank was free but nothing else was! A huge tree fell down on our water line down the mountain, taking Lorne more than a day to find the spot and fix it in the pouring rain and not much in the cistern until he was able to do that. Then there was the snow which kept us trapped at home for a week, then the devastating wind storm that bombed so many of our beautiful trees. (see pictures above)
It has been quite the winter so far. Hopefully we are leaving all the problems behind us as we wheel down the highway for our third year on the Baja. This time with two kayaks strapped to the roof, well one so far, we pick up mine in Portland.
Monday, January 1, 2007
And the wind blew and blew . . . .
Whew! You may have heard that we have had hurricane force winds here on the West Coast. Well it is true – they were as high as 100 – 150 km/hour. They were certainly the highest winds we have ever experienced. With windows the size of ours and no curtains I lay in bed watching the huge trees swinging around till I couldn’t stand it any longer and about 2:30 am we moved downstairs to sleep on the floor next to the stone fireplace. We had the grandbabies over so we moved them onto a mattress on the floor next to the fireplace too, well away from any windows. The wind howled and screamed all night. Needless to say while the children slept on undisturbed I didn’t sleep at all, and Lorne had a short nap. I was busy planning what we would do if one of the windows blew in or a tree came down on the house. Of course the kids were up at the crack of dawn – yawn.
The devastation outside was shocking. We were so fortunate that no trees hit our house or vehicles or the cabin, although some came very close! The tree with the lightning rod on it next to the big deck snapped in half, falling about 2 feet from the generator shed. One tree fell directly in front of one of our cars yet it remained undamaged. Branches big and small carpeted all the decks and the roofs. The roadway was completely green with branches and needles and huge trees.
Speaking of the road – there were 6 very large Douglas firs and Lodge Pole pine across the driveway right in front of the house. Once Lorne cut these away and we cleared them off the road so we could drive down the first part of the hill we rounded the corner to find another 5 trees on the next part of the hill! Two of these had fallen down in the middle of the roadway so he had to cut all the branches, carry them off the road AND buck up the trees before we could move the car down any further.
It was at this point that the grandbabies lost interest in hauling branches. At age 2 and 4 they did very well to have lasted that long. So while the kids and I trundled back to the warmth of the house, Lorne continued cutting trees off the road until past dark, by the headlights of the car! This only brought us down the first km of our road and the next km which is shared with our neighbors was also covered with trees down on their power lines. They were very busy for days clearing these trees off. The snow from the previous week had knocked several trees down and they had just had their power and telephone restored. This wind damage was very discouraging and an expensive proposition for them as they have about 2 km of power poles that they are responsible for.
We are very glad that we are off the grid!
Lorne has been busy every day since the storm cleaning up the debris. I have been helping too, as has Mike and Kate, and our friends Ian and Debi. We are very concerned about fire with all the trees down in the forest around us. As Lorne says, it looks like a bomb has gone off the way so many trees have fallen. We are not talking about small trees either! Some of them are so big around that both of us together can’t put our arms around their trunks. We used to have a thick forest view, now we can see right through the trees to the hills and water beyond.
We have done as much as we can for now, the rest will have to wait till we return from Mexico in the spring. We plan on leaving the 8th, 9th or 10th of January, after Lorne returns from helping his dad move into a seniors’ center. Hopefully this blog will work for my travel journal. Looking forward to receiving some feedback from you dear readers……
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