Random vignettes into the adventure so far…
03/01/2021 – holy cow! It’s next year already… speaking of cows…
Do you remember me telling you about the local cows? To recap, all through Baja cattle are free range. They wander on the highways (that’s why people say don’t drive at night), they meander through town, and they hang out at the beach. One of the top 3 rules of having a house in Baja – DON’T LEAVE THE GATE OPEN.
So…2 nights before we were supposed to leave for our road trip Eric got up at 5ish to go to the bathroom, woke me up so I went to the bathroom. We both go back to bed. Eric falls asleep, I’m drifting off and my brain says “what’s that noise”…then it says “that’s a cow bell…a really close cow bell”…😳 I go check and sure enough…left the gate open.
“Eric…Eric…wake up, the cows are in the yard”…😴 went to 🤯 instantly and off we raced to save what we could of the landscaping…turns out not much. Cows that are used to living on cactus were delighted to find baby palm trees, bougainvilleai and other recently planted delicacies. After we cleaned up the cow poop we surveyed the damage…hopefully most will recover 🤷♀️
Our trip up north has been too short (we wanted to see more folks, spend more time) and too long. Traveling during a COVID surge, even when you’re pretty limited in where you go/what you do is unsettling! We’re sorry to be saying “see you soon” but absolutely looking forward to getting back to our bovine neighbors LOL.
Happy New Year…have you started planning your trip yet? ❤
14/12/2020 – wow, where does the time go!
Eric’s foot has healed, finally…as many of you know – shortly after the Orca day we had a glass blender jar smash in the kitchen and by a fluke it flipped up and sliced Eric’s foot badly. So – we now know where the medical clinic is in town, and they do stitches 🤦♀️
10 stitches and and 2.5 weeks of recuperation and we’re mobile again. We went golfing on 12/8, turns out that 4 weeks off it just what I needed – I was even willing to let Eric scorekeep!
Our local adventures have been pretty minimal due to both of us being benched, and now it’s time to get organized to drive north for Christmas.
But – just to make sure you know we are truly living at the beach – here’s a little video of a beach bar we found that is a 5 minute ebike ride from the house! Eric can learn to kite there, and I can “watch his stuff” while I subbath, read my book and sample the margaritas…poor me 😜
Here’s the video – time to start planning your trip ❤
26/11/2020 – yes, Mexico, like most of the world, uses DD/MM/YYYY format 🙂
Hmm, where to start!
I got “home” on 10/25, after I had been in “LA” finishing work. People keep asking if I miss work – I definitely miss the people. Even though we were all working remotely I had Skype and corporate messaging tools that made it really easy to pop little notes back and forth from time to time. I’d say the other thing I miss is a sense of routine/rhythm.
It seems like we’re either racing from activity to activity or doing chores at home – for folks who think retirement is like being on vacation every day – it’s not, at least not so far, although I think we may get there?!?! but that’s not what you want to hear, you want to know about the adventures!
First off – golf! Eric found an excellent local golf course. Paraiso del Mar is right in La Paz, pretty reasonably priced and now that we know about the people ferry from the La Paz Marina – it’s really easy to get to. (Eric doesn’t recommend driving the back way on the dirt road 😀 – that was while I was still up north so I was able to miss out on that “adventure” )
This course is beautiful, which makes the 1-2 balls lost per hole a little less painful – ha! I’m sure you won’t lose that many, we’re beginners…but just in case, I can tell you where to order an onion bag of reconditioned balls, and will you bring me some? 😛
We’ve started taking Spanish lessons…4 classes so far…it may take a little longer than we’d hoped LOL. Luckily we have a very patient teacher!
By the way – did you know that a “d” at the end of a word is usually a “th” sound! Now people saying “saluth” when they say “cheers” makes way more sense 😀 I was always so confused ’cause it’s spelled “salud”. I figured there was something I wasn’t getting…it’s like Siobhán – I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that way to pronounce that name is Shivon…beautiful name, it just trips out my ultra-literal brain.
Scorpions…turns out, I’m reasonably allergic. I was stung on the foot a couple of weeks ago (yes, I accidentally kicked a scorpion, and it objected – STRONGLY) and for the first 10 minutes or so I thought – “okay, this really hurts, but it’s not as bad as I thought it might be…wait…why are my hands and facing tingling / going numb?!?!?”. Within an hour pretty much whole body was in full revolt – numb/tingling (I’ve read some folks says it’s like small electric shocks…yeah, not painful, but definitely an odd feeling) and some other stuff lead me to learn I have an anaphylactic reaction to scorpions. Good news is I’ve also learned that anaphylactic shock (shut down airway, epipen reaction) is a more extreme reaction and so hoping I won’t kick any more scorpions and we’ll keep the epipen in it’s package…on the bright side, I’d been really freaked out about what a sting would be like, now I know, it’s freaky, but managable.
Orcas! We were invited out with friends recently on their boat and while we were heading in for the day we saw an orca in the bay – how cool! We hung out for a bit watching it but it wasn’t that interested in us. On the other hand…
Dolphins! Coming back from golf one day the little channel had a large pod having lunch and they all played with us for about 15 minutes…the ferry ride is 5 but the captain took the long way so we could cruise with them. Pretty cool, smallest boat I’ve been on when encountering dolphins.No pictures of any of this stuff – I’m afraid I’ll drop my phone/camera in the drink! Learning how to use the GoPro is on the list.
Paddle boarding!! We’ve been twice now, I really love it. The water is still about (85°F – 29°C) and it’s been super clear so I can see all the little fish, coral, etc… Eric’s popping right up and doing the stand-up part of paddleboarding. I’m taking a more “Zen” approach, mine is often crossed-legged sit-down LOL. One day the desire to stand-up with the other kids will outweigh the phobic instinct to never do anything that could lead to being plunged into water…
Car shopping 😐 The good news, the price is the price so no haggling, no being locked in a room while they up sell you stuff. Unusual news – you don’t text drive the specific car you’re interested in buying. You drive a demo – not great for me, I need to be able to make sure the seats will be okay for my back…oh well 🤷♀️ I think we’re going to buy a used cat and drive it down. Can’t import it but that’s okay, as long as I only drive it in Baja and Sonora is okay.
We’re deep frying a turkey today! We were able to find all the staples – including cranberry sauce (well, jelly, but it will do).K, posting this now because it’s been in progress for 2 weeks, I just keep changing the date 😬🤓🙄 I’ll add more pics later.
Happy Thanksgiving – 🍁🍽🦃 We miss you 😘
Wisdom of Friends 