Falling in Love!

Well, so much for the plan to spend 2 nights at Los Barriles, 2 nights at Santiago, and 2 nights at Todos Santos! We now plan to spend all 6 nights here at Los Barriles instead. We’ve learned we can make day-trips from here to do the hike at Santiago we’re interested in, as well as a day-trip to Todos Santos (which we’re told will remind us of a very small Sedona, AZ or Taos or Santa Fe, NM). So tomorrow we plan to make a day-trip to Los Cabos (Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo – a 90-minute drive) to try to get Bob a provisional Mexican drivers license, stock up on some provisions at Costco, and buy a headset, and possibly take a boat trip to the famous arch for which Cabos San Lucas is famous. Bob arranged a Skype account for us today, but we don’t own a headset, so borrowed Jim/Jan’s headset and had a first phone conversation today with Cathryn’s parents, Ryan, Mackenzie and Adrienne since crossing the border 3 weeks ago. We felt so fortunate each of them answered their phones when we called, and it was wonderful to hear their voices and catch up on news! We are missing them. Last night we got together with Jan and Jim (Penticton, B.C. couple) again for cocktail hour, and it was nice to catch up on what we’d each been up to since we left each other at Playa Juncalito. As always, we had dinner separately in our own RVs. Today we went for a run, showered, made our Skype phone calls, then went into town to walk around and explore a bit, tried to find the police station (unsuccessfully, as we got 3 divergent sets of directions from 3 different people) hoping we might get a provisional drivers license for Bob here rather than Los Cabos, and picked up a few things at the grocery store. Cocktail hour with Jan and Jim again, then back to our Chalet for camarones (shrimp) again for dinner. We are eating much more seafood than we normally do at home. It’s fresh and delicious! Jan and Jim leave tomorrow morning for La Paz, and we don’t expect to see them again in Baja as our travel plans are quite different from this point. But they are wonderful people and we expect to remain good friends, hoping to see each other again in Baja, Olalla or Penticton in the future. We have fallen in love with Los Barriles. Cathryn thinks Bob could happily live here for the rest of his life, though we’re told summers are hot and humid, so perhaps not. But it is beautiful, sunny and warm without any oppressive weather characteristics, we like the Mexican culture that makes it interesting, the food is different from what we find at home, and there are people coming and going all the time. The town of Los Barriles is an interesting mix of Mexicans and Gringos. The residents are almost all Mexican families, there is a sizeable school for the children, a hospital and medical clinic, dentist, social service agency which hosts, among other things, AA meetings, several good grocery stores, and lots of wonderful small restaurants, a few galleries and gift shops, fishing and wind/kite-surfing businesses, a couple hair salons (I’m really missing Rose, who normally takes care of my hair, so this is a plus), and a veterinarian. The town is pedestrian-friendly, the people are helpful and friendly, and it is very relaxed. Our campsite and campground have everything we think we need to be happy – nice bathrooms, laundry facilities, wi-fi, electricity, water and sewer connections, friendly people, and a spectacular beachfront setting with great weather. The sunrises and sunsets are gorgeous, night-time is quiet (no barking dogs, braying burros, 18-wheelers using engine brakes, and only one crowing rooster), and the stars are spectacular. We feel in touch with nature here. We can imagine returning next winter for an extended stay. We’ll see.