A Visit To a New Friend

We’ve completed our second to the last day at Spanish language school, and the Finish Line is within sight with only one day remaining. While each class remains a challenge, and we’re very tired when we get home, we see real progress, feel these two weeks have been of tremendous value, and we’re glad we enrolled. We continue to feel the instructional materials are excellent, the quality of instructors is very high, and the school offers a good return on the cost. More on the school experience when the week comes to an end.


Back home we have a good friend, Andrea Tull, who has a close friend we’ve never met, Katy, whose mother, Mary Lou, lives in La Paz 8 months each year. When Andrea learned we were coming to La Paz she suggested we make contact with Mary Lou. Last night we met her.

Mary Lou and her husband Neil first came to La Paz 40 years ago on vacation. 15 years later after retiring from 40 years in engineering work at Boeing, they began driving down the Baja in an RV for extended visits, and in the mid-80s bought property in the city of La Paz. Over the ensuing years they established an exquisite garden that looks like a tropical arboretum with olive and grapefruit trees, a couple dozen species of cactuses, flowering vines, and many plants unfamiliar to us, plus hordes of birds. The lushness is astonishing! They built a lovely one-bedroom home with high ceilings and tile floors, a small swimming pool, and outdoor living space under the palapa to sit and enjoy the garden, play bridge and enjoy meals, coffee or cocktail hour. Mary Lou’s daughter and son-in-law subsequently built a two-bedroom guest house on the property, and they purchased the adjacent lot to extend their garden space. Mary Lou’s husband died a decade or so ago, and she continues to spend 8 months each year here, and the summer months in Washington near her 4 adult children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We spent an hour at her home this evening, then went to Campestre Restaurant & Grill for a delicious traditional Mexican dinner. Mary Lou answered our many questions about her life in La Paz, and we were quite impressed with her adventurous spirit and the very enviable life she has carved out. Her grown kids come to visit each winter. We never cease to be amazed and impressed with the many ways in which people have created rare and wonderful lives outside the United States. We hope to see Mary Lou again in March when we head northbound and return through La Paz.