Life is Different Here

There are quite a few things, some minor, some major, which are different about home life in Mexico. Now that we’ve spent 6 weeks in a Mexican house, rather than in our RV, we’ve learned a few things we thought we’d share.

While this is probably not true in mountain regions, houses here in the lowlands don’t have heat. No furnace, no base-board heaters, no wall heaters. It’s just not needed. Or at least that’s mostly true. We had 3 days a couple weeks ago that were cloudy and cool, and we found the house a little too chilly for our comfort in the mornings, so we brought our tiny space heater in from the RV and ran it for about half an hour. Houses here also don’t have smoke alarms. Again, they’re just not needed. The house we’re in, like most houses in the vicinity, is built entirely of concrete – walls, floors, ceilings, kitchen and bathroom counters, all are made of concrete. Only the doors and windows aren’t concrete, and they’re not wood either. So nothing in our Mexican house could burn except for bedding and clothing. So no smoke alarms.

Like all deserts, water is at a premium here in Baja. One of the ways municipal water systems manage supply is by rationing water somewhat. Here in Los Barriles, the water is turned off to half the City for about 6-8 hours every other day. The other half of the City has its’ water turned off on alternate days. This has posed no problems for us. The way it’s handled is that every house is built with something called a “tanaka” or a “pila”. A tanaka is a black plastic water tank – somewhere between 200 – 500 gallon size – installed on the roof during construction of the house. It remains full at all times by virtue of a pump that automatically re-fills it as water is used. So on days when the City water is off, residents draw their water, powered by gravity, from the tanaka so they can shower, flush toilets and wash dishes. A “pila” is essentially the same thing, but is installed underground and is much larger in capacity. The pila for our house holds 3,000 gallons, and again, has a pump that keeps it automatically re-filled whenever we take a shower, run the laundry, or whatever. We have yet to notice the days on which the water is turned off except in one respect: outside faucets can’t be connected to the tanaka or pila, so people can’t wash their car or water their yard or wet down the roadway in front of their house (to keep the dust down) on those days.

Though we’re told summers here are extremely hot -- long periods where the temp passes 100 degrees every day -- most houses owned by Mexicans are not air-conditioned, and most houses owned by gringos only have air-conditioning units mounted in the bedrooms so they can sleep comfortably. Whenever possible, people have trees near the house to keep it shaded and cool, and the concrete structure holds the cool night air better than homes built of other materials. Ceiling fans are very common. Our next-door neighbor and friend Russett, who has lived here year-round for the past 2 years, tells us that July and August are made up of “three-shower days” – shower when you get up in the morning, shower before lunch, and shower before dinner. And even then, you sweat all day. I think we’ll stick to coming here in the winter!

We Got Wet

We’re on our “Los Barriles Count-down”, having decided we’ll hit the road northbound sometime next week, so we came up with a list of things to do before we leave. Some items on the list are chores, some are fun. Today’s activity was a trip to the Santiago Hot Springs, one of the fun items. The hot springs are in the same general vicinity as the waterfall, but a few miles further south. The drive is 45 minutes and took us through the town of Santiago, then up to the village of San Jorge, which seemed more a concentration of a dozen small ranchos than a village. But the village did have a paved area with a small, nicely painted stage, a common feature of “town squares” ranging from cities like La Paz to villages like San Jorge.

The hot springs were about 2 miles outside San Jorge. The well-graded dirt road ended at a parking area in a small rancho where we were met by Braulio who collected 50 pesos (about $4) from each of us, then lead us ¼ mile down a path to the hot springs themselves. We had the place entirely to ourselves for the couple of hours we stayed. We understand there are actually several pools and that Braulio takes people to different spots so you don’t generally have to share space. The water was 37 degrees (99 F), and immediately adjacent to the hot pool was a cold stream to dip into occasionally, so the conditions were perfect, along with an air temperature of 78. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon and well worth the time and money.

Any ornithologists among our readers?

When Lynn and David were here to visit they gave us a very nice gift – a National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, which includes Mexico. They’re birding enthusiasts, and are able to readily identify most birds we spot on our hikes and walks together. We enjoy seeing birds but don’t know as much about them as we’d like. Today we saw an exquisite bird, photographed it, and then had to spend an inordinate amount of time identifying it because we had no idea where to start in the book. We ultimately decided it was a Hooded Oriole, which is only found in southern Baja during breeding season. Do you agree with our identification Lynn and David?

Secondly, we were in our truck last week with 2 other people, and a Roadrunner ran across the highway in front of us. One of the women in the truck said "Oh!  I didn't know Roadrunners were real birds -- I thought they were just characters in that silly cartoon!"  So, in case anyone else share's her belief, we snagged a photo of a Roadrunner yesterday and will let you see that too.

Finally, we've forgotten what this third bird is called, Lynn and David -- we saw it when you were here. Can you remind us?  Enough about birds for today.

A Different Sort Of "Adventure"

While in Baja we’ve met many gringos who have all their routine medical and dental work done in Mexico rather than the U.S. or Canada. Most of them do this because of the significant cost savings, but also proclaim the quality of care they receive is quite high. You’ve undoubtedly read stories in the news in recent years regarding people who fly to Mexico, India, China – wherever – to get medical work done at significant savings. We finally decided to stick our toes into these waters, so today we both had appointments with a Mexican dentist for a routine exam and cleaning. We arrived at the dental clinic at 2:00 to find it closed. Fortunately we’d brought our books, anticipating having to wait while each other was having our appointments. Twenty minutes later the gringo woman who was at the reception desk when we made our appointments appeared. She asked if we’d gotten her email last Friday (we did not) telling us the dentist would not be here today after all, as he’d flown to Mazatlan to propose to his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. She proceeded to explain that she’s a dental hygienist with over 30 years experience, so could clean our teeth and give us a partial exam in the dentist’s absence. We decided to go with that. So Mary cleaned our teeth, a completely pain-free experience, essentially the same as back home, and told us about the establishment of the dental clinic here only last October. They charge 600 pesos (about $50) for an adult cleaning and exam, and with the profits from this, they’re able to provide free dental care to all the children in Los Barriles. We thought this sounded like a great deal for all parties involved and were very happy to participate! And just like at home, we walked away with new toothbrushes, dental floss and toothpaste

Tope!

Everyone who knows us is aware that we don’t spend much time at all yelling at each other, but during our Baja travels we’ve agreed that yelling “Tope!” is an authorized behavior. What’s a “tope”, you ask (pronounced “toe-pay”)? Well ,think of the Mother-of-All (do you remember when that was the world’s most overused phrase?) speed bumps. The Mexicans seem to love their topes, in towns, in the middle of nowhere, on the highway, on dirt roads even. San Bartolo, a small town nearby which we drive through regularly, has 8 of them in less than one kilometer. There are 12 of them between our house and Mex 1 via the through-town route, and each one is teeth rattling, and worse when we’re hauling the trailer. There are many “mosts” associated with topes. Most topes have warning signs 150 to 300 meters in advance, most are painted yellow, most are in the vicinity of schools, most are in towns, etc But . . . . for every “most”, there are lots of exceptions, so calling out “Tope!” is an authorized activity that is “mostly” successful in helping us slow down and avoid rattling our brains out by flying over them going 80 kilometers per hour.

Logistics of Life

This will not be a post about how we get water for the RV, refill our propane tanks or take showers. It won’t even be about life in Mexico. Cathryn got an email from her friend Gary Kenyon, who is considering doing some RV-ing now that he’s retired, inquiring how we handle things while we’re away from home so long: mail, house maintenance, etc. Here’s Cathryn’s answer to Gary.

Cathryn’s sister Susan and her husband Bob (we Rice girls have a tradition of marrying Bobs) flew up from Texas to visit our parents in Gig Harbor. They’re staying at our house in Olalla for a few days. Yesterday Cathryn received emails from Susan and Bob, with photos attached, describing a 60-foot log, and 3 other smaller logs, which had become jammed between our rock bulkhead and our beach stairs. Unfortunately when something like this happens the wave action, tides and occasional storm surge during the winter bash the logs about and eventually combine to destroy the stairs, which are made of wood.

We quickly sent off an email to Bob’s sister Lynn and her husband David (who were just in Baja visiting us last week) asking if they could take a look and make arrangements with a contractor to have the logs removed. David, being the King-of-Do-It-Yourselfers, instead grabbed his fishing waders and chainsaw and headed to our house first thing in the morning. No one has written a detailed version of how things transpired from there, but best we can tell from the photos they did send, David, with Bob’s assistance, waded into the 48 degree Puget Sound waters with chainsaw in hand and dispensed with the logs. Voila . . . problem solved! We feel guilty that we were sitting on the rooftop deck having margaritas with friends while our relatives were at home in the rain taking care of our home for us. Thank you David, Lynn, Bob and Susan!!!!!!

Cocktail Hour Deja Vous

As we mentioned in a recent post, yesterday we ran into Jill and Doug, a Canadian couple we were introduced to last winter when we were camping here in Los Barriles. Like us, they’re back again, camping at Playa Norte across the road from our house on the beach in the RV Park where we stayed last year. They’re traveling with friends Peter and Jane, also from Penticton, B.C., Canada. The 4 of them arrived for cocktail hour tonight, and we all sat on our rooftop deck enjoying margaritas and appetizers for a couple of hours, catching up on news in our lives and travels. We are missing Jan and Jim, the couple who introduced us to each other last year and are not here this year, but had a wonderful time talking, comparing notes on travels, discussing possible travels to mainland Mexico next year, making jokes etc. Both are lively, interesting couples, and we enjoyed their visit. We discussed the possibility of getting together again later in the week.

More ArT

The Asociacion de Artes del Mar de Cortes (Association of the Arts of the Sea of Cortez) held their annual Tour of Art Studios in Los Barriles today. For 50 pesos (about $4) we got a map directing us to 11 art studios scattered around the vicinity. We were disappointed to learn that, without exception, all of the artists were female gringos aged 60-70. We expected that to be a part of the demographic of artists, but hoped there would also be some Mexicans, some men, maybe even some young people in the mix. Apparently taking up jewelry making, painting and pottery-making is a popular activity among the gringo women who spend their winters here. Two of the artists seemed to us to have real talent, and the rest were hobbyists. Nonetheless we enjoyed the tour. The highlight was getting to tour some truly fascinating homes and gardens – maybe they should sponsor a Home and Garden Tour next year!

Carnival Strikes Los Barriles

Last year we spent Carnival (aka Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday) weekend in La Paz, and among other events we went to the parade which had dozens of elaborate floats full of bands, lightly clad young women and lots and lots of children. It was a loud raucous affair that lasted well into the night. Today Los Barriles had its own version of a Carnival parade. It started about 4pm and lasted until 4:20. Most of the floats were decorated quads (ATVs) driven by “mature” gringos augmented by a few muscle cars driven by local Mexicanos as well as the local police and ambulance vehicles. It was a fun small-town affair sponsored by the local Rotary Club and served as a fund raiser for the Rotary Club’s local projects. Bob was a little disappointed by the lack of “lightly clad young females” but other than that it was an amusing way to spend an hour.

8 Carnival

Double click on the photo above  for more photos of last years carnival in La Paz

While at the Carnival parade, we ran into Doug and Jill, some Canadians we met on several occasions last winter, including hiking in Tripui Canyon. (See the photo album at the bottem of the blog) They were accompanied by their friends Peter and Jane. We chatted for awhile and agreed we’d get together tomorrow evening for happy hour.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Art Anyone???

We do not consider ourselves to be artistic people. Not even a small streak of this sort of creativity resides within our brains, genes or inclinations. We can’t fathom how all 3 of our children have such well-developed artistic skills in one area or another. Nonetheless, when Xochitl and MaryZonia, the Mexican sisters we met in the town of San Antonio at the Cultural Center suggested we return and try our hand at pottery, Cathryn agreed. Today was the day.

We arrived at the Cultural Center at 9:30 and were met by MaryZonia who told us Xochitl would not be present today. MaryZonia proceeded to conduct a private pottery lesson for Cathryn that lasted 4 hours! MaryZonia first showed her how to knead the clay to eliminate air bubbles, then how to use the “pinch method” of molding clay to make a small tray-like item (see photo). Next she instructed Cathryn in the “coil” method of making a small bowl, then in the same method of making two identical bowls and combining them to make a vase. There was no potting wheel in use – it was all done by hand with only very basic “tools” to assist. We were both astonished that a first lesson could produce products that, while not elegant or sophisticated, would also not be a source of embarrassment. Cathryn ended up making one small tray-like item, one small bowl, and one small round flower vase. MaryZonia gave her some clay to take home to make an additional item. All the items will be allowed to dry for 3-4 days, then fired. No paint or ceramic material is used, so they’ll remain in their natural clay state (like terra cotta items you find for outdoor flower pots). Cathryn was so enthralled with the process and products she actually mentioned the possibility of a community college course in her future. Vamos a ver!!!

Climate Change - it's real!

At least in Los Barriles, Baja. Tuesday night we got into bed about 10pm only to hear the beginning of what turned out to be an all-night rainstorm – the second in a week! Russett tells us it only rains 2 days per year here, and never in February, so we’re not sure what to make of this. When we woke this morning it was still raining intermittently and lightly and was only 59 degrees. Again, we expect no sympathy.

Bob, Cathryn, Lynn and David piled into the truck at 8am Wednesday and headed to Cabo San Lucas to get in a final shopping excursion at Los Artesanos, a huge Mexican craft shop Phebe recommended that has lots of pottery and pewter dishes, baskets, yard art, carved wood items and others all at very good prices. We each selected several items to buy, with Lynn and David keeping an eye on what they’d be able to fit into their carry-on luggage. Cathryn, unfortunately, fell in love with a large hammered copper shallow pot she wants to hang high on the wall in the living room back home, and it’s both heavy and large, so we’ll have to find a spot for it in the truck for the journey home.

We stopped at a place new to us called Rigo’s for lunch, but it was before noon, and breakfast sounded good, so we each ordered eggs. The food was delicious, except for the coffee, which we find is rarely to our taste in Baja.

Next we were off to the airport where we said goodbye to Lynn and David. We had a wonderful time with them here and were sad to see them go.

Russett’s Book Group from Boise, Idaho (9 women) travels to Baja each February for a week, and 5 of them flew in today at exactly the same time we dropped off Lynn and David, coincidentally. Since Russett’s car isn’t big enough to transport them all, we took Maureen and Ethna in our truck and deposited them an hour later at another house in Los Barriles – nice, interesting women with whom we enjoyed the conversation on the way.

We were just about to head up to the rooftop deck for cocktail hour when who should appear, unexpectedly and unasked for, but Ponytail Doug! We’ve had lousy, intermittent internet the entire month we’ve been in this house, and he decided he simply had to get it to run better. So – round 4 with Ponytail Doug, another 2 hours of his fussing with our computers and equipment (actually the last 40 minutes was just talking together over a beer), and VOILA – we think he got it fixed! We’re reluctant to claim that, since we’ve thought we were at this point before, but for the rest of the evening (and so far this morning) our internet worked so well that Cathryn was even able to make a phone call on Skype, something that’s been essentially impossible all month.

In case you haven't noticed, sometimes Bob adds random photos to these posts when the posts themselves don't call for a specific picture. Thats what todays photos are.

Last Day with Lynn and David

We perhaps have failed to mention Artemisa, a Mexican woman in town who cooks burritos, empanadas, chiles rellenos, gorditos and tamales (different item each morning) then drives house-to-house in her Jeep Cherokee, pulling up in front of the house, and honking to let you know she’s arrived. She sells each item out of the front seat of her car, still hot, for 15 pesos (about $1.25) and comes 4-5 days per week, at highly variable times, anywhere from 8am to 11am. Yesterday we meet her at one of the local grocery stores and she informed us she was cooking empanadas today, and we asked whether she could arrive early as we planned to leave home before 9am. So Artemisa arrived at 8:30 and we bought 4 empenadas for breakfast – yum! Good thing several of the 4 of us take cholesterol medication to counteract the effects of this deep fried food somewhat!

We pulled out at 8:30 and headed north to the town of San Antonio, about which you read a week or so ago (we met the two sisters, Xochitl and Marisonia at the Cultural Center there). We parked the truck on the square in San Antonio, then hiked up to the cobblestone and dirt road, approximately 5 miles to El Triunfo through the mountains, paralleling Mex 1. A couple week s ago we drove it, but wanted to do it on foot. We spotted a few birds along the way, lots of cows, and meandered our way over the distance in about 2 ½ hours, so a pleasant pace. We gained 600 feet of elevation, then dropped about 400 feet into El Triunfo. We made our way to El Triunfo Cafe, a place we’ve stopped for coffee or lunch a couple times previously, and had another delicious meal – pizza for David, Lynn and Cathryn, and Pork Loin Sandwich for Bob. Terrific cup of coffee to follow, then we headed for the “bus stop” in town to catch a ride back to San Antonio.

Backing up a little: yesterday we stopped at the bus station in Los Barriles to inquire about the bus schedule. We were informed the bus leaves La Paz roughly every 2 hours and heads to Cabo San Lucas where it arrives 3 ½ hours later, but there is not, really, a schedule for intermediate points at small towns such as San Antonio or El Triunfo. We were advised by the woman at the bus station that we should expect to flag it down in El Triunfo about 2:15 or 2:30. The waitress at the El Triunfo Café concurred in the approximate time. Just to be safe, we arrived in front of the kindergarten school on the highway at 2:00 to await the bus. It didn’t arrive at 2:15. It didn’t arrive at 2:30. At 2:45, still no bus, so Cathryn wandered around inquiring of various Mexican residents regarding what time we might expect the bus. Answers varied from 3:00, to 3:30 to 4:00, at which point we were beginning to despair a bit. Soon Bob and David took turns sticking their thumb out as pickup trucks approached the speed bump at the bus stop, figuring we could hitch a ride in the back of the truck to San Antonio 5 miles down the highway. Lynn and Cathryn suggested perhaps Bob and David should hide and THEY should attempt to flag a ride down! Soon enough 4 Canadians in a small rental car drove by – folks we’d said hello to at our lunch stop. We explained our predicament, and Cathryn hopped in the car with them to catch a ride back to San Antonio to get the truck and return to pick up Bob, David and Lynn.

Great Debate Canceled

We got a bit of a slow start this morning. Bob and Cathryn went for a run, Russett stopped in for a cup of coffee, and Lynn and David drank coffee and did crossword or Sudoku puzzles while waiting on us. Finally we loaded into the truck and drove up the San Bartolo arroyo next to our house on the sand and gravel road to see the waterfall. We arrived to find the water flow diminished since our last visit, but the walk up the stream-bed lovely, the sun and rocks warm, and the water in the pool at the base of the waterfall refreshing for dipping our toes. We hung around for 45 minutes or so, then re-traced our steps and returned to the house for a late lunch. Then on to Round 2!

We drove up the Buenos Aires arroyo this afternoon and began by exploring the area leading to the headwall of the arroyo, a lovely granite canyon that we were introduced to last November by Russett, along with Jim and Phebe. It was as beautiful as we recalled it, and Lynn and David were enthralled by the gorgeous rock. Again, we sat in the sun and enjoyed the view, then wandered back downstream and drove the short distance to the Buenos Aires waterfall, another 15 minute walk through a streambed and over rocks to a gorgeous waterfall with a pool at the bottom. We didn’t swim this time as we had in November, but lounged around and enjoyed the view.

It seems that Lynn and David do not concur in our need to “rank” the 3 waterfalls we’ve enjoyed in the Los Barriles area (Santiago, San Bartolo and Buenos Aires). They found each one to be a different experience, gorgeous and enjoyable – not worth comparing, just worth relishing. So the great waterfall ranking debate will remain unresolved.

About 5:00 we headed back to town, stopped at the bus station to make some inquiries in anticipation of tomorrow’s adventure, picked up some groceries, then went home to have a drink on the rooftop followed by shrimp tacos for dinner. Russett brought dessert and came in for a visit, then “Baja Midnight” called and we all headed for bed. Another lovely day in paradise where it remains sunny and in the 70s.

La Paz

After a cup of coffee in our apartment this morning at Posada Colibri (Hummingbird Inn), we went downstairs where our B&B host(ess) Gail ushered us outdoors to a table set on the patio by the swimming pool. We were served fresh-squeezed orange juice, a giant bowl of fresh-cut fruit (papaya, watermelon, banana and grapes), toast made of just-out-of-the-oven fresh-baked bread, scrambled eggs with ham, and coffee. Yum! Gail joined us at the table and told us the story of how she came to live in La Paz 29 years ago after meeting her Mexican husband at a language school in California where she was studying Spanish and he was studying English. She made suggestions for the day’s activities, and off we went. We began with a 3-mile walk on the Malecon, which looked quite different on Sunday morning than Saturday night – far fewer people, more varied in age, and mostly Mexicans who were out for their morning exercise, either walking, running, skating or bicycling.


We returned to the B&B to check out, then headed north to Balandra Beach, a new destination Bob and Cathryn had not seen before. The area was made up of a series of small coves separated by basalt rock outcroppings, with very shallow water, a white sandy bottom and pale turquoise warmish water. We walked several coves, found a few shells, and were the only gringos present – these beaches were populated by Mexican families typically made up of members of 3 generations.

We returned to the far side of La Paz for lunch at Campestre Grill where we’d had dinner with a local resident last November. Another good meal seated outside, then off to “home” in Los Barriles. We stopped at Cafe El Triunfo to get Bob a good cup of coffee, then rolled into Los Barriles about 4:30 pm. Brief naps, drinks on the rooftop deck, a small bowl of soup for dinner (we over-ate all weekend so weren’t really hungry), more conversation about Baja and traveling, then we were off to bed.

San Antonio Pictures

If you tried to view the San Antonio Photos a couple of days ago, and failed, try again. We've fixed the link.They are at the top of the right hand column.

Weekend In La Paz

The four of us loaded up in the truck and headed north to La Paz this morning. After parking the truck in front of Posada Colibri B & B we went for a walk to El Centro (the downtown area). Our first stop was Ibarra Potter. This a family-run shop where Dad makes all the pots, then he, his wife and daughter do the hand-painting and firing. They’re in the process of copywriting their designs, so they ask that no photos be taken. Each of us bought a couple of pieces. When we get back to Los Barriles we’ll unwrap a few and post some photos. Meanwhile, this is a photo of Mom’s painting station which Bob received permission to take.

We walked the rest of the way into El Centro and mixed with the active crowd of Saturday shoppers. It was interesting people-watching and always fun to see the many very specialized shops. There are almost no gringos in this part of town whose shops cater to the locals, not tourists. Department stores exist but are very few and far between. At lunch time we returned to Bob and Cathryn’s favorite place, La Fonda. Lynn and David ordered chicken dishes made with mole, a chocolate-based sauce. We think both decided it was worth trying, but perhaps not worth ordering again in the future.

We sauntered back to the B&B and sat on the terrace overlooking the Malecon and Bay of La Paz, soaking up the atmosphere. As usual, the weather was sunny and in the 70s. Around 6:00 we cracked a bottle of wine while watching the very nice sunset.

Later we wandered down the street to Tres Virgenes, a restaurant recommended by our B&B hosts and Jim and Phebe who ate there last Christmas. The atmosphere was delightful on an outdoor terrace in the warm evening, and the food was outstanding – and of generous portions. It was an expensive meal by Mexican standards, $140 including one bottle of wine, but well worth it. But Lynn and David treated us, so that’s easy for us to say!

After dinner we walked the Malecon along the water, accompanied by a goodly portion of the younger generation of La Paz. A nice way to walk off a large dinner in short sleeve weather at 9 PM.

Baja Dirt

Baja is a very dry environment, and most of the peninsula is covered with desert vegetation. While there is some farming, mostly in the far north, we haven’t seen much agricultural land. Today we found a good cross-section of the pervasive soil here. You can see why it would take more than a little soil amendment before you’d have a successful garden.

Shoreline Drive

This morning we drove with Lynn and David up the coast road to Punta Pescadero and stopped at a couple of locations along the way. We spent an hour fishing near Punta Pescadero (15 minutes of casting each, with no fish caught) where Jim took us fishing last November, then moved north a few miles where we stopped for an hour and a half for a picnic lunch, followed by a leisurely beach walk during which we did some shelling. While on our beach walk we spotted an Osprey It was sunny and 77 degrees, so Lynn commented that “this feels like a real winter vacation!”

After our journey followed by some napping and book reading back home, Russett, our next-door neighbor, friend and landlady, came at 5:30 for dinner. After a cocktail on the rooftop deck, we came inside to cook. When Russett and David discovered Bob had put Ella Fitzgerald on the iPod, they broke out dancing on the kitchen floor. At one time in her life Russett taught dancing at a Fred Astaire studio, and Lynn and David took dancing lessons at one – a happy meeting of minds!

Wood Shopping

This morning the weather was back to normal: sunny and 70s. We puttered around the house until 9:30, then drove to Miraflores and Santiago. Miraflores is the town famous for its leather works and beautiful women. We did not have any sightings of the latter today.

Our first stop was a furniture shop we’d not visited the last time we visited. We met Lupe, the owner, who is the 3rd generation of his family in the business, and works with his two sons. He showed us around his rustic retail shop, then took us in the back to his workshop. David, Bob’s brother-in-law who does a lot of wood work, was very interested in the exotic woods Lupe harvests locally and uses in his work. Lupe ended up taking us to his other shop adjacent to his home where David bought a piece of Palo de Chino wood that he says probably would have cost him hundreds of dollars back home, but for which he paid $54. We suspect both of them got a great deal.

From Miraflores we drove up into the Sierra La Laguna to the waterfall at Santiago where we had a picnic lunch and basked in the sun. It was very nice and allowed Lynn and David to begin to collect data to vote in the “great waterfall ranking contest”.

Dinner was tamales and salad, and now we’re debriefing over a glass of wine.

Sunshine!

We woke up to sunshine today, a nice change from yesterday. After a quick run and shower, we headed south to shop at Costco in Cabo San Lucas, then to the airport to pick up Lynn and David (Bob’s sister and brother-in-law) at the airport in San Jose Del Cabo. They arrived after an uneventful trip, and we drove back to Los Barriles where we had beers on the rooftop deck, then made a group effort out of dinner preparation, having tortillas and machaca cooked with veggies. After dinner we grabbed a glass of wine, headed back to the deck upstairs and . . . . it started to rain again! It didn’t rain hard or long, but enough to keep us inside the rest of the evening. Lynn and David turned in early after a long travel day while Cathryn and Bob stayed up another hour processing the month’s mail Lynn and David delivered to us.

Sort of Like June in Seattle

Okay, we’re not looking for any sympathy here. Not that we think we’d get any if we were. But today is a pretty weird day in Baja! We awoke to normal morning temps in the high 60s, but unusually, the sky was completely gray and overcast, with no wind. We had a rare day planned of hanging out around the house, catching up on domestic chores – laundry, cleaning the truck and house, and grocery shopping, interspersed with reading our books and possibly a siesta, of course – so it didn’t really matter. At 11:00 the strangest thing started . . . rain! The first 10 minutes were light and intermittent; Bob called Cathryn out to witness the strange event. But then the skies opened up, and it started raining hard – the kind of rain that makes us peer out of our house in Olalla and consider building a fire. We had laundry on the rooftop clothesline which was quickly soaked and had to be brought in to go through the spin cycle in the washing machine again, then hung indoors (there’s no dryer in the house), and a pile of shoes on the front patio brought in to dry. It’s now 3:30 p.m. and the plastic bucket which holds clothes pins on the rooftop deck shows we’ve had 2 inches of rain! And it’s only 65 degrees, the coolest afternoon we’ve seen in Baja. Hence the title of today’s posting “Sort of Like June in Seattle”. Unfortunately, we feel right at home. (Update prior to posting: it’s 7PM and STILL raining!)

Cultural Norms

OK, for those of you who think we are hopeless Baja-philes, here’s a story about something we don’t like about Baja and its’ people. Yesterday as we drove around San Antonio we stumbled onto a sports field where a baseball game was underway. There were certainly more than 150 spectators: folks sitting on top of their cars, having a picnic on the ground and hanging out with their families and friends. It looked like they were having loads of fun.

Today we drove by the same location. What did we see, but a large field covered with garbage? Lots of plastic bottles, paper plates, Styrofoam cups and snack packaging. There were no garbage cans available anywhere, and apparently no one felt the need to pick up their trash, rather drop it where they were when they were done with it. Somehow throwing things out the window along a rural highway seems like a more acceptable thing to do, but to s___ in your own nest? What’s with this? We don’t comprehend why the Mexicans seem so oblivious to the problem of garbage!

Another San Antonio Day

As planned, we returned to San Antonio today, arriving at the Cultural Center at 10am. Xochitl arrived momentarily, so we went inside, powered up her lap top, and she and Bob went to work transferring files from USB drives onto her computer, making new files for some of her photos and music, making copies of some files onto DVDs, then backing up all her files onto an external hard drive. This took quite some time because in addition to doing basic work, Xochitl wanted to take notes and try her hand at each step so she could learn to perform each of these processes by herself in the future, a laudable goal. Bob, having spent lots of time learning new processes himself, and understanding how easy it can seem to people who have done it a hundred times, took his time and let her learn by doing.

About 12:30 we wrapped it up with hugs, and left to find lunch. We went to a highway-side two-table restaurant, and ordered Tortas, in this case a sandwich made with eggs, machaca and avocados. Total cost for the two of us: 65 pesos, or about $5.50 including two bottles of water. The restaurant was run by a single woman who had her next door neighbor’s 5-year-old daughter with her. We assumed her husband, brother or son was the fellow who ran the adjacent mini Mercado.

After lunch we headed into the hills to see the San Antonio mine ruins. We ran out of time yesterday and wanted to see them to complete our understanding of San Antonio. One of the things we learned is that the local residents, several generations removed from those who worked in the mines, still harbor strong resentment over the foreigners who ran the mines and are viewed as having exploited the land’s wealth, leaving nothing behind in the way of benefit for the locals. This resentment is now manifested in the local people’s unwillingness to sell any nearby land to outsiders (there’s not a single gringo resident of San Antonio), and they want the town to remain out of the mainstream. So different from the more typical approach of wanting the outsider’s money in the economy even if it means they then live within the community. A further note about the mines is that we received more than one warning from locals, complete strangers to us, not to touch anything while touring the mines as the bricks and ground still contain toxic arsenic and could make us very ill. We were told to wash our hands thoroughly after leaving the area.

We got back to the house mid-afternoon, partook of a siesta, then went to do some grocery shopping. We returned to the house at 5:00 and had just put our purchases away when who should arrive at our doorstep but Xochitl and her sister Marisonia. They had come down to Los Barriles this afternoon to deliver some of the art work produced at the Cultural Center to some stores here, and followed up on our earlier offer to stop by the house if they had time. The stayed for about an hour and a half, which was full of lots of talk and laughter, and a few more tutorials by Bob on the use of the computer. At this point we really feel like we have some new friends. They’ve invited us to return to San Antonio late next week to learn how to find and make clay, then construct pottery.