Juan"s back!!

   I’ve been sitting on my butt for to long, but here goes.  Actually I’ve been very busy suntaning, swimming, fishing, hiking, reading (5 books so far), sailing, kayaking, exploring and just plain having a ball.  Oh yeah, I’ve been taking some photos too.

   We’ve done some backroad trips, a drive to Lorreto and to Santa Rosalia.  I sailed with my friend Chris on his WETA tri? (three hulls) 14 footer and fast and wet…..YEEEHAW!!!! what a rush.  We were out in a huge wind and mega waves and tried our damnest to stuff a bow to no avail. The thing just kept flying. This thing even has a furling spinnaker.  Might have to trade Plumcrazy.  One morning on my way to one of the islands to fish I ran into a mega pod of dolphins. Better than a hundred of them.  They were in the middle of a feeding frenzie.  They junped out of the water, swam under the inflatable and thoroughly entertained me which is good because there is no sense fishing when they are around. And there were even more Pelicans, Boobies, Seagulls and Frigate Birds scooping up the leftovers. Now, wouldn’t you know it, I was out there with no camera.  But my friend Bernadette was there with her video camera and got some awesome footage.  If I ever get it I'll share.  Today is laundry day and internet day for Juan (me).  We have just finished fish tacos at our favourite restaurant, "Doney's".

Now some photos. If you click on a photo you will see an enlargement.

 

A friend in/on our garden.

 

Chris's  WETA on a calm day?

 

One of our backroad trips.

The following are some of Deb's bird friends.

 Snowy Egret

 

Great Blue Heron and, yes, that is what you think it is on the rocks.

 

Pelicans standing in the same stuff.

 

Oyster Catcher

 

And the prize photo. A rare shot of a Blue Footed Boobie.

I've seen a few boobies in my day, but never with blue feet.

 

The Zig Zag trail we hiked up. Awesome view from the top.

Steve and Juan (me) sailing in incredible gusty (upwards of 30 knots)
winds. The wind would change direction 180 degrees in a flash every minute
or so.  No waves.

 

Our home for the past fourty-five days.

  

Deb's garden in the foreground.

 

Dinner with Steve and Nan at "Pollo Bertha's" walking 

distance from the beach.

 

Young sick sea lion friend of Deb's. Quite emancipated

and did not make it.

 

A magical Baja moment, sunrise.

 

And for you cruising friends, the harbour at Santa Rosalia.

 

Paddling the mangroves in the Rio Santa Barbara.

 

Nan coming through the slot and yes that is the the same white

stuff on those rocks. A clothes peg might come in handy.

And that's it for this day.

Hastay luego mi amigos,

Juan

 

Here is a sunset shot taken when we were having some very cloudy & rainy weather - it is much nicer now.

 Here is a sunrise - so nice to watch the sun come up from the comfort of my nice bed!  Usually I am able to watch the pelicans, snowy egrets, and the grebes fishing in the early morning light.

  

This beach shot was taken from the hill to the south.  John was on one of his many hikes to the top of the mountain.  If you look closely you will see many campers on the beach on the left of the photo - you will find us way down the beach to the right of the photo, we are the lone trailer, happy on our country acreage.

 

Come On, lets get going!

More photos of life at the beach......

This is a typical trip to town - first stop the water store - we fill our bottles with purified water.

 

Mulege street corner.

 

Eating again!  Yesterday we took a trip to Loreto, it is 107 km south of the beach.  We did some sightseeing, checked out the possibility of a whale watch tour (not looking good for that this year) and of course shopping and Lunch!

 

Here is a shot of Steve sailing his Sunflower Snark - good competition for John.  Sailing is for the windy days and the kayaking is for the calm days.

the journey ..............

 

The destination.......

and

Here is a new friend of John - I wish he would stop finding these new friends!

 

Mr. Stickbug -yup it looks just like a stick, until it moves!

 

This is the view we were rewarded with after a long hike up the zig zag trail (local name).   A group of eight from our beach make the trek.

 

There is always something interesting happening - one morning a local truck had a little mishap at the top of the driveway to the beach - he spent all day loading the box with sand and wouldn't empty it out!  That made the recovery a bit of a challenge.  Lots of instructions and a few helpers and he was finally out of the way and back on the road.........now the campers can get out again!

 

This is the Art show at Bertha's restaurant - it was a great fund raiser for the youth scholarships.

Evening of Jan 21 after a huge south wind we had rain. It was misty foggy for a couple of days. Gerry and Bernadette caught two huge red snappers (11 and 13 pounds) and we all had a fish potluck. Snapper cooked many different ways (mucho deliciosa). We all went to the Hotel Serinidad pig roast on the 26th and of course John had way too many margaritas (tough morning the 27th).

Debbie has been busy building her rock and cactus garden and John roaming the desert gathering cactus, rocks and skulls for her.  We’ve had some good sailing, hiking and kayaking.  John’s been fishing a few times (no fish big enough to keep yet) and the new Yamaha outboard is working well. Much bigger range now that the inflatable will plane.  It’s a bit hectic at 20 plus knots in a seven foot dinghy with a soft bottom.  Luckily it was cloudy on ground hog day and it rained all that night and the next day. Had to put the awning out.  The last few days it has been sunny, calm and quite warm (mid twenties).  We did a back road trip with four vehicles to Punta Chivato to find exotic shells and then had lunch at the incredible Hotel Posada de los Flores complete with a tour of the premises (awesome place www.posadadelosflores.com ). Deb will finish this post with photos and titles.  Hasta luego, Juan.

 

The view of our beach - John was on one of his long hikes to the top of a mountain.

Deb on a group hike to a beach to the north of us - good shell collecting here.

The big breakfast reward after the hike! of course it's at Bertha's.

The full moon - yes this is the real thing!

Sorting Shells -I always gather too many!

Look at all these tourists getting a grand tour of the Hotel at Punta Chivato!  What a beautiful place!

This is lunch at the Hotel after our very bumpy...long....dirty...dusty road trip - worth every minute to see the beaches and this hotel.  Arnie quoted us "bad roads - good people" good roads - bad people"  yes, I think it's true.