Backroad Adventure

On Monday morning 4 vehicles set out on a little backroad adventure.  Here are a few photos that tell the story of our day.

 This is the valley we followed back into the mountains.

 Amazing oasis in the middle of the desert - of course there are several ranches in the area, water is all important.

 this is one of the better sections of the road.

 Along the way we meet lots of interesting wildlife!

We stopped at a small town, Santa Agueda, and all the school children came out to meet us - introduced themselves and shook hands to greet us.  We had a few treats for them as well, candy, suckers and balloons.

 an old ranch house in need of much repair - this is a french style much like other buildings in nearby Santa Rosalia.

 Another ranch in the back country....

 More interesting road........

 The remains of an old adobe ranch house - this ranch is no longer operating.

 Our lunch stop.

 another ranch - this one still has a family living here.  We were told they could still be making shoes here, no luck with that, they no longer do that.

 My new favourite trees - Palo Verde and Palo Blanco - Verde is green, blanco is white - the bark is startling white on the palo blanco.

Hope no one is coming the other direction!

We had a great trip even if we never did reach our destination - we ran out of time, making too many stops to look at everything along the way.....

More adventures next week!

Passing the time....

I would never have guessed that bird watching and basket weaving would be my choice of activities to pass the time!?  at least John is only bird watching......

Here are a couple of my attempts at bird photos, maybe I'll get better...

Hummingbirds in the morning.

Bluefooted Boobies

Great Blue Heron

My gourd, I will post a finished version later.

The teacher Lynn with a few attentive students...

more on the 'life'

These first pictures are of our trip from the border south to the beach.  The first night was on the west coast at el Pableon – here we are enjoying the sunset from our camp spot on the sand dunes.  This is where we were treated to a show of dolphins passing along near shore.  Night 2 was Rancho Santa Inez in Cativina, here we are with Steve sitting at the campfire.  After only a couple of days on the beach we hear music to our ears….the ice-cream truck arrives with yummy fresh made ice-cream!  Nan gets the photo credit for all of these shots.

a swim by to top off the view!

sunset at El Pableon

camp fire at Rancho Santa Inez

Our third night in Baja was San Ignacio – a palm oasis – John was the only one brave enough to try the pool (very cold, not heated, actually made for summer use).   When we finally reached the beach we hung out in the parking lot waiting for friends to depart the next day, they were headed further south for a while so we moved in to their vacated spot, with a palapa, a very nice spot on the beach.  These pics show our ‘place’ 

waiting room............

hhhmmmm, what shall I choose?

home sweet home

the view of the beach

that about sums up our first couple of weeks, life is good.

We're Here!

Seems I am not much for writing this year so you will browse the pictures to get the story.

Here we are leaving home - loaded up with even more this year.

the annual event! the flat tire.....

The sun is shining and we are warm and dry in Desert Hotsprings, we stayed an extra day just because it was so nice.

Near the bottom of this map is El Pableon, a camping area right on the beach - our first night in Baja.

 this is the El Pableon stop over.  Miles and miles of sandy beach with waves crashing in all night.....we spotted dolphins swimming by that evening and again in the morning - beautiful sight.

 Our first lunch stop near Cativinia high in the mountains in the central area, near the boulder fields.  This shrimp stuffed advacato may be my new favorite meal.

Sunset at Rancho Santa Inez, Catavinia.

Night number 3 at San Ignacio - Rice & Bean RV park....remember this place from other years....they make the best Margaritas.

January 1 2012

Happy New Year!

more to come later - way to busy now and I haven't taken any pictures yet!