Baja Bliss

Back to life in Baja. A few days ago my cousin Marty rallied up all of us boys to help him dig out and push back an old buggy that he and his friend Danny had scrounged from one of the neighbors. It's an older buggy that's gonna require a lot of TLC to come back to life, but will undoubtedly be back on the streets when Marty and Danny get finished with it. It was pretty hard to turn down for Marty, who's hobby is fixing up both his own and other people's buggys in town. The seats were pretty well rotted out and the motor hasn't run for 2 years. He looked at it and laughs and says "oh man this thing is f*&%#@g UGLY", but has many plans to give it some appeal. I attached one photo of the buggy, but will have to include the rest of the photos for the blog when I get home, because this photo was the last picture my camera of 5 years took before it quit working. There's been nothing but constant eating going on around here, and we're all eating like kings. It seem like most of the day is spent trying to get over being stuffed from one meal so we can eat another one. We've had intentions of going into town for some wild Los Barriles nightlife, well okay it's really not that wild, but haven't made it for 3 nights in a row we've been so full and unmotivated after dinner. My cousin Doreen, who we call Reeny, was generous enough to loan us her SUV so we had some wheels to get around on. We checked out a little more of Los Barriles now that we were mobile. We spent a little bit of time at the Palmas resort, and went to a local spot called Verdugos to watch the fishing boats come in for the day and see what's been caught. Before the big fish fry Reeny invited us all up to her new casa for Margaritas. Reeny's got a beautiful new house on a nice property just on the other side of the oroyal from Marty's place. We prepared ourselves for the feast with some of Reeny's home made salsa and guacomole, and margaritas of course. The fish fry was everything we expected and more. We had a crowd of about 15 people or more all chowing down on the fish served up in a breaded, veracruz, or garlic style including rice, beans, tortillas, and a salad. None of us could move afterwards. Jordan and Mark did manage to make it into town for some Karaoke that night, but were the only ones. The next morning, Isabel, one of the locals and friend of the family came over to make us some authentic mexican huevos rancheros. Again, another meal that was absolutely to die for and we all stuffed ourselves silly. We went on a long buggy ride that day up to Pescadero, an oceanfront resort located about 20 miles up the coast from Los Barriles. We took 3 buggies, all packed with 3 to 4 people. We made stops at all the scenic points to wet our whistles with Pacifico from all the dust you digest on a typical Baja road. The ride took up the better half of a day, and when we got done, Reeny invited us all over for some delicious chicken pablano pasta. We were all full again and spent the rest of the night telling stories around the campfire outside her house. Duey, my cousin Greg, Marty, and Sharon all joined us. Greg rode his motorcycle down here from the states and is taking off tomorrow for the return trip, but will be stopping for a week or two of camping along the way.

Today was a pretty windy day in Baja, which is actually what it's somewhat known for, and the windsurfers and kite boarders that camp here were all flocking to the Sea of Cortez to catch some wind and waves. We hit the beach to watch, as both of the sports are relatively expensive to try out, and difficult to master in a few hours. It was a pretty mellow day for the crew in Baja. We went into town for dinner at a little place that has some good shrimp dishes. Jordan ordered 3 different entres for himself, and the waitress had to clarify with him just to be sure she was understanding his English. The town gets pretty quiet on Sundays and not much of anything was going on anywhere. Marty had a campfire and hot dog roast and invited a few of their freinds over for dinner. We joined them for S'mores. Tomorrow we will make our way to the airport in San Hose del Cabo to fly out tomorrow evening. Reeny and Marty have to run into Cabo to make a Costco run so we're gonna hitch a ride from them. That about wraps up a short but fun trip in the Baja California Sur. It's a place where everybody knows your name, everybody is friendly, and everybody makes you feel welcome. Hospitality is top notch and I'm sure they will be seeing some of our faces again in BCS. Thank you to all the family and friends down here that make this such a great place to stay, and as always, stay tuned for more adventures to come.