Homeward Bound

I bet you're expecting to see one last picture of the ocean - but that didn't happen - besides packing up and saying goodbye to the neighbors, I completely forgot!!  But as we were leaving, the wild donkeys that I'd heard on the beach earlier were right by our little road so I snapped a picture since the little one was so cute!  Cows grazing on the beach and wild donkeys strolling on the beach - what a place!!

Our quick drive (45 minutes) back to San Jose Cabo was uneventful except for the hugely swollen dead cow just off the highway and lots of black tire marks - that's why you don't drive at night in Mexico - too many animals on the roads!!

Cabo really needs to add on to their airport - it was just packed and I stood in line for 1/2 hour just to get lunch!  Our flight home was great - the plane was packed, all but the seat next to me!!!  How did I get so lucky???

Jaime picked us up and we spent the night at their house, and then headed over to Jessi's early Monday morning to see them before we headed home!  It's always good to get home!!

Day 21 / Our Last Day By The Sea

One last walk on the beach this morning because I'm not sure I'll have time in the morning!  The waves were crashing so I walked up by the houses and still I could feel the mist from the ocean!  It was one wild sea!

The internet finally came back on as it was down all afternoon and evening due to the wind yesterday - and the wind blew again today..................no fishing for Glenn!!

The wind was so bad it was even hard to sit outside - but it was sure fun watching the kite surfers!!

I love the cactus outside our neighbors' place!!

Mid-afternoon the 6 of us that went to eat pizza together gathered over at our other neighbors' home for drinks and appetizers - we all sat outside with our jackets on (yes, it was almost cold with that darn wind!) and laughed the afternoon away!!  It was a fun time and went much later than we expected so we didn't end up going out for dinner................we sure enjoyed meeting these people and it's nice to know they'll be back next year if we decide to come back too!

Day 20 / San Antonio Pizza

Breakfast at the Roadrunner - we get up early and were almost the first ones to arrive!  I love seeing the colorful tablecloths at this restaurant!  Of course I had a cup of their "mocha" coffee!

 Late morning we met up with Del, Linda, Eric and Hillary and drove to San Antonio - it's a town about 1/2 hour away with some extremely sharp turns along the way.  The town is very small but right at the edge is a sign for the pizza place - you actually drive down to their house and they have the nicest set up with a lot of different pizza options!

We each ordered our own pizza and it was very good!!

 I had a drink called "sangria" but it wasn't the wine like we think of sangria - this tasted like a combination of lemon-lime and coke with a hint of Dr pepper!!  Very different but good!

 Because the couple that owns the pizza place comes up to the market on Saturdays, we had already tasted their apple strudel that they sell so we split one of those with ice cream!  Glenn checked out their garden area with a lot of herbs growing!

This beautiful tree/bush looked like there were 3 different colors of flowers growing out of the same tree!

The afternoon was extremely windy - the internet went down - the waves were crashing - it sure made for good sleeping though!

Day 19 / Photo Of The Day

The workers finished trimming the trees next door - and one palm was very close to our patio!  For a while I had to close the slider door and the window as the dust and debris was so bad!  After he finished, I took the broom and got everything swept down and over by the railing - and a couple hours later, they cleaned up the mess!

Day 18 / Hot Springs

Another glorious day in paradise!  Glenn fished for a little while this morning while I took my walk!

 Linda and Del invited us to go with them to the hotel down the beach that has the hot springs - they bought a season pass so they can use the pool and hot tub whenever they want to!  We walked there after lunch and it's a beautiful resort!

 We headed up to the huge hot tub and enjoyed ourselves in the hot springs water for quite a while!

 Yum - pina colada time!!

 And then back in to soak longer.............That's Del and Linda with Glenn.

 Enjoying life!!

 The resort had the most beautiful palm trees!

More reading - more fish for dinner - and the realization that our time is getting short here!

Day 17 / Video Day

We woke up to heavy winds once again..............I still walked the beach in my workout capris and wasn't judging the waves close enough (as I walk right on the waters' edge where the sand is firmer).  One huge wave came in and bounced against the ridge of sand and soaked me!!  It's amazing how the regular sand is so cold in the morning and yet by the ocean's edge, the sand is warm and the water that goes over my feet is even warmer!

I could see up ahead there was something lying in the sand with some people around it and when I got up there, saw that it was a large turtle..........sadly it was dead.

We were invited to the neighbors' place for banana pancakes, bacon and coffee so that was fun!!  Another couple that we had met the night before also came so we had fun sitting around drinking coffee!

Meanwhile on the other neighbors' side, guys were there to trim the tall trees!!  The first tree he was trimming the branches!
 And even though the wind was really strong, he climbed up and knocked down some dead vegetation and a couple of coconuts on one of the large trees!!
(unfortunately I can't get the videos to download here in Mexico so will have to try once we get home!)

 The kite surfers were out in full force - they're so fun to watch!!

(another video to go here!!)

We decided to head into town for Happy Hour at El Gecko and some of their fantastic guacamole and shrimp - but they were closed..............so ate at the Smoke House and I had some excellent chicken soup - it had a name which of course I've forgotten but it was a huge bowl of broth with chicken, celery, carrots, rice, squash and probably other stuff topped with sliced avocados and sour cream!!  I ended up bringing at least 1/2 of it back for lunch the next day!!

Ending the evening was the hot tub - it was a beautiful night!

Day 16 / El Coro

Does anybody know what time it is?  Unless we look at the computer or IPhone, we have no idea what time it is as we're not wearing watches down here!  But I can tell about what time it is by looking outside at the beach and the sun - I can tell in the morning about what time it is when I look out through the slider from the bed - I can tell from the location of the sun on the patio too if it's time to go in and eat lunch!

It's nice not to have a schedule - to know that the entire day ahead of you is yours to do what you want!  This is true retirement - being able to CHOOSE what you want to do!

Today was the day to deliver the rice and beans to El Coro - our neighbors Del and Linda offered to drive their much larger and 4wd drive vehicle (vs. our tiny compact rental car that has bald tires!!) so we were grateful for that!  Linda's friend has been to El Coro several times so basically gave us directions where to go once we got there.

The road wasn't too bad - it was about 10 kilometers to the tiny village and you have to pass by the dump to get there - gosh, what an eyesore that dump was.  Plastic bags hanging on the viney thorny bushes long before we got to the dump and then quite surprised to see cows eating there!!  Our rancher friends sure wouldn't approve of that!!

We climbed higher and higher and I was sure glad we had the 4WD vehicle!  We actually passed through the tiny village (not realizing that was it) and drove a ways further - we did see a couple of homes so stopped and handed out the items.  Glenn and I did most of the handing out but there were a couple of places that the dogs were barking pretty good and I stayed in the car and shot a couple of pictures during those!

Here we are climbing up the mountain in the car and that's the ocean in the distance.

 The first house we stopped at was a very elderly lady who was very hunched over.

 The homes were very poor looking - shacks actually - some have no windows just open areas where the windows went!  But all were happy getting the rice and beans - 2 places had small children and they smiled when I talked to them and waved good-bye.  They were so appreciative and all thanked us!  What a great feeling it was to hand out that food!

 I didn't take any pictures of the women and children - I wanted to but felt it was an invasion of their privacy!
  Another view of going down the mountain.

 Glenn insisted that he had to have a picture of the cows eating the trash from the dump!

After we arrived back home, the wind came up super strong!!  I have never seen such high waves in front of our place!!  So windy we couldn't even sit outside so it was another TV evening!  Still paradise though!

Day 15 / Fresh Fish

It was cool walking the beach this morning - just a couple of fisherman out and they weren't having any luck!

The wind was pretty calm so Glenn took the kayak out and by noon was back with yellowtail fish!!  He was cleaning them before I realized I didn't get a picture so decided to just take one of them in the pan!!  Gosh were they good, lemon garlic yellowtail - fresh from the ocean!

 It was a gorgeous afternoon!!

Glenn was just ready to go down for a nap when the neighbors stopped by and said they were going out to their new property (they had bought a beach front lot a couple of years ago) so we went too so we could see it!  It's at La Ribera which took about 45 minutes to get to.

Patty and Teri will remember the road we took off the highway as it was the same road we took to Cabo Pulmo!  At that time we had no idea what we were getting into as the road turns to sand/gravel after so long!  But it all worked out great and we had an awesome time there!

Anyway, their beachfront lot is in a new subdivision being developed - it's very nice but a ways from the closest store so not sure I would want to be out quite that far!!  It was a great trip out there to see it!

For dinner tonight we had brats - made fresh and sold at the market on Saturday by a German lady - they were excellent!  Another day in paradise........................

Day 14 / Snow Day (ha ha)

The weather forecast was for cloudy and rainy weather in the afternoon - Glenn decided he wanted to go check out this fishing store that was going out of business so would I like to go for breakfast again?  Of course!!  We ate at El Viejo - delicious pancakes and bacon!

Our friends that we had met the night before (Mike and Reva) had told us to stop at their condo so we could check it out - it was a great place and very quiet, even though there are 14 units in the building.  Their condo was on the 2nd floor so had a great view off their little patio.  On the top floor is a swimming pool!  The condo comes with 3 kayaks, 2 singles and a double so this place is definitely a possibility if we come back and it was a lot cheaper than our place!

So  my "photo of the day" was taken from the rooftop swimming pool at their condo!

It did get darker, cloudier and rainy in the afternoon - Glenn took a nap and I was on the couch reading when I saw a huge splash of water out in the ocean from the corner of my eye!  I raced to the slider and sure enough, it looked like a whale!  I got the binoculars and went out to the patio and watched that whale jump out of the water for 10 minutes - it was awesome!!!

When Glenn got up, we turned on the TV and actually watched a couple of old movies that I had taped!  I figured that there would be some evenings that we might want to watch TV - I had hoped that their Dish would be the same channels as our Dish and that we could watch some of our regular shows - NOT!!  But there was one channel that has old movies on it so I went through and had taped a few just for days like this!

Now all we needed was some popcorn (which I never thought of buying!!!)

Day 13 / Community Service

This picture was from the night before  - Glenn decided to do NIGHT fishing in the kayak!!  REALLY????  I was a little worried the entire time he was gone as there are basically no street lights on the beach and it's quite dark!  But he taken the little flashlight with him and assured me there would be no problem!  And of course he did just fine - came in soaking wet but he caught a fish - a trigger fish!  That makes excellent cerviche!

 Glenn was waiting patiently for me when I returned from my walk as he was taking me out for breakfast!

 When we were eating breakfast one day, we talked to a gentleman who told us there is a very poor village up towards the mountain and if we had brought down any clothes or could spare any food, that the people would be so grateful!  I immediately remembered passing out bags of beans and rice when I was on the missions trip to Nicaragua so we checked the supermarket for large bags of rice or beans but they only had the small ones.  Luckily our neighbors were heading into Cabo the next day to go to Costco so we sent money with them and this is what they came back with!

 I bagged up the rice and beans and this next week our neighbors and us will deliver  the packages. 

We were invited for dinner that evening to the neighbors, along with 2 other couples.  What a great evening visiting with all of them and hearing about their travels!

Day 12 / Looking Ahead

Glenn was up at 5:30 to go on a fishing trip with 3 other guys - I had been awake since 5:00 anyway so got up quite early!  There were a few clouds to the east so I was hoping for a fantastic sunrise and it didn't disappoint!!

 On my walk this morning the hotel down from us had put their dock in the water and there was a boat heading out to fish!  Amazing how they just put this in the water and then take it back out!

Colorful beach towels!

The guys didn't have any luck fishing............a great time but no fish!!  I finished up my 5th book and decided I really should do some word puzzles or color in my coloring book (since I drug it along with all my gel pens) but did I?  Nope - another book was calling!!

The last couple of days Glenn and I have checked out 3 other casitas that are in our price range as possible places to stay if we come back next year!  We didn't go inside of course as they all were rented but at least we could see them from the outside, see how far they were from town, check out the road situation and also check out the beach!  2 have already been eliminated but there is one that looks like it would definitely work!  But I have to admit, that one doesn't look as great as this one!!  We're pretty spoiled now hanging out in this cute little place and having the hot tub at our disposal, along with neighbors we've already met!  So time will tell if we come back here but at least I'm already one step ahead in knowing what I would want the next time!!

Day 11 / Photo of the Day

Day 10 / Valentine's Day

I woke up early so climbed to the roof to see if I could get some cool sunrise pictures - but the sunrise wasn't great although I did take quite a few pictures!

 Another nice relaxing day - if Glenn isn't out fishing, he's doing this!!  (spotting with the binoculars)

 I took a long walk in the afternoon - I've been walking barefoot on the beach ever since we arrived to toughen up the bottoms of my feet!!  But after my afternoon walk, they were pretty sore!!  Some of the sand is more like small gravel in places!

 After sitting in the hot tub with the neighbors, we went out for Valentine's dinner - I wanted shrimp - and we weren't sure if the restaurants were doing just one or two meals or if you could order off the menu!  We stopped at Tia Pablos as we have eaten here before and the gal said yes, you could order off the menu.  They had breaded shrimp but I'm a garlic and butter shrimp person so was disappointed when I saw they didn't have it.  But towards the bottom of the menu they had "brochette" shrimp.  I asked the waitress what that was and she said "squares".  I looked at Glenn and said squares?????  Somehow I just couldn't imagine shrimp in a square!!  But I ordered it anyway and guess what it was - skewers!!!  We laughed and laughed!

 The shrimp was just OK so a little disappointing............oh well!  It's the Valentine's thought that counts!

Day 9 / Photo Of The Day

Day 8 / My Morning Walk

I LOVE my morning walk!!

 I've decided this row of boats should be called "the ships graveyard".

 Can you imagine catching a fish so large that it would fill this space while hanging???

Day 7 / Hot Tub Fun

Perfectly still out this morning - awesome!!

Coffee out front - reading a great book - this is Mexico life!  We headed into town late morning as their is a market from 9 to 12 - we bought some asparagus and strawberries, then stopped to get a few more groceries.  Once again I was amazed at the low cost!

Then we were off to eat the fantastic $1.50 tacos!

When we got back to our casita, I could see that we had a couple of visitors!

 Later that afternoon Del and Linda started filling the hot tub - the water comes from a hot springs just down the road a little ways - you just turn a valve to hold the water and then when you're done soaking, you just open the valve and it drains out to the sand!!   No chemicals, no heater!   We figured the water was about 103 degrees when we got in.  I missed getting Del in this picture!

 So we had a very enjoyable time visiting and enjoying the hot tub while looking at the ocean!  What a great day!

Day 6 / Full Moon Delight

The ocean was like glass this morning - Glenn was thrilled to go fish in the calm water.  I was totally surprised at how cold the sand was again - in fact, I ended up walking close to the water so every time the wave came in it would cover my feet since the water was warmer than the sand!

My day was planned - reading!  Glenn decided to take the kayak out since it was so calm!  A perfect day for it!

 I enjoyed my day immensely!!  Some people stopped by from Canada to peek at our casita and the casa and it was fun visiting with them.  Glenn had just came in with the kayak when I took this picture - ONLY IN MEXICO!!

 After an excellent fish dinner, I headed outside and up to the roof to take pictures of the full moon - we really couldn't see anything of the eclipse but didn't expect to!  The moon was gorgeous on the water!

WOW - LOVE those full moons!!!