Hola Everybody:

I hope the snow is melting just like the evil witch in Wizard of Oz but if not spring is just around the corner.
Weather in Baja is mostly predictable although it does get windy sometimes and if it blows from the north you do need a sweater to go out at night. Again I'm not complaining. We're still in sandals, capris and for Stan shorts so it's definitely better than Canada at this time of the year.
On Monday we went for a drive and ended up further than we had originally anticipated. We headed for Los Barriles which is another windsurfing, kite boarding hangout. The day was beautiful, clear and sunny with only a little bit of wind. Los Barriles is about 2 hours away from La Paz and there appears to be a fair bit of gringos there, afficionados of the two sports mentioned.
We stopped there for lunch and went to this cafe which appeared to be a throwback to those old fashioned diners which used to be so common in the U.S. at one time or another. Not surprisingly it was owned by Americans which would explain the nostalgic feel to the decor. The woman who owned it was baking fresh cinnamon buns and the smell was quite heavenly. I just had to have one so I took one to go after we had our lunch. I find it hard to resist that smell. It was as good as I thought it would be, maybe better.
We decided to continue on to San Jose and Cabo and go for a boat trip to Los Arcos.
The scenery was spectacular with the Sea of Cortez peeking around corners of the road and the stark desert silhouetted in sharp contrast. Baja is home to the tallest cardons in the world. Cardons are cactuses. They are quite a site indeed. Some can grow to a height of 50 feet. We've seen some at about 30 feet but we're still looking for that elusive 50 feet wonder.
San Jose was busy with traffic so we pressed on to Cabo impatient to make that boat. A boat wasn't hard to find. I bargained the guy a bit impressing him with my command of Spanish....haha It does help though. While on the malecon, the last time we were in Cabo with Kaiulani, she distinctly heard a guy said that prices are 50% less if you speak Spanish. It's only fair. There is a price for gringos and a price for Mexicans.
We hopped on the boat with our two strapping guides who insisted they had to stop for some refreshment of the alcoholic kind. "No hay problema".
The boat was glass bottomed so they took us near some reefs where we were able to observe many colourful fish. Stan was very happy. They threw some tortillas into the water and it was a regular feeding frenzy.
That whole area is quite magical. The rocks are volcanic in nature and full of holes and mysterious crevasses. There are lovely beaches punctuated by beautiful, white sand. We took some nice pictures but I can't download them onto Facebook just yet. We will have to wait till I get home. Because the guys like "our command of Spanish" they decided to take us to where we might be able to see some whales. There were a couple of other boats and they had seen some whales so we waited and were not disappointed. We saw our first 3 whales that afternoon rising out of the water with their tails held aloft. It was a majestic site. We will be going to Puerto San Carlos where apparently they can get so curious that they literally rush out to meet the boat.
Yesterday we spend most of the day at the beach and although we didn't swim we were able to walk the whole length of the beach without getting a heat stroke. There were only a few other people and we had a great spot sheltered by a sand dune.
Today we had a leisurely breakfast at our favourite restaurant. It's cheap and delicious so we keep going back.
We went to see Garth in La Ventana but he was away again. We have been going to the movies a fair bit since they have a Cinepolis in La Paz with about 14 or 15 screens. Today we went to see Vicki, Christina, Barcelona, the latest Woody Allen. Allow me a small critique here. W.A. has been mining the same terrain for far too many years. His mother lode has certainly run out. He has moved the action from New York, to London and now Barcelona but it's still the same old-tired "shtick". He pretends to savage all the bourgeois trappings while unable to portray anything else. I still enjoyed it mostly for Javier and Penelope but I could really sink my teeth into this one if I were writing something serious and the result might not be pretty.
We're staying in La Paz till the 20th and then the road odyssey will begin anew. Love to hear from all of you. Hope going back to work isn't too rough. Hasta luego,

Josiane

P.S. I know it appeared as though I didn't like Vicki, Christina, Barcelona but on the whole I have to say I rather enjoyed thanks in part to Penelope Cruz.

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