Hola everybody:

The holidays are over for some of you and for some there never really was much of a holiday and that's just wrong but such is life and your turn will come. As for us the Christmas holidays were fairly uneventful in that it didn't feel like Christmas or New Year at all but merely an extension of what we were doing already which is basically relaxing and doing what we feel like doing. I know....it's really painful sometimes to not have much of a plan but one gets used to it fairly quickly.
We have moved to a really nice hotel in La Paz from la Ventana. Garth was a gracious host but it was time to move on. If you don't kite board or wind surf there really isn't that much to do in La Ventana. It's a very small community. There is another community next door but it's only slightly bigger and caters mostly to the same clientele.
Our hotel is very close to the centro. It is new and our room has a cupola ceiling which is pretty cool. I also have internet access which means I don't have to carry my laptop to a cafe in order to check on my emails. Stan gets pretty impatient when I do that and I don't really blame him. This is so much better.
La Paz would be a hard city to negotiate without a car. There is very little public transport as most people seem to drive. It is reputed to be the richest city in Mexico and it shows. There is a general level of affluence here which isn't found in the other Mexican cities we know. A surprising thing about the driving is that drivers are generally less aggressive here than on the mainland. Surprisingly they mostly obey the posted signs and aren't as crazy about speeding as the drivers on the mainland. Another interesting fact is that many cars on the roads don't have any license plates, neither in the front nor on the back. This is something new and it's very puzzling to us. Having a license plate appears to be completely optional. Weird!
On Christmas Day we were invited to a party that a neighbour of Garth's was throwing so we went back to La Ventana. It was wonderful to have turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. The deserts were really good as well. It's difficult finding food that we can truly enjoy unless you want to pay a bundle. We can't do that because we're traveling for a long time so we have to make some choices when it comes to the food we eat. Cooking was sometimes a drag but now we're eating every meal out and that can be a pain too. Oh the joys of traveling.
The party was cool with mostly Americans and Canadians. There was a couple there, in their fifties, who had already biked from Washington State. They were going to bike all the way to Tierra Del Fuego, wow that's quite the distance on a tandem bike. Some people really know how to live their dreams. Interestingly we also met a Polish couple from Cleveland, Ohio. Stan was able to speak Polish and that was a treat for him.
We had a great time with them.
The rest of the week went by fairly fast. We've been visiting some nearby beaches although I have to say that none of them compare to the ones that can be found on the mainland. The Sea of Cortez does resemble the Caribbean in its color but at this time of the year it's rather cold or at least colder than the Pacific on the mainland which is what we were used to. The beaches are also rather small. Tecolote is the biggest beach close to La Paz and although it's very pretty it's not a long beach and there are hardly any waves. Strangely enough the Sea of Cortez appears to have no tides at least none that are readily discernible to the naked eye. The shoreline always appears the same. When the wind blows there are waves but although there are whitecaps they are never very big. However because it's not quite as hot as on the mainland it's easier to enjoy leisurely walks on the beach without getting burned and the sand is a pretty white colour.
On Monday our friend Kaiulani picked us up at 8:00 and we were off to Cabo San Lucas. Stan was able to enjoy the scenery for a change without having to worry about his driving.
We drove through the town of Todo Santos which is very posh and quaint with lots of pricey boutiques and restaurants. Quite cute actually but small and the beaches nearby are all too dangerous for swimming. There have been quite a few drownings in that area. The beaches are mostly for surfers but right now the waves are not as gigantic. It's the riptide you have to worry about. It's incredibly strong. We didn't want to risk it.
Cabo San Lucas is apparently one of the hottest tourist destination in the world. Only 15 years ago or so it was a quiet, sleepy fishing village and now it's home to mega resorts. It's got beautiful hotels, a malecon, a big, relatively empty, mall, a marina filled with imposing yachts and it's got the ARCH. You've probably seen it in a few pictures of Cabo, it's the iconic signature of the town. We didn't take the boat to the arch because I had an appointment to swim with dolphins. Yes I finally got to realize one of my dreams.
It started at twelve. I was one of two without a wetsuit although the water was cold initially you forgot all about it fairly quickly. I thought our time interacting with the dolphins would be limited but it was almost for the whole hour. There were 5 groups of 10 and each group had its own dolphin. the pool is very big.
My dolphin's name was Richo and he was 28 years old. Dolphins can live up to 40 years in the wild and probably longer in captivity. He was very smart, eager and playful.
We were in the water almost right away and he was swimming right beside us. We were allowed to touch him everywhere except near where his blow hole was. The skin of the dolphin feels like silk. There are absolutely no asperities, he is completely smooth. We could touch him as much as we wanted and he didn't seem to mind one bit. He gave me a kiss on the face and the mouth (not yucky, same texture), he took me for a ride while I held on to his dorsal fin, we did a dance and then a hug. There was a girl taking pictures but they went for $25 U.S. a pop so I'll just have to keep the pictures in my head. I had already paid in american dollars to do the activity. Our dolphin also performed some acrobatic stunts, riding the pool on his back tail while balancing a ball and jumping to incredible heights. It was a truly magical experience.
I know they are exploiting them but they do seem happy although it's hard to tell since they always have that smile on their face. I want to believe ours was happy. He was incredibly willing and giving.
New Year's eve was not that exciting. We went to a restaurant, walked on the malecon and then watched it on T.V. while drinking some beer, no champagne to be had. Today was the first real cloudy day but tomorrow is going to be beautiful so we will probably go exploring another beach.
We want to stay here as long as we can because the weather is too miserable back home and the thought of driving north is not that inspiring. Bundle up wherever you are and try and keep warm. I've posted some pictures of our trip on Facebook if you have a facebook account.

Hasta luego, Feliz Ano Nuevo,

Josiane

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Hola everybody:
Hope you're all well and if you're a teacher you're either gone somewhere warm or shoveling snow. It seems there is a lot of snow this year even in the Okanagan.
We left Melaque on Sunday of last week without any incident of note. The weather was beautiful and hot, nothing unusual about that. We took a "libre" to the town of Guyabitos which is another seaside resort on the Pacific coast. The beach was very long, you could see for kilometres and there were very little waves because it's quite shallow in that part of the coast. Guayabitos is frequented mostly by Mexican vacationers and the beach was quite busy something which we were not used to in Melaque where much of the beach was relatively empty. We found a nice hotel and I bargained the guy down for over 10 dollars which isn't much but hey every little bit helps. What was eerie about Guayabitos was the almost total absence of gringos. We had heard that it was quite popular with Canadians and Americans alike but many of the hotels appeared empty and competition was quite fierce to land the few gringo dollars floating around. Mexico has been hit hard by the economic downturn and many Canadians and Americans are staying home or flying in for shorter stays. Melaque was the same although there were more Canadians there than in Barra de Navidad where Americans usually stay. All the " restauranteurs" were complaining and businesses were going to have to close or lay off personnel.
The next day we left for Mazatlan hopeful that we could secure a spot on the ferry leaving for La Paz on Wednesday. The road from Guyabitos to Tepic was absolutely harrowing. Think of a slalom run and imagine that road. It was twists and turns, no shoulder, cars crossing over the middle line, cars wanting to pass etc... all in all quite a white knuckle ride which I didn't enjoy very much. This went on for almost 80 kilometres and felt more like two hundred. I forgot to add that we were climbing as well. Mexico is quite mountainous and the roads follows the sinuous contours of the land. In Canada we would just blast the shit out of the mountainside to make straighter roads but they have a different way of doing things here. In any case thanks to Stan's expert driving we made it safely to our destination. We rented a room at the Siesta again in the old section and it felt a bit like deja vu since we had been there almost 2 months earlier. Our room was right beside the old corner room we had had that first time, not quite as big, but the view was just as spectacular.
On a slightly different note and something I forgot to mention can you guess which fruit is grown the most in Mexico? No it's not bananas, not pineapples, not oranges, not papayas....the answer is mangoes. I have never seen so many mango orchards, they stretch as far as the eye can see and the trees can grow to some pretty prodigious heights. We're still trying to figure out how they pick them and nobody is able to provide a satisfactory answer. I wish I could post my photos so you could see how big they are. I forgot my cable at home so I may have to go somewhere and download them onto a disk in order to post them.
We were able to book the ferry for Wednesday. It was a night crossing so we took a cabin. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 5:00 but was two hours late departing. All the big trucks had to go in backwards. Unlike our ferries you exit the same way you loaded. We didn't suffer from motion sickness. We barely felt anything, that road trip was much worse. We arrived at the port of Pichilinga and were greeting my a lot of military and extra security. Stan had to go with the car and I went another way where I had to give my index finger for verification and answer a whole bunch of questions from an overzealous official. I didn't have my passport with me so I had to give him my driver's license instead.
Stan, on the other hand, was asked for no identification at all but the car and the luggage were thoroughly searched for drugs. The big drug cartel from Tijuana controls this area and many parts of Mexico are being ripped apart because of the ongoing battle for turf between the cartels. There is also heavy military and police corruption. Twelve heads were just discovered 2 days ago in the state of Guerrero. The fighting is spreading to many different states. We are not going to linger in Tijuana on our way back that's for sure.
The Baja is beautiful and very dry with huge forests of cactus. The Sea of Cortez almost looks like the Caribbean. It is a beautiful green color in some areas alternating with blue. Garth has a very nice place in La Ventana which is a paradise for windsurfers and kite boarders because the wind roars in starting around 11:00 to 4:00. The beach below his property has very coarse sand so it's not the greatest swimming beach but the water is incredibly clear and there is a small coral reef not far away. We will be staying here till the beginning of January and then we will be looking for our own place to rent.
This computer is outside and I have a beautiful view of the ocean as I'm typing with palm trees swaying in the still gentle breeze. The best time to swim is at 8:00 in the morning when the water is calm. It's quite a sight though seeing all the kite boarders out there, they seem to go incredibly fast. I'm not much for extreme sports and neither is Stan so we will have to content ourselves with looking. Christmas will be spent at the neighbour's geodesic dome. I will be cooking a turkey in a gas over for the first time. On the 26th, I think we will go exploring Todo Santos and figuring out where we will be staying in the New Year. We want to wish you all a Feliz Navidad and a Prospero Ano. A few individual messages can be found at the bottom.

Josiane and Stan Feliz Navidad a todo