We are now staying in a beautiful 2 bedroom/2bathroom condo in San Jose, overlooking the Mayan Golf Course and a magnificient view of the ocean. The condo is very well decorated and very quiet. Since we are located in a protected bay, we can see whales leaping out of the sparkling ocean or just spouting (clearing their blowholes) while they are migrating to mate and give birth to their calves. Once we had a breathtaking spectacle of whales breaching, when a whale propelles itself out of the water and through the air to land on its back with a splash. Very impressive!!
Each day is more beautiful than the last, with bright sunny warm days with hardly a cloud in the sky. (+- 28C daytime and +- 15C at night). While the rays of the sun are very hot, it can actually feel cool in the shade since there is very low humidity. At night the cool temperatures make for great sleeping. No need for AC, which is wonderful.We are very happy with the location of the condo since it is a 15 min. walk to downtown San Jose as well as a 15 min. walk, in the other direction, to a large shopping/grocery store (Wal-Mart style). You would not believe the view of the ocean that we have when coming out of the shopping centre. No where else have we ever seen such a splendid site from a grocery store.
Almost daily we buy all our fresh fruit, veggies, fish and meat at the ‘Mega ‘ store. While we had a rental car for a week, we took the opportunity to drive to San Lucas (22 miles from San Jose) to stock up at COSTCO where we were even able to find blueberries, raspberries and blackberries just like at home. In fact, a lot of the products (like the Kirklands brand) are available there as well as beer, wine, etc. So what’s not to like about the place...
We bought an old fashion charcoal BBQ which David has now mastered. We asked the property manager of the condo to buy a patio table which he delivered a few days ago. We already have had people over for a beautiful lunch on the balcony.
There is a big pool with 2 covered areas (palapas), and a beautiful seating area with wet bar/stools for get togethers. We have not used the pool too often as the water is quite cold. The only things lacking in the condo are the satellite TV and internet access. However, we are renting TV series that we never watched at home from a local BlockBuster. As for the internet, we found several places where we can go.
Los Cabos is a big tourist destination with nearly 2 million visitors each year. Most of the locals speak some English, which makes our life easier but makes it hard to learn Spanish. It is a beautiful place to stay but it cannot be considered an authentic Mexican town.
The area contains some of Mexico’s most lavish resorts, five major championship golf courses and master planned communities with multi-million $ homes.
David brought his fishing rod and has gone fishing twice, on the beach, sort of in front of the condo, and has caught 1 fish so far. He plans on taking a panga (23’ boat used by local fisherman) to improve his success rate but is waiting for the water to warm up and the fishing improves.
The beach in front of the condo (10 min.walk) is not safe for swimming because there are big waves crashing onto the beach creating dangerous undertows. However we went to a local beach (with some American neighbours with a van) which is safe for swimming where this is a rock formation, soft sand and lots of fish to see when snorkling.
We have explored a good portion of the old San Jose, with its beautiful main square adorned with a wrought iron band stand and shaded benches, a cathedral which was build on the site of an early mission. There are plenty of good restaurants which we are just starting to sample as well as lots of art galleries, shops, cafes, etc. This coming Saturday we are planning on going to the organic market with our friend from the Consulate. The market, located just behind the old San Jose can accommodate up to 150 vendors where we can find just about anything under the sun. It should be fun. We will write about it on our next ‘blog’.
La Paz
Last Sunday, we rented a car for a week and went travelling north of Los Cabos. We left early Monday morning, made a lunch, and drove through the mountains for about 1 hour until we reached Los Barrilles. We walked on the beach looking at the beautiful Mexican houses and less beautiful campsite. Pretty little town with more gringos , (baby boomers/hippies driving ATVs on the main road) than locals. Not really our style; too quiet, too remote, nothing to do but beach and fishing.
After lunch we kept driving to La Paz where we stayed in a hotel near the ‘Malecon’ for 2 nights. We had an excellent dinner at the La Pazta restaurant (Italian/Swiss); the trendiest restaurant in town! The following morning we took an all day tour to Isala Esperitu Santo and Los Islotes to swim with the sea lions. It is the largest sea lion colony in the Baja. There were stunning rock formations (whale and mask) and we stopped for lunch on a remote beach.
These sea lions are wild animals and blowing bubbles in your face is their sign of warning, not of play, which we took very seriously.
It was a wonderful day, with lots of sunshine,very little wind/waves. On the way to the island we saw a whale shark (just beside our boat) as well as a school of dolphins swimming under and around the boat.
That evening we had dinner in a local restaurant with a local singer (not the typical Mexican music for tourists, but very local and very very nice).San Carlos
The next morning we drove 3 hrs through beautiful desert mountains with plenty of cactus and occasional awsome vistas of the sea on the way to San Carols/Bay of Magdalena for the whale watching. We stayed at ‘The Alcatraz Hotel’ in the middle of a very small and dusty Mexican fishing village. The Bay of Magdalena is a reserve where around 350 grey whales come between January and March to mate and give birth to their calves. At 8 :30 a.m. on a very cloudy day we left for our excursion with a young Mexican university couple who spoke little English. The water was quite rough and once in a while there was a drizzle (very unsual for this time of year, we were told), and of course very windy.
After being on the boat for 45 minutes, we reached the mouth of the bay and saw several whales swimming close to the boat. Of course, every time we wanted to take a picture, the wales dissapeared below the waves/water. We saw plenty of whales, took dozens of pictures, but only 3 showing their backs. By far, the highlight of this excursion was when a very young calf came within a yard of the boat to look us over. The calf kept swimming around and under the boat until its mother called him home... Unfortunately, all that happened so quickly and we were so excited that non of the pictures that we took captured the calf and mother. Apparently February is the best month to watch the mothers and calves swimming, so unfortunately we were a bit early to see the big show.
After 3 hrs of whale watching we had lunch in the only fishing village on Magdalena Island with of 110 adults and 30 children. Our lunch consisted of very big shrimp provided for free by our tour guide. After lunch we headed back to San Carlos where we offered the young Mexican couple a lift back to La Paz before continuing on to Todos Santos.
Todos Santos:
Todos Santos is not only a cultural oasis in the Baja, it is an oasis in the true sense of the word, and it enjoys an almost continuous water supply from the peaks of the surrounding mountains. The town consists of colonial style structures filled with shops and galleries and cafes.
We decided to stay at The Hotel California which is the source of inspiration for the Eagle’s song of the same name. A few years back it was a dilapidated guesthouse, but after an extensive renovation, it is now the hottest place to stay in the area. We had the second biggest room of the hotel, i.e. a suite, with 2 balconies; a small balcony with a view of the Church and a larger balcony overlooking an outdoor terrace and seating area around the pool. The décor of the hotel is a fusion of jewel-tone colors with eclectic Mexican and Moroccan accents.
It is now owned by a couple from Vancouver and we spoke to Ms Schreyer, the co-owner, whose father’s cousin is Ed Schreyer, ex-GG in Ottawa and ex High Commissioner in Australia when we were posted there… talk about a small world…We had dinner at an excellent Italian restaurant; ‘Restaurante Tre Galline’ (stands for ‘the 3 chickens). We spoke to Angelo/the owner from northern Italy and he made sure that we had a fine Italian meal, which we did. The next day we visited many of the shops/galleries and Lucille bought some organic beauty products from Heartsease, a spa boutique owned by a Cdn woman from Winnipeg…who lives there 6 months of the year. After lunch we headed for home, which was 1 ½ hr drive along a single lane mountainous road following a bunch of double trailer trucks…, Passing was almost out of the question, very dangerous and slow, so we took our sweet time getting home.
We were very happy to get back to the peace and quiet of our condominium. The next day David took his clubs to the golf course, arranged to store them for the duration of our stay, and played his first round of golf, which he enjoyed very much. He did not want to rent an electric cart, so he walked the entire 18 holes. Congratulations David.
That is all for now folks, we will keep you posted.
David and Lucille
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