San Antonio and Baja California, Mexico. February 2022

 Fort Lauderdale to San Antonio

I left Fort Lauderdale on February 25th. I arrived late that evening in San Antonio. Daughter Gaby, her husband Rick, and daughter Amelia were there to pick me up. The next day we did a few visits to deliver the German visiting student, Nikita to her dance group competition and we went to pick up a soundbar I had bought for the Perkins television which had a very tinny sound. I later installed it and it improved the audio quite a bit.

The next day we all went to Fredericksburg about an hour north of San Antonio to see a play called Clue. The young people all sat together. During the play, one is expected to choose the villain of a murder, the site of the terrible act, and the instrument used.  We all had a great time. Caleb actually figured out all three correctly and I got a big zero.  We then went to dinner at a nice Egyptian restaurant and had some typical middle eastern food.

I show a few pictures of us at the Egyptian restaurant at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aNYSGJqxaTUGqjVz5

It was great to catch up with the Perkins family as I had not seen them in over a year. Because of Covid they did not come to our house in Canada in the summer as usual. At Christmas 2021, they all came up but I had had an eye infection so I did not make it to Labelle for Christmas. The kids have matured and Caleb is now close to 6 feet tall.  Amelia is on the school swim team and trains intensely. They both were fun to see again. Nikita, the German exchange girl fits well into the family and has learned almost accentless English.

San Antonio to Baja California, Sur, Mexico

On Monday, Gaby dropped me off at the San Antonio for my United airlines flights to Houston and then on to Cabo San Lucas in Baja California, Mexico.  The flight from Houston to Baja is about 3 hours and it was a clear day so I was able to see the geography of Northern Mexico. I was amazed to see how arid it is. Nothing seems to grow over huge distances and the landscape looks almost like the moon.  Flying over Baja, I realized that the landmass is much bigger than I thought. In fact, Baja is the second largest peninsula in the world at about 70 to 100 miles wide and 720 miles long. Again, in the southern part of the peninsula, this is an arid country where one sees very little green growing outside of large cacti. Apparently, in the north, it is a more Mediterranean climate.

We landed at the very new and spiffy International terminal of Baja. Formalities were smooth and I was out in 20 minutes of landing.  Dunstan Chicanot, a friend of mine from Montreal was there to greet me. Chic, as he is known, spends his winters in this area and we had agreed to meet up and travel around southern Baja for a few days.  Chic has a van he lives in on the Pacific coast where we would eventually visit before I left.

Baja to Pereira, La Paz, Todos Santos and Los Ceritos Beach

We picked up a rental car from Avis and headed north towards Los Bariles area where I had reserved a couple of rooms for the night. It is only 100 kms north so we took our time. We realized a little too late that our reservation was in fact in a small village south of Los Bariles, so we overshot our destination and had to backtrack a few miles.  We eventually found our Hacienda Las Palmas in the small village of Ribeira.  It was a family house with some which an American had converted into a B and B with some 5 rooms. It was a jewel of house with a beautiful garden.  I have attached some pictures which can be seen at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VcQud9yppdcYW5YH9

Interestingly, water in Baja south is very scarce yet there is construction going on everywhere.  Even in the small village of Ribeira there already is a 4 seasons hotel with 141 rooms which rent out for US$ 3000 to US$ 5000 a night although it is located some 100 kilometers from the Baja airport and guests have to take an hour bus ride to reach the place. In addition, we were told, Marriote and El Aman hotel chains are currently building even more expensive hotels on the same stretch of beach.

We had two rooms in our Hacienda which were quite adequate. The owner had made an effort to decorate the place nicely.  There was even a stained glass window through which the sun shined. You can see this window in the pictures below.

After a visit to the beach which was deserted, we hit the road for El Triunfuo where the Hacienda owner had recommended we lunch in the Cafe El Triunfo.  This turned out to be a rather large restaurant, again owned by an American, housed in what used to be a house owned by some Chinese person.  El Triunfo is a two street town which used to be prosperous while a silver mine was being operated.  Now there is nothing going on except this cafe.  Some pictures can be seen at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XXDkN8H2RPyDuDJK8

After a nice lunch, we continued north heading to La Paz, capital of Baja Sur.  When we were approaching the city, suddenly I found a police car on my tail with lights flashing. I pulled over and two cops came over to tell me that I had not stopped on the white line and that he would have to give me a ticket.  When he told me that he would withhold my licence and that I would need to pick it up the next day at the police station, I asked whether there was not an easier way to resolve the problem.  He said I could pay the fine directly to him which I did.  He pocketed the money, returned my licence and we went on our way. I was furious, of course, but such is the corruption in Mexico still today. 

We checked into the Hotel La Posada Beach in La Paz where I had reserved a large room. In fact, we ended up with a 2 story room with a jacuzi on the second floor with a view to the ocean. La Paz is a fairly large city built around a huge bay. Its main attraction is a large boardwalk of some 15kms with parks and open spaces.  It is a tourist town with a huge number of eateries.  Interestingly, one hears little if any Mexican Mariachi music as it is not poplular with the Baja people.  Their spoken Spanish is also much less colorful than on the mainland as it is spoken without many accentued words used elsewhere in Mexico. I have a few pictures of La Paz at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FFBeS7x3JiL1svDP7

While we were there, we visited the state museum which is across the street from the museum. I also had a moment to have a haircut at a barbershop which has been there for over 100 years.  The barber who cut my hair told me that he had worked there for over 60 years.  

After a day and half in La Paz, we went on south towards Los Cerritos Beach whcre Chic keeps his van. On the way, we stopped into a little town call Todos Santos for lunch.  We met up with an American girl Chic knew called Laura.   She makes her living making and selling leather-bound diaries.  We visited the complex where she rents her room. The complex belongs to an American woman who used to teach art in California. She has lived and worked there for 20 years and the complex is almost a museum itself. While I was there, I bought a birthday present for Monique's upcoming birthday.

 Pictures can be seen at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RKcyPy92XPHJ3Yh38

After lunch, we headed on to Los Cerritos, where I had booked into an AirBnB which I thought was on the beach but which was about a mile inland.  It was a desolate place in the middle of scrubland with some 4 or 4 box-type houses, called Smallhouses.  And it was small.  The beds were on raised platforms only 4 feet to the ceiling.  Chic went back to his van for the night and I settled into my small house. There was a small cafe on the premises where I had a bite to eat and then went to bed.  The next morning, I met up with Chic for breakfast at a litle cafe not far from the beach. In fact, Los Ceritos is popular with surfers as the waves can be high enough to be a challenge.  The water is cold as it is the Pacific and surfers all wore wetsuits.  There is a lovely building on the right which is empty as the builder intended it to be a hotel but never got the permission to open it and it never was opened.  The Cerritos beach is also an RV park and there were about 50 units ranging from small vans to large bus-like units, mostly Americans.They form an interesting community but almost all are season visitors and the place will empty out by late April as people head north.

Pictures of Los Cerritos can be seen at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4Zjm4s1PArSfgAQ7A

After a long breakfast, I said goodbye to Chic and headed south to the Cabo international airport.  It was about a 90 minute drive on very good roads, including a new road which avoided the city of Cabo San Lucas and went straight to the airport which is on the east side of the peninsula. I returned the car and checked into the airport hotel for the night. We had travelled 300 miles in the 4 days on the road. I enjoyed seeing the area although I do prefer more green and temperate climates rather than desert and brown ones of Baja.

 I did my Covid test on line and tested negative which meant I could fly out the next day as planned.  The next morning, I was driven to the airport by the hotel shuttle, boarded my plane and arrived late in the day back  home at Fort Lauderdale.

It was a short trip, but it was fun to travel again after several mnths at home. 

Tamarac, Florida

March 18, 2022