Baja Bound

Baja Bound

We will be leaving in about 1/2 hr. for Baja. We are taking a bus south to Los Mochis and then going to catch the ferry at Topolobampo. We will then catch the overnight ferry over to La Paz where our housesit family will pick us up and then we will drive to their home near Las Barriles.

I will continue to post from over there and hopefully have lots of pictures.

Til later.

Mothers Day and Baja

Mothers Day and Baja

Thursday was Mothers Day in Mexico; although we waited and celebrated it on Sunday, old habits die hard. I spent most of the morning calling and talking to people. Calling landlines in Canada is easy from the computer and very cheap. The voice quality is very good and as my mother put it, it sounds like you are right here. It was nice to catch up on all the family news, I don't phone as often as I should and my excuse is, that with not having an actual telephone I just don't think of it, and I don't.

We later went out for dinner at La Barca and as usual it was very good. We both had the enchilada plate, and this time they were chicken. Sometimes they are beef, you never know and we never ask as it doesn't really matter to us. The usual refried beans and some salad rounded out the plate, with of course the usual coke to drink. The bill came to 100 pesos for our dinner, (about $10.00). After we finished eating we stopped at a store so that I could pick up a couple of things that I was needing yet for our trip to Baja.

We have been busy getting all our ducks in a row for Baja. We have all the bills paid up until the end of July and pretty much everything is ready. I did the laundry this morning and then packed my clothes, which wasn't a big deal as we are not taking much. The house that we are going to be housesitting at for the next 2 months is right on the beach of the Sea of Cortez, so we expect to be spending the majority of our time in shorts and bathing suits. We are taking all of our snorkeling stuff, so by the time you pack 2 pr. of fins, etc. you don't have much room to pack many clothes unless we want to drag a truck behind us.

We will be leaving Thursday morning on a bus south to Los Mochis and then will take the overnight ferry from Topolobampo over to La Paz where our housesit couple will pick us up Friday morning. We will then drive to their home in Las Barriles an hour or two south of La Paz. I doubt that we will get much sleep Thursday night, so I am sure that we will be tired the next day.

I intend to continue blogging and posting photos while we are gone, if the computer connections function. They have been having trouble the last while, both with their computer and their connection; but hopefully have it fixed now. If not there are internet cafes in the town, which is only 6 miles away. So for the next 2 months we will be the new parents of 4 cats, which will be nice, as I still miss my pets that had to be left in Canada.

2 Years Of Blogging

2 Years Of Blogging

It doesn't seem that long ago; but yesterday was my second blogging anniversary. Two years of putting my thoughts down on virtual paper. I started out on Windows Live Spaces; but quickly got frustrated with it and switched to blogger. Altogether I have made 346 posts.

When I started blogging in May of 2005, we were planning our October trip to Mexico, supposedly only to escape the Alberta winter. Well, as you know, things changed and we have been down here ever since, (other than 3 mths. back in Canada to get rid of everything). Amazing how much ones life can change in 2 short years.

At the moment we are getting ready to head to Las Barriles, Baja Sur to do a housesit for 2 mths.. We leave a week from today and will head down to Los Mochis/Topolobampo by bus and then over to La Paz by ferry. Should be an interesting trip. We will then spend the next 2 mths. looking after some kitties and a home on the beach, on the Sea of Cortez. We will be looking across the Sea of Cortez from the other side for awhile. It should be a quiet time as the home is 6 miles out of town. We are looking forward to it.

Back To Normal

Back To Normal

Well, yesterday was "fat Tuesday", so it was the last day of Carnaval here. We didn't go to the parade, as I was supposed to have spanish class. I am becoming "muy frustrado" with my spanish classes. Last week I made the trip to San Carlos 4 times, and actually had the teacher show up for 1 class. This maybe doesn't sound like a big deal to you; but for me it kind of is. You see I need to leave home about 10 minutes before 2 PM to catch the local bus uptown, then I have to wait for the San Carlos bus and catch it, arriving in San Carlos just before 3 PM when the class is supposed to start. After the hour class is over at 4 PM, I have to catch the bus back to Guaymas and then my local bus home. I arrive home about 5 PM. So I am taking 3 hours out of my day for this 1 hour class. Yesterday we (the students) all arrived and again the teacher did not. We sat around for awhile and then headed home. I realise that the teacher had a personal problem last week and I have some sympathy for her. What I don't have sympathy for, is the fact that she does not contact anyone to let us know that she can't make it to class. She just doesn't show up, and before someone reminds me that this is the way things are done here, the teacher is not a mexican person. I am still deciding whether I will give her another chance and go out there tomorrow or not. I just feel like I am wasting my time the last couple of weeks. I badly want to improve my spanish; but this is not happening when there is no class/teacher. We (the students), joked yesterday about starting our own class. Some of my fellow students will begin leaving shortly, as they are "winter" residents, so I don't imagine that the classes would continue through the summer anyway. I am beginning to think that I may just quit now and try to find something else after we return from the Baja in July.

Speaking of the Baja. We chatted on IM last evening with our housesit lady there and they have booked their tickets for their vacation. We will be leaving here on May 17 th to go over there and will be returning sometime after the 11th of July. We intend to take the bus to Los Mochis and then another one to the ferry terminal at Topolobampo. Then take the ferry over to La Paz, where they will pick us up and drive to their home, which is not quite a 2 hr. drive south. They live out in the country about 6 miles from a town, right on the beach. We should have a nice time there with their cats and are looking forward to it. Of course, before we get to do this, we have to head back to Albuquerque, New Mexico for 2 weeks in mid April, so we are going to have a busy and interesting spring.

Yesterday I made homemade baked beans and put them in the slow cooker to "bake", they were good for a change. You can't buy baked beans here, so we haven't had any for almost a year.

We are out of coffee, so I need to go to the store today and need to get a haircut soon. We are thinking of going down to the sea also. With the "cold" weather and my classes, it is quite awhile since we have gone and just sat and watched the birds and the waves.

Saying Farewell

Saying Farewell

We managed to get the laundry done yesterday and some other housecleaning. Roy washed off the patio and also washed the car. A hard days work, ha, ha.

Today we had made plans to go for lunch with the people from Saskatchewan that are staying in the RV park in San Carlos. They have to leave for home on Thursday and we wanted to get together before they left. She runs a greenhouse there and needs to get back as she has to go and pick up some plants in Winnipeg by the end of the month. I don't envy them having to go back at this time of year. We met them and went for lunch and then went to a couple of shops and the Belles Artes to look at the paintings, etc.. By this time, it was time for me to go to spanish class, so we said our goodbyes and I headed to class. Roy took them back to the campground and then he returned home. We have enjoyed spending time with them and will miss them; although we will stay in contact by computer and possibly Skype.

It looks like we will be going to the Baja to do a housesit after we return from Albuquerque at the end of April. The Baja sit is supposed to be for 2 months, from the middle of May to the middle of July. We will probably bus south to Los Mochis and then take the ferry over to La Paz. We have been wanting to take the ferry over to Baja, so this will be a perfect time to do it. We are looking forward to it and hopefully it won't fall through.

I have homework to do for tomorrow, so time to get at it.

We're Back In Guaymas

We're Back In Guaymas

We started out our little trip on Sunday evening. We were getting our stuff together when Ciro came up and told us to just knock on his door when we were ready and he would drive us to the bus depot. Wasn't that nice. The bus was supposed to leave at 9 PM, so shortly after 8 we knocked on Ciros door and he drove us to the bus depot. He asked if he should come in with us; but we figured that we could manage as we have before at various stations. The clerk couldn't get her computer to run, so we stood at the counter for quite awhile before getting our tickets. We took a TAP bus and the fare was $311.00 pesos each (about $31.10), the regular price was 400 or so; but there is a discount fare on right now. Not bad to travel 800 kms. (about 500 miles). Ciro must have thought we were having problems as we were at the counter for so long, and he came in just as I was asking if we would have to change buses. Ciro listened while the lady told us that we wouldn't have to and then said his goodbyes. I guess he figured that we were fine. We really appreciated not having to lug our bags on the city bus to get to the station.
9PM rolled around and no bus, we waited until almost 10:30 PM before it came. Everyone was hanging around outside as it was a nice warm evening. A bus from the same company went whizzing by and everyone just stood and watched it. We all looked at each other and laughed and shook our heads. Sometimes there are alot of checkpoints going north so we are assuming that is why he was late. It finally arrived and we boarded and got settled. Once we got aboard we realised that we had lucked out and unknowingly gotten a better class of bus than we expected (there are about 3 classes). We thought we paid for a regular bus and ended up with an "elite", there is also a "primera" class. There was a really nice leg/foot rest and lots of room. The trip was uneventful and we dozed off and on all night, arriving at San Luis just before 8 AM. We asked some people where the border was and luckily for us it was only about 5 blocks away. We walked over and crossed in a couple of minutes. We found a McDonalds to have breakfast at and phoned Roys sister. They arrived and we headed to Yuma.
We spent Monday visiting, we were tired and didn't really feel like doing too much. In the evening we went to a campground where some people from the same area as Roy is from in Alberta, were putting on an impromptu music show. We sat outside, watched the sunset, listened to the music and visited. A very nice evening.
Sunset in Yuma.


On Tuesday we did a bit of shopping. The bookstore didn't have the spanish books that I had written down; but I did find a couple of other ones which look pretty good. We then took a drive around Yuma. We saw many RV campgrounds and places where they just boondock. I knew that alot of snowbirds end up there for the winter; but had no idea that there were that many. We drove around old town Yuma and out to the dam, stopping and visiting with some people camping close to it. We were told that pre 911 there was a picnic area near the dam that has now been closed for security reasons. We also saw many of the vegetable fields with people working hard harvesting, not a job for me! We returned home and had a wonderful seafood dinner.
Views at an area fairly close to the dam.


Wednesday afternoon all of Roys family that overwinters in Yuma got together for a potluck meal. There were about 15 of us there and it was a great afternoon/evening of good food and better visiting. I am not sure that there is anyone left in Alberta in the winter after driving around Yuma, never mind all the other destinations for snowbirds.
We had decided to leave Thursday morning, so we headed out to San Luis just before 9 AM. When we had arrived we had checked the bus schedule and had been told that the earliest bus left for Guaymas at noon. We wanted to look at a couple of things before leaving so thought our timing would be fine. We parked and all 4 of us walked across the border. After a block or so we said our goodbyes and went our own way. We stopped at a shop and I got what I was looking for and we headed for the bus depot. We thought that we would buy our tickets and then go and eat somewhere. When we got to the bus depot one fellow told us that there was a bus leaving in about 20 minutes so we bought tickets on it. This was a Pacifaco bus and this time we got the "economico" class, our tickets were $271.50 pesos each (about $27.15). This time we didn't have the nice leg rest and the seats were abit smaller; but it was still comfortable and of course the movies still ran non-stop. After an uneventful trip we arrived in Guaymas about 8:30 PM. We walked over to a restaurant to eat and then caught a taxi home. It was a great visit; but it is good to be home also.
While we were away we got an email from a lady on the south Baja, so there is a possibility that we could be spending 2 months there in the spring, housesitting for them.