Sea of Cortez Christmas morning 2014

 

Rattlesnake beach, our new home for the winter.

Click on the link below to check out our Youtube video, Christmas morning 2014! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVuv1Fqytd8

 

It's about the fish

It has been just over a month and we have managed to settle into the Baja lifestyle quite nicely.  Lots of activity and lots of happy hours with friends on the beach.

I am trying to get back in the swing of a daily exercise routine, kayaking, a little yoga, walking and even a short 5 km jog in the morning (thanks to my little sister making me feel lazy).  Ken and I have a 14 km mountian bike loop we do every other day or so, nothing too crazy but we are both glad to be a little more active than we have been in the last year or so.  Throw in some bocci at happy hour and I think you have a good cross-training schedule.

For Ken it is all about the fishing right now.  He is loving his new 3.40 mt Zodiac and it is just that little bit bigger for those days I go out with him.  The weather has not been too windy so he has been able to go out fishing close to every morning and very rarely comes back empty handed.  I am learning a whole lot of new fish recipes, not to mention we have tried our hand smoking a few times with a few different recipes.  We shouldn't go hungry anyway!

We have been a few short motorbike rides and Carl has offered us his sailboat to use but so far we are just happy relaxing on the beach.

Christmas is less than a week away, and tis the season...potluck appies on Christmas eve, potluck dinner Christmas day (complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and brussel sprouts), a bon-fire New Years Eve and a potluck brunch New Years day, you'd think all we do is eat down here!!! 

We put out a hummingbird feeder at our campsite and now have a variety of birds visiting us daily.  This is a Costa male hummingbird, sporting an iridescent purple head.  While having my morning coffee I have to sometimes duck as they whiz by fighting over space at the feeder and males fight over the females.

On one of our site-seeing bike rides into Agua verde we stopped to take advantage of water over the road...a mexician car wash.

The view of Agua verde from the viewpoint on the top of the hill is always breathtaking.  It was a pleasant surprise to find the road had been paved for 10 km in from the highway, with another 8 km of gravel to the top of the hill and 7 km down to the beach it makes for a great afternoon ride from our beach.

An assortment of seabirds sit on some rocks along the shore, a pelican, gulls and some blue footed booby-birds.

Ken has been going fishing crazy!  Here he nets another dorado, this one is a female and while in the water it's black and when you bring it in the color changes to yellow then silver and blue...really, I saw it with my own eyes.  They are good fighters in the water and just as good on the grill.

Cleaning his catch on the beach, Ken feeds the locals...pelicanos that is.

One mornings catch; a sheepshead, two cabrilla, and a spotted leopard gruper.

Our neighbour, Iron Mike, has a smoker and we have borrowed it a few times, smoking fish when we have too much to eat fresh.  We have found our favourite type is a teriyaki black pepper flavour.

Another season in Baja

Another winter season and here we are in Baja, Mexico.  We have missed 2 years down here and some things have changed.

The drive down through the States was good, three days to Yuma (where we stayed with Chris for three days, shopping for a few things we realized we were missing for the trip) then three days to Loreto.  We took the Calexico crossing and went straight down the Mex 5 to San Felipe then through to Coco's Corner and Chapala.  After 365 km the pavement stopped 5 km south of Ganzaga Bay, they are working hard to finish but the remaining 65 km was a little rough for our size rig.  We had just a few casualties on board (one broken plate and a cook stove that fell from its' perch in the trailer) but the worst was the camper trying to slide off the back of the truck as we bumped and ground our way up a few hills where the roads were washed out a bit by the hurricane this spring.  Thanks God for good tie-downs!  Roads that were sand and washboard the last time were now stone and ruts made from dried mud.  It took us 3 1/2 hours to travel the 65 km.  Funny thing was, we saw six semis creeping along the same road undoubtedly trying to cut off kms but surely taking more time in the process.  Maybe we will take the Mex 1 home in April...or maybe the road will be better by then after 5 months of work???

Glad to be in Loreto, we stayed at the Riviera RV Park for two days to do laundry and clean up our act before hitting the beach.  As luck would have it, the Baja 1000 was running through Loreto on the second day and we dragged our butts out of bed early to check out some of the lead drivers.  This year over 1200 km of nasty off-road track and by 6 am, when they reached Loreto, they had been on the road for 18 hours and still had about 5 hours to finish line in La Paz.  Dirt bikes, trophy trucks, buggies and cars of all sizes and even quads, what fun and not to mention the crazy and talented drivers/riders!

Now we are settling into life on the beach.  El Juncalito, where we have stayed many times is deserted and overgrown, so sad, so we have set up camp at Rattlesnake Beach or as the Mexicans call it El Quemado Beach (the burnt beach).  It may take a little getting used to the change but the spots are little more private and the wind is not as bad as it blocked in the north by Port Escondito.  Ken has already been out fishing and caught lots Sierra, a cabrilla and his pride and joy a 25 lb dorado, so we have been eating and giving away fish and making ceviche for happy hours.  The kayak and the paddle board have both made a couple of showings when the winds were down, oh and we made the trip up to San Javier Mission with Carl on the bikes.  The water is still quite warm, around 26 degrees C, so we have been swimming every day.

Come on!  Who can say "What do you do on the beach for that long?"

We had some great scenery on the trip down, high in Nevada snow-capped mountians frame the horizon.

I just never get bored with the sunset fromour camp at Pete's Camp north of San Felipe.

Everything is green in the desert after the rains of Odie.

It was a bit of a lonely road south from San Felipe to Coco's Corner.

The welcoming sign to Baja South, our GPS agreed we were half way down the Baja.

People camped out along the aroyo waiting for the Baja 1000 racers.  The first bikes started to arrive at 1:00 am...too early for us.  We arrived at 6:00 am in time for the Trophy Trucks.

We did manage to catch a few of the stagglers on motorbikes, picking their way through the water in the aroyo.

Crap, that truck is catching up to the quad way too fast, and the rider on the quad takes the time for only a quick look!

No safety ropes here to stand behind.  Ken gives the driver the thumbs up.

Here comes a buggy.

Carl and I on our bike ride to San Javier.  Loreto in the background, this day a Princess Cruiseliner was in port.

Ken's Dorado, he is one happy fisherman!

A busy summer at Home

How can you complain about at summer in Canada?  We can't!

We spent the summer visiting friends, looking for new wheels and accomodation...a camper and spending time with family.  Ausgust was spent at Ken's mom and dad's place and Sept. and Oct. at my folks place, during this time we took several bike trips on our bikes, what fun.  The time we spent in B.C. this summer really made us apreciate the country and area where we live.  

But, never mind the good time this summer, the weather is turning cooler (slowly) and it is time to try out our new digs on the road...we are off to Baja for the winter!

A beautiful ride on the 'Ice fields Parkway' with turquoise lakes and hanging glaciers in themountains. 

With two bikes it is much easier camping with more room for "stuff", even if we insist on traveling light it is always nice to be able to carry and extra thing or two.

Visiting Shaun and Iris in their new digs in Edmonton was a perfect, good company, food and a little retail therapy.

 

Good friends George and Christine where in Canada from Austria and it was great to catch up and do a little camping with them around the Chilcotin.

The CPR railway running along side Gates Lake on the Pemberton-Portage road on the way to Birkenstock PP.

What a great view from the top of Mt Gardner on Bowen Island.  We have been to Bowen many times and at last we had the time (and the weather) to make to 4 hour trek to top and what a reward...a very nice view of Vancouver and the surroundings islands and inlets.

One of the main reasons we love coming home is getting together with family and luckily most of Kens' family was around for a reunion at his brothers place in Sarrento.

We are so lucky!  Willie, a longtime friend from school, owns a helicopter and took Ken and me on a ride for the day as he checked on a few of his jobs around the Okanagan.  My first time in a helicopter...I was thrilled, what a treat!

On the flight by Summerland a big old billy goat smiled for the camera is we circled a couple of times to get a good photo.

Also from the helicopter we had a fantastic view of our place, nestled between the Okanagan Lake and an apple orchard and Bylands Nursery.

Roxanne and I got away for a girls weekend to New Denver, did a few walks , ate some good food and totally enjoyed the peace and quite at the Dome Quiote Inn (what a great place to stay if you are passing through).

When we come home it means so much to us, getting together with friends, good food and drink with great company.  A fun night with Carey and Connie, and our hosts Phil and Tracey in their new home.

On the road again with our new rig...and loving it!

Travelling in comfort with a motorbike

Tent trailers made for motorbikes.  

Down-Under lots of the bikes pull trailers.  With prices of accomodation in Australia and the vast distances you have to travel between them it is good to carry your bed with you and they do it in style down here.

Complete with kitchens and lots of storage.

Made for any type of bike.

The worlds fastest Indian

One of our all time favourite movies, being bike nuts, is 'The Worlds Fastest Indian' starring Anthony Hopkins.  The story which the movie tells is about a bike racer is NZ and his dream to make it big so it only makes sense that we would seek out and find the real thing while we where in the country.

The cast of the 'Worlds Fasted Indian' at the tourist center in Invercargill, NZ.

The body from the real bike Burt Munro raced in the 1960's.

The bike that was originally used in the racer.