Category Archives: Casa de Catalina

Day One

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Palm Grove

Woke before the sun.  To match the approach of winter, she shifts her arc farther south, rising over the middle of Isla Carmen.  This morning, the skies were crystal clear, not even a breeze ruffled the surface of the Sea.

Walking north, the great heron stood – nearly as tall as me! – fishing on the shore.  Beyond him, the white egret, his cousins the fluffy egrets and a small herd of sanderlings shared the shallow feeding grounds.

I inhaled deeply the sea air.  Put my hands in the water and reminded myself to devote more energy to whatever means I can muster to both protect and enhance all the seas.  I feel my life path shift beneath me … I open my arms to the challenges of re-crafting a life beyond the mid-point.

This is day one of my move to Loreto.  The small city is now my residence; a change from my retreat.  Although in some ways, I suppose having my home as a retreat is actually quite awesome.  As I type from beneath the palapa on the beach, a flotilla of pelicans and blue footed boobies dive bomb in formation, the second set of feeders to entertain me this morning in these shallow waters.

Yesterday’s flight was late in departing Los Angeles.  A hilarious combination of a stuck gas valve, missing flight crew, changed planes, and then a push-back device that broke and could not be detached.  By the time the Horizon Air flight arrived in Loreto, the Mexican shippers I had hired had come and gone.  Gratefully, my neighbor Diane, had told them just to put the boxes in the space between the house and the garage.  The driver, Javier, called in the evening to confirm that I had arrived and that everything was okay.  Back to that leap of faith .. the trusting of those I had never met and only dealt with on the internet .. to delivery my belongings intact.

I’m thinking it’s that same leap of faith – the one that brought me to purchase this home five years ago against the advice of almost everyone – that has led me to this move.  The palms have grown taller.  The palapa fronds and tiles changed out.  I’ve come to embrace the idiosyncrasies – like no water for a day or two – that make living in Mexico unlike living in the states.

My intention for the day is absorption and rest.  My surroundings here on the edge of the sea inform what I feel is the best of me.  It’s taken a while to arrive.

Leap of Faith

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First steps in the big move …

Tonny’s crew picked up all 52 boxes last week and headed for the warehouse in Chula Vista, where they’ll stay until they are loaded on the bigger truck bound for Loreto.

I had spent two weeks sorting and tossing – itemizing each box with contents for their border crossing.  It was only the morning of the pickup when I realized I had 52 numbered boxes and a very complete bill-of-lading, but not one box had my name on it.  What would happen to box #17 if it fell off the truck somewhere between the states and Loreto?  It would be lost forever; no way to find itself home.  Hastily, I printed out labels with name, address, phone number and applied them to each box.  Silly me!

When the truck left Laguna, I was thinking of what a leap of faith I had taken.  I’d never spoken to anyone in the company, but had exchanged multiple emails.  Tonny had been chosen on the recommendation of my next door neighbor, Rachel, who had used their services to haul furniture to her home in Cabo.  So with little more than – here you go – I gave the driver a check made out to the wife of the man who would do the long drive, a map to my home in Loreto, in exchange for a checked off list of the numbered boxes that were loaded on his truck and an expected delivery date of October 25.

I love this process … in some ways so perfectly like falling off the edge and letting the universe work it’s magic.

The dream of packing ….

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Ha Ha!  No one ever dreams of packing – unless it’s a kind of nightmare.  But packing is now my middle name as I sort/toss and organize what to carry from one phase of my life into the next.

It’s amazing how much one collects in a lifetime … I mean, just how many sets of colored pencils does a woman need?

My next door neighbor in Laguna Beach, Rachel, has connected me with the packers that she used to ship furniture, etc to her home in Cabo San Lucas.  Tonny has been great with emails and estimates, and as I hone down what I actually want to take with me, the ‘ship’ date gets closer.  He said it was no problem to stop in Loreto.

Now it’s anticipation and excitement as new opportunities and alliances begin to surface in places I could not have imagined.

Mexico here I come!

A home by the sea …

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Dawn on the Sea of CortezThis first time I set foot on the property that was to become “Casa de Catalina,” my mind flashed a message : “This is where we come to get well.”

It had been a brutal year with the death of my brother and the loss of my mother’s home in the Laguna landslides.  My marriage was shaky and work had lost some of it’s glimmer.

As I stood in the patio of a home I was not quite sure I could afford, the message seemed so clear.  I could hear the voices of my friends laughter.  I could see their faces radiant with smiles.

And so it turned to be exactly that.  Little did I know then, that I’d find myself living in Loreto more than not, but life throws those curves, and an opportunity that I cannot resist has presented itself to me.

So now, sunrises on the Sea of Cortez every morning.  Beach walks with a small pack of dogs.  Great neighbors and the intimacy of a small community.  Waters teaming with life and beckoning for underwater – as well as above water – adventures.

I am reminded by all these twists in the pathway I had imagined, that there are few certainties .. but many open roads …..

Where I’m going …………

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Baja California

Casa de Catalina

About 2/3 down the long length of the stunningly stark Baja Pennisula is the city of Loreto, once the capital of California. Home to the first mission in Baja in 1697, the town has grown from a small fishing village to a city of approximately 12,000 residents. The economic focus remains on tourism and fishing, but a healthy school system and a campus of the University of Baja California insure continued growth of intellectual resources.

Approximately one mile north of the city near the water’s edge sits Casa de Catalina.  This is where I’m headed …..

Palapa on the beach...

August Thunderheads

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August Thunderheads

Sultry summer days with the humidity almost as high as the water.  The skies open to wonder and as the winds pick up, the chance of shower increases by the hour.

Everyone drips and whines about the temperatures, yet the summer is so beautiful.  The easy days of spring have given way to the late blooms that are stark in comparison with the dry desert.  A wild array of pink shrouds the mesquite.  Yellow blooms on the cactus and a flowering vine beckon birds and bees that provide a hum against the background of sea slap and wind rattles.

Time for a tall glass of iced tea and a book in the hammock. Lazy afternoons just begging for siesta.

Predawn Beach Walk

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sunrise

Sunrise over Sea of Cortez

Predawn clouds hang heavy over the water.  The dogs and I head north along the shoreline before the sun has crested the horizon.  It is cool, moist, and quiet.  The beach near the house is deserted. Maybe the natives are taking an extra hour of sleep on this lovely Sunday morning.

The usual ‘cast of characters’ greets us.  The pelicans, the terns, the flocks of gulls.  The sea is still in the early hour.  No wind yet ruffles the surface and one could be deluded into thinking it is a lake.

Last night, lightning storms provided a brilliant display over Isla Carmen, with bolts running the length of cloud to sea.  This morning, the left-over clouds drift as if untethered from anything.

For me, this morning is a walking meditation.  I begin with gratitude – how lucky I feel for friends, family, the chance to do creative work.  Grateful for the curious life I have chiseled out of the years that allows me to experience this very moment between night and morning.  This space on the sand next to the sea.

Sorrows slide through the same thought bank.  My brother Gly’s death just two years ago still marks a hollow spot.  Yesterday would have been his 59th birthday, and I miss him.  He was a gifted musician and a full-hearted soul who lost his way in a sea of substances that eventually took his life.

As if on cue, I notice three locals who, from the looks of things, have spent the night on the beach.  The area around their car is littered with empty beer cans, but still, they party on.  One of the young men plays a guitar and the others sing.

I think of how Gly would have liked it here.  His two great loves were fishing and music.   I wish he and I could have had the time to be here together.

I shake off the sadness and remember the joyful conversation with my sister, Claudia.  It was also her birthday yesterday, and she and her husband had taken their canoe to Magic Reservoir south of Bellvue, ID where they live to celebrate. Two years ago she had been here to celebrate my mom’s birthday and mine.  Photographs from that week brighten the walls of Casa de Catalina.

A young Mexican man casts a net over a school of leaping bait fish.  When he hauls the white line back, it is filled.  Buster and Shorty stop to inspect the shimmering silvery fish that spill from the net.  “Pescaditos”(tiny fish) I tease him, and he smiles in response.

The sun inches up over the water line and a shimmer of gold light mirrors on the water’s surface.  Day has begun its spin.  The dogs and I  finish our walk at a rocky point, then turn and head for home.  We play stick toss in the water on the way back.  Shorty’s not much for swimming, but Buster thrives on leaping into the water and retrieving what he finds. He drops his ‘catch’ on the beach and barks until it is again tossed.

As my morning meditation comes to an end, I find that I am again quiet inside, filled with a sense of fullness and peace with this life .. this finding my way one footstep at a time.

Thunder & Lightning

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Palms Sway
Brown Booby Flies into the Storm
Storm Clouds Building
Lighthouse and Clouds
Panga Heads for Home

Cloud shrouded sunrise gave way to darker clouds rolling in from the south.  The wind picked up and the dogs and I took to the beach in search of ?? whatever we might find.  Lightning bolts zapped from cloud to sea surface and thunder rumbled across the water.  Still no rain.

We looked at shells, watched brown boobies soar on the currents and pelicans chase pangas that were racing back to marina trying to outrun the storm.  Buster picked up another feather.  Shorty tipped his white toes into the water.

About an hour later, the wind crested and the storm rumbled through.  Ampified thunder bounced between island and the peninsula and BIG drops started to fall.

It as almost as if I could hear the earth sigh.  A long time ago, I had produced a photo series called, “The Desert Dreams of Water.”  There is such magic in the desert landscape – a flash opening into scents that remain sequestered under the hot son.  The blend of sea smells and the moist landscape is nearly hypnotic.

As with most summer storms, the darkness passed – almost too quickly – and left a whitish grey cloud clover with soft drops that continue to fall.  Can’t wait to see the rage of flowers in the next week.