Category Archives: San Juanico

July next to the Sea

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Hot hot and humid!  Water is mid-80s.  Air is 90s and up.  Folks hunker down under palapas and in rooms chilled with A/C.  My dogs melt like puddles in burrows dug in the sand.  Not looking for China with their digging – just a cool spot.

Good friends Val & Barry won the ‘other fish’ category of the Fishin’ for the Mission tournament held this last week.  They caught a 58.6 lb yellowfin tuna!  Sashimi for all! (and I heard, a hunk of canning).

Arrived in the new terminal at Loreto.  Quite the change with its lovely arched roof and everything new.  The A/C is greatly appreciated by both staff and travelers.  I hear that when I leave, I still have to go to the old terminal to have my bags xrayed – then back to the new terminal for departure.  Only in Mexico, right?  But that’s part of what I love about this place.  It matches my ‘make it up as you go’ philosophy.

Settling down for a quiet day with books and writing.  La Paz beckons with possible web work … and San Juanico for some time with friend Cynthia and some surf.

The magic of Mexico.

The Baja Friendship List Grows

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It seems that every corner, every turn, provides another opportunity for friendships.  Some come in surprising packages – like Cynthia Wagstaff of San Juanico, who is friends with my sister, Claudia, in her other home in Sun Valley, Idaho. I met Cynthia in a restaurant, and she was sure that she knew me. After some chatter about where & when in our lives, we discovered the connection.

Or George Granger from Santa Barbara, who I met surfing at second point in SJ.  He is good friends with Hulsey Williams and Marc Johnson, both of Laguna Beach.  And Dennis Choate, who builds big boats.

And the connections : Wes, who is Donn’s friend from Mammoth and is just finishing his beautiful home in SJ.  And Angela, who teaches yoga at her studio – Baja Jewel – paints with oils – and has a huge soulful heart.

And Martine, a Brit, decidely an ex-pat, who I also met surfing.  He was kind enough to extend an invitation to join him, Cynthia, and her husband Cal for dinner at their SJ home where Martine is a guest.

And Bob, Mike, Terecitia, and Julie .. Eduardo, Chino, & Maria …

And of course, Donn .. who took me under his SJ wing, caravaned with me from Loreto across the dusty peninsula, and showed me the lay of the land.

Friendships .. everyone .. Lucky the time in Baja.. always lucky.

Wild Trip to San Juanico and Beyond ..

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ROAD TRIP~  with stove, parties, friends & whales.

And I mean – road trip!  Left Laguna mid-morning with overnight in Guerro Negro. Great dinner – as always – at the  Malarrimo Restaurant.  Got up before the sunrise and headed east.  Watched the sun slip over the lip of the Sierra as we dropped down the grade toward Santa Rosalia.

With great luck and no traffic, we pulled into Loreto around 11 AM.  Got the truck unloaded, and on call – Carol’s connection – Richon – arrived to look at the stove and what I need for installation.  No one believed I could get a stove installed in one day.  This IS Mexico. But I was driven and committed.

Val Wilekrson

Val Wilkerson

Barry and Val came by to chat – and stayed 🙂  That’s how it works in Loreto.  Richon brought Juan.  Alexander came over.   Jeanne stopped by and brought her girlfriend, who was fresh from fishing with Chris & the boys.

Steve was deep into rum & cokes until he realized that all the orifices on the stove needed to be converted from natural gas to propane.  Sobered him up (grumpily) fast .. and the job was done.

In the meantime, Jeanne kept saying she wanted to go to sleep and have tomato soup .. but now Steve was grousing about dinner.

Carol & Lee Boyd at Meditarraneo

Carol & Lee Boyd at Meditarraneo

We were supposed to eat at Mediterraneo, Carol & Lee’s excellent restaurant on the Malecón, but now it’s after 8…. and cranky is a good word to throw out. .. So.. with grand and gracious spirit, Jeanne opened her freezer, found ground turkey and a meat loaf was created.

There were potatoes at the house from Boots & his wife Arianna who had been staying while they searched for a place to live.  We mixed russet and sweet for mashed, crafted a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes.. and celebrated a feast.  Alexander had gifted Jeanne a bottle of tequila for her birthday, and this was the time to enjoy.

Wild night and tired, Steve and I crashed down.  Woke early for sunrise and a morning of client work – while we had DSL internet connections.

Catharine Cooper, Dennis Choate, Steve Kawaratani, Bill Clute

Catharine, Dennis, Steve, & Bill

We made an overnight stop in San Juanico where we partied – is there a theme song here? – with old friends and new. We were the guests of Dennis Choate and Donn Stein in their hacienda complex. Donn lent his palapa for the night .. sheets were hastily changed and the party began.

Dennis had good friends, Bill and his daughter, Cathy, staying in his guest house.   Once upon a time, Dennis and Bill had been arch sailing rivals, but now, spinnakers aside, they are best friends.  Dennis builds boats – Transpac and more – at his shop in Long Beach – Dencho Marine.

It might have been the case of wine we brought down for the boys, or maybe it was the fabulous food of the local chefs, but the evening was one of great revelry and memories were created out of deep laughter.

Sailboat racers, surfers, bikers ….. and thank god for the morning after – coffee drinkers.  Bill – you are forever my hero for the espresso!

We all drank too much, ate too much, and laughed harder than we imagined possible.  Dueling iPods provided music and Bill, CC & Steve traded iPhone tricks and info.  I woke up next to my vitamins .. Cathy in her clothes.  Too much fun …………..

Quick check of the surf, not much happeing, and Steve and I jumped back in the Hummer for the drive north along the salt flats to San Ignacio Lagoon.

Baja Just Works That Way

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Cormorant Takes Flight

Every trip south I am rewarded with new friends. Seems that Baja just works that way. From casual conversations in the airport to more detailed ‘get-to-know-you’ ones on the actually plane ride, and the chance encounters .. Are there chance encounters?

This trip, a meeting with Johnny Friday, the proprietor of Baja Ecotours, with whom Laura McCants, Lynn Brown, Eloise Coopersmith, and I will journey with in February to San Ignacio Lagoon. We’ll spend three days visiting the migrating grey whales and their young calfs, paddling kayaks in the mangroves, and getting to know each other better – along with new friends.

Johnny also runs a dive operation out of La Paz. I’ve booked time with him for probably August .. whale sharks and manta rays are in my scopes.

The International Conference for Sea Turtle Conservation is held annually in Loreto. At a reception, held at the stunning home of Linda and Tony Kinninger, I was able to spend some time speaking with Wallace J. Nichols, who is with the Ocean Conservancy, and had spent the last year as President of the Turtle Foundation. We spoke a bit about the video script I’ve written .. and the filming of Bill Bahn .. as a conservation educational piece to gather support for Marine Reserve programs in northern California. A popular item with conservationists .. a tough sell to commercial fisherman.

Good friend, Alexander, had been out of town for the party, but he arrived two days later with one of his life long buddies, Gaston. Gaston is a restauranteur in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and was filled with wonderful stories of life in the north. He also cooks a mean risotto.

Not to be overlooked, the chance meeting of two great guys – Dennis Choate and his friend Donn Stein, who offered up a guest house in San Juanico – if I ever make it to the other side.