Category Archives: Site News

Walking The Pedregal

One of my great pleasures living in Cabo is walking the Pedregal, the high-end residential area that affords amazing views of the city, the Sea of Cortez, the Cabo Marina, and the Pacific Ocean.

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On the days that we’re not playing tennis, I have several routes I love to walk.  On one, I climb to the top of the radio towers and have the most amazing view to reward my efforts.  That walk takes me over 350 meters of elevation climb, takes just over an hour, and I definitely know I’ve had my cardio workout afterwards.  I’ve started using a great app on my phone called “Pedometer” which tracks steps, distance, time, calories, elevation gain and daily goal progress and much more.  My latest addition to this wonderful walk is sprinting on the flat spots on the way just to ensure my heart rate stays up.

Another of my favorite walks is over to the Playa de Pedregal.  Ron will meet me there and we’ll spend some time on the beach.  The Pacific side has a rough surf that sounds beautiful and provides a constant breeze to keep us cool.

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The properties in the Pedregal and the views are amazing regardless of the route I take.  If I’m really lucky, some days I spot some whales blowing and breaching on the Pacific side.  Any day is a lucky day to be able to walk and enjoy such phenomenal weather and vistas.

At Long Last!

I’d never played tennis until I met Ron just over three years ago.  He’s been very patiently teaching me proper technique and fundamentals – I’ve had the benefit of the greatest instruction from the BEST teacher and I was starting to wonder (and I’m sure he was!) if I was ever going to attain a reasonable level of competence.

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I’ve felt a self-imposed pressure to play well so that it reflects well on Ron, who is truly a great instructor.  Ron’s motive has been to get me to a level of proficiency so that I enjoy the game, am able to play with him or anyone else, to play well and to be able to hold my own in both singles and doubles matches.

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At the end of February, we spent just over a week at Ron’s sister and brother-in-law’s magnificent home in Ajijic where they have a beautiful tennis court (thank you so much Mary and John for everything!), followed by ten days in Palm Desert where we played most days at our friend’s club (sincere thanks, Pete!) where he is the Director of Tennis.  After many hours of concentrated tennis on this trip, I finally “got it” and began playing with much greater consistency and competence.  All of those hours that Ron has invested in me are finally starting to pay off.

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I have a long way to go to be a consistently strong player, but I feel that I’m on the road and so much closer.  Thank you, Ron, for not giving up on me.  I love the game and am very excited to continue to progress and become a player that Ron can be proud of and that I now know I can be.

On The Road To Land’s End – Again!

Every year, Ron and I head up to the BNP Paribas Open Tennis Tournament in Indian Wells, California (www.bnpparibasopen.com).  As always, we watched some fabulous tennis and had an opportunity to catch up with many special and long-time friends (Bonnie and Don, Pete and Tony, Judy, Peter, Bob and Roxy, Bob and Winnie and so many more).

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We drive to and from the tournament every year, which is approximately 1300 miles each way.  We’re on the road home as I write this and I’m remembering how much fun we had with my Mom on this same trip to Cabo last November.

My Mom has always loved every aspect of travel and makes every experience a great adventure.  It’s such a delight to be on the road with someone who takes everything in and enjoys every aspect.  She has a child-like sense of wonder and curiosity – it’s a true gift at any age and especially for someone now in her 80’s.

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We planned our trip down in November, just as we’ve done on this trip, to get to Mulegé to spend Saturday night at the Hotel Serinidad, a fly-in hotel that has been a Baja classic for decades (www.hotelserenidad.com).  Every Saturday night features the Serinidad’s famous pig roast, which lures people with small planes to fly in from the States or other parts of Mexico and for people like us who are driving, to plan our overnight stop for this weekly event.

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The staff at the Serinidad know how to do a pig roast well, and it has become a real highlight on our many trips up and down the Peninsula.  Mom LOVED it, and she enjoyed every aspect of this legendary and iconic hotel.  There are some great memories and stories at this hotel, with pictures on the walls from famous guests of years gone by like John “Duke” Wayne, June Allyson and Dick Powell.  We’ll stay overnight and get an early start to ensure that we arrive home in Cabo tomorrow night.

We wish Mom was with us again on this trip and we’ll be thinking of her tonight.  Hopefully she’ll be with us again for this amazing trip next November!

Cataviña and Cabañas Linda (NOT!)

Back in November, our little convoy of two vehicles (Ron in the lead and Mom and I following behind) left Ensenada in the cool of morning.  The air conditioning was working in the Lincoln now, so Mom and I knew we would be comfortable as the day progressed and the heat of the desert intensified.

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Driving the Baja can be extremely treacherous as shoulders don’t exist and the road is extremely narrow.  Highway 1 is the only highway that connects the US to the southern tip of the Baja, so there is a lot of tractor/trailer traffic combined with passenger vehicles.  Defensive driving is absolutely required as you take the winding roads and twist and climb through the mountains.  We travel using walkie talkies, and there have been many situations when Ron has told me it is clear to pass when any sane person wouldn’t even consider it!  Mom was a great sport and never showed any nervousness or concern – bless her for her faith and confidence in both of us.  The many white crosses and memorials along the way are vivid reminders of the inherent danger this highway presents its travellers.

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The beauty of this desert landscape is awe-inspiring.  The variety of cacti and scenery will surprise anyone visiting this apparent “last frontier” for the first time and I am amazed and thrilled every time we have the opportunity to see it.  There are so few people to have actually driven the Baja, and my precious Mom is now among them.  It is an incredible experience and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to share it with her.

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One of the contests that Ron and  I play when we drive the Baja is “Who Can Spot The First Boojum”.  This is what  CaboBob.com says about the boojum (otherwise known as cirio):

“The boojum looks like nothing else.  It is often described as a giant carrot growing upside-down, with its root sticking up to fifty feet in the air.  It has a trunk and leaves, but o branches until it’s at least a hundred years old, when the trunk divides into two of more whip-like tops.  A fifty year-old specimen might be a foot thick at its base, and less than five feet tall.  It’s one of the slowest growing plants in the world, at a rate of a foot every ten years, which means a mature fifty-footer may be more than 500 years old. 

This photograph by Eliot Porter, entitled Cirio Near Las Tres Virgenes Volcano, Baja California (1966) is from the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

After plentiful rainfall, the boojum “candle” sprouts a flame of yellow blossoms at its tip, and its trunk is covered with small green leaves.  When water is absent, it sheds all its leaves to preserve moisture within the trunk.  The boojum is abundant in this two hundred mile strip of desert, but the only other place it grows is a small patch at the same latitude across the Sea of Cortez, in the State of Sonora.”

Ron sees people and families when he looks at boojums and I see dancers.  They are rare and special and no two specimens look alike.  Mom enjoyed them immensely as well as the elephant trees, the cardón (the largest cactus in the world that can grow to over sixty feet tall – often mistaken for its northern cousin, the saguaro), and the hundreds (literally hundreds!) of other cactus varieties found throughout the Baja.

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Mom and Alberto beneath a massive cardón.

We’d had a long day driving and it was starting to threaten sunset.  We’d planned on getting to Cataviña by nightfall as the last thing you want to do is drive the Baja at night.  We caught a glimpse in the twilight of the Boulder Field of Cataviña, sorry that we’d missed them in the last light of afternoon but excited to know that we would instead see it in the early morning light the next day.

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There is a charming hotel, the Desert Inn, just off the highway that we’d planned on checking into.  It is an identical twin to a hotel in San Ignacio to the south and both form part of a group of six hotels from Ensenada to Loreto that were formerly called La Pinta.  We should have called ahead – the Desert Inn was fully booked as the Baja 1000 was well underway.  Lots of racers, chase and support teams and had taken up all of the rooms.   We quickly got back into our cars and raced back up the road to secure a room in the only other motel in this little town called Cabañas Linda (not the kind of place that you want as a namesake, believe me!).

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The word “linda” in Spanish means beautiful and, believe me, this motel was FAR from that description!  Other than driving on to Guerrero Negro, we really had no other choice unless we wanted to sleep in our cars.  Since that wasn’t an option, we secured the last two rooms available.

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The rooms were princess pink – from floor to ceiling – PINK!  We were laughing with some racers that were staying in a room next to our two rooms – a double bed and bunk beds that were top to bottom princess pink.  Hilarious!  Doors that wouldn’t lock, furniture that was picked up, we’re sure, at roadside flea markets, bedding that you definitely wanted to keep your clothes on to lay upon, and bathrooms fixtures that you stood well away from!

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Mom was a great sport about it all – in fact, far better than her daughter.  It was her first truly authentic Mexican experience outside of the tourist destinations that my parents traveled to over the years.  She said it reminded her of a story that my Dad told of staying somewhere once where he listened to the sound of beetles falling from the ceiling all night.  Sometimes you’re tired enough that you can sleep anywhere – literally!

At eleven o’clock, the motel turned out the generator that ran the lights and power and I worried that Mom would have trouble finding the bathroom when she got up in the night.  I thought knocking on her door to tell her what happened would scare her even more, so trusted that she would be careful and find her way safely.  Lesson learned: always have a small flashlight in your travel bag!

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The motel knew what they were doing as no one would stay there past day break and they had ample time to turn the rooms over.  They had a café on site that only served instant coffee, so everyone staying at the motel headed south to the Desert Inn for our cup of java instead.   We drove a short distance north again to take in the Boulder Field in the morning light.  Boulders as big as large buildings and cacti growing out of nothing but rock – absolutely amazing!

Cataviña Boulder Field

Cataviña Boulder Field

Gratitude

This is going to be a very short blog. I just wanted to acknowledge how grateful I am for the life I’m living here in Cabo with Ron. We wake up every morning to another perfect day and rarely with a set plan. After a lifetime of working , it is pure luxury to sleep until your body is rested and not to the annoying sound of an alarm clock.

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It occurred to me tonight as I was preparing a marinade for some steaks we’ll be sharing with our friend, Angeles, tomorrow. I needed fresh lemon juice and grabbed my flashlight and headed behind the house to pick the lemon I needed from our tree. For the Spaghetti Olio y Aglio I was preparing a bit later, I needed fresh parsley and walked out the front door onto our deck and clipped the fresh herb from our Tower Garden.

Our Tower Garden

Our Tower Garden

We just shared a wonderful week with our dear friends Peter and Sherry – one of the great perks of living in a tourist destination is that we always have lots of people visiting us. We have several more friends scheduled to arrive over the next few months and it is such a delight and privilege to share some of our life here with them.

It’s been a horrendous winter in Canada and parts of the United States, and here we are in Cabo in the middle of January living such a different and special life. I’m incredibly grateful for the love and life we share – thank you, Ron.