Day 5: Pescadero

Trust me when I tell you: The rest of the time was spent either by the pool, on the beach, or by the fire pit. We were practically slithering with relaxation. We'll likely come back. When the world gets too much and our communication is mainly grunts and one-word texts, we shall return.

Because sometimes doing nothing...is everything.

Day 4 - La Paz

Okay, so we had to get off our butts. We had a rental car! And there were beaches to explore! So we drove north and then across Baja to get to La Paz and some of the beaches around that area. The beaches? Are lovely. La Paz? Not so much.

I will show you this selfie so you can see my awesome hipster cat T-shirt.

The drive to La Paz looks like this, over and over again:

Actually, that's probably the most attractive part of the drive. La Paz is not a pretty city. The approach to it, even less so. Traffic, dirty, rude, scary, ugly. It looks like it was designed by someone who's imbibed too much tequila. Actually maybe it was designed by tequila. 

We got a little lost on the way to the beaches, but ended up at Balandra Beach. It's warm, clear, and calm. You can wade out forever and still be only up to your knees. Kind of reminded me of Jericoacoara, in northeast Brazil. Except Jeri didn't have a wasp that followed me around and which Justin heroically smote by clapping it between the shoes he carried in his hands. (Seriously. That was amazing. As I watched its mean old dead stinger ass fall into the sea I turned to my husband and said, "I have never wanted you more than I do right now."

 See? Another sniffy. I'm strange.

Balandra! There were maybe 20 people at this beach? Delightful.

We then went into La Paz to check out the Malecon, the street by the harbor. It was...eh. We got some decent ice cream but then just felt like going home at this point.

The Clamato Zone was kind of funny though. Zona Tourista? No! Zona Clamato! We did not go in. 

One redeeming feature: The seal trash cans. Put trash up a startled sea mammal's ass, yo!

El Malecon.

Giant oyster.

Yeah. After this we bailed in time to catch the sunset at the B&B. We were done. 

El Pescadero - Day 3

Day 3

We journeyed to the beach to the north of us. You have to go over this hill. The trail's not real clear. It was warm. I was a little apprehensive. Like the scree in Maria Island. That was harder, actually. But we kicked its ass. That was fun.

Panoramic from the top of the hill. Beautiful. Empty. This beach had a lot more debris on it. Lots and lots of driftwood. Like downed soldiers. 

We then went back to our whale-watching perch (i.e. chairs by the pool) to contemplate this for most of the day:

Oh look, another freaking sunset. Sorry! We were boring. This was a do-nothing trip. We have plenty where we are traipsing all over the goddamn country. This was not one of them. 

Actually this whole trip should be titled "Sunsets 'n' Selfies. Sorry.

(not a selfie if relaxed happy spouse takes photo)

Silly sunsets 'n' selfies. 

#thisis40 and no Botox!

 Oh hey! A sunset.

We got off our collective asses the next day -- La Paz.

El Pescadero - Day 2

What did we do day 2? Pretty much fuck-all.

We had breakfast and then moseyed down to one of the beaches (the easier-accessed one) for a walk. Because who likes to sit still after eating?

Did I mention that one of the best things about where we stay is the emptiness of the beaches? Cabo this is not. This beach was really quite clean of debris, save the occasional decaying puffer fish washed up on the beach.

Justin taking off his socks & shoes for the beach. Thanks, honey.

Ain't no one. And that's how I like it.

It appears then we accidentally did some selfies that look like would-be extras on Lost who didn't make the cut!

Not sure why I tend to look like I'm sniffing Justin in photos. Maybe I am, actually. He smells good. I guess that's one reason we're still married...

Return journey. The squares on top of the rock is where we were staying. Those footprints are only ours. So cool.

After that we decided to drive into Pescadero. For we were to check out the Gringo Center of Baja: Baja Beans' Sunday market. Because who can resist a market? It was blinding white. Kind of like...Portland.

The coffee was pretty good, though.

We did not purchase this sombrero.

 Cool light fixture Justin noticed.

Cool old cooler (see what I did there?) Justin noticed. "I would totally buy that," he said. Me: "You're not here for work."

I'm posting this because I have a lot of photos of Justin from this angle. Humoring me. But he's cute.

After that we went back to the B&B and hung out by the pool and watched for whales all afternoon. Did I mention it was whale-watching season? And last year we saw a ton of them and also manta rays which go flap-flap-flap in the water so loudly you can hear them from super-far away. We didn't see as many this year.

I have some bikini pics but do you really want to see those? I took some because I thought about including those (part of it is to share that 40 IS NOT THAT BAD, in fact it's pretty goddamn fun) but now I feel like they're inappropriate.

They're not, like inappropriate photos but it's kind of weird to show them, no? Bikini selfies? On your travel blog that's really more of a repository for yourself of where you've been? I don't know. I'm on the fence. I'll leave this for now. I mean, employers might google me and stuff. So I'm probably leaning toward no.

Anyway! We ended the day with another sunset and some pina coladas. I'm not sure I like pina coladas. They kind of taste like suntan lotion. High-calorie suntan lotion. I'll just have the rum instead, thanks.

Oh, ho hum, another beautiful sunset...what else is there to do but continue to watch the shit out of that sunset...?

El Pescadero - Take 2, Day 1

When I write Take 2, you'd assume I messed up the first post and am trying again. Not the case, friends! It's because 1) I didn't write about this trip last year (why, I don't know, I think I was a little depressed? work got a little crazy when I returned? I didn't have time/procrastinated? all valid reasons, really) and 2) because -- in a first for the Groonins -- we returned somewhere.

When we go to a place we really like, we have the "sure, we'd come back here" conversation but that pretty much gets buried in new places! new things! but when we went to the place we stayed (I'm honestly hesitant to link it here; I love it but I also love that it's a secret. then again it's not really a secret if you go on TripAdvisor and/or read my description below, but...still. I want to book again, you know. Yes, that might mean a three-peat.) last year we liked it so much, and we liked the people who ran it so much, that we came back a year later.

Because January sucks anyway. It's long, the days are short, it's cold, it's crummy. Not quite as bad in Portland as it was on the east coast, but it's one of my favorite times to get the hell out of Dodge. (Or SE Division, as it were.)

Anyway. So we went back. To paraphrase my favorite elementary school (where I went they called it "Lower School," don't ask) song, "The Cat Came Back" I will tell you that the Groonins came back, we couldn't stay away, we were sitting by the pool the very next...year.

In September 2014, Baja California, Mexico was hit by Odille, a category 4 hurricane. It was hit hard. But the areas you will primarily see as a tourist/traveler are largely cleaned and functional. That said, things like the Alamo rental car building? No windows, open air -- when it wasn't like that in Jan. 2014. Driving to and from the airport to our B&B, we saw major signs still blown down, huge letters off major hotels missing. I think neon signs with various letters missing are hysterical, but this wasn't that kinda funny. The takeaway here is that Baja is back and you should visit. They need you. Don't be a-skeered.

So anyway, onto the recap. We were there five days, which I think is just enough time. This is where we go to be lazy. Four to five nights is about the max I can go without getting antsy. You know how some vacations are all rushy-rushy? This is the anthesis of that. It's quite honestly awesome to see your spouse/partner/person you give two shits about who normally is not relaxed, relaxed. That's one of the best things about vacations, IMHO.

We get there Saturday -- and our bags do, too.

(This makes us happy considering last year they didn't. They showed up that night but it was just late enough that we bought $150 worth of toiletries and over the counter meds and too early for our travel insurance to reimburse us. Uh, yay.) I always think Cabo should be a quicker flight than it is. I'm no good with the mafs. But things this year went as seamless as seamless could. Upgraded to economy plus (thanks Justin for all your biz travel last year) on both flights (we connected in SFO).

Get the rental, doesn't take much time, already feeling the sun, the smell, the way Baja smells is different, that desert next to the beach, you get this mix of dust and sea and floral. I kind of love it. It's become synonymous with doing fucking nothing. Cabo to me has seemed like Las Vegas at the beach so we drive right by it, and we've been to Todos Santos, which is like Mexican New Hope, PA, which --been there, done that for 18 years--but where we stay in El Pescadero is just right. Though you are many miles from nowhere.

Where we stayed is about a 75-minute drive from the airport.

First order of business: Taking off socks and shoes and drinking margaritas and eating chips around the fire pit. The place we stayed has three guest rooms. We were the only guests for the first three days. It was heaven. Like staying with awesome friends who wait on you hand and foot.

We got there *just* in time for sunset. And what a sunset it was!

Those are rocks. We are about 45 meters up.

I love this picture because could it look any more '70s? It's like a Carpenters album or something. (At least I think it is. Just slightly before my time, dontchaknow.)