Thanksgiving at Punta Chivato, Baja, Mexico

I was lucky enough to be Warren's guest at his house in Punta Chivato and we were invited for Thanksgiving at one of the grander houses on the point.  Here is the hacienda.

It was a pot luck dinner, everyone bringing food with the host cooking the turkey.

19 of us sat down to the scrumptious buffet style roast turkey dinner.  What a fabulous place to do this I thought to myself.

On the terrace for drinks.  There was, among other choices, home brewed chardonnay and also a divine smoked fish pate made by one of the fishermen.  I have been promised a freshly caught fish for perhaps tomorrow?

This is their Mexican summer house.  The owners live in Oregon in the US.  The only thing to remember there is no electricity supply.  You have to have your own generator, conserve power and use battery power as much as possible.  And it is seriously remote.  But beautiful.

Jeff was as good as his word.  The next day he brought around this lovely yellowtail that Warren is displaying.  Even with Warren's less that wonderful filleting technique we had two memorable fish dinners. Warren confessed that on his first attempt he left too much flesh on the bone but he was better on the fish's other side.  But the seagulls were happy.  So how about that, a lovely thanksgiving dinner and a fish too. Wonderful American hospitality I call it.

Sights in Baja

After the general bleakness and drabness of the townships in northern Baja on the way here, the lushness and colour in southern Baja is a welcome change.  It was very dry up north and here there are more  rivers and water makes a big difference to a town.

Mission House tower in Loreto

Colourful bougainvillia at Mulege

A honey eater at the bird feeder

You can see Tiger parked around the back of Jane and Warren's house on the right lower corner of the photo.

A small private plane belonging to a neighbour at Punta Chivato.  It takes the 3 person family about 4 hours to fly back home to California instead of the 24 hour drive.  It is very isolated out here.  These large houses that people build, none have electricity but rely on solar power and battery operated appliances.  The road is unpaved and quite rough.  The nearest small town is about 45 kms away.  Vendors come to sell fish and vegetables once a week.  There is quite a community of gringoes on the shores and there is a hotel with a pub and they have a card game each week, a game I had never come across before called 31.

This is cactus country.  I am not sure if these giant cacti are all around Mexico or just here in Baja.  People have them dug up and transplanted into their gardens and they apparently are full of water and weigh a ton.

Warren's 6ft frame being dwarfed by a cactus.

The mountains together with the cacti.  It is dry but majestic scenery out here.  The mountains are very bare and they sort of loom over the surrounding terrain.

This beautiful creation is one piece of Maria's art.  She is a woman of German background living in Mulege and she makes these large pieces of art made from shells and bits and pieces which sell for over $1,000 each.  They can either be made into table tops or concreted into the wall.

RV parks on the beaches of Baja Mexico

Beaches in Australia are probably  the most beautiful anywhere in the world.  But you can't park your rv on the beaches with the same ease and legality as you can here in Baja.  These are all different beaches between Mulege and Loreto on the east coast along the Sea of Cortez along the Bay of Concepcion.

All these beach rv parks have easy beach access and in some places full hook ups and even a little restaurant.  I do not believe there is a limit how long one can stay.  We plan to spend some days here after Andrew gets back from his hike.  We plan to drive down to La Paz and to Cabo San Jose then wind our way back towards the US.

Sunset over the Sea of Cortez

OK you have all seen sunsets and they are invariably beautiful.  These colours seem to reflect the general brightness of Mexico.

           the same scene a few minutes earlier.

Punta Chivato at last

We arrived at our friends place at Punta Chivato approximately 800 kms from the US border and 3 days of driving with two overnight stops.  The roads are narrow and curvy with many 'curva peligrosa' warnings and trucks coming towards you taking a little of your lane.

Our friends Jane and Warren who live in Mill Valley, California built Casa Pelicanos at Punta Chivato and they come down for 6 months at a time in winter.

The approach to the house with the large mural wall painted by a friend.

The view from the lounge.

Another, early morning view, closer to the shore. One can see the reason for the name of the house. Pelicans abound.

The birds, pelicans and boobies diving for their breakfast.

This is where I am to be kept a prisoner while Andrew and Jane go on an 8 day hike to the mainland to the Copper Canyon with 5 other women + a woman guide.  Only Warren, Maggie the dog and Choco for company.  It is going to be a hard life I can tell.

A couple of views from the house.  Not bad is it?

Visiting gringoes called in on their quad bikes with Raj their Yorkie.  (Karina, don't let Alistair see this or he will want to go on one too.)  Raj prefers the quad bike to sailing on his owner's trimaran I am told.  They were on their way to La Paz to go sailing.

In Mexico

We have now arrived in Mexico, on the Baja peninsula which is a large long extension of California and in fact it is called Baja California in the north and Baja California Sur in the south.

So far, we are not struck by the beauty of the place.  It is a poor and very dry country and the towns reflect this.  There is very little vegetation around.  We have driven about 500 kms so far and this is a fairly typical view.  Reminds me of Joshua NP back in the US.

These photos demonstrate Aussie pride.  I am referring to the AUS sticker on the front and back of our vehicle.  This took a major effort to achieve.  We realise that we should have purchased such a sticker back home but it never occurred to us.  In the end, we had to have them specially made up at a graphic design place at the cost of $32!

Now everyone can see that we are from Australia.

Californian scenes

This is a large state with a variety of terrain and climates as demonstrated in these photos.

We stopped for lunch at Big Bear Lake in the Angeles National Forest.

Snow-clad trees along the Angeles Crest Scenic Byway.  7018ft at the summit.

And by contrast on the coast, State Street central Santa Barbara.  Here it is all sunshine and tee-shirts.

And further up the coast - San Francisco.

Together with the Golden Gate Bridge.  We are staying in Mill Valley in Marin County on the opposite side of the bridge from the city of San Francisco.

On the terrace of the apartment we are minding in Marin County overlooking the marvellous fir tree clad hills.
When sunny, it is glorious here, waking up to this view.  But this being the coast the fog often rolls in hiding everything in view.

We are at the Crossley Bridge Club in San Rafael with Bob Crossley who runs the club.  Bob was a life master at 16 and he comes from an illustrious bridge playing family.  Our photo is also on Facebook(ACBL Unit 508)  both for being visiting Australian bridge players and for winning Friday afternoon's session with over 65%.