The Zags Loss In Mexico

Went to Shooters and watched the Zags lose.

Our waiter sucked, so we didn't leave a big trip.

Walk in support of Autism research.

Surf Fishing

Sunrise as we walked out to fish.

This guy caught as many fish as we did!

Large waves and no fish! 

Wrong place, wrong time!

The Final Stop

View looking north from our balcony.

John and Loretta loaded their two hitchhikers into their truck and drove south into the big city of San Jose del Cabo. We stopped and ate at one of their favorite taco places, Rosie's Tacos. After we filled up on fish tacos and other delights they took us to the condo where we are staying and we explored our new digs together. At this time we reside at Las Mananitas Condo #A4 and the views are spectacular.

Don and Caroline Samuelson arrived about 5:00 PM and we began our restful adventure together.

Las Mananitas Condo.

We have really not done much in the way of exploring San Jose del Cabo. A couple trips to the Mega store and a few walks around the condo area. Linda has run every morning so she knows the town from the eyes of a runner.  Caroline brought with her a GoPro Hero 3 Silver that she found floating in the ocean off the beach at Westport.  She had given it to her grandson, but he could never get it to work right. He got a second one so Caroling brought the found on down and gave it to me!  Way cool!

I have been working with the camera and have gotten it to work but, their is a bit of a glitch in it.  You can only use it with a Bluetooth device.  I use my phone.  I beleave the shutter button on the camera is not working.  I have been in contact with GoPro and when I return I will try to get the camera replaced...new GoPro...way cool!!!

Our goal today is to find a sports bar where we can watch the Zags play.

A little game of paddle ball on the beach.

Fun in the pool.

Caroline and Don gave me a cool GoPro.

Get ready for a bunch of goofy GoPro photos.

Our first sunrise a the condo.

Striped Marlin

Tuesday:

An amazing day of fishing is all I can say.  I’ll start at the launch and go from there. We were at the boat launch by 6:30 AM and picked up two live cabellito baits for our day of fishing. We had heard that live bait was the way to go but since we had never tried it we bought just the minimum. We motored out and dropped our lures over the side.  John chose to run ballyhoo on a new lure he bought from Jim at the fishing tackle store. I put on a lure that I bought; it looked like a flying fish so I figured it might be the lure de jour for this trip.

We were out about a mile from the jetty when I got and hit and the reel started screaming. John’s rig joined in the choirs seconds later. From the pull on the rod we both knew that we had hooked barrilette, exciting but at the same time disappointing.  We brought them in and released both, continuing on our away.    We dropped our rigs back into the water and immediately had a repeat performance. We checked our gear and refrained from putting them back in the water, running out over the barrilete into deeper water.

Once we met up with the other boats we found a spot and baited up the cabellito.  We dropped them down and let them swim. After a while of drifting we reeled up the bait and hooked on the two ballyhoo set ups and started to cruise.

Nothing hit and we kept at it until we needed to head back to the jetty. As we trolled, John saw some big swirls on the top of the water and we headed towards them. I got a hit on my ballyhoo but it was a short strike and a marlin got away with my bait.

Cruising on we spotted another big swirl so we swooped by and bam, John had a big hit. He let it run and then set the hook and the fight was on. He got it to the boat and I grabbed it by the bill and then conked it on the head with Grandma's Hammer. We pulled in a 130 lb. striped marlin. What a catch.

My ballyhoo short struck. Bummer!

John with his 7 ft. 5 in. striped marlin. 

Wednesday:

We hit the ramp a bit late today, the live bait boys were out of bait, bummer!  John motored us out and we worked the jetty for a couple of bait fish. The draw of the open water was strong so we put on our best lures and headed out.

As we met the rest of the fishing fleet the bait boys caught us and sold us two cabellito that they had caught at the jetty just for us. We paid the boys and thanked them and they were off.

John and I got our bait rigs out and John handed me a cabellito and I looked down putting it on the hook. When I looked up and out into the water below the boat I could see several big striped marlin circling below "Get the bait in the water!" I shouted, "They're all around us!"  We immediately lowered the bait down and within seconds my reel was screaming. John's reel joined in and all havoc broke loose.

At this point, we had either one of two scenarios going. We either each had a marlin, or the one mariln had grabbed both of our bait and was running with them. John swears that while we fought the fish he saw two marlin jumping at the same time, right next to each other. 

We fought the fish and when we finally got them close to the boat, we had one fish hooked by both of our rigs.  John had hooked it in the mouth and I had it hooked hard in the gill plate. My thoughts are that if we had hooked two marlins, they must have crossed up and in doing so my hook came out of my fish and reset in John's. In any case, we were able to get the fish in, unhook it and then release it to fight again. 

The entire episode happened within minutes of our getting to the fishing grounds. Everyone around us must have thought we were something.

With our one marlin caught and our live bait gone we then turned to dragging bait and ballyhoo. We tracked several marlin jumps but didn't get any strikes. 

The wind came up and we started heading back toward the jetty. On our way in we had three strikes on our ballyhoo. Two of which were hooked enough that the marlins jumped and ran.  They shredded our bait and both shook free, but it was a real hoot hooking up with the three of them.

John releasing the marlin we both caught.

Whales having fun!

Los Barriles

The Sutherland's casa.

After a great breakfast, I walked around the Casa Sutherland and took a couple photos of their place.

We gathered our stuff and loaded into the truck and took a bumpy ride along the Sea of Cortez north to Los Barriles area.

The winds were up and we couldn't get out fishing so all along the shore John and I talked about how the water looked for fishing.

We drove above Los Barriles and walked on the beach then turned south following the shore back to the development where Jim and Pat DeSmett have their place. 

The Los Barriles area is famous for fishing and wind sports and that was apparent when we stopped to watch the kiteboarders doing their thing.

We ate lunch and headed back home. We drove the highway back so that saved our butts a bit, plus it cut the drive time in half!

National bird of Mexico, the Northern Caracara. 

Looking south at Los Barriles.

Rock picking on the beaches to the north.

Kiteboarding off Los Barriles.

Baja Blue

Captain John out hunting for dorado!

Three days ago we checked out of the Casa Grande and caught a flight from Manzanillo to Mexico City and then on to a flight that dropped us into San Jose del Cabo. Loretta Sutherland met us as we picked up our baggage and we met John out on the street. From there we drove Northeast up Baja to La Ribera where John and Loretta have built a beautiful small casa. We arrived explored their home and had dinner, that was about all we could do after our journey across the Gulf of California. Plans were made for the next day and then we went to bed.

John and I woke up early and by 8:30 AM I had purchased my fishing license and we were launching the boat. We spent the day out on the water where we caught Barrilete till my arms hurt. Problem is they are not the best fish to eat so we tossed them back.  I caught a sierra, but it freaked out at the boat and rammed into the side getting free. Bummer!  It was a fun day on the water, but we really wanted to catch some keepers.

Whale tails abound!

 We got back to the case, had dinner, drinks and then went to bed. John and I were on the water by 7:00 AM and were set to catch sierra.  That didn’t happen. We were back home by noon and we loaded up with the ladies and went sightseeing. We visited the beach where the Sutherlands camped the years before building the house.  It is quite the cool place.

We returned to the place and got the weather report which was not good for fishing.  Winds are expected for the next few days, this doesn’t make us happy, but what can you do.  John and Loretta will catch up on home duties and Linda and I will rest.

Linda on the beach where the Sutherlands used to stay. 

Baja blue is the color of this water.

RAIN!!!

Our days have been spent reading the posts on the internet and talking to the locals. One fellow said that he had been here forty years and had never seen it rain this much in March, let alone in 24 hour period. We read that a person left an empty bucket out in the rain and that it filled it with over six inches of water. That is a lot of rain.

During the worst of the rain Linda and I had to ride our bikes into town to pick up some items from the pharmacy. On the main street of Melaque the water was running from curb to curb at a depth of about ten inches. If we had a kayak we probably would have been able to move faster.

We hunkered down most of the day but were able to get out during the evening to eat. The weather broke, giving us a chance to move about.  This morning Linda went for her run and got caught in another down pour. We are hoping to have the weather break this afternoon. We will pack, clean house and leave for Cabo area tomorrow. I will be glad to get on the road finally.

Below is a video of the rain.  I took it during the day; keep in mind that it rained like this for hours. The pools filled up and over flowed and the streets ran like rivers.  The lagoon behind Casa Grande filled up and late yesterday the beach dam broke empting the water into the ocean.

Another Day, Another Sunset

The tiangui is such an interesting place.  Every Wednesday we walk into this market knowing that we have seen everything it has to offer, but we are still drawn into the crowds.

Yesterday’s exploration yielded two very interesting by-products. The first by-product was material. Linda was able to find and negotiate the purchase of a ceramic soap dispenser. We use one at the kitchen sink, but our last one got dropped and cracked. I fixed it with Shoe Goo but it still leaks.

The second great find was in the area of lost friends.  As we were exploring the vast market landscape, two people approached us and said our names.  Grant & Jacquie Lake surprised us and said that they had been looking for us the last couple years.  We met Grant & Jacquie through Don and Caroline.  They both stayed at La Ploma back in the day.  Back then we spent evenings out to dinner together, walked the tiangui, and basically goofed around during some of our earlier visits to Melaque.  We haven't seen them for several years, but that wasn't their fault.

After talking a while, we found that they had tried to email us at our Roadrunner account and we failed to receive the messages. That account has never been stable in Mexico and so we use our Gmail account.  They did not have that account address so we lost touch.

Grant said that last year they saw us as we were driving our camper out of Melaque, headed for home. They waved, but we didn't see them. Close but no connection.

We are now connected, and this means Don and Caroline will be connected. Maybe someday the three of us will be back together, talking about Gaston and his many beautiful stones!

Our evening was spent in Barra watching the sunset and eating pizza with Barry and Jill. It was a fun night, but I think we all really enjoyed the fact that we had rented Leone's car. It made us feel like we had gotten Mom and Dad’s car for the night and we were free to come and go as we wished.  Funny the little things in life.

Casa Grande Tops Tournament

Over the past week, we have heard the tap, tap tapping of toy tops hitting the floors of the casas around ours.   The Casa Grande neighbors had gone to Barra for a shopping spree and returned with tops and instantly became obsessed with them.

Once the tops started flying, the next step was to set the date for a big competition and find out who the best top flipper is. On Friday evening at 5:00 PM everyone from our complex who owned a top gathered up on the upper plappa for the Casa Grande Top Tournament of Champions. I was the photographer and Linda was one of three honest judges.

Waves

The blending of a full moon, high tides and a storm offshore has created huge waves that are battering the bay of Melaque.   These waves have been so big that many of our friends are saying that this is the largest show of waves they have ever witnessed at this beach. Below is a two-minute video of the waves taken at about 11:00 am today.  I posted a couple pictures that show the beach a couple weeks ago and then the beach today.  All in all, it is very amazing.

This was a few weeks ago.

This was today at about the same spot, different angle.

Funny Thing

On the fourth of March, we will have two weeks left in Melaque. Our snowbird stay will be winding down and we will be heading over to La Ribera for a week or so and then on to San Jose del Cabo.

I am ready to get going and sometimes actually look past our Cabo stay and think about our run down to Oregon to pick up Kobi.  Man I have missed that mutt!

Conversations down here start with, "When are you guys leaving?" and every weekend we say goodbye to another set of friends. I know I mentioned this last year, but it is so much a part of the banter between folks it becomes very noticeable.

A couple days ago I was standing near the beach when a couple guys on horses back rode up and handed me a flyer. They are starting a horseback riding business and were handing out flyers. I took it to Linda without reading it. She started laughing and pointed out the error.It made me think of Linda, Rayelle and running horses!  Check it out below.