Loving Baja

When I first arrived in Mexico I was desperate to see a ‘cartoon cactus’.  You know the one, just like you see in the Looney Tunes cartoons of Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales?  My hunt for this seemingly rare type of cactus proved rather fruitless.  Despite this, I was not disappointed. In the center of the Baja Peninsula lies the …

Just on the outskirts of Ensenada, a mere 35 kilometer drive is the extraordinary natural beauty of La Bufadora.  Located on the Punta Banda peninsula it is one of the world’s largest marine geysers, also known as a blowhole.  The latter is rather an apt name as the enormous spout of water shoots up into the air, much like a …

We love Puerto Vallarta.  We like the area in the heart of the old city, with cobblestone streets, not the high rise hotels just south of the airport, all white and glossy, nor the new development called Nuevo Vallarta.  We stay at Los Arco’s, named for the famed monolithic rock formations out in the bay.  We return yearly because we …

Another four letter word is Baja, my home, a place of rampant charity and good will to all.  This does not mean that this love is given freely to anyone that asks, or does it? Our borders are blurred with charitable offerings to children and adults, animals and displaced people.  A broken leg or hearing of a cancer diagnosis brings …

As a professional stand-up comic, and an amateur surfer, I have this thing that if I can’t fall on my face, I don’t want to do it.  When my partner virtually begged me to go visit the “tidepools” with him, it sounded about as exciting as learning how to knit.  Are you kidding me?  Tide pools sounded like child’s play.  …

I love to read.  It doesn’t have to be the great American novel, if there is such a thing; it could be the back of a cereal box and I’d be happy eating my Rice Krispies.  I also like to read signs.  Stupid sign are good: in my doctor’s office is a large sign that says (in English) “If you …

Every year for as long as I remember my parents and I would come down to La Salina, in Baja California, for a family vacation.  Most of the time we have friends come with us to enjoy the clean beach and the quiet of our house.  The day would usually start around 6:30 AM when my friends and I would …

Thereʼs a shift that happens when you refer to one place as home and a former home becomes something a little less.  It still has an important place in your heart, but itʼs not the anchor anymore. I have written about my journey to and in Rosarito and have talked about my personal growth because of it.  My husband, Gerry, …

Yesterday, as we were walking on the beach watching the sandpipers having a heated discussion about beach space, I noticed a couple of motorcycles whizz by.  Some guys set up fishing poles with their jeep parked beside them, and people came by riding horses, so I said to Ralph, “Let’s drive down onto the beach.”  Admittedly, he was not as …