Outdoors

Off-Road Racing Heaven

The Baja peninsula has some of the most gnarly terrain you will ever find.  With mile after mile of intense off-road tracks, it is a car racer’s dream.  Each year, thousands of racers and their fans flock to the Baja to take part in some kind of car race. The most notable of these is probably the Baja-1000, which is …

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Camping in Baja

Baja California Beach Camping Panorama

One of my most favorite things about the Baja is the abundance of amazing camping spots.  There are plenty of safe and secure campgrounds equipped with warm showers, flushing toilets and lush grass, all things that many travelers seem to crave and often don’t associate with Mexico.  Sure, these campgrounds have their perks, I’ve even stayed in some with wifi …

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Scammon’s Lagoon and Saltworks

Scammon’s Lagoon, or Laguna Ojo de Liebre is located about halfway along the Baja Peninsula.  It is a shallow and salty piece of water that opens in to the Pacific Ocean.  The lagoon is a popular spot with gray whales and tourists – it is very likely that former brings the latter!  Strangely enough, the area is also home to …

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A Day of Magic

Our Rosarito climate never ceases to amaze.  A short journey south on a well traveled road took me away from the coastal fog on to Black Cross Winery.  On Sunday, third of May, my wife Bunny Wingate Tavares conducted the first book signing of her new book, “Gentleman Tom and the Cookelfeffer” at Black Cross Winery and All the Pretty …

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The Cup-of-Gold Vine is Bloom

This is the perfect time of the year to slow down, no, stand still and smell the stunningly beautiful buttery yellow “Cup-of-Gold-Vine”, also known as “Golden Chalice Vine”, and in Hawaii called “Hawaiian Lily”. Its Latin name is Solandra maxima (named after the Swedish botanist Daniel C. Solander) and it belongs in the nightshade family, Solanaceae, which also tells us …

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Villa Moreno – La Mision Horse Whisperer

Walking the boardwalk in La Mision, I noticed that most of the guys renting their horses keep them firmly tied to a line.  But another group of horses are just standing around, like people at a cocktail party.  No ties, no restraints at all.  After asking around I learned that these horses belong to Villa.  One day I found him …

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100km Bike Race

Why am I doing this? It has been about two years since I wanted to do a 100Km MTB race, but it all sounded too difficult in my mind.  About 4 months ago I discovered there was going to be one of these races here in Baja, the MTB 100km Baja Ultra Endurance.  Well I decided that I would go …

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The Zan of Surfing

We bought our surf boards at Costco, which means we are either going to be the biggest dorks past the breakers, or the coolest middle aged surfers on the Spit.  I’m not worried; I don’t think the pelicans will be judging us.  Keeping in line with the “we don’t surf” stance on buying equipment, we bought our wetsuits off Amazon.  …

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Horsing Around Can Be Serious Business

“The more deeply engaged I have become with horses and the people who love them, the more astonishing my awareness that we are all connected.” Carter Heyward Let’s just say it this way – horses and I have had a fairly complicated relationship through the  years.  As a young girl I had a model horse collection that I loved to …

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Tide Pool Joy

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.  …

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