Travel Log, December 2004
 

Days - 126 to 155
Total Miles Traveled this month - 0
Total Miles Traveled to December 31/04 - 3,991

For the month of December we stayed at Playa Santispac.  We have been here for over two months now and just love it here.  We went on our scooters to explore some of the other beaches nearby including, Posada Concepcion, Playa Escondida, Playa los Cocos, Playa el Burro and Playa Coyote.  They are just gorgeous, however, they also make us realize just how much we love the beach we are on.  Playa Santispac is more protected, so it is less windy, it is great for walking and hiking, the palapa's that are built there are in the traditional style and do not take away from the natural look of the beach...

South end of Playa Coyote, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

These next few pictures are of our very good friends and neighbors Jim & Debbie.  They are wonderful people, real characters with a great sense of humor.  We spend lots of time together and have a lot of laughs.  This is Jim, what a funny guy, he is always doing something that will make us laugh.  This picture is taken from our coach window, this is the area between our coach and their palapa.
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

This is Debbie, in the upstairs bedroom/office of their palapa.  Debbie works from the beach here at Santispac, she is a travel agent, and is currently booking all tours for Avril Lavigne...cool eh?  You would not believe the famous people she has worked with and met...isn't it something that she can work here through the marvels of modern technology. They have a similar set up to us, with a satellite dish for internet access and telephone...Debbie's favorite colour is blue.  As you may notice in the pictures...
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

Jim and Deb hamming it up!  Jim was getting their jet ski's ready and found some things inside them to try on...hence the hat and gloves...
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

The box is for Cindy's book exchange, it is not going very well though, she thinks about three people have taken books and only one has put one in.  Oh well, the neighbors gave her tons of books and she is able to read everyday, without the fear of running out...
 

Barry has learned how to wind surf, thanks to the use of our neighbours windsurfer.  He is a natural and took to it right away. 
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

As you may be able to tell, we LOVE food!  However, just before Cindy's hospital stay we went on The Atkin's Diet...and we have done very well.  This is a meat, cheese and vegetable omelet with hot sauce on top...notice no toast :)  Hey, we think we can live with this eating plan :)
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

Look at those eyes!  Cindy looks like she can hardly wait to dig in!  We have also invented a low carb pizza.  We named it 'scrambled pizza", and it is delicious!  Rather than a dough crust we use eggs and put all of our favorite fixin's on.  No crust, no tomato sauce, makes it low carb!!
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

Ahhhhh!!  A dogs life!  Tiki basking in the sunshine...time for a hair cut...
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

Can anyone guess what happened here??  When Barry was out wind surfing, he fell off the board, got up, took one step toward the board and stepped on a sting ray. OUCH, you don't ever want to experience that kind of pain.  He surfed back in, got Cindy to put on the kettle and got to work soaking his foot in extremely hot water.  He has self medicating privileges to handle the pain. :) 

Poor Barry he had to soak his foot for 2 hours, constantly adding hot water, as hot as he could stand.  Thank goodness for the Cusano Rojo which is a Mezcal, sort of like Tequila only fuller and better.  You drink it like you would a Tequila shooter.  Salt, then Mezcal, then lime...Barry really tried to make the best of a bad situation, as you can see by the smile.  We checked with several people on the beach and they all suggested the same thing.  Hot water and self medication, we thought it was good advise.
 

On the shore of an island, Bahia Concepcion

As I mentioned before, we love to tool around in our little boat.  This is a beach on one of the little islands out in the bay...
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

We bought this little 9' dinghy when we were in Victoria in the summer of 2003, it was just a fiberglass shell, and a bunch of wood pieces when we bought it.  However, it was brand new and only $500.00, what a great deal!!  These little boats are worth over $3,500 if you buy them complete.  We were able to buy it from a company that was going out of business.  We bought more wood, rope, and had the sail made for us.  We worked on it through the winter and spring that we lived at West Bay Marina in Victoria.  However, being in Real Estate did not give us a lot of time to work on it. 

When we got to Santispac, Barry began working on it in earnest and hand planed the mast, the boom and the yard, and finished and stained all of the other wood parts.  We were given various pieces of hardware from Jack, Lee and Jim our neighbors and friends and now finally...the boat is done.  To see a photo gallery in PDF format of our little 9' Minto, click here.
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

It's Christmas in Mulege.  We have been invited to a Christmas Turkey 'Pot Luck' Dinner at Lee's place.  A few days after Christmas we are invited over to Jim and Deb's to meet Deb's sister, DeDe, for a belated Christmas dinner.  And on New Years Day we are invited to watch the Super Bowl at Lee's place with half the people from the beach in tow.  It was set up outside and was another pot luck.

We feel so fortunate to have met all of these wonderful people here at Santispac.  They have welcomed us in a way that we were not expecting.  We are so thankful.  So, at this time of the holidays when we think of our family and friends...we thank all of our new friends for making us feel so welcome and ensuring we have a wonderful holiday season.
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

We have become very close to our neighbors Deb & Jim.  We went over to their place on Christmas Day to exchange gifts.  Now, how do I explain the flag...  First of all, we made them the flag to hang outside their palapa.  They had all the material and letters cut out, but had never gotten around to sewing it all together to make the flag, so we did it for them for Christmas :)

Now the "NO DRAMA"...this beach is like a small community.  So, just like in every neighbourhood you get all kinds.  There are lots of great, friendly, special people here.  With some of these people, there can be lots of drinking, lots of gossip and LOTS OF DRAMA...hence the flag Deb and Jim now proudly fly at their palapa.
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

The black dog you see in the pictures is Jim & Debbie's dog "Blue".  She is a real sweat heart and loves to run and play with all of the other dogs and birds on the beach. 
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

Our best friends!!  Us and Jim & Deb have had some really incredible times together.  We love you guys!!  Sometimes we feel like we are all back in College.  We all head into town on some Saturdays to do laundry, get groceries and look around.

However, the main reason we head to town on Saturdays is for 'Carnitas' at Dani's...if you have never had Carnitas you must get to Mexico and get eating.  They consist of soft shelled fresh tortillas, pork, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, hot sauce, guacamole, salsa, etc...You add some or all of the ingredients that you want.  You start your meal off with the most delicious bean soup we have ever had, and then on to the Carnita's!  Needless to say, our day in Mulege is always a lot of fun and very productive.
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

Now, these two special guys are Lee and Jack.  They are the nicest guys you would ever want to meet and have been coming to Santispac for over 20 years.  These are the two guys that Naida from the Chula Vista Laundromat, told us to look up.  They introduced us to all of their friends and they are one the reasons we feel so welcome on the beach. 
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

Our pride and joy!  And a whole lot of fun.  We can sail, row or motor around in it.  Before leaving Victoria we bought a little 2.5 horsepower Yamaha motor for it.
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

We had a wonderful New Years Eve with our friends Jim and Deb and Deb's sister, DeDe.  DeDe was visiting from Houston and she was so funny, warm and lovable.  We love you DeDe, and we miss you.  Come back soon!

We went to the restaurant on the beach called Ana's and had a great dinner.  Then we marched up and down the beach singing to one of the songs Deb used to dance to when she was a cheerleader.  Then, we sat around the fire talking, and doing a few other things we enjoyed :)  Then, the ladies went for a swim :) We all had a great and memorable New Years and look forward to the next one :)  Deb and Jim have turned out to be the best friends and neighbors we could ever ask for.  We feel so fortunate to have met them and look forward to many months of fun and companionship with them here at Santispac.
 

Playa Santispac, south of Mulege

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL OF OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!  WE HOPE THAT 2005 BRINGS YOU GREAT JOY AND PROSPERITY!  WE MISS YOU ALL AND LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AGAIN SOMEDAY SOON...
 

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