Red Snapper - BEFORE....we started
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Craig had shrimp which were awesome!
We spend a couple of hours at the pool almost every day. Craig sets up his 'office', we swim, read, and take a siesta : ) oh...and put on Santa hats!
November 2018 - December 2018 Baja Adventures
During our Winter in the Baja, we will update this page periodically with the activities and fun things we are doing. Below are the updates from November and December.
December 2018
Olive Ridley Sea Turtle Volunteer Activities
Through a neighbor at the Peninsula Condo, Holly got hooked up with doing sea turtle digging and release. The female turtles came to shore and laid their eggs then a group of biologist and volunteers relocate and rebury the eggs into what is called a 'corral'. This way when the turtles hatch (called hatchlings), we can collect them and transport them closer to the water watching their entry and protecting them to this point. If we did not do this, the hatchlings often get eaten by predators (dogs, birds, run over by people in vehicles, ATV's, etc.) before they even make it to the sea. Once in the sea, they are on their own. It is said that 1 in 1,000 hatchlings survive to adult hood.
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These turtles are the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle which are one of five species that inhibit the waters of the Baja.
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I started helping on December 1. So most days I go at 3pm and dig for hatchlings and then they are released that evening before sunset. For me this is a dream come true and I feel so honored to be volunteering with this effort!
This is the corral holding the turtle nests. At one point the entire corral was full of nests! We have one more row in this corral and then will move down the coast to the next corral which contains about 100 nests.
We put the wire containers around the nest so if any hatchlings come up during the night, they do not try to go to the sea and get eaten. The lids on top with sand are to keep the birds from swooping in and taking the hatchlings. The white marker is the 'batch' number and how many eggs were put in the nest (between 80-200). When we dig a nest, we may get 40 hatchlings, so we rebury the nest and come back another day to dig for more hatchlings. Some nests could be dug 3-6 times before all of the hatchlings are born.
This is a days 'catch'. There are probably 300-400 hatchlings in the bin, all from multiple nests.
Some of the Peninsula volunteers organized a dig/release for our condo residents and our friends Vicki and Dennis from Boise. We had a great turnout and released a couple of hundred hatchlings.
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I cannot wait to volunteer for this again next season!
December 2018
Tracy and Chad Visit
Our friends Tracy and Chad from McCall/Boise came to visit us. They were our first guests at the condo and we had a blast with them!
One of the days, we went to Chileno Bay to swim and snorkeled. We had a great time and enjoyed the people watching.
Another day we drove out to Los Barriles to check on the status of our lot and the building of the palapa. We stopped along the way in La Ribera at our other lot to check out the surf and possible go swimming. A little too much wind this day for swimming.
And...all good things must come to an end. Craig needed to fly home, so he caught the same flight as Chad and Tracy. They are all sporting the hats Chad bought while visiting. We had a great time with them! Thank you two for coming to visit us!!!!
December 2018
Christmas Dinner
We celebrated Christmas with some of our neighbors and went to El Toro Guero. We had a great dinner and conversations!
Andy, Holly, Craig, Laura, Don, and Sylvia
Red Snapper - AFTER....YUM !!!!
December 2018
Misc Activities
We visited and had lunch with our friends and neighbors from La Ribera - John and Lynn. Great to see you both!
Dinner at Flora Farms with our Boise Waterfront neighbors/friends Dennis and Vicki. We had a great time meeting them and doing some turtle releases!
One of our many bicycle rides around San Jose del Cabo. This day we rode to the marina to check out the boats. Yes...this 'small boat=yacht' has a garage in it!
Our first haircuts in the Baja! One of our neighbors recommended this place in San Jose, the gal speaks no English, and....gave a great cut! This is probably one of the best cuts I've ever had (excluding Pam) and...it cost $150 pesos (about $3 USD for Craig and $4.50 USD for me) SCORE!
One of things we decided to do at the condo was put a solid wall between us and our neighbors patio. This helped provide more privacy and cut down the noise from the neighbor. Instead of doing the work ourselves, we hired Fernando one of our condo maintenance guys. It was $250 USD for all of the work, completed in 2 days, and he did a GREAT job! The final wall was painted white.
