Life in La Ventana. Notre vie a La Ventana.

Life has been very easy going and nice down here. After about 10 weeks of going down the east coast and then crossing the whole of the southern USA, living in our small trailer Biggy Bob, in often cold weather, life in a house was really what was needed!

La vie est tres relaxe et agreable ici. Apres 10 semaines a traverser la cote est et ensuite le sud des Etats Unis dans notre petite roulotte, nous etions tous prets a vivre dans une maison pour un bout de temps.

A typical day here starts with me going for a SUP paddle on the sea of Cortez (my favourite body of water). It is turquoise with either lovely sandy bottom or rocks/corals with many sightings of tropical fish! Frigate birds are in the sky as are the brown pelicans. Lovely sight! I paddle generally for 1h30 minutes and often bring my snorkeling gear with me and have a snorkel from the SUP to look at the many fish. No sharks sightings so far...

Un jour typique ici commence avec un tour sur ma planche SUP sur la mer de Cortez qui merite maintenant la premiere position sur mon palmares des mers favorites! L'eau est turquoise avec le fond sablonneux ou rocailleux avec coraux. Je peux voir des poissons tropiquaux du haut de ma planche. Souvent j'apporte mes palmes et mon masque de plongee pour aller nager avec eux de ma planche SUP. Il y a plusieurs oiseaux 'frigate' et des pelicans bruns dans le ciel!

Ce matin la, la mer etait calme mais desfois il y a des vagues. J'essaie d'y aller avant que le vent se leve vers midi en general.

This day the sea was calm but sometimes there are waves. I try to go before the wind gets going around noon.

Pendant ce temps, les garcons ecrivent dans leurs journaux de voyage et font leur mathematique avec l'enseignant Monsieur Fun (sous son vrai nom de Gareth)! Il chante des chansons, danse et utilise toujours des materiaux interessants.
During this time, the boys write in their journals and do math with their teacher: Mr. Fun. (aka Gareth) He sings, dances and uses interesting materials!

IN the afternoon, Gareth goes kitesurfing. We either drive him to the north beach called Hotsprings beach (there are natural hotsprings there!!) and play on the beach a bit. Gareth goes from there down wind all the way to where our house is, in the main part of town.

Les apres-midis, Gareth fait du kitesurf. Nous le conduisons souvent a la plage au nord qui s'appelle Plage des Bains Thermaux (car il y a des bains thermaux naturels la). Rendus la, nous jouons sur la plage, ou lisons nos livres. Gareth descend la plage vers le sud, en 'descendant' le vent jusqu'a notre maison au centre du village.

Nous voici dans les bains thermaux. Here we are in our natural 'jacuzzi'.

Gareth getting ready for his kitesurf all decked out in UV protected wear!

Gareth qui est pret a aller faire son kitesurf tout vetu de vetements protecteurs des rayons du soleil!

Kitesurf reussi! Great kitesurf!

View from above of Hotsprings Beach. Vue aerienne de la plage des Bains Thermaux.

Il y a des fleurs superbes dans ce desert aride et sec! Amazing flowers manage to grow in this dry and arid desert!

After we drop Gareth off, we come back home for French with Mrs. 'Lets get this over and done with'. No singing or dancing, we focus on getting our work done fast. Not as fun but some perks are that for recess, they get to go to Playa Central this bar/community space in front of our house to play ping pong! They have become amazing players, taking on whoever dares try!

I have decided to read to them this fun National Geographic Encyclopedia on Oceans.

Some of us like to build forts out of the cushions!

Recess time! Recreation!

Physical Education: Education Physique

Social Studies! or Hanging out with Friends. As per usual we meet many a Rosslander down here in La Ventana!

Here is Lewis McBride launching for a kitesurf with Gareth!

This is dinner afterwards with Lewis, Sue and someone else we met that spends lots of time down here, Bruce.

Bruce and I enjoy Pina Coladas at El Gran Sueno, a 5 star resort that always seems to be empty...

 Finished a snorkeling session- before the Pina Coladas (of course)

 Boys enjoy a lovely lemonade and feel like movie stars. This restaurant has a pool and a slide!

Playa Central does not only offer a ping pong table but world famous margaritas, turns out! We had to sample some. Phew, they are good (and too strong!)

More people from Rossland who have become good friends: Tyler and Caro!

 Tyler launching

 Caro launching

Caro kiting! As well as looking like a pro, when I zoom in to her face, she is smiling! wow!

Tyler comes up close for a good shot!

Gareth is doing a mega jump and his board is above his head! Nut bar!

I will leave it at that for now. There is more to write but I will put that on the next post! Until then, hasta luego!

Driving down the Baja Peninsula! La descente de la peninsule de Baja California!

Well, you would think that spending 6 weeks of leisure in a house in Baja Mexico would make it easier for me to keep up with the blog posts, but no.

Here's a bit on the drive down the Baja peninsula.

On aurait pu croire que de passer 6 semaines de relaxation dans une maison a Baja au Mexique m'aiderait a rester a jour sur mes articles de blogue, mais non.

Voici quelques mots et photos de notre descente de la peninsule de Baja Californie.


First of all, the drive down. Wow some of it was EPIC!
Premierement, la descente en auto de Calexico, Californie jusqu'ici. Wow, certains detours furent tres excitants (je veux dire epeurants).


Premier jour: Calexico via Mexicali jusqu'a Bahia San Luis de Gonzaga (on the sea of cortez side). On avait decidé qu'on ferait du camping le premier soir! AH oui! J'ai oublié de mentionner qu'on a laissé notre tres chere roulotte en Californie. Nous avions decidé de louer une maison (luxe bien merité apres 10 semaines en camping sur la route) et nous n'etions pas certains de l'état des routes a Baja California. Comme nous avons bien fait!! Donc on campe en tente! Yeah!

First day: Calexico California, crossing border in Mexicali all the way to Bahia San Luis de Gonzaga. We had decided to camp on our first night. OH! that reminds me, I forgot to tell you that we left our beloved Biggy Bob trailer in California mostly because we were renting a house for a couple months ( a well deserved rest after the 10 weeks of travel through the states in our miniature trailer) and also we were not so sure about the state of the roads in Baja. How right we were to leave it behind!!!

Nice camp spot!

That night the algae on the beach had bioluminescence! (or was bioluminescent- not sure how to say). So we got to step on it and it would light up under our feet! So crazy and beautiful! Like stepping on miniature little lit up cities!

Waking up in the morning:

Day two: Bahia San Luis de Gonzaga to Guerrero Negro (on the pacific side).

WOW! there was a very long detour through the desert on a dirt road that was very very basic and poorly signed. In the end I think we could have rejoined the main highway sooner than we did but basically we had to guess at many forks in the road where to go. We ended up behind a bus which bottomed out in a section. Our only option was to drive through the desert making our own detour of the detour, on no road, just amongst the cacti and plants. We barely made it. I have a feeling the bus is still there 6 weeks later:

We have no photos of Guerrero Negro. It was a very mediocre little town. Slept in a hotel that was beuh.

Day 3: Guerrero Negro to Loreto, back on the sea of Cortez side. Amazing desert scenery!! Very few green things growing, lots of cacti of course ( i guess they are green) and lots of dry bushes and tumble weeds. Lots of cows close to the very narrow road!
Loreto is a lovely little quaint town. We stayed in a nice hotel there. It had a pool but as per usual, the water was freezing! So no swim for the boys.

If you are wondering why the boys are drinking very red coloured fizzy pop in the morning, all I can say is...it's Gareth's fault! no, no, no. I'm not sure how that happened but it's good to be wild and crazy like that sometimes!

Day 4: Loreto to La Ventana, first crossing the peninsula back to the pacific side and back again to the Sea of Cortez via La Paz, bigger city where we did a shop before heading out to La Ventana.

Here we saw manta rays flying/jumping out of the sea! Gorgeous spots along the Cortez side!!

.. and at long last, we get to La Ventana, to our little fun house called Casa Sushi. It is owned by the people who have Sushi Village in Whistler, I was told.