We took our road trip to San Quintin the other day and it was a beautiful ride. I did not, however get my abalone. It's not in season. They do have abalone "farms" down there, the guy in the restaurant told us it was about 40 minutes further down the road...but if they have farms to grown them, they why does there need to be a "season"? Maybe it has to do with the temperature of the water? Ok another google session for me. We drove down and it felt like northern California ha ha- lots of road construction! So it took a little longer to get down there than we thought it would. At first the terrain is really green, rolling hills and lots of vegetation. There are acres and acres of produce- starwberries, looked like watermelons and other squash. And then miles and miles of vineyards. They were dead vines, dormant....after the harvest and before they start again. I thought all the grapes were grown in the Guadalupe Valley which is north and east of us, but like I said, there were rows and rows and rows of vines. After about an hour, maybe a little more it started to become desert-y. The dirt started to get redder, and the vegetation was brushy...When we got closer to San Quintin the fields became tomotoes. I read that more tomatoes are grown in this area than anywhere in the world!
San Quintin is kind of long, with everything along both sides of the highway. It was a nice outing and I didn't find anything there extra special, the ride was the goal. Now we did not follow the highway to the south end where it met the ocean, we took a right and went out to the "old port", a nice woman at the gas station told us it was nice spot, so we went for it. The bay is called - crap! I forget what the name of it is! But it's narrow and winds around as it comes inland. And pretty interesting, right by the dock we were standing on, the water eddies around, whirlpools and it's going pretty fast- on both directions. And the pelicans! They are huge...all waiting around for some fisherman to throw out old bait or parts of the fish he has no use for. They were in comeptition with some pretty hefty (read chubby) seagulls as well. I got some great pictures of them all. So there was a guy, a fisherman, well I think that's what he was- but he took the discarded fish pieces, and cut them up even more, and kept parts of it to make fish soup. So he was throwing away pieces and the fight was on.
On the way out this dirt turnoff we spied 2 kids walking and trying to wave down a ride- they must have been only 10 or 12 years old. We picked them up and they were on their way to go crabbing. But they had us stop at a little bodega and they didn't want is to wait. They were getting bait and said they'd get a ride the rest of the way. After we ate and went back to walk along the water again, we saw them and they waved. Their "fishing poles" were plastic soda bottles with sand and rocks in them, and fishing line wrapped around them. Don't know if they caught anything, but in the car- one kid very talkative and one very quiet- we were told all about it so I have no doubt they reeled 'em in.
The restaurant was very nice, and they said over holidays they get very busy and the rest of the time they have people drop in, and as we ate we saw quite a few groups of people arrive and walk along the docks, some coming in to eat. There were also some vendors with trinkets set up, so there must be some steady-if light- tourist traffic. Now for the food- well I'm sure it's probably good, and the presentation was very nice. But I ordered crab stuffed shrimp. First they brought us a very nice clam chowder, it almost tasted like mashed potatoes, corn and clams...hmm well it tasted really good. My plate came and looked so pretty. Some rice, some nice veggies, and my shrimps in some kind of a thick sauce...really good. But my shrimps- well they were wrapped and cooked in bacon. Bacon! Might have been something to mention on the menu or when you ordered it- I mean I asked if it was picoso (spicy)...and they had a meat & seafood menu that I did NOT order from....so I was disappointed. Everardo had shrimp in some kind of sauce, and he only got 6 shrimp...not big prawns or anything, small shrimp...which he gave some of to me because I couldn't eat Bacon-y shrimp (and no crab in sight). The thing is- it was not cheap..about $20 US a plate- that's expensive. As we drove by several street stands all with signs about the seafood they offered, Everardo kept pointing them out...and YES YES we could have had the same thing- probably much better for about $3US each. I had insisted we find a nice restaurant because I wanted to be sure we got abalone- yeah joke's on me. But as I said, the drive down and back was nice. The walk around the waterfront of the old port was fun, watching the pelicans and the people. So it ended up being an almost all day thing; it was after 4pm when we got home so poor doggys got a very short walk. Anyway it looks like abalone season opens in April so we will be making another trip.
Did a little house hunting in Ensenada- yeah I will never learn! But maybe I finally get it; the houses for rent there have no stoves, no refrigerators, no hot water heaters, no house heaters. Unless of course if you are willing to pay $750-1000 a month rent. We called the nite before on one place, and planned to call on 3 others once we got there. One, the number had been disconnected, one didn't allow dogs, one had no yard, and we went to see one. It was in Colonia 89, past a huge cemetery (which is fine with me I kinda like cemeteries) and a jail, a police station...and winded up a hill, then started to get steeper, then turned from paved road to dirt. We finally turned...and then continued to steeply climb! Finally we got there, and I think the air was actually thinner! The guy was rapidly saying how the house had everything!! The listing said parking for 3 cars, and Everardo gently reminded me if we had 3 Volkswagens that would be true. Luckily for me I had almost zero expectations after the other places we'd seen in the city before we arrived and after. Well we went in and it was pretty trashed, but nothing some paint couldn't have fixed...well some of it anyway...then I asked about the fridge...oh, no. And the stove? no...Hot water heater?? No...he was even saying something about furniture, but there wasn't any. One bedroom did not have enough room for more than a twin bed, but the other one did...we didn't bother to look in the backyard, we just thanked him and said we'd give him a call. Once we got down into air we could actually breathe we started laughing. And I was done...ok ok no more looking for a place to live in the city.
Today the best thing that happened was we got the seat belt fixed on the passenger side of the car. Yippee!! Because when we go somewhere together, Everardo always drives and that seat belt works. People tend to drive like insane nuts here, so I want my seat belt. It's not always that they drive too fast, sometimes it when they want to be in your lane, so they come. And after the light turns red, a few cars will still go, but other times the people waiting for the light to turn green are inching their way into the intersection...so ait's a mixed bag and you never know what's going to happen next. And I guess I'm just so used to wearing a seat belt. Here I cringe when I see mothers holding babies and/or little kids on their laps in the front seat. Or the kid is in the seat alone, but standing up...aarrgghh scares the hell out of me. So getting my seat belt fixed was a very big deal to me.
The worst thing about today was that we finally went over to La Jolla to see about a house for rent. Everybody tells us that's the best place to live. That there's always some houses there for rent. Why do people say things when they don't know what the hell they're talking about? It happened in Penasco as well. Everybody talked about how there were so many houses to rent...not true not true. I looked for all those places for months. So here the same thing. My concern had been which place would we like, and to get the best place for the dogs. WHOOPS They very nicely told us they were not in the business to rent houses. They rent/lease land and then you build a house. The houses that were for rent- if there were any, were by owners or real estates agents like Irka Davis, who we are renting from now. In fact she had shown us 2 places in there. One was pretty good but it's $450 and we could rent that little trailer for $250. Wow was I surprised and depressed! I got in the car and couldn't help it- I cried. Yeah I know- what a baby. But all of a sudden the week I was sick (last week) and struggling with the stairs, the devil woman whom I hadn't seen almost since we got here and paid her ransom to go to the beach- she approached me a couple a days ago and hugged me (yuck-) and said she had a cookie package for me (like I would eat her poison cookies), the ghost town feeling here...not feeling comfortable going downstairs at nite cause there's no curtains...aarrgghh we're stuck in this house, all hit me at once and I cried. I feel much better now. I sent an email to Irka asking about some other places on her website, found a couple of other rental websites and sent some emails requesting info, and then saw a place for rent right down the road, at this woman's place...Pam's Hacienda. The houses are all painted carzy colors, right down my alley. Actually I'm not sure how many houses besides hers, the rest might be mobile homes, which is also fine with me. So I called her, and she only has a mobile home and it's $400. More than we want to pay, but we're going to look at it tomorrow afternoon, and hey, maybe she'd go for $350.
Then a little while ago Irka replied and said, you have a lease, talk to me. Yes I know we have a lease, and I realize we'll lose the security deposit, so what about the places I mentioned? She did not reply again. Tomorrow we'll also go out to Loma del Mar (I think) and see if anyone is around that can tell us rents there. It's a small camp, I think all mobile homes, and they all have a great view of the bay and Ensenada, but not a way to get to the beach. Which would be ok, too. And of course there's still the trailer for $250. We talked about that as well, it's half of what we're paying, it's about 10 feet from the beach, there's people around, friendly people, and has security. It's small, but do we need big? No. I am no longer upset. We have options. And one of my absolute worst character defects is feeling trapped and then making bad decisions. So now more.
So I am starting to work on my new years commitments...to myself. To dig a little deeper, to embrace acceptance. Not letting myself trapped, not making bad decision on top of other bad decisions, and hurting the people that I love in the process. Hey awareness is a pretty good start eh? Anyway, hopefully by Monday my cough will be all but gone, and then I'll go find that community center and see if there's something I can do..ok enough for now, Everardo is sleeping next to me on the couch, Hazel is snuggling up with him (hey that's my job), so time to wrap this up.
Mexico fun fact:
Stone tools have been found in Mexico that suggest the existence of humans there around 23000 years ago.
San Quintin is kind of long, with everything along both sides of the highway. It was a nice outing and I didn't find anything there extra special, the ride was the goal. Now we did not follow the highway to the south end where it met the ocean, we took a right and went out to the "old port", a nice woman at the gas station told us it was nice spot, so we went for it. The bay is called - crap! I forget what the name of it is! But it's narrow and winds around as it comes inland. And pretty interesting, right by the dock we were standing on, the water eddies around, whirlpools and it's going pretty fast- on both directions. And the pelicans! They are huge...all waiting around for some fisherman to throw out old bait or parts of the fish he has no use for. They were in comeptition with some pretty hefty (read chubby) seagulls as well. I got some great pictures of them all. So there was a guy, a fisherman, well I think that's what he was- but he took the discarded fish pieces, and cut them up even more, and kept parts of it to make fish soup. So he was throwing away pieces and the fight was on.
On the way out this dirt turnoff we spied 2 kids walking and trying to wave down a ride- they must have been only 10 or 12 years old. We picked them up and they were on their way to go crabbing. But they had us stop at a little bodega and they didn't want is to wait. They were getting bait and said they'd get a ride the rest of the way. After we ate and went back to walk along the water again, we saw them and they waved. Their "fishing poles" were plastic soda bottles with sand and rocks in them, and fishing line wrapped around them. Don't know if they caught anything, but in the car- one kid very talkative and one very quiet- we were told all about it so I have no doubt they reeled 'em in.
The restaurant was very nice, and they said over holidays they get very busy and the rest of the time they have people drop in, and as we ate we saw quite a few groups of people arrive and walk along the docks, some coming in to eat. There were also some vendors with trinkets set up, so there must be some steady-if light- tourist traffic. Now for the food- well I'm sure it's probably good, and the presentation was very nice. But I ordered crab stuffed shrimp. First they brought us a very nice clam chowder, it almost tasted like mashed potatoes, corn and clams...hmm well it tasted really good. My plate came and looked so pretty. Some rice, some nice veggies, and my shrimps in some kind of a thick sauce...really good. But my shrimps- well they were wrapped and cooked in bacon. Bacon! Might have been something to mention on the menu or when you ordered it- I mean I asked if it was picoso (spicy)...and they had a meat & seafood menu that I did NOT order from....so I was disappointed. Everardo had shrimp in some kind of sauce, and he only got 6 shrimp...not big prawns or anything, small shrimp...which he gave some of to me because I couldn't eat Bacon-y shrimp (and no crab in sight). The thing is- it was not cheap..about $20 US a plate- that's expensive. As we drove by several street stands all with signs about the seafood they offered, Everardo kept pointing them out...and YES YES we could have had the same thing- probably much better for about $3US each. I had insisted we find a nice restaurant because I wanted to be sure we got abalone- yeah joke's on me. But as I said, the drive down and back was nice. The walk around the waterfront of the old port was fun, watching the pelicans and the people. So it ended up being an almost all day thing; it was after 4pm when we got home so poor doggys got a very short walk. Anyway it looks like abalone season opens in April so we will be making another trip.
Did a little house hunting in Ensenada- yeah I will never learn! But maybe I finally get it; the houses for rent there have no stoves, no refrigerators, no hot water heaters, no house heaters. Unless of course if you are willing to pay $750-1000 a month rent. We called the nite before on one place, and planned to call on 3 others once we got there. One, the number had been disconnected, one didn't allow dogs, one had no yard, and we went to see one. It was in Colonia 89, past a huge cemetery (which is fine with me I kinda like cemeteries) and a jail, a police station...and winded up a hill, then started to get steeper, then turned from paved road to dirt. We finally turned...and then continued to steeply climb! Finally we got there, and I think the air was actually thinner! The guy was rapidly saying how the house had everything!! The listing said parking for 3 cars, and Everardo gently reminded me if we had 3 Volkswagens that would be true. Luckily for me I had almost zero expectations after the other places we'd seen in the city before we arrived and after. Well we went in and it was pretty trashed, but nothing some paint couldn't have fixed...well some of it anyway...then I asked about the fridge...oh, no. And the stove? no...Hot water heater?? No...he was even saying something about furniture, but there wasn't any. One bedroom did not have enough room for more than a twin bed, but the other one did...we didn't bother to look in the backyard, we just thanked him and said we'd give him a call. Once we got down into air we could actually breathe we started laughing. And I was done...ok ok no more looking for a place to live in the city.
Today the best thing that happened was we got the seat belt fixed on the passenger side of the car. Yippee!! Because when we go somewhere together, Everardo always drives and that seat belt works. People tend to drive like insane nuts here, so I want my seat belt. It's not always that they drive too fast, sometimes it when they want to be in your lane, so they come. And after the light turns red, a few cars will still go, but other times the people waiting for the light to turn green are inching their way into the intersection...so ait's a mixed bag and you never know what's going to happen next. And I guess I'm just so used to wearing a seat belt. Here I cringe when I see mothers holding babies and/or little kids on their laps in the front seat. Or the kid is in the seat alone, but standing up...aarrgghh scares the hell out of me. So getting my seat belt fixed was a very big deal to me.
The worst thing about today was that we finally went over to La Jolla to see about a house for rent. Everybody tells us that's the best place to live. That there's always some houses there for rent. Why do people say things when they don't know what the hell they're talking about? It happened in Penasco as well. Everybody talked about how there were so many houses to rent...not true not true. I looked for all those places for months. So here the same thing. My concern had been which place would we like, and to get the best place for the dogs. WHOOPS They very nicely told us they were not in the business to rent houses. They rent/lease land and then you build a house. The houses that were for rent- if there were any, were by owners or real estates agents like Irka Davis, who we are renting from now. In fact she had shown us 2 places in there. One was pretty good but it's $450 and we could rent that little trailer for $250. Wow was I surprised and depressed! I got in the car and couldn't help it- I cried. Yeah I know- what a baby. But all of a sudden the week I was sick (last week) and struggling with the stairs, the devil woman whom I hadn't seen almost since we got here and paid her ransom to go to the beach- she approached me a couple a days ago and hugged me (yuck-) and said she had a cookie package for me (like I would eat her poison cookies), the ghost town feeling here...not feeling comfortable going downstairs at nite cause there's no curtains...aarrgghh we're stuck in this house, all hit me at once and I cried. I feel much better now. I sent an email to Irka asking about some other places on her website, found a couple of other rental websites and sent some emails requesting info, and then saw a place for rent right down the road, at this woman's place...Pam's Hacienda. The houses are all painted carzy colors, right down my alley. Actually I'm not sure how many houses besides hers, the rest might be mobile homes, which is also fine with me. So I called her, and she only has a mobile home and it's $400. More than we want to pay, but we're going to look at it tomorrow afternoon, and hey, maybe she'd go for $350.
Then a little while ago Irka replied and said, you have a lease, talk to me. Yes I know we have a lease, and I realize we'll lose the security deposit, so what about the places I mentioned? She did not reply again. Tomorrow we'll also go out to Loma del Mar (I think) and see if anyone is around that can tell us rents there. It's a small camp, I think all mobile homes, and they all have a great view of the bay and Ensenada, but not a way to get to the beach. Which would be ok, too. And of course there's still the trailer for $250. We talked about that as well, it's half of what we're paying, it's about 10 feet from the beach, there's people around, friendly people, and has security. It's small, but do we need big? No. I am no longer upset. We have options. And one of my absolute worst character defects is feeling trapped and then making bad decisions. So now more.
So I am starting to work on my new years commitments...to myself. To dig a little deeper, to embrace acceptance. Not letting myself trapped, not making bad decision on top of other bad decisions, and hurting the people that I love in the process. Hey awareness is a pretty good start eh? Anyway, hopefully by Monday my cough will be all but gone, and then I'll go find that community center and see if there's something I can do..ok enough for now, Everardo is sleeping next to me on the couch, Hazel is snuggling up with him (hey that's my job), so time to wrap this up.
Mexico fun fact:
Stone tools have been found in Mexico that suggest the existence of humans there around 23000 years ago.
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