Exploring, Shopping and Art

Greetings from La Mision. Well, I’ve been busy exploring Baja and haven’t found time to write about all that I have been seeing and doing.  Not sure were to begin, the Thanksgiving weekend was filled first with a Traditional American Thanksgiving meal shared with new friends at Bajamar, then a trip to Ensenada and then a very interesting drive through the wine country of Baja, which is in the Guadalupe Valley and on to Tecate with a walk around town square for a look at the local artisans wares. There was also, a group artist show in a lovely home here in La Mision. During the week it was a trip to San Diego for some shopping and a little American food. I won’t bore you with another border crossing tale of how they just closed the booths and left three lanes of cars to try and cross into the remaining 2 open lanes causing a 3 hour delay in getting across the border. It does seem these days that the US is most unwelcoming county. The good news is I am starting to learn my way around San Diego…it is a beautiful place though it is a very busy city. We really notice the contrast between our little peaceful ocean side community and the hyper energy of San Diego. But the shopping is great, so many choices for everything! 

This weekend we met more wonderful artisans and went to a few more galleries in Ensenada, did a little shopping. I bought a fine glass figure Catrina  that I had been wishing for….part of the Day of the Dead tradition. She is a skeleton all done up with a fancy dress and hat from a by gone era and most colorful. Diego Rivera popularized her in his mural of Mexico and she has become a very iconic image ever since. Catrina has to do with even all the riches will not  keep you from dying someday….take each day as it comes and many other similar sentiments are expressed in this image, as well as the idea of being very vane and dressed to the nines. 

We went to La Bufadora to see the waves. We have been having really super high tides this past week. They have washed all the way up on our beach past the palapas, ( the beach tables with the palm umbrellas). It has been awesome to watch from our house, not as much fun to try and walk on the beach which I did with Patch, then decided to wait until the low tide which also, has been super low. La Bufadora is a place where the cliff side has created a blow hole and the water shoots up like a natural geyser nearly 100 feet in the air. The crowd was small when we got there bright and early Sunday morning at high tide. I enjoyed trying to get the perfect photo…got a couple pretty good ones. After watching for awhile and enjoying the beautiful visas of the coast line we picked one of the restaurants to have brunch in which also, had a wonderful view of the cliffs and blue ocean.  It is a joy to have such mild temps and lots of sunshine…a great place to winter if you enjoy a little fog and sea breezes with high temps in the 70s. Dad is ready for the topical weather of Florida, but for me this is just a perfect winter. I’m still really enjoying volunteering weekly after school art program at the children’s center. The children have been creating some really fun art. We are hoping to have a show soon. There is so much more around here to explore and new art projects to start. Adios mi amigos.