La Ventana from November 2

 Day 1

Flight out of YVR was uneventful after they went through all of our sports gear:  Bike boxes are “allowed” to have 100 pounds of weight, so we stuffed lots of things into the boxes, but the airport worker said we were not to use the bike boxes as “suitcases.”  I think we’ll still do that ;)  The paddle board bags were much more smoothly received and loaded onto the plane.  The whole intake actually took an hour — good we arrived three hours early.

In Las Cabos where the flight landed, we were greeted by a party atmosphere.  Instead of Hawaiian leis you might get in an Hawaiian airport, tiki bars were set up selling the cliche Coronas and margaritas.  

    “Two for the road, please,” I said!  

    “Two fifty pesos (or $17CDN), please, said the bartender”

And then we took a private shuttle for two hours towards “ La Ventana, a small fishing village on the shore of La Ventana Bay south of La Paz on the eastern side of the Baja California peninsula in the Mexican State of Baha California Sur” (Wikipedia).  Enroute we asked our driver, Samuel, if we could do a quick grocery stop a half hour before La Ventana since Graham advised we’d only be able to find small mom and pop shops in the village.  Graham suggested we take no more than 15 minutes in the store, so we madly did a two-basket shop ($300) filling the carts with our usual grocery items.  

Taking a look at the bill upon getting to our accommodation at Casa Arrecifa it became clear that anything from Canada we liked like butter ($18), salad dressing ($9), or cereal ($9), it would be better to quickly adapt and shop like a local.  Other items seemed to be pretty much the same price as in Canadian dollars, for example, avocados, cheese, bananas — we saw virtually no prices on the shelves, and soon began to wonder if there were “special” prices for travellers.  Definitely no “deals” or anything indicating this was a “cheap place to live” as people might think.  

Arriving at our accommodation about 400 m from the beachfront (they promised us 150 m), we found a nice room with a kitchen, patio, and some basic supplies like two forks, knives, and spoons, two towels, one roll of toilet paper (BYOTP), a pot, a glass, and a sponge for washing up.  “Kind of like camping,” Graham remarked as he pulled out the tools to reconstruct the bicycles as the wind increased in intensity.

But the view is spectacular, and we saw our first gorgeous sunset on the bay.

 And then the roosters began crowing, the dogs barking, and the cows wandered freely around the property causing the freely roaming dogs to break into even more barking! The dogs continued to bark all night, and then the roosters started again around 5 am — hopefully we will quickly learn to sleep through these natural, but unusual sounds.  The morning was bright and beautiful with an equally gorgeous sunrise and the sounds of many, many little birds: northern mockingbirds, cactus wrens, northern cardinals, house finches, California Scrub-jays, Gilda woodpeckers, house sparrows, hooded orioles, orange-crowned warblers, california gnatcatchers for example, and some larger birds like the buzzard vultures, pelicans, and of course, seabirds.

Graham was keen to jump on his bike and go for a long ride — La Ventana has wonderful network of bike trails for us (him) to explore.  I took the start to the day a bit easier and waited for him to return.  We went a bit north together with me learning about the sidewalks with random drifts of sand making riding challenging and sometimes using the highway (not our preferred route), but sometimes necessary as the sidewalks can end abruptly.

I enjoyed seeing the neigbourhood of this out-of-the-way village with few shops and some “casitas”, a trailer park where people who are here for kiteboarding stay, and a kiteboarding centre called “Playa Centrale” - one of Graham’s favourite companies that help him “master” the tough sport of kiteboarding!  There may be three restaurants here, but you can also see people with pop-up stands selling tamales — something we still must explore!

We passed the Thursday Farmer’s market with the usual fare of vegetables, jewelry, and Mexican blankets.  I picked up four small limes, two onions, and one teeny weeny little guava:  50 pesos ($3.50) — somehow I think I got a special price for being a traveller.  We then went over to the little shop which has basics like soya sauce, crackers and cookies, and of course, vegetables (and TP).  I also saw displays of the Bimbo company’s bread that Julien used to market along with the Taki’s chips and snacks.

  I brought a snack bag with me that has now found its way back to Mexico!  

We’ll be able to provision at that store moving forward.  Luckily, they also had Graham’s favourite blueberry ice cream bars and also a pistachio bar for me which we enjoyed right there on the spot! 

That evening we took a stroll along the beach, and noticed all of the foreign license plates here along the backroads:  California, Oregon, and British Columbia!  There’s a contingent from Whistler who winter here.  Graham knows some, and one joined us in the shuttle from the airport.  Overall in the evenings (so far) all was quiet, and we went to bed quite early to get acclimatized to the travel and unusual sounds.  

There’s no time change here, but always an adjustment in a new environment. We saw many, many fish skeletons and carcasses (heads, mainly) along the shoreline in the light of the filling moon.  Not sure if they were filleted by the fisher people, or caught and enjoyed at the shoreline by the vultures. 

Friday.  A great day to kitesurf!

Graham started the day with a two-hour paddle at 6:30 am because the heat of the day is best when it’s early — also the wind doesn’t come up until around 11 am every day, so it’s also the best time to paddle! He returned for some food, and then we were off to his lesson   He’s taken lessons every one of the six times he’s been here before, but with COVID, he’s had a three-year hiatus.

 His instructor, Daniel, he knew, and they spent from 11 am -2 pm navigating the equipment, swallowing seawater, and reacquainting himself with all the lines, the bar, and the positioning of the kite board.  Daniel says it’s important to know how to control the kite from the land before you even step into the foot straps when you’re in the water.

 There’s a lot going on in this sport.  Daniel taped a walkie talk to Graham’s helmet, and coached Graham from shore.  Quite innovative!

Graham was surrounded by more and more kiteboarders, kite foil users, a couple of windsurfers, and the odd fishing boat all navigating carefully around one another.  Many of the people taking advantage of the increasing wind speed (20-35 knots) as the time passed; they were jumping, spinning, and getting up to a minute of air time.  

Incredible athletes — and many were petite women.  I was awestruck at the skill and dedication surrounding me.

As the wind seemed to hit its peak, and Daniel had swapped out Graham’s kite to a smaller one I heard  Daniel say:  “I lost my board, I lost my kite, and I lost my student.  Let’s go rescue him down the bay!” The nice thing about taking a lesson, is when you end up at the foot of the bay, the instructor will bring an ATV to pick you up instead of having to walk your gear back along the “walk of shame.” Good deal!  Daniel was able to collect all his goods, and return Graham and I safely to Playa Centrale — He told Graham to keep practicing with his own gear, then come back for another lesson. 

Next:  Desalinated water and learning Spanish and Mexican cuisine