PINK CHAMPAGNE ON ICE

Have you ever been at a New Years party and watched the ball drop in Times Square? You do the countdown..ten..nine..eight..seven..six..five..four..three..two..one. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! You kiss, you hug those you do not know well enough to kiss, and you toast with your champagne. It is a common way to bring in the New Year. Now....have it ever done this in a time zone that is two hours BEHIND New York?? Done it with people who are not FROM New York…just using that count down to bring in the New Year, two hours before it occurs??

That is what happened for us last night. A lovely party. A plethora of food and drinks. Toasting in the New Year at 10 pm.

The party began at 6:30. We learned that a 6:30 start really means a 6:30 start here. When we arrived at 6:40, hoping we were not the first, we were close to one of the last of the 30 or so guests to get there. We ate about 7:30, had the tables cleared away for dancing by 8:30 and we were really starting to kick-it-up when at 9:55 they turned off the music and turned on the TV. HUH?! After the countdown, the toasting and the hugs and kisses everyone said their good nights and left. HUH?! I heard some woman who was probably younger than me, and dressed for a New Years Eve party, say it was one of the best parties she had been to. HUH?!

WE WERE SO NOT READY TO GO HOME! It was our first New Years in Mexico...where do you go when you want to party in Todos Santos?? You go to Hotel California!

We decided on the drive back from the party to Todos Santos, that we were going to crash the fiesta at Hotel California that we had read about. We would walk in, act like we owned the place and go straight for the band and start dancing. That is exactly what we did.

By 10:45 we were at a table right in front of the band having a ball. The place was packed with people of all ages. Everyone was celebrating but the coolest thing was they had a huge fountain in the middle of a courtyard filled with ice and pink champagne! (Mirrors on the ceiling, pink champagne on ice...) At midnight, they passed around the glasses, filled ours with this fabulous drink, and dropped a net full of balloons.

It really was midnight in Baja Sur Mexico!!

That is the story of our first New Years in Mexico. It was one filled with strangers and strange occurrences but this is our home now, and our destiny. As they say, we can check out anytime we want, but we can never leave…..