I think your pants are on fire

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Hurricane Greg, bearing 80 mph winds, is 340 miles south of the tip of Baja California, the Miami-based center said earlier. The hurricane, rated Category 1 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, is moving west-northwest at 21 mph and may strengthen further without endangering land, before weakening tomorrow


HERALD SUN

Greg, which formed as a tropical storm Wednesday, was located in the eastern Pacific Ocean about 340 miles (545km) south of Baja, California, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said .

And from 2pm today from WEATHERUNDERGROUND, which tracks storms minute to minute....

The intensity of Greg has likely plateaued and is not expected to change much in the next 12hours. Beyond 12 hours...Greg is forecast to move over increasingly cooler waters which will cause steady weakening.

FROM SHELBY

Today at 2pm when this news above was posted on Weatherunderground Maurice and I were cleaning the pool. It was hot and not much wind. We are expecting some guests here tomorrow so I had already watered the plants and swept the terraces. Maurice was busy down below. We had really wanted to get the pool done so this was the last thing we were going to do today, before we had lunch and relaxed. Well about 3 o’clock it started getting windy and Maurice moved the plants around the pool inside our great room. He said that soil was blowing in the clean water. O.K. About 30 minutes later it was getting windier and windier and I asked Maurice to check the computer to see if we had missed some weather report. He checked and told me no...we had not missed anything. Well, as the wind intensified and the cushions started blowing, and the umbrellas blew over, and the leather deck chairs also blew over, we figured something WAS going on.

From all we read apparently Hurricane Greg is far from us…no need to worry about any effects here. I THINK NOT!!! All these weather reporters need to be here in the southern Baja. We actually had two of our lights blow right off the outside walls…and they were screwed on. The pool water is blowing all over and it sprays you as you walk by. The ocean is in so much turmoil that there is not a speck of it that is not blowing, heaving and moving...there is no calm. The windows, shut so we are baking inside, are shaking and wobbling. I am imagining that man, you remember him from your childhood, you know the one with those big cheeks?? He is up there somewhere blowing down at us so hard that his face is beat red!!

I just walked out to check on things, even though most of what we have has already been tucked away, and I felt like my face was getting sandblasted! Maurice is huffing and puffing with Retro following him around…neither one of them has “happy heads”. Maurice is checking and re-checking every little thing.

So much for Hurricane Greg not effecting land! I am so glad I swept and cleaned everything up today!! Glad we cleaned the pool!! Gees what a mess!! I think I will take some pictures and send them to those weather guys. You know, the ones with their pants on fire!!

Why everyone loves this guy!!

Thanks to one of our guests, Jacob, for capturing Retro's personality in this photo.



With his "happy head" who could NOT love him!!

The Pacific

We live on the ocean. I have never lived on the ocean before and many of the things that I now associate with the Pacific came as a surprise to me.

The never ending ebbing beach. Yes, we have tides and undertows and natural breakwaters, but what I have seen in my year and half by the sea is that the beach changes and morphs daily. I tell our guests to be aware of the sand and the beach. Notice where the surf hits and how high the beach is from the waves….because tomorrow it will be different. Between June and November we loose about half the beach’s sand...it is pulled out to sea. From November until the following June, it all comes back.

Seashells. No, not the seashells surprise me; it is the lack of seashells that surprise me. You have to search long and far to come up with a pocket full of shells...no matter what time of year. The good thing about this is that the sand is fine, smooth and easy to walk on.

The color of the water changes as much as the ebb and flow of the beach’s sand. One day it is brilliant turquoise and the next it is dark navy. I am learning the color is dependent upon the weather. Be it here or 300 miles from us, all weather effects the colors we see when we look at the ocean. The colors can change from hour to hour also, depending upon the strength and the position of the sun.

The sea creatures and fish are miraculous. Of course when the whales are migrating it is a sight like no other. But when we see a school of dolphins playing down below, or hear sea-rays flapping and flying through the air it is dreamlike. Sometimes there are 100’s of silver fish that take turns leaping out of the water while they travel north of south. Maurice tells me there is a predator in the water and they are leaping out to try to avoid being eaten.

Rainbows. Sometimes, when the sun is just right, and the waves are breaking, just before they hit shore, you can see rainbows in the tide. Vibrant colors dancing on top of the surf.

Salt. Every single things is covered in salt. ALWAYS!! I have sanded metal objects that sit in our house and sprayed them with lacquer to keep them from rusting. There is a salt film on everything we own. To keep the windows clear is a constant battle. The mist from the sea is invisible, but always there. We are 50 meters above the sea. I cannot imagine how much worse it would be if we were at sea level.

The waves never end. The intensity changes, but they never stop. I know this is a given, but to watch them is almost hypnotic. Sometimes gentle and subtle and other times they hit the beach and the cliff below us so strongly that our windows…bathed in salt...actually shake.

The crabs on the beach are Retro’s toys. He chases them and plays with them. I revel in their numbers. It is not that I view the crabs themselves but when the surfs recedes there are 100’s of bubbles in the wet sand, at the base of which is a buried crab.

The sunsets. No matter what time of year the sun sets right in front of us, into the oean. The ocean swallows it up and you can almost hear the water sizzle as it goes down.

All these things now define “seaside” to me. The surf, the sand, the salt, the fish, the crabs, the waves, the colors. BUT, think...what is missing? Really think about the times you have been to the ocean, or by the sea, what is missing in my observations?

I did not realize the answer either until about two weeks ago. When you are at the ocean there are always seagulls. Have you ever been by the sea and not had sea gulls squawking and flying above you? Of course not.

Seagulls=Seaside

We never had seagulls here, so to me I never thought about them NOT being here. Then two weeks ago, when Mary was here, they just came. I am not sure from where?? I am not sure how long they will be here, but here they are. They fly above us and squawk. This makes me smile! NOW...I truly do believe we live by sea.

The storm before the wind...or the storm that made the wind…Or Dora Dora Dora.

On Friday of last week, we had rain. It was amazing! A good 45 minutes of solid, warm, refreshing rain. The rain is rare right now as it is still a little early in the season. We figured it was probably the result of Hurricane Dora that was down on the west coast of the mainland.

After the rain stopped the sun came out and that night we experienced some of the most spectacular sunset colors we had seen here. The reflection of the already set sun onto the shifting clouds that were still in the sky was a photographers dream. I, not being a photographer, did my best...





Saturday, after a colorful sunrise, I drove to the airport in Cabo.
Sharon rode with me as she has a flight to the U.S. and I was going to pick up my friend Mary who was arriving from Minneapolis. (To learn about Mary read “Mexico 1982” posted July 2nd, 2010) I was excited that Mary was coming to see us! She had not been here for a year and we were VERY far from done last time. I swept, and vacuumed, and “poofed and floofed” the house. I was ready!!!!

After I picked up Mary we did the normal Costco and Wal-Mart stops, calling Maurice along the way to see if he needed anything. He appeared to be getting more stressed each time we spoke. He explained it was getting really windy and that there were lots of flies in the house. He said we should pick up some fly strips; you know those obnoxious gold colored sticky strips that you may see hanging in old restaurants or hardware stores. He said the fly spray we had was not working. The thought of hanging these ugly, gross strips in our house horrified me, but I looked for them anyway cause he sounded in such “need“. Happily, I could not find them.

Maurice called again saying he was bringing in plants because the wind was really picking up. He said a pool chair blew in the pool. He was very frantic sounding. We didn‘t really concern ourselves as there was no weather at all in Cabo. It was sunny and warm…no wind.

On his third call he said the flies were carpeting our bedroom floor. Did we get the fly strips?? How close were we to home? I told him no, we did not find them and that we would be home in about 20 minutes. We still could see or feel any wind….of course he must be exaggerating, right?

Finally, about 10 minutes away from our place we noticed the ocean was filled with white caps. The sand from the road that was under construction was blowing all around us. The truck was shaking slightly from the winds. WOW!!!

What was going on!!!

Finally, I get Mary to the gate of Arriba de la Roca. I had been so excited to show her everything. We were having grilled salmon for dinner……

But oh my!!! Opening up the iron gate was such an effort! It seemed that the winds were blowing about 100 mph!! It was insane!!! How were we going to bring the luggage and supplies up the cliff???? What was happening??

Maurice had gone on line and found out that hurricane Dora was about 200 miles directly west of us. Hurricanes are graded by their wind speeds and categorized accordingly. Dora had dipped under 74 mph so it had been downgraded to a tropical storm, he said. So it was no longer “Hurricane Dora” only “Tropical Storm Dora”. I cannot even imagine if it would have been a full-fledged hurricane! No wonder Maurice “sounded frantic”!! I would have been screaming like crazy!!!! GET HOME!!! Or…Aunty Emm…TOTO!!!!

When we finally got up on top I found our main room is open and it was filled with plants leaves, stems, and dirt that had flown in, and yes, flies. I have never in my life seen so many flies in one place. It was creepy and totally gross. They were everywhere!!! To open windows and doors meant more flies and wind. To close the windows meant being jailed in a hot room with 100’s and 100’s of flies.

Maurice had been busy!!! All the lawn furniture, umbrellas, decorative planters, was either laid down either flat or inside our house. Sadly, we lost two cushions down the cliff! There they were perched in the abyss, never to be touched again.

Welcome to Arriba de la Roca, Mary!! EEEGADS!!!! WHERE ARE THOSE GOLD FLY STRIPS WHEN YOU REALLY NEED THEM!!

We got stuff put away as much as we could. Then we decided to set up lawn chairs in the doorway of our main room and watch the wind. We pushed the doors open as far as possible and we sat there drinking margaritas and trying not to freak out.
After a couple of hours we decided that Dora was not as bad as we thought it was and that we could still dance a little. The wind was not strong enough to blow us off the balcony so we danced up a storm...so to speak!!!!! By then we were drinking wine and decided there was no way I was making salmon!! The flies were crawling everywhere!! The thought was absurd!!! I threw a quick snack together, flapping my arms about me like a crazy kook, and we kept on drinking and dancing!!

I had told Maurice there was not a chance we were sleeping in our room. Thank heavens Mary’s had been totally closed up, but ours had been open in the beginning and Maurice was not exaggerating when he said the floor was a carpet of flies. So he closed it all up and sprayed a can of fly killer inside. By the time we went to bed, I vacuumed up 860 dead flies, with only 100 remaining. EEWW!!! Nevertheless, we did sleep in there. I guess by staying up until one in the morning and sampling most of the alcohol we had in our bar we were actually able to sleep.

On Sunday we all woke up to a calm, lovely day here at Arriba de la Roca. We had lost some plants, destroyed by the winds, but really we were otherwise fine. A few hours of clean-up and it was like Dora was never here. Except for our headaches, and the pictures we have of our palms laying perpendicular to their planters, our first Tropical Storm was almost like a dream.

So much for giving Mary a lovely welcome to Arriba de la Roca. So much for the poofing and floofing!!! Well, for sure, it will be a trip that none of us will forget!

P.S. Maurice actually climbed down the cliff the next day and rescued our cushions! Can you see him down there??? Seriously, I was so nervous that I thought I was going to puke just looking at him!!




Or maybe that was the cocktails form the night before!! :)

Finally....

I have been hopeful the last few days that the crazy heat spell had broken. The air has actually been rather fresh, and there have been some soft clouds in the sky. Today when the pool water was so cool that we had to go into the "hot tub" to get warm, I knew I was right!

The nights are now back to a nice 70 degrees and the days are a perfect 80.

On Retro's walks on the beach he is back to careening from side to side, frantically running from the surf, up the beach, and back. All the sand crabs are back on alert, fearful of his wacky, happy flinging of their bodies from his mouth. I am sure they do not experience the same joy that he does with his "toss the sand crab as high into the air as I can" game.

At night, our ceiling fan has gone from a wobbling "high" to a gentle "low". The bed sheet no longer has to be dug out, off the floor, from the foot of the bed in the morning. It lays on us softly, all night long. (Well, except when I get a hot flash and kick that seemingly 100 pound weight off of me!!!)

We still need rain as the desert is in need of a nice bloom. It is dry and drab, compared to November through May, when the earth is still living off the few days of rain we will get in the next couple of months. For three or four months the mountains are actually green and there is grass!! It amazes me how so much life can go dormant for months as a time, and then burst forth with such vibrant colors and flowers! If you want to pick a great time to come here choose the end of November. I saw the first whale heading to the Sea of Cortez in November. No more threat of rain. The nights are geting nice and cool, the days are warm and sunny and the Baja's plant life is alive! There are even waterfalls in the mountains!

Hope to see you then.

Our Reality

Our Reality

A month ago I did a blog posting called Hotel Casting (June 7th). It was a copy of a letter that we had sent to an e-mail address submitting some info about our business in hopes to be included in a documentary on small hotels and B&B’s….whew, that was what Mrs. Schmidt would call a run-on-sentence!! Anyway, even though I submitted the e-mail every day for a month (just kidding) we never heard from them.

On July 9th, through our web site’s “Contact us” page we received a request from a different company. This time the request was to see if we may be interested in being part of a reality TV show. Here are some highlights of the e-mail.

A casting director based in Los Angeles.
We work for a production company that is currently in pre-production for a reality show that will follow the ins and outs of running a tropical resort/hotel and its employees.
The network wants to shine a spotlight on a well-run, small (preferably family owned) resort.

Maurice and I giggled and we agreed I would SKYPE her to see what the deal was. What we learned is that they were preparing a new show for “a major cable network.” They were talking to resorts and hotels throughout the world. I also found out they discovered our place on a travel web site. We had a nice conversation and I ended up telling her we may be interested so she sent me a questionnaire to be filled out. This was the next step. I was to return it with pictures of Maurice and me. Not Arriba de la Roca, as they had seen our web site, just us two.

I did as requested and then they told us the next step would be to do a video for them. The video was to highlight Maurice and me, as much as our place. They wanted to see interaction between us and they wanted to meet some of our employees. Through all this we were dealing with the casting director and his assistant. They explained to us that on Friday the 16th, they were to present to the executive producers these videos for consideration.

We had a blast putting this together. Sharon helped us with some of the filming and it was about 100 degrees the day we did it!!! They had a deadline, so we had no choice! In the end Maurice and I re-shot the beginning using a tripod. This is how the video you will see begins. This is a legit beginning, not staged. The only thing is we cut out the first 2 or 3 minutes of Maurice not being able to say where we lived!! If you want to check it out it is on youtube, under Arriba de la Roca. Here is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QKxkd9C0Lk

This is what we have been told now. First their comments were they loved the views and our place. They said that the executive producers were hurry hurry hurry...to now wait wait wait. They will not know anything for a couple of weeks and if we get antsy to feel free to contact them...or they will get back to us when they know something.

Will Maurice and I be reality TV stars??? I don’t think so, but we sure had fun doing this, and dreaming about it! We still are not sure how this would affect our business. They said if we were chosen they would be here for a month, or so. I guess we will have lots of questions if they decide to come here for a site inspection, which would be the next step in the process.

We will let you know how it goes, obviously. Maybe you can book your trip here to coincide with the taping. Interested in being a star? Then a trip to Arriba de la Roca may be in your future!

Feeling HOT HOT HOT

OH MY!!! There is nothing like the Mexican sun!! It follows you around, almost laughing at the way it makes you try to hide from it!!









Maurice and I have been trying to find a cool spot for days now. I really feel sometimes like I am melting! Even the temperature in the pool is over 90 degrees!! You try to keep it hot all winter and now what do we do??!! Not enough ice cubes in the world to cool that thing off!!!At least it is still below 98.6 degrees so that is something.











Even Retro feels the heat and he is FROM here!! He has not stopped panting for four days! When we do our walk in the morning, earlier and earlier these days, he just walks along beside me...no running, no jumping, no digging up sand crabs. Today we got half way and I looked at him and said, "Retro, you wanna go on or should we go home?" Honest to God he stopped, looked at me and slowly turned around, back toward home.




This heat spell will break....we know. We lived through a couple last year, too. At least this year we have the hot tub, we call our swimming pool.


Ceiling fans on high, lots of ice water and cold cervezas, and we will get through this. I love the sun!!!

Just not this week!