December 20 - January 4

Our first day south of La Paz we spent in a small town called El Pescadero. There was a quaint rv park La Serena with beautiful palm trees, flowers, and nice clean bathrooms. That evening we rode our bikes to the local Sandbar to listen to some reggae tunes. We arrived around 8, expecting (as it is in Idaho) that the music had already started, but found out parties dont get started until at least 10pm in mexico...by the time the band started playing (they were very good!) we were pooped, and didnt last long...it gets dark so early, we're getting accustomed to early bedtime. The next morning we shared a cantoloupe for breakfast with a friendly woman, Pat, from Santa Cruz. She told us we couldnt miss Todos Santos, so we made it our next destination.

We spent the afternoon touring the dusty streets of Todos, admiring the many art galleries and authentic crafts. We stopped into one shop, Ben interested in the odd bottles of a mysterious liquor. The sweet shop owner allowed us to taste the drink, Ben loved it, Em thought it was weird. We noticed a whole wall full of blankets and the woman along with her lovely daughter Dulce, helped as we unfolded a dozen of them looking for just the right one.... At last we found one, this thing is authentic, it still smelled like a sheep :) Very soft, and very warm cozy wool.

We made our way to Cerritos beach, a popular surf spot. After searching out the coast, we found a spot to unroll our full setup. We popped up our gazebo, hung a laundry line, unstrapped the surf boards and settled into our temporary home. It didnt take us long to meet many new friends. The first day out surfing we bumped into a couple from Wyoming and Janine offered her expertise on surfing to Em. In no time she was riding the white water of the waves :) Everyone camped out there was so friendly.

We met Brad, Nick, Charlie, Rachel, and Elizabeth from Colorado, and Sarah and David from San Fran. We enjoyed beach volleyball, surfing, kayaking, biking, reading and many communal meals with our new friends. Christmas evening we all got together, each one contributing to our Christmas feast around the campfire. We talked and told stories well into the night.
We were quite satisfied with our warm, breezy, beachy Christmas :)

We spent nearly 2 weeks at Cerritos. We caught glimpes of whales, watched a seal surfing a wave, and saw sting rays "flying" out of the water just off shore. We really enjoyed our time settled in and relaxing, we feel totally rejuvinated and ready to explore on. We bid our friends farewell on January 2nd and headed north to Tecolote beach in La Paz. The following morning we drove to the ferry terminal and were pleasantly surprised to discover an alternate company offering MUCH more affordable rides to Mazatlan. At 4pm the ferry departed from La Paz toward Mazatlan. We spent our 16 hour ride reading, cooking, and visiting with Harris a photographer from LA who is riding his motorcycle to Central America. We enjoyed the ride, we even spotted dolphins swimming along the bow as the sun was rising the next morning. The ship docked on the mainland by 8:30am and a long day of travelling landed us in Rincon de Guayabitos about 90 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. We nestled for the evening into a small park and enjoyed a hot shower. We're ready to put some miles on tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.

All of our love! Ben and Em :)