La tercera semana de Mexico

Ivy has been highly entertaining and cuddly - we all love cousin Ivy....

Welcome to Playa Balandra.  Honestly we can't get enough of these beaches.  To get to Balandra we leave by 7:30 or 8am because the parking lot fills up FAST and the shade palapas go quick too.  We got there at 8:15 on a Thursday morning.  At 9:00 a tour bus pulled up and unloaded a slew of tourists, and then another one came 15 minutes later.  However - I think they must have left after awhile and we didn't notice because the beach didn't ever seem uncomfortably busy and full.  Eventually locals replaced the tourists.  We rented kayaks and did a little light snorkeling.  It was a really nice day.

The girls made the hike to the view point too - we could see them from our spot on the beach.

Faith tried snorkeling and turns out, she likes it!  Which is good because she's going to have another opportunity in a week!

One night on the Malecón we found this lady making these delightful delicacies...something sort of like a cross between a pancake and an English muffin with a filling - we chose Nutella, of course!

I still love the view when I go to my Spanish class.... I'm honestly going to miss these boats and pelicans!

We like the restaurants here.  Lots of good food.  So we gave up cooking.  ;-)

The Baja 1000 is a big 'ole race that happens annually and sometimes ends in La Paz, at it did this weekend.  Reading up about it a little we learned that these guys are off-roading and to prevent major crowds no one knows the route for sure.  However, locals will put up booby-traps to try to get a little more action so sometimes these guys end up being flipped over or catching more air than they were expecting.  Sounds exciting!!

The cars were due to start arriving on Friday afternoon.

The fun part of the story is that as I was driving to my final Spanish class on Friday I realized I was getting close to the raceway because there were tons of police patrols and a few shut down roads.  My Spanish class is out a little highway in another town 10 minutes away and as I drove down the road all of a sudden I was in the midst of a crowd that had gathered on the side of the road and this race car came squealing out of the desert onto the road right as I passed.  It felt like being a little bit of a celebrity as I drove through the cheering crowds.

We took a trip to Todos Santos for surfing lessons and a different beach experience (on the Pacific coast rather than the much calmer Sea of Cortez).  

We went to breakfast when we got to Todos Santos at an awesome breakfast buffet and then hit the beach for the day.

Faith had this awesome line from her wet suit so I had to grab a photo.

Here's Natalie on her board!

And Kenna doing awesome too

Josh and I were loving the building on the hill.

After the surf lesson they were given boogie boards and told to go have fun!

the beach was so fun we have plans to go back.  Plus we never saw the town and we totally want to explore it since it's considered a Pueblo Magico (magic town).

Mexico is it's own brand of awesome.  I'm still not used to needing to disinfect all my produce and my clean dishes.  But I do like the perfect temperature all day every day.

This is my bedroom.  We don't have or need blankets.

These cousins are the best of friends.  They have realized a shared love of reading.  

I'm glad they're getting this bonding time!

Josh took this photo of the Marine at the grocery store - there were two of them and they each had two carts piled high with beer.  Hilarious.  Looked like they were anticipating QUITE the weekend.

We decided a quick trip to the whale museum was in order.  It was...unusual and fascinating.  

Three rooms full of bones!

We have one more week in Mexico!  It's our play week and I am looking forward to it!