Felicidades Los Spences & Only In Mexico (Well Maybe)

In case you hadn’t already heard, Jessie and Leon Spence had a darling little girl, Lola Mae Spence, on March 13, 2007. Jessie is the daughter of Richard Rutowski of Amerimex Real Estate and LA screenplay writing fame. Jessie and Leon own and run Buena Vida Bistro in town and everyone who knows them had been anxiously waiting to hear the news that Jessie had given birth. All the grandparents to be (Richard, Katherine, Donna and Ron – well he arrived a bit late but made it finally) had gathered in Todos Santos for the event and as the days wore on, you could feel the tension level rising every so slowly. But all is well…and here’s a photo to prove it.

Okay, maybe it happens in other places but I am still amazed at the penetration level of the Mexican beer companies (all two of them!) Across the street from my office/gallery, I spied what appeared to be a young child’s birthday party complete with girlish colors and a piñata – the shade covering supplied by Pacifico. Great way to get your colors, logo and brand name into the heads of the young, right?

It’s A Slow Tourist Season With Strange Weather

Well, it is! Must be a reflection of feelings of uncertainty up north. People come up from Los Cabos, eat, spend a few hours here and then go back. There just aren’t that many people staying for mutiple days or weeks. Most of the winter surfers have left for home or other surf venues.

And the weather continues to be odd. Two mornings running we have had fog. Normally we don’t see fog until late April or the beginning of May at the earliest. The days are slowly getting warmer and the nights not quite as cold.

Ex-pat (now living in Canada) film student Amy Bohigian was in town interviewing US ex-pats for her school documentary film project. She now lives in Nelson, BC which also has a large seasonal ex-pat community and she is exploring “all of our concepts of home as it releates to leaving the US for a significant length of time.” In Todos Santos, she interviewed Paty Baum, Janet Howey, Marc Spahr, Scott Smith Cole, Cosima Ekman and yours truly.

My daugther, Cosima Rose Ekman, being interviewed by Amy Bohigian.

Back at the end of February, Anne Nicolai of  www.nadfm.com, stopped by for a visit. She is from Minneapolis which I once called home. She pulled out her road party pack (beer, salsa, chips) and along with my friends Juan and Aaron, we had a little party.

Juan, Anne and Aaron (left to right)

Finally, I got lucky a few weeks back and had the surf camera all setup when the whales started playing and hopping in the water. At last I am posting one of the shots. Enjoy!!!

Notice the bird in the water in the foreground, whale splashing and shrimp boat in the background.

La Poza Drowning – Stoplights – Flashback Live Recording

Well this week Todos Santos’ only stoplight was finally turned back on. This will help enormously with the right of way issues at that busy intersection by the park. I wonder how many people will even notice that it is working again. It could remain a dangerous corner for a while longer until the realization sinks in.

Local uber-rock band “Flashback” had a live recording session at the Hotel California on February 23-24. I could only attend the Friday night show and while it wasn’t packed, the crowd was lively and the music energized. I heard that on Saturday night it was standing room only and the music even hotter. The band was recording for a live CD and also videoing for a DVD. Repeat after me, “Todos Santos is moving up in the world.”

Flashback live recording session at Hotel California – missing off to the right is sax-man Doug Alani.

The view from the roof of the Hotel California.

Meanwhile, the children (including hotel chef Dany) are playing in the kitchen area.

The Pacific Ocean is always dangerous! It will do you well to remember that. This info was posted today by Elena Moreno on the Baja Western Onion:

DROWNING AT LA POZA: – Monday afternoon (March 5, 2007) a 31 year old tourist drowned at La Poza beach in front of the mouth of the Lagoon. He had been playing with his girlfriend’s 8 year old son along the dune where the lagoon had begun to overflow. Suddenly the dune broke and the small stream widened to a fifty feet wide wall of water as the lagoon emptied millions of gallons of water into the ocean. He managed to get the child to safety but was pulled under by the currents. This is the third drowning death at the La Poza beach in less than a year.

1) When the lagoon is full exercise extreme caution, especially if it has begun to overflow.

2) Do not attempt to surf or boogie-board the overflow.

3) Do not swim in the lagoon when it is close to overflow -do not walk or drive across the mouth of the lagoon if it is even close to overflow.

4) If you are going to swim in the lagoon be very careful. The lagoon may appear to be shallow, but has many sudden drop-offs and is actually very deep.

2002 Photo of the lagoon at La Poza beach.

Morning Walk – Surf Photos

I have been taking my dog on beach walks in the morning lately. Today’s walk had two notable points:

1) Dead pelicans on the beach.

I don’t know what killed these pelicans. They hadn’t been dead for very long and the two of them were only a few meters apart.

2) Dolphins swimming to the north.

This kind of surprised me. I hadn’t seen dolphins from the shore before.

Looking North on Las Tunas Beach

Looking South on Las Tunas Beach

And finally I remembered to post some surf photos. These are from late January and early February. There hasn’t been much worth photographing lately.

Heriberto Floats on a Waterfall

Toby Cruising a Sweet Wave

Punta Lobos Golf Course? – Film Festival Update – Music of Old Mexico

Here’s a link to the scariest press release in a very long time that concerns Todos Santos

Punta Lobos Todos Santos Golf Course

If this becomes reality, it really will signal the end of life in Todos Santos as we have known it. I have always held that until the first resort is built and is successful, we are safe. But the hawks have been circling for quite a while now and it is beginning to look like one will soon break on through to the other side.

Once again (remove foot from mouth mode) as soon as I wrote about the film festival being at the Cultural Center and not the theatre, the venue was changed back to the theatre. All the advance publicity specifically stated the films would be at the Cultural Center due to construction at the theatre, but at the last minute the theatre was made available and all is well.

Knowing what to write and when isn’t so easy around here. Things change rapidly and without notice.

Tuesday, February 27, Arena de Rio played at La Polilla Art Gallery. The husband and wife team (Consuelo Martinez and Abel Lopez) is dedicated to preserving the traditional music of Mexico from 1850-1940. About 30-35 people attended and were treated to some very rare music.