Winter must be nearing. The leaves (on some trees) are turning orange, red. And the foothills are green, instead of brown and yellow. Also there’s that night chill in the air, that I love. Loni not so much. Then again I know cold is all relative.
My hardened Canadian roots have given way to soft California ways. I swear Northern California has the hands down best climate in the world: temperate, sunny (300+ days), and virtually no rain—except for the “winter” season. All which would make a sane person wonder: why travel south to Baja for vacation?
Loreto with Love
What is it about Loreto?
As I just mentioned, for us it’s not really the weather. Although the weather over the 7 days we were there was perfect. Little humidity. Warm to hot (but not Baja scorching) during the day and cooler at night. And almost no mosquitoes or bugs, although Loni always seems to find to attract a megabite or two.
It was just about ten days ago when we found ourselves scrambling before the trip; there was inches of paperwork as usual related to our business and real estate in Vancouver, plus the annual FM3 ordeal. The FM3 is a visitor passport for Mexico. Truth be told the process is getting smoother it seems. But still at that moment, around 2am, my eyes watering looking at too much work mail, I had to wonder, why bother? I mean, Loreto hasn’t got all the shops. The Internet is slow. And the food is good, but living in San Jose means plenty of first rate Mexican and Spanish foods.
My grumpiness was short-lived. We landed at the new terminal (hey, this looks like a real airport now!) and everything felt right at once. Perhaps also because we’re seeing some signs of light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the Loreto Bay development. Earlier this year, as most know, the developer went bankrupt and left a mess to us home owners. Every it seemed came to us with hands opened looking for repayment of debts owed. So it was pleasing to see so much activity on the ground: lots of workers, trucks, noise, cranes, building materials, dust, all crowding the paseo, Agua Viva and Founder’s neighborhoods. Still, there is much to do. The main road is a mess and looks nothing like the resort entrance Loreto Bay needs. Infrastructure is a work in progress too.
It was thrilling this trip because we took possession of our little casa, and for the first time, we felt at home in Loreto. The people are so wonderfully nice, helpful, that it’s hard not to smile each time I recall the adventure. Then: how soon can we get back?!
Motorola Droid
So you thought I’d get through Sunday morning without mentioning my love affair with the Droid? Perhaps I should rename the tag to SSC to “all things Droid.” Okay, yes I admit, I’ve nerded out a bit in the past few weeks. It’s been almost four years since I upgraded my cell phone (a trusty, durable BlackBerry 8700) so maybe I’m just giddy with all these new features and stuff.
I’m still in awe that for $199 you can carry such a powerful, all-in-one device in your pocket. Loni tells me it’s better to have one device that does something well, instead of a jack-of-all-trades. I’m not so sure that’s true anymore, at least with smartphones. From my testing over the past few weeks (including in Loreto), the Moto Droid does just about everything extremely well. It’s a camera. A GPS system that rivals Magellan and Garmin. A portable media player. A social networking machine. A portable blogger (using WordPress app). A communications marvel for email, RSS, messaging. And… ahhh, oh yes… it’s also a darn good phone thanks to the superb Verizon network.
Because we have over 20 venues we’re covering on SSC, not to mention the wineries and PR contacts we deal with, it’s been a pleasure to have all of this integrated with our Google apps. It’s seamless and I can be very productive on the road, or at least keep things moving along until I get back to the Thinkpad.
Dead Audi?
Just when I thought I had the world by the tail, my Audi decides to die on me; of course, I was just telling Loni how reliable it had been when I cranked it up… nothing. Just flickering dash electronics. Uh oh. Sounds like alternator issue. That’s okay, the Droid is still working fine.