Pic-of-the-Month for May 2026

Hola Amigos,

Here it is already the end of another month.  Isn't it amazing, the older I get, the faster the time goes by!

  

Of course these Cormorants are just hanging around enjoying having a rock to sit on and rest up before hunting for some fish for breakfast, and that's their only timeline. Pancho tried to scare them off, but they knew he didn't want to get his feet wet, so they were safe!  (OK... this picture is from a different day, but it's the same rock, same dog, maybe the same birds!!!)

We are in "summer mode", getting ready to move to our pickup with the dogs and travel up to Oregon.  This year, Ben's brother Greg, recently retired, is going to fly down to La Paz on June 8.  We'll pick him up, and spend the night in La Paz.  The next day, we'll take off north on our 2000 +- journey to Fort Rock, Oregon, where we store our "summer suitcase" (trailer).  Greg has been down here several times to visit us, but never seen the Baja Peninsula up close and personal.  He says he doesn't mind sitting in the back seat with the dogs, so we'll see how that works!!  (I might share my front seat with him, but don't count on Ben taking his tightly gripped hands off of his steering wheel and giving Greg, a former train engineer, a chance to drive Baja's narrow, curvy roads!) Anyhow, should be fun.  We hope to show him some interesting Baja sights.

Yes, we are getting ready to leave a smidge earlier this year.  We had planned to visit a Sunstone Mine in Oregon with friends George and Carolyn S, but they realized the weekend planned was Father's Day, so we'll do that with them later.  Ben and I decided to go ahead and come early and get started on our Passport process.  Both are expiring this summer, and we need to get them done ASAP so Ben can travel back to our house here if there's a bad hurricane threat.  If it's bad enough, Ben wants to be here to ensure things are buttoned up properly.  We have already put up storm shutters upstairs and some down, but depending on which direction a storm is coming from, he'd feel better being here to make sure things are good.  Besides, he likes living off a generator when we have no electricity, and rationing water!!  It is threatening to be a severe storm year; El Nino is very strong this year, the sea water is warm, and there are indications that we could have some serious storms.  We do have a house sitter lined up to stay here, a young 25 year old Mexican who works a full time job at East Cape Health Clinic.  We think he will do well, and we'll have Dalia to back him up!  

 We had a nice visit a week or so ago from a former house sitter and good friend, Perla.  She brought over her little 6 month old sweetheart Mar to visit with us.  It is really great getting to know locals  and watching them grow and make life changes.  In fact, this next weekend, our friend Benhur will be over here with his Dad to prune our palm trees.  We met him with his Mom when he was 5 and she did some gardening for us.  He has graduated from University and has worked various tech jobs and restaurant jobs, and still helps his Dad on some days with the palm tree pruning.  Our trees are TALL now, and they climb with ladders and no spikes, just ropes and carefully placed feet!   We appreciate their craft very much.  And so do our palm trees!  

Since this was the month of May, I celebrated a birthday early in the month, then celebrated Mother's Day (and Ryan's birthday, same day as Mother's Day), and enjoyed every opportunity.  Ben took me to La Paz for a couple nights and we had dinner our with cousins Tom and Karan, did some fun shopping, and just basically lazed around.  Picture is of drinks the bartender was preparing for the order ahead of ours.  This was on the rooftop bar of the hotel where we stay in town.  (Our room was a couple doors down from the bar and outdoor swim pool.)  Too bad we can't stay there when we pick up Greg, but we will have two little doggies with us, who are not welcomed in this upscale hotel.  Oh well....

Ben has put the garden to bed.  We harvested the last tomatoes and lettuce and enjoyed all of it very much.  I still have some Zinnias blooming, but they won't last long (especially if I forget to water them a couple days in a row!)  Car batteries are on trickle chargers, things are tied down, and we'll be good and ready to leave by the 8th.  

I will most likely post daily in Facebook while we're traveling to let you know of anything exciting happening (or not!) Sometimes, it's just long days, narrow roads, and hot sunshine.  

Meanwhile, here at the casa and barrio, it's fun finding various cactus blooming.  More photos are on my 2026 May album.  Check it out.  Dogs, cactus, flowers, food, beach... same ole, same ole!   

Not sure how often I will post in the summer.  If you are in Oregon and want to see us during our stay there this summer, send us an email and let us know!  We'll see what we can do.  

Also.... If you have Ben's Mexican phone number, we hope it will work all summer. (It should work with WhatsApp * all the time).   But if you can't reach him, try my US number (541-854-5303).  It always works. 

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos en Baja, ready to head north because we can't take the heat,

Harriet, Ben, Gus & Pancho 

 

 PS.  * WhatsApp is a very popular phone app here in Baja (and world wide).  It has made a huge difference in our life here in communicating with service agencies, like the Propane delivery guys, or Amazon or DHL deliveries.  We can point out our location to the delivery guys so they can actually find our house (there are no sensible physical addresses here.  Most of the streets in our neighborhood aren't even named, so this is a definite advantage!)  Ahhhh....progress in a third world country!