A Day at "Home"

I don't usually feel like I am that far from home. I live in Baja California Sur, Mexico, which is the same time zone as Denver and is a short 1.5 hour plane ride back to the states. I live in a city with many foreigners, especially retirees from the USA and Canada. I can buy peanut butter, quinoa, and feta cheese at my local supermarket. I can buy pumpkin pie and candy corn for the holidays. I have NBC, CBS and ABC on my TV. Yet, I do still live in Mexico and all the wonderfulness that comes with that. Food, language, culture.

I met a Karen and her husband Don (two retirees from the West Coast) at a dinner one evening. They are living in a tiny coastal town, La Ventana about 45 minutes from my base in La Paz. It is also the kite boarding capital of the world due to daily warm thermal winds from November until April. I enlisted Karen to visit some schools with me and do some observations this last week. Her and Don picked me up in their camper and drove me to their home. It felt like being in the states. Trader Joe's chocolate. Flaxseed and protein shakes for breakfast. And and a comfy bed. I quickly learned that they are both super adventure seekers. Within an hour of arriving at their home I was whisked away to a secluded beach to snorkel in the Sea of Cortez. Jacques Cousteau called it the “world’s aquarium”. I agree! We snorkeled for almost an hour, shared nachos and then went to a local carnival for churros and tacos. The village where they live is full of expats and I heard more English than Spanish for 24 hours. Menus were in English only.

I was able to convince Karen to get involved in visiting the local schools and volunteer reading with the kids in English. I was so happy that she was happy to help. I also got to see her perspective of living in Mexico as a retiree expat, which is quite different than mine. On the way back to La Paz her husband drove us off road for 20 minutes(adventure seekers, remember) to a natural waterfall in the middle of the desert. An actual oasis with palm trees and all. I had such a nice time with Karen and Don and I felt very happy to experience Mexico from other foreigners’ perspectives and it really felt like I spent a day back at home in the US.