From Aña - Snowed in in Mexico (seriously!!)

I guess time has finally caught up with us, as we have been trying to cheat it by extending all you can get done in a day to crazy extremes. It all started our last day in the Baja. Actually let me rewind and set the stage a little bit
The 2 and a half weeks leading up to xmas eve were spent traveling the Baja region of Mexico with Rob´s parents. We spent many beautiful days and nights camping on beaches awaking to a sky stained orange and yellow by the approaching dawn. Rob and I would lay in our open tent savouring the love between us and watching a few dozen hungry pelicans serve up breakfast. This in itself is pure beauty. Pelicans, despite their clumsy appearance are some of the most graceful and precise fliers out there. They will soar effortlessly over the water dropping down to just inches above the surface and continue to glide as long as they please until they choose a good spot to land in the waves. It is when they eat however that truly inspires awe. We would watch flocks of them soaring above the water anywhere from 5 to 50 feet above the water, and then suddenly as though nature´s musical symphony had changed to a suspenceful note cueing them in unison 12 of them would stop mid air turn themselves beak downard take careful aim and dive pulling thir wings in at the last second to resemble little feathered fighting jets and dissapear into the water surfacing a moment later tossing their heads and baggy bsaks back to swallow the fish they had caught. (Can you tell I loved every second of this performance) The morning would dawn as such, Ilsa would awaken and the three of us would make breakfast, and spend the day walking the beaches, swimming, creating shell alters to Venus, kayaking and laughing.

Robs parents who knew many wonderful spots took us on beautiful and terrifying rides through rugged mountainous terrain, quiet isolated beaches and pleasant little towns. We spent one such afternoon snorkeling near Cabo Pulmo with huge schools of fish in rainbow hues that schooled cautiously nearby as though they were just as curios of us as we were of them.
After all this natural splendor we headed to La Paz for our very last night in the Baja.

We found yet another warm welcoming host on couchsurfing.com named Brian and passed a most remarkable night at his condo overlooking the marina and ocean. We worked together on an internationally flared dinner him making pasta marinara with chicken and us making Indian dall soup. It actually went together really well. In addition to the three of us Brian also had his friend Jennifer and her 10 year old son Derrick join us for dinner. They had just arrived on their 47 foot sailboat which Jennifer had sailed singlehandedly from Mazatlan on the Mainland. Brian is a pilot who is mostly retired but would be flying Jennifer her son himself and two other pilot friends (who were also at dinner) to the copper canyon in a few days on his small plane. Needless to say there were many an exciting tale swapped which I do not have time to retell here. After dinner and all departed Rob and Ilsa (still highly caffeinated from espresso that morning) and I just lively from the evenings festivities stayed up till midnight wrapping presents to be exchanged on the fairy ride the next day (xmas eve)

Now that we are all caught up we will enter the next chapter in which we spend the most whirlwind time banditing christmas ever!

The morning started with packing up our things and making oatmeal for ourselves and our host, which we ate overlooking the marina on his porch. Then with only 15 minutes to spare we spent 23 minutes going down to the docks to say farewell to Jessica and Derrick and get a tour of their amazing sailboat "ecotopia". Then we drove to the ferry dock, boarded the ferry, waited an hour and then were under way fast forward to 7 hours later we get off the ferry and attemp to drive to El Fuerte in the dark and thus begin a long scary night time drive on a mexican highway with malfunctioning head lights, got tired around midnight and ended up setting up camp to barking dogs and grunting pigs near someone´s farm on the side of the highway. The next morning we exchanged a few more gifts (it was christmas afterall) and continued on to El fuerte taking a couple days to recoup before the train ride to the copper canyon. Which leads to us being snowed in in Mexico.

The trainride was amazing with incredible views. The Copper Canyon, for those of you who don´t know, is 4 times bigger than the Grand Canyon and is actually a continuous network of 6 canyons. We have spent the last 2 nights in Creel and will spend hopefully just one more provided we don´t get snowed in again with all roads closed until afternoon and then with busses we planned to take not showing up because of who knows what? If I was feeling any nostalgia for winter insufficient warm gear ahs crushed it out of me. (Honestly why would I bring a winter coat to Mexico, not to mention the 6 store search for longunderwear)
We are a little sad to realize that the long hiking trips to the base of the canyon are dangerous and expensive this time of year and we will have to leave the Barranca del Cobre without fulfilling that dream (that said we did meet an awesome guy from Berkeley who spent the last to weeks hiking through the canyons with two friends without a guide and not able to find a path in to the canyon just repelled in, he arrived in Creel without his friends due to ankle injury, he will meet his friends in the next town as they are still down there hiking to the rendezvous)

People and life are crazy and beautiful
I love it all and you very much
Aña