Hi fans (ha!)

We have returned to La Ventana, after a 3-day excursion to the Pacific coast of Baja. We stayed in a picturesque little town called Todos Santos and surfed at a break called El Cerritos. The waves weren't stellar, but we got some rides and had a great time just being there. It is such an interesting landscape: stark, mountainous desert with giant cacti edged with the dark, fine-sand beach and perfectly clear ocean. The ocean floor glitters with gold flecks when the sun hits it right. Truly magical.

Now Jim, Alenka, and family have joined us at their place so we are enjoying catching up with them. Today is my final day in a series of kite-boarding lessons. So far the wind is light, which looks good for my lesson. I hope to be able to share stories of kite boarding after this.... We'll see.

By the way, "Go Ducks!" Big game this evening!

Settling in

I am working out the photo glitches, so now we have a few images that show the house, etc. without crashing the computer. We are enjoying J & A's place soooo much! We just love the open-air layout, making us feel a part of the desert. We use candlelight at night and have had just enough solar to recharge our I-Pod and speakers. There have been a plethora of critters sharing space with us. So far they are: bats, a scorpion (see photo), an unknown rodent with very large teeth, a very hairy tarantula, and a sweet blonde dog. I wish I could post the tarantula photo, because it was pretty impressive, but that file is too big. I hope I don't have another photo opportunity of that critter. So far, all our guests keep to themselves, so we are co-habiting quite peacefully.

Kiting!

(Notice the title isn't kiteboarding.) After two days of introductory lessons to the sport known as Kiteboarding, I am almost ready to add the board to the equation. The first lesson was me, on the beach, flying a very small "trainer" kite. Then, yesterday, Ryan and I both went through the safety info associated with flying the big kites (still on land). The exciting culmination of all the preliminary info was a down-wind "body-drag" in 25 knots of wind. What this means is, with the help of my instructor Marie (who is AWESOME), I launched a 7-meter kite on the beach, got in the water with her holding on to me from behind, and proceeded to do something like being dragged behind a water-ski boat, but by the wind. Wow! It was semi-hectic, super-fun, and generally successful. I drank a LOT of salt water and laughed a lot. I think I passed that test, because Marie says I am ready to try kiting today! I suppose you'll hear about that, next. Meanwhile, Ryan went out yesterday and said it was the most wind he had ever kited in. He was impressed that he didn't crash even once. Needless to say, he had a HUGE smile on his face when he stepped out of the water. Sidenote: we still need to figure out how to shrink our photos. For now, I am going to post a general photo of kiting in La Ventana. I'll get the photo piece figured out soon.

With love,

Jess and Ryan