IT'S MAGIC
I
can tell how busy I've been by the amount of writing that I get done. I haven't
blogged since December so it appears
that I've been a busy boy. I'm going to try to go backwards into the past.
I've
been to maybe five places in the world that I consider "magic".
The first one is San Francisco . There is an undeniable charm about the place.
The hills, the bay, the food, the jazz clubs and the people that is magic to
me. I first saw San Francisco
in 1963 and immediately fell in love with the place and thought that this place
has a "magic" charm about it. This is where I came up with the
concept of a magical place. I lived across the bay at that time in Vallejo and went across
one of the bridges to get there every chance that I could.
The
next was Hong Kong . My ship, Waddell made some
stops there in the sixties and as soon as I saw Hong Kong ,
I thought here is another magical place. Once again it was the hills, the bay,
the food, plus the wonderful Chinese people.
In
the seventies, I worked for a few weeks in Kobe Japan . On the
weekends, I'd take the Shinkansen, or bullet train to Kyoto the old Imperial Capitol of Japan. Once
again, it was love at first sight for all of the same reasons. One of the
highlights of being there was seeing the Moody Blues at the Kyoto Civic
Auditorium. I met a girl in Kobe
called Cherry San who gave me a STD, but what the hell. I was having the time
of my life.
I
made an extensive tour in the seventies on Eurail passes and saw many
countries. Europe was very nice, but not magic until we got to Venice . I understood that all cities
everywhere including Venice have changed in the
last five hundred years so I was going on a hunt to find the old, real Venice with the canals
etc. Well we walked out the front door of the Great Train Station and at the
bottom of the considerable steps there was the Grand Canal .
Gondolas and all. It hit me immediately that here I was surrounded by magic.
The canals, the gondolas, Saint
Marks Square and the food. Oh the food. I was
afraid of the food. First I thought that maybe I wouldn't like modern Italian
food but I was even more afraid that I'd love the food in Italy and not
be able to get it back in the good old US of A. Much like German beer. I love
German beer but you can't get it here in the US . At least not in California . Each little
town in Germany has it's own
brewery and in each little town in Germany , they have a gasthaus, or
bar which servers the local quaff. On the glass there is the logo of the local
brew and underneath the logo it will say seit 1315 or whatever year the brewery
starting production. Do you think that the Krauts haven't learned how to make
beer in seven hundred years? Of course they have. But I digress.
I
first came to Loreto BCS, Baja California Sur, south about five years age. My
neighbor and I were driving from Long Beach to
La Paz BCS and we were pulling a trailer with a sixteen foot Boston Whaler dingy behind us. Driving down
the Baja Peninsula was a bucket list item for me
and we really had a good time. The hills, the food, the people, the beer,
starting to sound familiar? We got into Loreto around dusk and had dinner with
a few beers and conked out immediately.
The next morning, we hit the road early and took a back road out of town. IE, I
never really saw the place.
On
a previous trip, I really liked La Paz .
It was somewhat quaint, had paved streets, electricity and running water and it
was not too crowded. I told people that I wanted to retire there.
This
trip twenty five years later, poor old La
Paz had grown up. It had a Walmart and a Home Depot,
all of the things I wanted to get away from.
On
18 March, our common birthday, we flew to Loreto on Alaska Airlines to go to
Bahia San Ignacio to see, and pet, the baby Gray Whales. Before going, we
stayed a few days at the Oasis Hotel in room number 19, the very same room I
stayed in five years ago. The Sun rose over the Gulf of California, a rarity
for Californians, the Sun sets over the Pacific Ocean and, once again, I was
blown away.
It
was beautiful, it was gorgeous, it was dare I say magic. We walked the Malecon,
the sea wall, and enjoyed the hills, the
food, the people and the Mexican music. Here we are in another magic place but
with one big difference. We're not
leaving. At least not permanently. We've leased a RV pad here for five years
and are bringing down Bullwinkle, the twenty eight RV.
We
are planning on spending our winters here in Loreto. No more of those killer
sixty degree California
winters any more. In the summer it gets
to hot, even for me, so we'll make the best of things and live aboard the
trawler. We're just going to have to learn how to adapt.
OK,
that's the over view. I'll fill in the blanks soon.
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