Lo bueno lo malo y lo feo....Pero sobre todo el magnicente

Where oh where to start? It has been a long while since we've chatted and a lot has happened. I thought I would open with this shot of Luca surprising me with a kiss during a selfie because it sums up a big chunk of the past few months. Max's work decided Covid was contained enough to warrant him going out in the field again, and so Luca and I have been running the ship by ourselves for a few months - becoming quite the rancheros in a sink or swim scenario. 😂 Turns out we make a damn good team.

It also turns out we were quite busy and I barely took any photos for the first month. But here is LZ being the sweetheart he is and bringing us snacks and requesting some time to just sit together and watch the ocean.

And after 6 weeks of summer in our pequeña palapa, we were honored and thrilled to be invited to puppysit/housesit at this gorgeous home of dear friends. This photo doesn't do it justice at all; it is absolutely dreamy. (And PS. It is for sale if any of you are looking for a luxury retreat as our neighbors 😊   https://theagencyloscabos.com/listings/hacienda-del-ocaso-elias-calles-todos-santos/ )

Sorry, the wonderful and sweet pups are not included in the sale.

They are so smart + snuggly + funny and really just awesome to be around. 

Here is our girl actually sticking her tongue out at me as she chews my stolen sandal. Ummm...what is going on around here?

These pups really have it ruff. (pun definitely intended 🤣)

We have had quite a bit of rain - so incredible in the desert! I wish I'd taken before and after pics. The landscape went from parched gray to vibrant green overnight. It is spectacular! 

This girl won't go near a hose or in the pool, but give her a giant mud puddle in our lagoon and she is in heaven.  She must be related to Luca. It was fun to watch all the animals gravitate to the water. And somehow it was instantly filled with dozens upon dozens of frogs that sounded like lambs screaming for their Moms. Maaaaa! Maaaa!

We've been making time for games and puzzles and just being together. A lot of our friends have gone north temporarily - sometimes it feels like it is just us here.

 

But then, after about 8 weeks, Max came back to us! Life is immeasurably better with him here and we are over the moon happy.

 

Hold on. Stop the presses. Let's take a quick step back in time. When we moved down the beach we had to leave the camper at our property until Max came home so we had some caretakers come watch over everything + love on Toby. Well, these friends are incredibly wonderful but they had an emergency and had to go back to La Paz early. So with one day until Max arrived to move the camper, the guy above broke in to the camper and the house. He trashed absolutely everything, broke some things, and stole thousands of dollars worth of stuff including all of the solar batteries. So infuriating and sad. 😟 

We received instant and enormous help from local friends who helped me go through the mess and who contacted the police for me. The head of our little town came out with the police to help the investigation. None of them spoke any English so I had a lot of fun explaining it all in my messy Spanish. They were very kind. Then when Max came down we went into Todos Santos to file an official report and to give them a copy of the security footage. 

So let's focus on the kindness is the world. Max's friend and his wife came down to visit. This is the fun message they stayed up way too late drawing in the sand with their feet so that we'd be surprised seeing it it first thing on our early walk the next morning. I was touched.

Our other lovely neighbors have invited us to use their phenomenal salt water pool. This is just part of it; I didn't get a picture of the bridge walkway that goes over the middle. It is all truly beautiful. 

Blanca and I enjoying some beach time.  We are lucky.

The rain has brought out every kinda bug imaginable. Check out how colorful the moth eggs are (not to mention the pretty moth herself).

Luca bravely relocates any creepy multilegged intruders. 

Well, maybe not every denizen of the desert. This dude was about 4 inches and startled the crap out of me when I discovered him next to my foot in the wee hours of the night. My friend told me they call them 'come venado' or deer eaters. No, gracias.

This dude is trying to maintain a pretty intense image too, but after seeing the lobster sized scorpion, I'm not buying it. 

Back to our neighbor's lush and vibrant landscaping. We are surrounded by the most interesting and stunning flora and fauna.

Sunset + people shots are so hard to get. Big thanks to Janette for taking + sharing this one. Have I mentioned how much I missed this guy?

Sometimes it is hard to believe this is the same cowering skinny pup from just a few months ago. Pretty majestic these days.

It might be hard to see, but I  was amused by the green sign showing prices for different sizes and styles of cat and dog food complete with samples taped to it. They buy the large bags at feed stores &/or Costco and the sell it by the kilo up in Todos Santos. (Apparently it doesn't take much to crack me up lol.)

Ryan snuck a few sunset pics of Max and me as well. They were honestly the most delightful + entertaining guests. Super fun to hang out and laugh + listen to music with. We are so grateful they came down.

I went looking for Blanca late one night and ran up on this beauty in the dark. I was hoping it was a King snake and my dear Noel-Beth checked with some experts and confirmed my hope. They are great at keeping away rattlers so I'm pulling for this one to make like a bunny and populate the whole neighborhood with little Kinglettes. (Totally made that word up just now - whaddya think?)

Speaking of the magnificent N-B, check out the fun solar wind chimes she sent down. Color changing dragonflies and bells? Yes, please.

The beach has gotten steep and a mama turtle crawled along the bottom of the little sand cliff for quite some time before heading back to the water.  I hope she eventually found a better place. We've had a slew of new nests this past week.

Because this sky never grows old.

I wish we could share it with you in person.

Sweet Toby has the run of the camper these days. He can't come in the house, and probably wouldn't want to with all the dog energy anyway. So he stays in the camper behind the house during the day and goes out hunting at night while the dogs are in bed. We each take turns going and brushing him and snuggling and reminding him of how much he means to us.

And here is a friendly reminder of how much you mean to us, too. Friends make the world go round. Even when I was quite busy doing all the adulting and rancho-ing, I may have had moments of being nervous or overwhelmed, but I didn't feel too alone because my life has been graced with a true abundance of lovely people and wonderful connections.  Thanks for checking in on us. It means a lot. Much love to you.