Sharon and Mark’s neighborhood.
I swear we still have an Airstream. In a few weeks she’s going on an adventure to Utah. This was a quick three night jaunt south of the border to visit our expat friends Sharon and Mark. They’ve been living in Mexico for four years. We left our truck at Amelia’s mom’s house. She drove us to the border and Sharon drove us across.
We’ve known Sharon for years and just recently met Mark. Here’s a little story you can file under it’s a small world. Sharon and Mark were coming to our place for dinner. It had been awhile since we’d seen Sharon and it was an opportunity to meet Mark. Sharon said Mark was a big fan of my book and really wanted to talk about it. So of course that pleased me. It turns out he is from Idaho Falls! Just a year older than me. We didn’t know any of the same people, but still had a lot to talk about, it was an instant bond.
Playa Santa Monica is part of Rosarito Beach, an easy 30 minutes south of the border. The population is 120,000, of which 15,000 are expats. Buying a home in Mexico has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. How it’s done depends on various factors. Sharon and Mark’s neighborhood is a campo. The land has been owned by a Mexican family for generations. Currently four siblings have split the property in equal quadrants. They own their home, but not the land. They pay one of the siblings $500 per month to lease the land. It’s a 10 year lease with incremental increases. They bought their sweet little two story home for just a little over 100k and it’s only 120 paces from the beach! The neighborhood has 80 homes, less than half are full timers. It’s is a mix of expats and Mexicans. Not all expats are retired. Their neighbor is a young gringo family with two kids. He’s a longshoreman and commutes to National City on his Harley. The oldest kid attends a Waldorf school a few miles away.
We ate and drank a lot, swam in the ocean, and were able to work in a siesta everyday! Sharon and Mark were the consummate hosts. Night times were peaceful. Laying in bed the sound of the waves put us right to sleep. No need whatsoever to use the evening crickets on my Calm app. A couple of things from all our conversations really struck me. Mark said he feels safer walking around Rosarito Beach than he did in Escondido, where he used to live. And I think this perfectly sums up Sharon: she brings all her recyclables north across the border instead of throwing them away.
A view of Coronado Islands and the breakers from their deck.
Downstairs, most of their living is upstairs.
Our first stop was Sonja’s for lunch. One of the specialties is a burrito with napolito pieces inside. That’s Sonja working the flat grill.
Highlight of every Baja trip is the 75 foot Jesus at Kilometer 38 between Rosarito and Ensenada. The second pic I stole from the internet.
Sharon knows the proprietor of the Black Cross Winery in Cantamar. It’s out in the sticks. We navigated dirt roads and farm land and had to have Amelia ask a farm worker where the winery was, of course it was just another quarter mile down the road. We had a delightful private afternoon tasting.
Sharon, Mark, and Amelia
A couple of their offerings
Evening stroll on the beach
The most shell-crusted sea anemones we’ve ever seen.
Heading north, the pristine shoreline of Baja is really starting to be developed with high-rise condos. We got a little carried away and stayed out until it was dark, next thing we knew we were locked out of the neighborhood! Around 8pm they lock all the gates to the beach. It was quite a predicament. Sharon eventually got hold of a neighbor by texting. The neighbor got security to come unlock the gate.
I was up early the first morning and went for a stroll. This is a fancy Little Free Library.
On the main drag there’s a cinderblock wall with inspirational murals. Amelia translated for the folks who aren’t bilingual.
The greatest inheritance we can leave our children is: love, knowledge and a planet on which they can live.
Teach your children to put trash in its place.
Education begins in the family. Sterilize your pets.
Mark and Sharon believe in giving back to the community. They contribute to Friends of the Rosarito Library, Baja Scholarship Foundation, and Baja Spay and Neuter where they help the veterinarians, mostly observing the animals while in recovery.
Flock of Brown Pelicans, affectionally known as Mexico’s Air Force.
We must’ve hit five or six taco stands. Tacos Daniela was my favorite.
Playa Santa Monica walkway
They have nice art work in their home. This piece called The Queen by Vincent Wray was my favorite. Vincent is a Brit living in Valle de Guadalupe. He uses metal, fabric, discarded farm stuff, and wine barrels in his art. The queen’s headdress utilizes old plastic cap nails and roofing paper.
Bob, the neighborhood cat.
A dramatic evening sky
I never thought I’d say this, but we all got tired of Mexican food, so we went to Manny’s Place for Italian. Calling Manny a character is an understatement.
I don’t remember what I said, but it sure got the girls laughing! Mark makes a perfect margarita. When he offered us one last one for the road before we heading into TJ, how could we say no?
TJ is a completely different vibe than Rosarito Beach. A big congested city. This tattooed, dreadlocked, ear gauge wearing dude spent over five hours on his chalk art with only a handful of pesos in his tip tray.
Our last meal was old school cool Caesar’s Hotel in Tijuana. The dude in the big frame gets credit for inventing the Caesar salad in 1927. Back in the day Amelia’s grandparents ate here often after watching jai alai games.
We knew Mexican Independence Day is September 16th, what we didn’t know was the celebration begins the night before. Roads were closed, traffic was complete hell, instead of minutes to get to the border crossing after dinner it took over an hour and a half. We’ve never seen or been in that kind of gridlock. It was stressful as all hell. Mark was extremely patient. We said our goodbyes at the Ped East crossing entrance. A quick walk and we were back in the United States. Amelia ordered up an Uber (we are fairly new to this stuff), it was dark and we had a hard time locating the driver. When we finally did, we loaded the luggage in the trunk and jumped in the back. The Uber car wouldn’t start. It was completely dead. We just laughed and ordered up another one.
It’s easy to take things for granted and even grumble a little. Traveling is enlightening and always reinforces how blessed we really are with our life in San Diego.
Such a fun weekend and we loved sharing our hometown with you! We look forward to seeing you guys later in the year! Have a great Utah trip! Big hugs!
Thanks for it all. Safe travels to Morocco!
I love this adventure!!
😊