1000 Visitors to Loreto for Sea Turtle Conference

This has been a hectic week with long hours chained to my desk, but feeling productive and a renewed energy emerging among my staff. I hosted a Ladies Pot Luck party at my home but will have to give you details next week when I can get the photos uploaded. Also in town were many of the San Francisco homeowners, John & Felicia, Del & Nancy, Joe & Miki, Chuck & Marsha, and their friends. We all had dinner at Mita Gourmet and it was a lot of fun.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air have launched a major fare sale with one-way fares starting at $49 for flights between West Coast destinations and $99 for Mexico flights. "Spring on These Deals" sale fares are available at alaskaair.com and horizonair.com or by calling (800) ALASKAAIR. Customers must purchase tickets by Jan. 31, 2008, and travel by May 8, 2008. $99 between Seattle and Los Angeles. One-way fares to Mexico start as low as $99 between Los Angeles and Los Cabos.

From January 19-26, 2008, over 1,000 sea turtle researchers and conservationists will gather in Loreto, Mexico, to share the latest news and report their progress on sea turtle monitoring and conservation. Every hotel in town is full, and some have even set up tents for visitors to camp.

Grupo Tortuguero Celebrates 10 Years of Conservation Success in Baja. Ten years ago a collection of fishermen, scientists, conservationists and others formed Grupo Tortuguero, the first sea turtle conservation network in Northwest Mexico. Today, the network has grown into one of the strongest grassroots conservation movements in the world, serving as a model for other countries. In 2007, Grupo Tortuguero achieved notable success through creating an international exchange, bringing together local fishermen from Baja California with their Hawaiian and Japanese counterparts to share information on turtle-friendly fishing methods. In 2007, hundreds of turtles were saved while preserving traditional livelihoods.

My New Year’s Resolution is to get out of town more often and play. I am putting this out there, so my friends can keep me honest and make sure I do it! What is the point of having a blog called Where in the World is Nellie? if she is always in Loreto?? This weekend I was invited spur of the moment to meet friends in Cabo. Rent a car, drive the 500 km each way for great sushi. Sounds reasonable to me!

Leaving at sunrise, I am always in awe of the beauty of the sun coming up over Carmen Island reflecting off the water and making the surrounding mountains all aglow with vibrant pink and orange colors. The 6 hour drive from Loreto to Cabo San Lucas is amazing as you weave through the mountains, have long stretches of agricultural land and cows actually behind fences, and then through the hillsides of cactus forest for miles and miles. The drive from Constitution to La Paz is about 2.5 hours and there is nothing in between. It is endless highway, beautiful scenery and no where to pull over for gas or pit stop. Normally, I only go to La Paz for business and it is comforting to get to the Military Stop just outside the city limits because then you know that you are close to civilization.

The drive from La Paz to Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side is about 1.5 hours. There are less mountains and more beautiful Pacific sandy beaches. It has a much more wide open sense and the air feels fresher. There is so much to notice if one is aware, and so many dirt paths that are begging to be explored before they are exploited.

I was loving the drive and thinking how wonderful it is to be cruising down the Mexican TransPeninsular Hwy. at 120 km/ph which is 75 mph in my rented red Jeep Liberty listening to Andrea Bocelli serenading me full blast. I remember how thirty years ago, I loved to cruise the TransCanada Hwy in my 68 Plymouth Dodge Dart, 454, with Bachman Turner Overdrive playing on 8 track tape at 170 km p/h which is 105 mph. The more things change, the more they remain the same. I guess this equates to me slowing down 1 mph each year for the last 30 years. Sounds reasonable to me.

Some things don’t change. I am still drawn to men with fast cars, and am quietly impressed when they can parallel park better than I can, which is pretty damn good. I figure any male that has the confidence to push a fast car to the limit without being stupid, and can park it on a dime knows how to handle a fast woman. Sounds reasonable to me.

Have a great week!

Comments

lisa said…
HOW COME I CAN'T FIND THE $99 DEALS? i WANT TO GO IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS AND THE FARES ARE VERY EXPENSIVE...
Lisa, seat sales only last for several weeks. This was a seat sale in January that expired early February. There was another seat sale that ended April 8, but that too has now expired.

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