Bye-Bye Baja: Hasta Luego

                                                          

The last full day of a vacation is typically not much of a vacation.

Packing the bags to go home is often a struggle to find room for the same stuff that you brought with you, which somehow seems to have magically expanded in volume.  Part of this apparent proliferation of possessions may be due to the huge bag stuffed with loosely piled dirty laundry that made the voyage en route tightly packed in neat stacks and rolled up clothes.

Add to that all the valuable trinkets which looked so good in the craft store or from that street/beach vendor that was, oh, so cute, as well as T-shirts–often with slogans that sounded really funny after a few cervezas but that your wife will never let you wear out of the house–so now you’re really packing a load.

Hopefully that last day you fit in one last swim or some other vacation-related activity so at least you can pretend you are still on vacation and not remind yourself that you are really in the transitional mode that is taking you back to the realities of home and work responsibilities. 

This is the time that you should reflect on all the things you did–as far as you can remember–that you would never do at home following the old adage, “What happens in _________ (insert vacation destination), stays in _________ (ditto).”

If you can distract yourself enough maybe you won’t be thinking about how many hours before your flight leaves you will be spending getting to the airport and how close you might be to missing your international flight departure because you think the recommended three hours prior to the flight is ridiculous.

You can see which people on the plane want to extend their perception of being on a trip by the tank tops, shorts, and sandals they are wearing even though they are flying home someplace where the weather is rain, sleet, and/or snow.

But is should not be a time to start worrying about how far you have strayed from your normal routine of exercise and relatively good eating habits. You have managed to avoid that topic until now and now it is a little to late to think how you could have gone for a jog in the mornings and maybe had one less high calorie-high fat meal.

Or maybe you are one of those people I see who actually DOES get up early and goes for a run.

And I see in the restaurants ordering salads and mineral water.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to avoid seeing you people and your healthy habits?

Hey, I’m trying hard to enjoy my grande plate and second beer over here.

And dessert is on it’s way.

So today, the day before our exodus, we pack and try to balance an attempt to fit in any activities or places to go that we really wanted to hit, and at the same time try to do nothing as it will be the last time, for some time, that we have that privilege.

If you have following along with me for a while you will know that this blogging thing is a whole new world to me and for the last two weeks I have attempted to provide you with a taste of Baja–one of my favorite places on earth.

And yesterday I went on a dive boat trip that was the mother-of-all dive boat trips. That story will be coming to a blog near you in the near future, but it will include sights of the high seas that people only dream of seeing.

Just be happy you have not been with me during that time when I insisted on constantly taking pictures–without annoying people more than I usually do–and gathering blog fodder, to the point where my friends and family just wanted to say to me: