Cabo - First Impressions

 







Right after Christmas holidays, we started dreaming and looking forward to our trip to Cabo San Lucas (aka Cabo). Cabo is nicely located at the tip of Baja California peninsula, Mexico, with the Pacific on one side and the Sea of Cortez on the other. The "Tropic of Cancer" runs just north of Cabo and accounts for its nice weather.

As we were flying over the Sea of Cortez, the view below was amazing. At few places, I could see both the Pacific
and the Sea of Cortez at the same time. The land was mostly barren but the views of the small islands and
the light green  & blue Sea of Cortez were enchanting.

We stepped out of the airport and were waiting for our shuttle service to take us to our resort. The first thing that caught my attention was the nice whiff of beer. I turned around and noticed a couple of folks having a Corona in their hand. There is a beer shop just at the exit of the airport building :))  I was thinking, "hmmm...Only in Mexico" and was about to go get one for myself :))  Just then, our shuttle arrived. As soon the shuttle started moving, the driver opened an ice cooler and distributed Beer to everyone :)). Again, I was thinking "hmmm...Only in Mexico".

Once we passed "San Jose Del Cabo", a small town on the Sea of Cortez, the scenery changed completely from barren desert to shining blue ocean. The road from "San Jose Del Cabo" to Cabo is littered with a series of Hotels, Resorts and amazing houses on the beach. The driver was rattling of the names of all the celebrities  who own houses along the beach, including Tom Selleck,  Jennifer Aniston, John Travolta, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton & Michael Jordon. Even the US Consulate is located on this stretch of the beach.

We checked in, had a late lunch and checked out the resort, "Villa Del Palmar". The resort is located right on the beach with Swimming pools at 2 levels, multiple hot tubs and restaurants located at the edge of the beach.

As we stepped on to the beach the Sun was setting.

Villa Del Palmar

After dinner, with dreams of Margarita on the beach, I slowly drifted off in to sleep :))

...to be continued...

Ciudad Del Mar - Rosarito

Since 2007, every year, during her Christmas trip to San Diego, Asha used to bug us to take her to Mexico. Her motivation: "Shopping" ;)). This year we caved in and yielded to her wish. Rosarito is the first small, coastal town as you drive south from San Diego in to Mexico.

The Hotel is located right on the beach with its own Pier running long in to the Pacific. 

Hotel Lobby

View of the hotel from the Pier. We stayed in the Pent House on the 17th Floor.

Entrance to the "El Nido" restaurant. "El Nido" in Spanish means The Nest.

We enjoyed our lunch in naturally decorated courtyard surrounded by "Nests"

The ambiance at the courtyard was outstanding while the food was good!

"Cool Cousins" :))

Remembered the சுரை குடுவை :) 

Horses waiting for riders.

இளநீர் waiting for drinkers.

It happened at the university, while living in Dallas and at the border crossing. 
This guy thought I am a Mexican and started talking to me in Spanish.
Once he realized, he asked me to wear the Sombrero (the hat) and Sarape
(looks like our ஜமக்காளம்)  and transformed me in to an authentic Mexican.
Really enjoyed the interaction. :))

Asha had a field day at the shops. I remembered in 2008, Kumar, Usha and I walking in to Mexico to do some
shopping like this in our border town, Tijuana. Kumar and I had to literally drag Usha out of the shops
as she was refusing to leave the shopping area :))

2 Amigos :)) During this entire trip, Ganesh kept repeating the 4 spanish words he knew: 
"Siesta, Fiesta, Margarita, Senorita" ;)

கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவு (Lunar Eclipse)

Life on earth is a miracle!!! Nature conspired a series of events that made life possible on earth. In addition, nature puts on a grand show every day/night for all of us. All you have to do is look up and enjoy. Since I missed last year's Total Lunar Eclipse due to clouds, I was desperate to watch this one. The next Total Lunar Eclipse is due only on April 15th, 2014.

The only problem for us in the US west coast was that the eclipse started at 4:45 AM :( Sheila told me NOT to wake her up so I went to bed without setting the alarm. Exactly at 4:30 AM, I woke up on my own, drank my tea and stepped in to the dark, cold backyard. I setup my telescope just in time to watch the beginning of the Eclipse :))  Right next to the telescope, I setup the camera on the tripod and switched back and forth between the telescope and the camera.

The following  fotos show the progress of the earth's shadow on the Moon:

 
  4:56 AM

4:59 AM

                                                                                                             

5:25 AM

5:28 AM

5:31 AM

5:59 AM

The following fotos were purposefully overexposed to bring out the golden/red shadow part of the Moon: 

5:29 AM

5:33 AM

5:48 AM

5:55 AM

 

5:58 AM

Total Lunar Eclipse started at 6:05 AM

6:05 AM

6:06 AM

Finally the Moon started setting behind the backyard fence, the Sun was rising up, the sky was getting more bluish and the Moon started fading out.

6:12 AM

Next Lunar Eclipse project:

Not sure whether the next Total Lunar Eclipse would be a morning eclipse like this one. If yes, I would love to capture the Eclipse over the Pacific in Torrey Pines Beach :)) 

Vedic Astronomy:

Finally, how could I end this post without referring to our Ancestors' astronomical and mathematical brilliance. They came up with precise calculations of the timings of the Solar and Lunar eclipses with the concept of Raaghu and Kethu. Here are sculptures of Raaghu with the Moon and Kethu :))

Raaghu

Kethu

கப்பல் ஓட்டிய தமிழன் !

Ok. I admit. I exaggerated like Sheila :)) It is not a கப்பல் but a Canoe, a "Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe". 

Recently one of the projects we are working on,  reached a major milestone and the whole team decided to celebrate at the beautiful Mission Bay, right off the Pacific ocean. If you love being in water or just enjoy the sunny outdoors, you can't go wrong with Mission Bay.

It has 27 miles of shoreline, 19 miles of beaches and 14 miles of bike path. On any given day, you would see people biking, roller-blading, kayaking, canoeing, swimming, volley balling, kite-flying, running, walking and sun-bathing.

I thought, I would go there, enjoy the lunch outdoors and take off early for home.  After reaching Mission Bay, I learned that there is going to be a Canoe race.  Having enjoyed  Canoeing and Kayking (back in Boston) Hawaiian Outrigger Canoeing sounded fun and I fully got in to competition mode.

We were divided in to teams of 5 and there were around 8 teams. Each team raced with 2 other teams 3 times. The instructors taught us how to use the paddle.

Each team was asked to come up with a "Victory Chant". I influenced the team to go with my suggestion and our victory chant was "ஏலேலோ ஐய்லசா ,  ஏலேலோ ஐய்லசா ,  ஏலேலோ ஐய்லசா " :))

We won all the 3 races :)) Another team also won all three of their races and we had a playoff race with them. We lost the final by few seconds. Win or lose doesn't matter it was a day full of FUN :))

விழிகளில் ஒரு வானவில் !

It had been raining the whole day in San Diego but as always the Sun peeped out eventually. As it got brighter out side, I suddenly looked out and saw a beautiful  Rainbow :)) Cellphone fotos.

Rainbow seems to be hanging just outside my window :)

Here is a much better, professional foto from San Diego newspaper website:

சுற்றுதே சுற்றுதே பூமி !

Until all of you complain, there will be more star trail fotos :))

For Sri :)

Since Sri asked in the last post for a "Moon Trail" shot, here it is.
Today being பௌர்ணமி, the moon is very bright.
The bright dot chasing the Moon is Jupiter.

Sri, Thanks for asking, I have more to learn :))
Will try with a crescent Moon in the future!!

விண்வெளியில் வண்ணக்கோடுகள்

Warned you, more of the Star Trails fotos coming up ;)