Author Archives: drpopp

Trying to decide if want to go wine tasting in the Duoro River or go to Lisbon. I’ll have dinner and think about it!!

Whenever I hear the word London, it reminds me of a Christmas years ago. I like giving experiences rather than gifts so I wrote on a piece of paper, “Lamb’s.”It was a gift to my Mom and it’s a fantastic live theater in Coronado. She read it as London! So we did both, attended Lambs and we went to London. It just so happened that my sweet niece, Jennifer, was going to the London School of Economics. So we had fun, going to the theater, eating great food, meeting friends in Bath and checking out where Harry Potter got on the train and finding the Ice Bar.

I digress…. I arrived somewhat rested. I had three seats. I could not pre check in. They needed to see my passport and since my passport does not have my middle names, ( special thanks to some government official for being lazy.) so I could see open seats but couldn’t book them. The line at the airport was easy and the checked in to one flight, not the other ( a problem to come later). Exit row in the bulkhead. Not a fan of the bulkhead, I unilaterally moved to the first row of three seats. I have learned that if you ask, they say wait until the Plane is in flight. So I do it when you can and ask forgiveness later. Got the seats, plane took off watched Little Fires Everywhere while eating a little charcuterie that I brought. A little wine and Ambien and I had a 6 hour nap. Easy flight.

Arriving in London should be easy, but it is a huge airport with so many terminals and gates. I never did go though passport control or customs. So I didn’t have the boarding pass for the next leg. Signage was not great. Bus to the terminal, long lines. Very strict about liquids in a one quart zip lock. Last person on the plan and arriving in Porto now. I should have a taxi driver with my name and he should take me to the hotel I booked for tonight.

I just finished magazines and next is a great book that I am loving, “Half the Sky.” By Nicolas Kristin and Sheryl Wu Dunn. I have been reading it for a few months. It’s about female poverty across the globe and what is being done with it. I few years ago I founded a project that supplied Ethiopian women with sanitary, washable, reusable napkins. It is so inspiring.

Arrived early, just in case. So far no masks, no Covid requirements at all. No one asked to see my CDC piece of paper. The airport is surprisingly empty. Not one person in Pre-TSA line and very few in the regular line. I walked from one end of the terminal to the other. No one in restaurants either. And most were understaffed anyway or they had cut their menus way back. No calamari at Prado. Interesting. I will get to London Heathrow mid day tomorrow. I ended up with a window in the emergency row! I brought some left over charcuterie food for dinner. I remember years ago bringing wine on board, with cheeses and meat and crackers and a little table cloth and making everyone around us jealous. Those were the days! Manana….

After a full day at work, I will take the red eye to London Heathrow, and then onto Porto. British Airways cancelled the connection to Lisbon for no known reason. The thing with travel today is that you need to be flexible and calm. It’s crazy out there in the travel world. I booked a flight to Porto instead. My confirmation still says I have the flight to Lisbon, even though they refunded me. And then there is the big question of Covid test. UK says not needed, British Airways wants the documents uploaded. The EU might not accept the USA CDC paper document, but non Non-EU can’t get the digital version. Who knows!

This was a bucket list item. Pet the California Gray/Grey whales. We went to the place that my friends had been to a few years previously. Pachicos Ecotour.

The first spouts

We stopped at one of the beachside communities looking for a place to stay. Restaurant had potential with several Packer signs but we decided that the hotel/motel was a little too Bates like so we left.

Next beach town. Arrived at dusk, found an office and a woman showed us to a room with two beds. Restaurant might open, it didn’t, no internet, and electricity turned off at 10pm and didn’t come on in the morning. We ate papaya for dinner and played cards.

On towards St Ignacio we are halfway between Tijuana and Cabo

Pretty flowers along the road. We saw men painting the curbs and weed wacking along the side of the roads too, far from the cities.

After breakfast we started our northern trek. Our plan was to get to Loreto. It would be a long day. We invented a new game, when you see a beer sign or bottle, it’s time for a beer.

Great scenery along the the way. The roads were pretty good, sometimes very straight and sometimes curves for now reason. We decided that the civil engineer was ina me out of rehab. We listened to each other’s podcasts and my miserable music list that I never update.

Just one day in Loreto but it’s a clean town, lots of activities and lots of expats

The room we are staying in is tiny, two beds a couch, refrigerator and a bathroom

Got set up for two dives. Decent visibility. Saw a Moray Eel, Peter saw sea turtles. Second dive my face mask kept fogging up and then I was alone. I did not panic. I waited on the bottom, then slowly ascended. Saw the boat they directed me towards the bubbles of the divers. I descended and waited. Schools of fish surrounded me, giving me the eye. I loved this when I dove before, so I tried to have that same feeling. I decided to wait about one minute more before ascending but then the dive master found me. He took me back to the group and all was well. Enjoyed the rest of the dive.

More tacos!

Nap dinner sunset a great day but we decided that two days was going to cut in to our trip later so we decided to leave in the morning.

It’s Feb 16, 2022. My brother and I are having a great time zigzagging Baja California. Hard to blog without strong internet and even harder without electricity! But we have beer and Mezcal.

We got our car and located our hotel pretty quickly. We made a stop at Walmart for a few things and got out to the Malecon to explore. Seems like each Mexican port city has a Malecon which is a wide boulevard near the water. Locals and tourists walk, bike, skate and stroll back and forth, getting exercise, cooling off and just strolling. Usually it’s a pretty area, with trees and benches. Shops and restaurants on one side and water on the other. We walked both ways and sat down for a Margarita. Of course your people wanted to book things for us. We had a great dinner at Sushito, sashimi and a great riceless roll, like a Vietnamese spring roll with the fish as the wrap.

Coronado needs a city sign!

We decided to drive south and dive in Cabo Plumo. I had been there before. We decided to forgo our $47 hotel for the second night. Booked diving and a beachfront Airbnb and we left La Paz on day 2.