Leonard is this inspirational photographer traversing the Baja on his bike andstealing photos and massages along the way.
Fred is a great guy from New Jersey who had his first month long break from his wife in ten years! He found out about this awesome extremely long hike summitting a nearby peak that was perfect for the boys. Nick and Russ went along and camped two nights in the Mexican wilderness while Gaby and I stayed behind and had some girl time.
There was Jacqui and Daniel from New Zealand, and I'm pretty sure Jacqui is one of my long lost sisters. Johnny and Alison, Dave and Amy, Paul, Caleb and his dog Aurora, all from BC. Teemu from Finland who had been traveling for years after selling his company, and Oly from Germany that was working remotely while traveling the globe, getting sunburnt, and learning to surf. The list goes on of the cool people we met.
Most importantly is Amigo, the neighborhood dog that I fell in love with. 
The sweetest most loving heart that I ever met, and it makes me cry just thinking of him. Mexican dogs are so different from our view of dogs. They aren't let inside, or pet, or played with, or walked, or spayed, or neutered, or leashed, or loved really at all. They are more like property. The dog is there to protect your property. And they don't leave because you feed them, sometimes, but mostly you just ignore them. They wag theirs tails when you get home, and you just walk past. They mostly survive off of garbage and the hopes that someone left water out somewhere.
Amigo had a busted leg with an infection, probably from getting hit by a car, and he was covered with fleas. I gave him a snuggle in the beginning and he clung to my side after that. It was so incredibly hard leaving him, but he had a collar and a family across the street (not that he slept there, he was outside my tent or casita almost every morning.
We stayed at the surf camp for 10 or 11 days and then moved into our current spot.
We had heard from a few people that the Tortugerous Las Playitas would be a great place for us to volunteer. We needed some stability and routine so we headed over to the turtle release and spoke with Fran the lady in charge. She not only needed us as volunteers, but also had this two story one bedroom casita available for rent.
We rented for the entire month of February for $300. After spending an extra hundred to de-roach and totally scrub the place down, it's now finally starting to feel like home.
The shower is just some walls in the corner, and the drain sadly is not at the lowest point, so water drains basically out into the bedroom while your showering. 
Let's just say, in order to shower it's a two man job, with one person holding a squidgy broom pushing the water towards the drain.
The bathroom is also in the room, with no door, so this experience has pushed our relationship to the limits. No privacy here, even for midnight poops.
Along with the casita comes Honey, the dog that should live at the house next door. She's pretty awesome and definitely protects the place. Luckily she likes Jackson because he follows her everywhere. 
She sleeps right out front of our place every night.
We volunteer most mornings by going to the incubation tent at 8:30 and staying til 11:30. This usually involves finding turtles, reading, talking to people with endless questions about turtles and playing with Jackson in the sand. 
Sometimes we also go to releases before sunset and help stage the release of turtles into the Pacific.
This has been a really interesting experience for us. It's very "hands-on" here and not what we're used to as far as letting wildlife do its thing, but it's great for educating people about turtles and we love hanging out with the babies.
Two nights ago I heard crying throughout the night, but there are always dogs barking and roosters going crazy. I ignored it until about 5am when I couldn't handle it anymore. I set out with Jackson and Honey and found back up behind our casita this little munchkin.
I searched for hours looking for her mom or owners. There is no reason a puppy would be this far out by herself, so we've made a big decision...
Back behind out house are endless roads leading deep into the desert. Sometimes there are really nice houses, and other times there are half built, almost forgotten houses. 
You can walk for miles investigating, but the best part is constant views of both the mountains and ocean.
We are truly grateful for this casita. It is a dream and an experience that we will talk about for the rest of our lives.
