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Wine Tasting Events in Baja California Guadalupe Valley

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Do you need a reason to head South of the border this weekend? If you need something to do I would suggest a short drive south of the border to attend some of the wine harvesting events in Baja California’s wine country.

Bottle on the wall

Bottle on the wall

My recommendation would be to the hit the Street Fair in Ensenada on Friday or Sat. afternoon.
14:00 Hrs.
SANTO TOMAS STREET FAIR
Place: Bodegas Santo Tomás Calle Miramar de la 6ta. hasta la 8va
Organized by: Bodegas Santo Tomás, Ensenada, B. C.
Santo Tomas Street Fair with numerous artistic expressions, games, music, food and house wines. in company of several wineries from Baja California.

Get more info at Ensensada Wine Festivals / Fiestas de la Vendimia

“I live in Mexico because of the weather, the surfing, and the lifestyle” – Jesse Ventura

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Another Baja Voice

You gotta love Mr. Jesse Ventura for telling it like it is. From Professional wrestler, to Governor of Minnesota, and now back in the States promoting his latest book out on paperback “Don’t start the revolution without me” Jesse tells it like it is on Larry King Live.

Of particular interest to us and the reason why I think he looks so refreshed are his comments about his time living in Baja.

“surfing is a dedication, and it is a life dedication, and if someone were that dedicated to religion, would [you] call them a religious bum?” – Jesse Ventura

Always, on point and willing to stand up for his beliefs. Jesse Ventura’s comments regarding living in Baja are quite the opposite of main stream news media (cartel gun battles, swine flu, and corruption, etc.)

Jesse’s comments reflect our underlying conviction that we did the right thing – we are living our lives down in Baja. We experience the region first hand and know it and cherish it for what it is. A great place: the people, the culture, the lifestyle.

I wish this message could reach others, but the addiction to fear that runs throughout the USA media outlets unfortunately needs to run its course. In the mean time, we will continue to explore, understand, and live our lives.

The Truth:

Once you have lived down in Mexico, coming to the USA takes on a totally different meaning as in this story.

In the words or our ex-patriot neighbor from New Jersey, who has lived down in Baja for over 10 years  “My people’s are crazy”.

Communication options in Baja

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Fellow border blogger, Ms. Anna Cearley posts on her blog  Across the Border that the Telegram survives in Mexico because it serves the communication needs of remote villagers throughout Mexico; that the most common non-essential telegram is for remittance notifications.  While in the States the need for the telegram is now obsolete.  The existence of the telegram infrastructure highlights the ongoing need for communication options to remote areas deep within  Mexico. Living along the border region (we are only 15 minutes from the San Diego Border) we have had our share of shocking cell phone bills because we rely on a US issued cell phone and pay the expensive international roaming rates. Along with dealing with international Country codes, making calls from Baja is not only expensive but tedious.

The Challenge:

How to communicate while in Baja?

The Goal:

  1. From Baja: Cheap calls to the USA and within Mexico.
  2. From the USA: We have friends, family, and colleagues back in the States. We want affordable cell phone options.  We need to be able to receive phone calls throughout Mexico not just Baja.
  3. The phone calls should be as affordable as possible and mobile is preferred.

Solution:

Sprint / Nextel International Direct ConnectSM – The leading push to talk (PTT) phone network is the primary choice for Baja. Why? Because they offer sufficient regular cell phone coverage in the States and an  outstanding product known as International Direct ConnectSM.  The key features of affordability within Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru.

This ability to communicate back in forth from multiple countries.  Nextel’s no non-sense communication solution has worked great for us. Most Mexicans vendors are aware of the growing number of Nextel users in Mexico and usually have an optional Nextel number. Nextel in Mexico is available for a 50 dollar monthly fee with unlimited usage to other Nextel phones.
Key Benefits
Fast. Enjoy the same speed as you do for your local connections. Simple. No country codes, operators or calling cards required. Just push the Dirct Connect button. Cost-efficient. International Direct Connect calls cost a fraction of international cellular rates.
Unlimited International Direct Connect add-on (optional and can be added after selecting a new phone and plan)
The bad: Sprint phone network is ok. From my experience the network lags behind ATT and Verizon on the cell phone coverage front.

Other

Google Voice aka Grand Central – Another option that we have implemented is the usages of Google’s internet phone service. This service gives us a local USA area code number which we can access our messages over the internet. The service allows you to forward your web button calls straight to voice mail or to any phone number or you can listen in and pick up the call directly. Lastly, Google Voice offers excellent rates for making out going calls.

Conclusion:

Since moving to Baja, we carry only one cell phone/plan  (Sprint/Nextel States plan with International Direct Connect) and we provide our friends and family back in the States with our local Grand Central number which is usually forwarded to our phone or voice message and is checked regularly.  Since this is not an exhaustive list of options, I would like to hear from you? What do you use to communicate while in Baja?

Creating an online infrastructure

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After our server melt down last month.  We are able to recoup most of our data because of online storage options including Picasa Web Album and Flickr for our digital pictures and other online software. While I am to blame for our recent meltdown, due to extreme procrastination. I will write about our new setup and our goal on having everything Baja related online.

Great wall of vino

The goal this time around is simple: to do it all online:  email, blog,  software, and storage infrastructure so that we can post and access our data anywhere for free or as cheaply as possible.

Here is our current online life setup:

Email:

Everyone has at least one, most have several. Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo you decide. I use GMail but I have a Yahoo account for online shopping.

Web Hosting:

Several years ago when I was first in the market for hosting space I relied on this  Web Hosting Rating Website for comparison shopping.  At the time, there were several free hosting websites options but we settled on Host Monster because of the bandwidth offering,  and storage space, and $5.95 per month we found this to be a very affordable and includes our domain fee.

Verdict: Pay a little to have more control especially if you want to use your own domain name.

Blog software:

Blogger or Word Press as these two are the industry standard. Our first ever attempt at blogging was on Blogger . I really enjoyed the ease of use, but have since migrated over to Word Press.

Online Software:

For our software needs I use  Google Docs, and more recently  Zoho. These two options provide great Office software replacement online.

Online Storage:

For our storage issues we use an external hard drive and Microsoft’s Skydrive.

This list is not exhaustive but it does provide us with the flexibility we need in Baja. Is this the wave of the future? I think so, when you factor in all software cost, it makes sense to have everything online and as long as you are not sharing or storing valuable information, you too can move your (blogging) life online.

As the future of software continues to evolve one handy resource website for finding alternative software solutions is Alternative TO

The Alternative to website compiles Free Open Source software alternatives to costly software.

****One real and potential threat to this experiment is our privacy and several known cases of who owns the data you store online. Though I will only discuss what online services I use. I am in no way stating that this is a complete list of options. I remove myself from all responsibility from any harm caused to your data.  I am not associated with any of the software companie’s mentioned.   **** Buyer beware!