It would be interesting to know what types of things we have in our homes (stateside) that we bought in Baja.
One of my favorites is an ouside cement picnic table that has a tile design on the top and on the seats - from just south of Rosarito. Man, that
sucker is heavy!
And, ofcourse one of those clay smiling suns on the wall, outside, next to our spa.
Many other artifacts hanging all around our place too.
Bob H bufeo - 1-27-2004 at 09:56 AM
Really fresh shrimp (always the blues); tamales, chiltep?ns, and tortillas. Since none of these items is a permanent
fixture, we are compelled to make frequent trips to replentish the supply.tunaeater - 1-27-2004 at 10:04 AM
We had several home furnishings custom made for us just So. of Rosarito also. A nice 1/2 moon console, a big 3'x4' mirror, and another oval shaped
mirror. This is all the same design and colors. I took a chip of paint and some pictures of the end tables and c-cktail table we already had and they
matched them perfect. Oh yeah and the few bottles of tequila....Paul
Things from Baja
The Gull - 1-27-2004 at 06:34 PM
A wrought iron 100 bottle wine rack. A wrought iron tequila rack with shot glasses.
Pottery and curios.
Mexray - 1-27-2004 at 07:41 PM
We always stop at 'Curios La Pi?ata', at KM 29 just south of the Pemex Station on the south side of Rosarito - on the free road. The lady there has a
bit of everything, and lots of odds & ends.
We are suckers for pottery, etc in light tan colors with dark drawings and designs. We always seem to get several small fish for painting later -
grandchild projects.
Our other 'find' from Baja, are sand dollars from the beaches of San Quentin - south. Last couple of trips we've brought a bunch home, soaked em'
bleach, then rinsed out. After drying, you can then 'drain' the fine sand trapped inside.
We spread em' around on our patio table out back and hand paint em' with all kinds of designs. It's great fun for the kids among us (me too!) to
design their own. We then use a hot glue gun to attach them to a part of our patio fence. We've now got dozens of em' and it's a colorful sight,
indeed.
We've taken up to painting small shells, as well. We use water based bright colors in squeeze bottles we get from Wal-Mart for less that a $. I then
spray em' with a clear coat to help make em' last...great fun at home, long after the trip is over!
jeans - 1-27-2004 at 07:54 PM
You said "buy" so I can't count the ton of white granite boulders I've dragged home over the years...or the six "smooth round stones of La Gringa", or
the rock the color of dried blood from Bahia Concepcion or the tiny 3 inch cactus that blooms a tiny violet flower every spring. Or the bucket that
looks like it's been kicked by a dozen mules then left for target practice in which more catcus call home.
I have an antique wrought iron base of a Singer sewing machine that had lost the wooden cabinet to rot and the machine to rust. But the base was in
good condition. I took it to Rosarito and had a frame made to fit a glass table top and it makes a beautiful patio table. I think I was charged $20.
On the dashboard of my truck, secured with double stick tape, I have a tiny carved tortuga with the dangling head. He is my navigator and vigorously
nods his approval when I hit a Baja dirt road.
Last November when I drove the free road from Tecate to Tijuana, I noticed many yards selling bricks & landscaping materials. That will be my next
shopping spree as I start to collect retaining wall material. They gotta be less expensive than Home Depot! pappy - 1-27-2004 at 07:57 PM
kind of related-what do you all think about bringing artifacts back eg, arrowheads,etc?4baja - 1-27-2004 at 08:10 PM
cases of empty beer bottles, i bring them back when i want more beer.David K - 1-28-2004 at 01:19 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by pappy
kind of related-what do you all think about bringing artifacts back eg, arrowheads,etc?
Unless the arrowheads were given or sold to you by Mexican nationals, that is illegal (as are collecting sea shells, rocks, whatever)... basically all
the fun stuff we like to do. Of course, an arrowhead is just a pointy rock... I am not without sin, I 'liberated' a boojum tree in 1984 (actually two
branches about a foot long and 3 inches in diameter) by pruning off the branches with a shovel. One rooted and grew about 4 inches over the next 18
years! Every year it grew out little twig branches (just like a miniture full size boojum) with leaves and set flowers on top, then defoliated (lost
the leaves and branches).
Alas, termites invaded the pot a few months ago it was growing in and killed it! I was so mad and sad!
hammock
bajapablo - 1-28-2004 at 07:58 AM
I bought one in san felipe last year and hope to upsize this year and get the cadillac of hammocks (you know, the one with the wood spreader bars).
I also (for the price of a beer) got a mosquito that was made out of thin copper wire. It currently hangs from my rear view mirror.Bob H - 1-28-2004 at 08:47 AM
Oh yean, 4Baja, depositos... gotta have those on hand every time.
Our Baja Table (excerpted from a prior post)
Mike Humfreville - 1-28-2004 at 06:11 PM
Another Baja Place
We?re getting settled in our new house, built where the old one burned 4+ years ago. Miguelito and Kev and I are lugging stuff in while Mary Ann is
cleaning and polishing. Everything now works and we have just to get arranged and cleaned. One of the first mind-sets I moved forward from the
outgoing mobile home, where we?ve been living, was a collection of Baja stuff I?ve either had with us since the disaster or have located in our rubble
since.
And tonight it?s positioned and I?m looking proudly at it and reflecting across heartfelt moments in Mexico in my lifetime. The table containing my
collection is too small for its contents, but it is visible from downstairs and above and it overlooks the small and remote lights of the Santa Clara
River Valley and when I stand looking at my table I can look 30 miles west to the great Pacific and thirty miles east to another ocean, the Mojave
Desert. I can absorb the vastness that might be Baja just a few degrees above my Baja shrine.
And strewn across the tables surface, at the heart of our home, are the following items, beginning from the northfacing wall, overlooking the valley:
A warmly framed photograph of the ancient edifice at San Borja on the left; on the right another of La Gringa at sunset; between these two friends is
a very old and wooden, full-sized and hand-carved mask of a tiger that was given to me while living in Cuernavaca in the ?50?s; in the second row,
leading into the warmth of our home is an introduced kerosene lamp, burning with a small yellow and intimate flame, throwing warm hues across my dear
objects, and to the right of the lamp is a Mexican rounded vase and then a wooden sand-scoop I stumbled on in the ?60?s out by Bahia Tortugas; The
next row, loosely arranged contains three glass fishing floats from Malarrimo, two covered in what I believe to be the original thick rope, two
whalespine disks atop of which I have lain a necklace of periwinkles that we strung in the ?70?s at Bahia de Los Angeles, I laid them across each
other, in the eternity symbol; finally there are three pieces of onyx from the old mine at El Marmol, two I retrieved from the open pit there
personally with my friends John McLeod and our buddy, Barsam. And the final piece was actually milled smooth on one side, cut from that actual stone
at the quarry and hauled along a byway toward Puerto Catarina; I offered a respectable older gentleman 50 pesos for this just a few years back. He
was caretaking the San Fernando Velicata ruins. He was proud of his charge. To encourage my purchase he lay his pieces of stone across a small
length of plank in a way I couldn?t help but imagine the leather belts that must have driven the stonecutting blades so many years ago, powered by men
pumping on peddles and sweating profusely in the everpresent heat of the desert.
Now you?ve seen my table, the core of our home. It?s a pounding heart by which the four of us will pass many times daily and fleetingly or more
deeply remember those things that have meant the most to us across our lifetimes, some young and tender and some sinewy and aged. It?s just Baja.
Arrowheads
jrbaja - 1-28-2004 at 06:57 PM
It is illegal to possess arrowheads no matter who "gave" or sold them to you. It is also illegal to dig up cactus, collect shells and many other
"favorite passtimes" we foreigners continue to use to entertain ourselves in this lawless country.
Seems like a good place to start protecting the peninsula we all "love" and "know"so well. Not taking things home to impress our friends.
And yep, I gotta bunch of em. But they are headed south to a museum rather than north for internet sales or to impress my friends with. Although,
they do do that too.
I think that blankets and Tweedy Pie piggy banks are still OK though.
And for the clowns, seems like there's more to do in Rosarito than Jizz and Chris whatsisname know about. What a surprise!GeoRock - 1-28-2004 at 07:40 PM
Okay, I will shamelessly admit that I have a lot of booty from Baja/Mexico. Just looking around my office alone, I see an oil painting from Cabo; 4
painted wooden parrots; 2 ceramic fish; 1 ceramic parrot bank; 2 hanging ceramic parrots; 1 ceramic pot; 3 wooden toys; a bottle of tequila; and a
puppet.
Throughout my house there are shotglasses; blankets; ceramic and wooden pots; ceramic sun; glasses; serving dishes; lots of jars of chiles and hot
sauces; many bottles of various drinks; a leather poncho; cloth ponchos; sandals; clothing; hats; and tacky t-shirts.
I have no shame.
Making Fun of my Clown
The Gull - 1-28-2004 at 07:47 PM
jrbaja are you making fun of my clown?
I must admit that I also have a jawbone of a cow that had been out in the sun for many a year.
Must be one of those precious items that Baja should have retained. I hope the Federales don't come knocking at my door to get it back.
Actually,
jrbaja - 1-28-2004 at 08:29 PM
they have been looking for that jawbone! Now they know where it is . Lock yer doors.
Georock
Mike Humfreville - 1-28-2004 at 08:53 PM
Please pass the bottle of tequila. I don't need the shot glass though. Thx,
Amigo Miguel (be snappy!)pappy - 1-29-2004 at 12:40 AM
illegal or not, I personally feel artifacts should be viewed then placed right back were you picked it up from-leave it there.Bob and Susan - 1-29-2004 at 06:26 AM
It's not actually from Baja but....
In our hallway we have Capt Mikes 6 foot by 6 foot Baja map.....
Every vistor MUST touch it......
It will be worn thru very soon
Olives in jalapeno juice
bajapablo - 1-30-2004 at 08:12 AM
I did get some awesome tasting olives from a roadside stand near la bufadora. They were pickled in jalapeno juice and some other mysterious stuff and
packed in an old aplpe sauce jar salvaged from the dump.
La Bufadora
Bob H - 2-5-2004 at 11:42 AM
Was there a couple of weeks ago. Can't believe how much that area has grown. The new 2nd story resturant over the tobacco shop is GREAT. Great view
too! But, it put the other one near the entrance out of business. Used to go there for breakfast and bloody mary's.
Bob H DanO - 2-5-2004 at 01:43 PM
