I am so excited to be heading down to Southern Arizona for a return birthday celebration to one of my favorite Arizona towns, the old Queen of the Copper Camps, Bisbee AZ.

I love visiting this old Arizona mining town for wonderful food, interesting turn of the century architecture, the old mine itself, amazing public art murals, galleries and history.

The adventures I expected, and it was the mis-adventures we did not expect, that spiced up our journey.

It is so interesting to me that our flight follows the course of the San Pedro River, one of the last wild rivers in the country and one that flows North from Mexico.

As I look at the earth swiftly sinking away below me, my mind is trying to keep pace with the newsreel of memories of my partner and my latest adventures.

I can hardly believe that we have been hanging out in Loreto, Baja California Sur, a “Pueblos Mágico”, for 3 weeks!

As with all things wonderous, it flew by! This morning, we struggled to shove all of our gear, collected treasures and the dog, into our little single engine plane dubbed “Mooney Girl”. Now we have cleared customs and the wheels lift off of the runway. We are headed back to the States.  Soaring up over the unbelievably crystal-clear blue of the Sea of Cortez, we launch skyward over the truly magical places we enjoyed during our 3-week Baja sojourn.

My first trip to magical Baja was a real adventure. 1979, beat up ancient $150 Pinto station-wagon, long lost adventure buddy. $800 budget to ride the ferry from the mainland to Baja and then drive back to the States. It was gorgeous.

I still remember how alone and yet safe we felt camping on deserted beaches, campfires on the beach under the blue-black blanket of the sky studded with diamonds. Surviving on tortillas and street food. We barely had enough money for gas to cross back into the states 2 weeks later.

I have been back to Baja many times since that first drive-up Mexico 1 from the southern tip at Cabo back to the US in 1979.

There are things that I value, connections with people, natural landscapes, culture, culinary adventures and history. As we return again for a warm January to Loreto, bright Pueblo Mágico nestled on the Sea of Cortez, this colonial town brings together all of those things so dear to my heart.

Each time we visit this magic town in Baja California Sur our connections seem to deepen.

Last year I wrote about the amazing food, adventures and experiences we had during our January stay.

We also made some deep connections with local people, Mexicans and Gringos, that were all drawn to Loreto and the mystery of the Baja Peninsula

There is an enchanting Mexican colonial town in southern Sonora that I visited 27 years ago with my young children. I remember a young woman selling beautiful embroidered local sights framed in bright colors. I bought a small, framed scene of a church with people flying kites in a colonial town.

I have longed to return to explore the amazingly restored colonial heart of Álamos, Sonora. She was once the richest silver mining area in New Spain. It has been called “La Ciudad de los Portales” due to its multitude of colonial buildings with arched porticos.

There were no ordinary moments. Not flying 50 ft. above the aqua waves lapping the soft sand of the dunes no human habitation in sight, not the backs of the birthing whales covered in rose and ochre barnacles, not the arching noses of the colony of hundreds of sea lions above the surf, not the delight of the young woman with the new red glasses dancing around the spare concrete room with the rusted metal roof with bright sky poking through.

None of the moments of this 3-day trip to a volunteer medical clinic deep in the heart of Baja California Sur are ordinary.