Feliz Nuevo Ano!

Happy New Year to one and all!

My carefully laid plans of ringing in the New Year here in Pacific Beach were thoroughly thwarted by niebla. Yes, fog. Lots of fog here on the Pacific coast. So much fog, in fact, that the plane from Tijuana was  unable to fly down to Los Cabos full of passengers, unload them, and pick up our crew of passengers for a return fight to Tijuana.

Of course the airline didn't let us know this for hours and hours. "An announcement" was always forthcoming, always "in fifteen minutes." Rumors and bits of overheard information were discussed in English and Spanish, often quickly translated from one language to the other for the benefit of those monolinguals sitting close by.

9:15 pm, the rescheduled late time posted on the monitors (from the original 6:45 pm), never changed, but when 8:30 pm arrived and the plane had still not taken off from Tijuana, well, it wasn't looking good. Our happy plan b, of hitching a ride to our friend Mayte's house, then borrowing her car to drive home, was looking less and less likely. And we all knew that the flights on January 1 and January 2 were fully booked, hence the reason we had all decided to travel the night of NYE in the first place. Admittedly, my plan a, of arriving at 8 pm in Tijuana on NYE was a little crazy. Wouldn't the place be a mad house? Plenty of people crossing from both sides of the border in search of the ultimate NYE party? Wouldn't the border line be impossible? Probably, but again, it was our only real option for making the Cabo trip at all, so we booked it. It would be an adventure.

Well, an adventure it was.

Long about 9:30 pm, they finally canceled the flight. Because it was weather related, there was to be no compensation for hotel room, or cab ride, or meals, etc. But, unbelievably, there was going to be a plane ready to fly us north the next morning at 9:35 am. (I was actually deliriously happy about this. Don't get me wrong, I love Cabo, but my youngest was at a babysitter's house, and I was anxious to get back to pick her up)

Plus, as I mentioned, we were with my friend Mayte, who publishes the Baja travel magazine, Baja Traveler. She is resourceful, let me tell you. She knows a lot of Cabo peeps, and she had us all lined up before the cancellation call was made.

We ended up in a sweet boutique hotel in San Jose del Cabo, all comped, ringing in the New Year in a festive, happening Italian restaurant close by (also all comped).

It may have been cold at midnight, especially with no outdoor heaters, but they were handing out blankets to chilly guests, so we happily ate our pasta, drank our bubbly wine (okay, so it was sangria and not Champagne), and enthusiastically rang in 2012.

Feliz 2012! May it be full of adventure and good fortune for all of us.